I got interested to go for this meet-up chiefly because
it had been quite some time since I had interacted with other food bloggers.
Also I was curious to see the newly opened APB CookStudio that I was following since many days on FB with series of cooking events
conducted at regular intervals.
And this get together was to meet Alan D’mello and
Aditya of Street Smart Organization.
Reaching this place was quite frustrating, especially
since I was going for the first time and I had to find my way through traffic
jam, with no clear cut landmarks. The Google
maps were of no help. After many U-turns and wrong turns, I finally reached the
venue passing through the dirt path into a small lane behind the main road at
Chandivili.
Once I reached the ABP Cook Studio, I was
transported into a new world, surrounded by pantries containing exotic sauces, several
cook stations placed side by side, ovens, fridges, and the shelves containing
cook-books and kitchen accessories, the mouth-watering aroma of food hung in
the air.
One by one, we tasted the dishes as were
presented by the food bloggers, a five course meal, starting with soup, snacks,
drinks, main dishes and followed by desserts.
Towards the end of the session, Alan D’Mello and
Aditya spoke about Street Smart, a non-profit organization for supporting the
street children. The restaurants that are partnered with this cause places a card with al logo of sweet smart at the dining table, that indicates a small percentage of the food bill is
siphoned out to support children and elderly to lead a better life. This is very
successful venture in London and has improved the lives of the street children;
it is recently introduced in the metropolitan cities of India and hoping to
spread awareness of this cause amongst diners and hoteliers.
It was a wonderful evening, I was happy to share
my Mirchi Bhajiya (Chili Fritters) soaked in imli (tamarind) sauce and it gave
me immense pleasure when friends took extra helpings and relished it. This is a
typical Sindhi cuisine, served as a snack.
Chili Fritters in Tamarind Sauce.
Ingredient:
200gms tamarind
4tbsp sugar
1tbsp cumin powder
1tbsp red chili powder
2tbsp chopped coriander leaves.
200gms gram flour
1 pinch Soda bicarbonate
200gms large green chilies
1tbsp Mango powder
Method
Step One
Make the tamarind sauce by soaking tamarind for
one hour. Squeeze out the pulp, add sugar, salt, cumin seeds powder, red chili
powder and coriander leaves. Keep it aside
Step two
Make the gram flour batter by adding water to
gram flour, just enough to make it a pouring consistency, add salt, soda
bicarbonate and red chili powder. Keep it aside
Step three
Slit and boil the chilies, remove the seeds.
Step four
Stuff the chilies with mango powder, salt and red chilies
Step five
Dip the marinated chilies in the gram flour batter (step 2) and deep fry the fritters.
Step six
Transfer the fried chili fritters into the tamarind water (step one), soak it for 2 minutes
Step seven
Arrange it in the serving dish and Serve it cold.
