Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part 30 – Rachna Prasad

There are too many dieticians today who control our eating patterns

They advocate with warning instructions such as to avoid all whites that includes white sugar, white flour, white rice, white salt. Avoid fried food (that junk food, remember), Avoid red meat (too much cholesterol), Use olive oil in your cooking.(foreign concept), Do lot of exercises to burn calories,(yes, can do), Join gym to keep fit (better than to running aimlessly in the park, no?) . 

The only problem is that we don't know where to draw a line. We go too much to the extreme to follow the dieticians, causing our family members (specially moms) a lot of inconvenience. 

Mothers are expected to read every label of the food packet she buys from supermarket to check out its nutrition values, the ingredients used, the calorie content, the flavours used(artificial or natural), to check veg/non-veg (green/red dot) and whether its baked, fried or roasted. 

Too much time is spent at bread, biscuits and pasta section to hunt for brown colour ingredients..brown bread, Ragi/Millet biscuits, whole wheat pastas. Some of the brown breads are made of white flour disguised with brown colour caramel (but you may not know till u read the label) 

As a result, the life style has changed. Gourmet food is in. More people are turning Vegan, stylish trend is to eat only salads. The grandparents and parents stay at home, cooking the traditional food for themselves because the health conscious youngsters hardly eat at home. 

Home Chef Rachna Prasad, cooks such delicious meal that there is no desire eat anywhere else.

Rachna Prasad (of Ambrosia Kitchen fame) is Food Curator & Consultant, Chef, Recipe Developer, Pop-up Specialist and a founder of Ambrosia Kitchen. 

Rachna, born and raised in Patna, She has been cooking since she was 14. At that time, her mother’s cooking style influenced her a lot. Her first breakfast that she cooked for her family was a Spanish omelet with garlic bread and potato wedges. 

“Everyone loved it and that still holds a special place in my heart. Cooking, for me, is a stress buster. It inspires me and keeps me charged the whole day. It has given me an identity of my own.” She says.

Rachna specialises in Bihari and Indian cuisine. Her clients call her a ‘Biryani Queen’ and a ‘Diva’ of Indian food! One of her specialty dishes is Mutton Goli Kabab. A delightful Bihari recipe, that used to be a must at every get-together party at her grandmother’s home. The recipe was passed on to her mother after her marriage, it made her famous at her in-laws’ place. Everyone looked forward to the Meat Goli whenever there was a party at home. When Rachna got married she too made it for her in-laws and she gets requests for it all the time.

Rachna moved to Delhi later for a course in Fashion Designing from NIFT although she knew cooking was her true calling! She once spotted a newspaper ad placed by Taj Mansingh Hotel for a position in Food & Beverage. She got the job and thus began her culinary journey. 

“I learned a lot under Chef Bhatnagar at Taj Mansingh and he continues to inspire me to-date. Cooking is my first love, In my free time I like to watch food shows on Bihari cuisine or read up on various recipes, although I enjoy painting, driving, writing poems, art & craft, singing, dancing and spending lots of quality time with my two adorable kids and family.”

Rachna is happy to share her Bihari recipe - Mutton Goli Kababs

1. Pressure cook 500gms mutton mince along with 150gms Chana dal, 1 ½ tsp ginger-garlic paste, 1 inch cinnamon, 1tsp cumin, 1tsp green cardamom, 5-6 black peppercorn, ½ tsp fennel seeds and salt for 20 minutes or until the meat is cooked through. 

2. Transfer into a bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes. 

3. Grind the spiced mince into a soft paste. 

4. Do not add any water. 

5. In a large bowl, combine the meat paste with 1tbsp almond, 1tsp cashew nut, ½ tsp poppy seed paste, 12 soaked raisins, 1tsp lemon juice, chopped coriander, 2tbsp fried onion paste, 2 egg and ½ cup bread crumbs and give it a thorough mix. 

6. Heat oil on high flame in a deep frying pan. 

7. Make small, round meat balls (goli) 

8. Deep fry them until golden brown in colour. 

Serve hot with green chutney and onion rings.

Rachna Prasad was awarded Home Chef and Baker's award 2020 for the contribution to India's Home chef & Baking Industry in the category of 5-8 years

 

Follow her on her Instagram at rachnakcp

Contact her on her Watsapp at 9820968751

Email ID - ambrosiakitchen11@gmail.com

Home Chefs Of Mumbai – Part29 – Purnima Kanojia

Streetfood is the common sight everywhere in the world. 

Everybody will crinkle their nose, shrug shoulders complaining that its unhygienic and unhealthy but still, they all love it. 

Back then, the vendors used to make their rounds in narrow lanes with their Haat ghadi or a heavy basket balanced on their head and would shrill (in a musical tone) to announce their presence. People would speed walk outside their gates (bringing their own plates) and smack on the food which was mainly prepared snack (evening Chaat) that needed only garnishing like sweet and sour chutneys, some mixed masalas, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes (or curds), chillies and coriander leaves and was spicy and tasty.  They had their fixed timings and people would eagerly wait for them.  

Now you find vendors stationed at almost every street corner. They carry water in big (dirty) cans, that they use for rinsing dishes, the food is uncovered, exposed to dust and germs. Different vendor specialise in different chaat like Panipuri/Sevpuri, or Batatawadas/Samosas, or Tava fried exotic Dosas, or Chinese soups/noodles, or  fresh Sugarcane/fruit juices.  

Nevertheless, things are changing a bit (of course) and they are paying attention to hygienic issues too. Panipuri wallah have started wearing gloves, many are using paper plates, there are food courts at the mall, Dabhas at Express highways  have mushroomed everywhere for people making intercity tours and more recently we have seen food-trucks near the promenades/beaches.  

Purnima Kanojia really enjoys food, be it sitting on a car bonnet enjoying Pav Bhaji and Falooda, or travelling intercity and stopping to eat Dal Gatti with gud ka Churma at Jaipur, or Patiala glass Lassi at Punjab, or even Puttu and Kadla curry to Idiyappams in Kerela. 

Purnima Kanojia is adventurous in exploring street foods, both eating and cooking.

Purnima Kanojia (of MyFoodJourney Fame) is Pharma professional with twelve years of industry-experience; she is set all out to make a mark for herself in the culinary world too. She hopes to start a commercial kitchen soon.

Her journey with food started at seven years of age. She discovered the joy of doing a perfectly round roti on a Chulah, (back then it was by fluke). It took years of practice after that to do it perfectly. It was a kind of fun activity she did with her Bhabhi at her Nani’s house in Ghaziabad and it struck a chord.

“Food instills lot of emotion in me. Ever since I have understood the joy of cooking and feeding, its’ novelty has taken me up by surprise every single time.” She says

Purnima Kanojia specialises in Dum Biryani and Indian Cuisine. Anything and everything about food excites her including food photography. Food plating and food styling is another arena she wants to explore.

She believes that if love melts the hearts, Food is it’s glue to join them.

In the past, cooking was a need-based act for her, that included exploring randomly different cuisines. But her food passion took her to another level in October 2019 when she started her blog page _’Myfoodjourney’_, and set out on a trail to explore her talent. 

“My first experience with dishing out Lebanese cuisine was an amazing experience.. It was simply fabulous to realise how flavours and textures enhance your dish. I made Beetroot Fatey in a live, fun-filled cookery show  called ‘Kitchen ka Dangal’ of  Moms’ magic cooking. In this dish, the traditional Pita bread was replaced by Nacho chips from Cornitos. Such amalgamation of flavours, textures, colours in a dish, yet without love nothing taste better. It’s the emotion with which you cook counts and makes your dish stand apart.  I am keen to exploring the world through my taste buds, hence my tagline 'Exploring the zesty flavours of life.” Says Purnima while showing the photographs of her creation.

She is happy to share this recipe of this Lebanese dish called Beetroot Fatteh.

In a classic dish toasted pita bread is used. In this preparation you can replace with Cornitos Sweet chilli nachos. 

1. To prepare seasoned Curd – 

a. Whisk 400 gms Curd till it is creamy

b. Add coarsely ground 2- 3 pods of garlic

c. ¼ teaspoon of  Jeera powder

d. Salt  - ¼ teaspoon

e. Mix all the ingredients well 

2. To prepare seasoned chickpea –

a. Boil 250 gms chickpeas, add salt and cook till soft. 

b. Drain the water add ¼ tsp pepper, salt (a pinch) 

c. Add 1/4 tsp jeera powder 

d. Squeeze l1tsp lemon juice 

e. Mix well

3. Boil 250gms  Beetroot. 

4. Once done, peel, dice.

5. Season with salt, pepper.

6. Saute diced 3 tbsp yellow bell pepper in olive oil. Leave them crunchy

7. To prepare Tahini – 

a. Take 2 table spoon of Sesame seeds. 

b. Dry roast them till slightly brown in colour

c. In a grinding jar, add roasted Sesame seeds, a pinch of salt, and 2 teaspoon of olive oil.

d. Coarsely grind this mixture.

e. Fresh Tahini is ready

8. Now to Assemble the dish – 

a. In a bowl add nacho chips at the bottom

b. Add seasoned chickpea (of step2) 

c. Add seasoned beetroot (of step3)

d. bell pepper, (of step6)

e. 2 tbsps chopped onions

f. Add the seasoned curd mix (of step1)

g. Sprinkle a pinch of Jeera powder

9. Give a Final Nutty finish – 

a. In a small pan, add 1 table spoon of olive oil

b. Warm it, then add 5/6 slivered almonds

c. Put off the flame.

d. Add ¼ teaspoon of Kashmiri chilli powder

e. Immediately pour this over the Fetteh 

f. Drizzle Tahini  (of step7)

g. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander 

Enjoy crunchy, creamy, nutty, flavourful Beetroot fatteh.

Portion size – serves 2 people

Visit her Facebook to read her food stories at MyFoodJourney

Follow her Instahandle at  _my_foodjourney_

Order for Dum Biryani on Watsapp at  96193 13795