Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part24- Lynn and Jehan Hilloowalla

When we walk down our memory lanes, we encounter many incidents in our life and we ask ourself whether we really did that? 

For instance, we would neatly cut out the recipes from newspapers, file them and save it under our mattress. We would buy women’s magazine just to read few recipes and try them at home. We were star crazy and would get excited when we read about our favourite Bollywood stars and their eating habits. We would be thrilled to read that Rajesh Khanna always ended his dinner with Paan and would personally go to buy at Turner road in Bandra. That Sharmila Tagore liked to cook Bengali food but gorged on mashed potatoes, Salmon and fresh Cucumber.

Today, we hardly ever need to read everything in print, we can peep into everybody’s kitchen through Instagram windows. We giggled a bit when we saw Katrina Kaif’s meal that she cooked with her sister but couldn’t tell what it was. We watched Nina Gupta turn roti into sizzling pizza. Then there was Shilpa Shetty taking her son to kitchen garden and dancing away with the harvest of eggplants.

During lockdown, we have seen our film-stars cook up storm, some are baking, some are cooking and some are creating kitchen disasters. But its okay, Rotis does not always have to be in a perfect circle. They are just foodies, not gourmet cooks who will pay special attention to using fresh herbs and freshly chopped garlic. When they look into the kitchen cabinets they wonder why are there so many different shapes and sizes of knives (knife is only for chopping , right?). They compromise with a simple dhal and rice, a vegetable maybe, or bake a cookie, everything that is easy to cook. Follow a recipe from U-tube or simply ask a friend.

But, there are special treats for all. Even for those who have opted for gourmet food, specially the best cured smoked food that Jehan and Lynn Hilloowala cooks, the super bakes that makes you drool.

Lynn and Jehan Hilloowala (of Smoke by the Sea fame)  work in partnership and both are not professional chefs. Jehan runs a corporate training firm and Lynn works with contemporary art. They have passion for food from all around the world and love to cook. Jehan started smoking and curing meats and cheese a few years ago and started distributing to close family and friends. It was well appreciated.

They specialise in gourmet smoked foods  and  cured meats. 

They do smoked hams, burgers, whole roast chicken, Sous-vide Tenderloin steak, pork ribs as well as smoked cheese and nuts and a lot more! They also have weekly Parsi cuisine. They use a unique blend of wood and hot ovens and cold smokers for maximum smokey deliciousness and depth of flavours.

Lynn grew up eating South East Asian food  and lived in London in her twenties. 

“I loved shopping at farmers markets  a good Sunday roast at the local pub or Sushi and authentic Chinese food, good quality ingredients and simple uncomplicated cooking was the first taste of good food.” She says

Jehan has always loved eating well. “About 10 years ago I had good steak done medium rare , till then I was blissfully eating overcooked meat and not knowing what I was missing out on. On our honeymoon we traveled to remote  Papua and ate freshest fish: Carp and Lobster grilled on open fires with barely any seasoning and  it was possibly the best thing We have ever had!”  

Scones and fresh clotted cream with raspberry jam from Devon is the unforgettable food that Jahan enjoyed and still craves for it, while Rock oysters or Sea urchin (Uni) is Lynn’s favourite.

They are happy to share the recipe of Buttermilk Fried Chicken. 

1. Put chicken pieces in a salt water  brine overnight. 

2. Take pieces out and lightly rinse them. 

3. Soak in buttermilk and leave for another 8 hours. 

4. Make your  batter: flour, crushed garlic, thyme, and smoked paprika or some by the Sea smoked chilli powder, Sea salt and a pinch of baking powder 

5. Take pieces out and roll in batter and deep fry till golden brown.  

6. Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon

Call or WhatsApp at 98201 35406. 

Follow them on Instagram @smokebysea 

Website link www.smokebythesea.com 

Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part 23 – Sumitra Chowdhury

Back then, there were no refrigerators, vinegar and oils were used to preserve food. People lived in big houses with courtyards inside their gates. On sunny days, there would be something kept for drying on hand woven cots or on straw mats - raw Mangoes, Potato chips, Dhal Vadis (birds/animals were well behaved then, they rarely interfered). Varieties of Achaar would be prepared and stored in huge colourful jars. The amount of pickles that were made, lasted throughout the year. Many people lived in a joint families, although food was cooked in abundance but sometimes, when there were not much left overs,  just pickle with roti or Jowar Bakri would suffice. It was something people ate guilt free. Nobody complained about excess oil or too much salt.

Not that anybody is complaining now.  Pickles are enjoyed all over the world. In Korea, Kimchi of fermented vegetables, is the national dish and eaten with every meal. Sauerkraut was originally invented in China and soon became immensely popular in Germany too. L’hamd Markad, pickle of lemon rinds is popular in Morocco. In France, if you are hosting a party, you must have Cornichon, Isreal’s Torshi Left makes use of rich varieties of vegetables, they are really strong, they slap you around your face. Fukujinzuke is served as garnish on Japanese curry. Giardiniera pickle has travelled from Italy to Chicago and is used over salads and hotdogs. 

The United  States even has a National Pickle day in November.

Although big variety of pickles are available at the supermarkets, home-cooked pickles taste different because they bring essence of the person who makes it, has added the spices that they like it best.

To get the real flavours of pickles made with love, you must try Sumitra Chowdhury’s Creations.

Sumitra Chowdhury (of Su’s Kitchen by Sumitra fame) has done few pop ups, cooked for small parties, has participated in many cooking competition physically as well as virtually, and has won many prizes too.

Sumitra specialises in traditional Bengali Cuisine and in seasonal vegetarian and non-vegetarian pickles, chutneys, jams and masalas on pre orders. On rarer occasions, she also makes tea time cakes and cookies since baking is also one of her passions.  

She started to cook at the age of 12. Those days, she never missed the cooking shows on T.V.  and bonus point was that cooking was also taught in school as an extra curricular activities. There are many beautiful food memories of her childhood that she fondly nourishes.

“As a kid, I remember, during the school lunch break, me and my few friends used to run across to Parsi dairy farm to enjoy the Malai Kulfi, and there was another shop few steps away from Parsi dairy, where they had delicious Ragda Patties. I still remember whenever the shopkeeper saw us coming, he used to remove all the Chutney bowls kept on the tables., because we would to finish off all of the different types of chutneys kept in the bowls,.” 

As she grew up, her passion for cooking different types of dishes extended to making various types of pickles, like combination of vegetarian and non vegetarian pickles, chutneys and jams that she would share with her family and friends. After marriage, she pursued her teaching career for sometime but then resigned to continue her passion for cooking. To preserve the traditional dishes for future generation, she started to blog on the experiments made in kitchen with the easily available ingredients and has more than 890 recipes on her blog.

She talks about the unforgettable food that she ate long ago at R2O but still craves for it.

“I will never forget my experience at Rivers to Oceans  (R2O) where they served sea food from around the world. It was a fine dining experience with molecular gastronomy, but unfortunately the restaurant has shutdown.”   

Apart from food, she loves creative work like painting / crochet, gardening, travelling,  photography, enjoys old classical instruments and fusion music, she loves to spend time with children, teaches them art and is associated with a NGO. 

 She is happy to share recipe of Pepper Plastic Chutney.

As chutney is a part of a Bengali meal, here is an unique type of Bengali chutney which is served at functions and ceremonies with Papad Bhaja. It's very easy and simple to make with two main ingredients - green raw Papaya and Sugar. It's called Plastic Chutney because of its’ looks. The papaya after cooking in sugar syrup turns translucent and looks like plastic

1. Take pot or a pan. 

2. Add 1 ½ water and 2 cups papaya chips. 

3. Let it simmer on low medium flame for 10 minutes. 

4. Add ¼ tsp salt and ¾ cup sugar. Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. 

5. Add 1tbsp raisins. 

6. Continue to simmer till papaya chips become transculant and syrup thickens. 

7. Add 1tsp lime juice and simmer for another minute. 

8. Switch off the flame. 

9. Its ready to serve, 

10. it can be stored in the fridge for a month

Sumitra Chowdary was awarded Home Chef and Baker's award 2020 for the contribution to India's Home chef & Baking Industry in the category of 1-2 years

People can connect with her through her Facebook page  or on her Website.

Follow her on Instagram Su’s Kitchen by Sumitra

 

Contact her on Watsapp at 97691 31674.  

She cooks all the items fresh on orders. * No artificial food colour or preservatives are added.  

For bulk order, seasonal pickles and jams she takes 15 days booking in advance and for the regular items she takes 10 days in advance.  

Orders are taken from all over Mumbai.