Korean Pop-up At Wild Asparagus Table

 I will travel anywhere for food and if its Korean Cuisine, it is worth all the effort because the variety of Korean food that was cooked for this pop up by @Indraniwillteach I am not likely to find it in any restaurant in Mumbai.

This month pop up was hosted by @indraniwillteach in the suburbs of Kandivali, and although I have never been to Korea, I can confirm that taste was as authentic as one can get because Indrani had done a good research on this cuisine and walked an extra mile to procure right kind of ingredients that go into creating the correct flavours.

@KanchanAhuja, Deepti Chavan and yours truly, we reached on time at 7pm on the 14th floor of Indrani's lovely home overlooking the beautiful view of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Soon @Salonim2, @Shitalkakad, @chefshilpasethbhambri and @kareena arrived and the party began.

Over the glass of drinks, Indrani briefed us about the food culture of Korean cuisine. During our chat, I learnt that Korean food does not contain much of vinegar and the main taste in just sesame seeds, garlic and soya sauce.

Also learnt some new words in Korean cooking like Kimbab (Korean rice rolls) Mandu,(dumplings) Japche (Korean sweet potato noodles with stir fries) Ttekbokki(rice cakes in sauce) Bibimbab(rice with seasoned vegetables)

It is customary to have 5 to 12 banchan(side dishes) with main dishes served all together. Another unique feature is that Korean food do not have any gravy component. They do serve soups and stew but the stew is normally thick and smooth with very little liquid in them. You are likely to find great variety of fermented food in their cuisine

Korean food is distinct in colour, texture and flavour and requires lot of labour in preparing different dishes that are both harmonising and distinctive.

Everybody loved the food that was paired with @reveilowines #Grillo and #nerodavola




We were small group of 8 members, had sit down dinner with a break in between the meals to learnt the basic way to make Kimbab. Indrani used nori leaves to roll out the rice stuffed with pickled veggies and meat. 

The evening ended with mastering the dance few dance steps as instructed by Indrani's sweet daughter, Arunima, who performed a vibrant dance for us too.

It was the most enjoyable evening of fun, laughter and food. A day well spent. 

Thank you #fbai Saloni  Malkani and Ananya Banerjee for this lovely platform of #wildasparagustable where we get to taste the various cuisine of the world 

Do watch the live video presentation of the event to get the flavors of the evening

Stuffed Karela In Green Masala

Not everybody likes bitter Gourd, mainly because it is bitter. Karela, as we normally call it in India, is good for health. 

By including Karelas in our diet, it can be beneficial in riding off the kidney stones by naturally breaking them down, It also reduces bad cholesterol, thus decreasing the risk of heart attack.

I normally remove the bitterness by salting the karelas overnight and then washing them the next day and squeeze out the bitterness.

They really taste good, if you just chop them into circles, deep fry and have it with just khichdi and curds.

Or you can be creative and stuff them with meat, cheese or potatoes.

This week, I deep fried the karelas, stuffed them with spicy potatoes and cooked in green masala

Happy to share the recipe of stuffed Karela in green masala

1. Wash, squeeze and slit the karelas from one side.

2. Deep fry till they are brown and crispy

3. Make potato filling by grating boiled potato and adding spices like Cumin seeds powder, mango powder, red chilly powder and salt.

4. Stuff the karelas with spicy potatoes

5. Tie it secure with thread

6. Make masala by grinding it into paste the mixture of garlic, coriander leaves, fenugreek leaves, tomato, chillies, coriander powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder and salt

7. Fry this paste in oil for some time

8. Add 1cup water and let it cook

9. Add the stuffed karela 

10. Cover and let it cook till done

11. Serve with hot parathas

You make watch the video of this recipe on my youtube

Romance With Potatoes

Everybody loves potatoes. Deep fried or boiled, cooked or baked, it pairs with almost every kind of meals, be it meat or vegetables.

If you go to your local market in India, you might find potatoes in different colors - some red, some brown, or purple or white. For culinary purpose, varieties are often differentiated by their waxiness and their ratio of starch content. There are about 5000 potato varieties worldwide. 3000 of them are found in Andes alone in the regions of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.

Potatoes are prepared in many ways, with or without skin, whole or cut up, with seasoning or without. The only requirement is to swell up the starch granules. Boiled potatoes can be used for making salads or snacks, potatoes can be fried to make French fries or chips, grated potatoes can be used for dumplings or pancakes, cubed potatoes are used in stew with meat or vegetables.

In UK, potatoes form part of traditional staple Fish and chips. French fries and Hash brown are commonly found in a typical American fast-food cafes, Potato pancakes are popular all over Central Europe, A traditional Canary Island snacks are Papas Arrugada (wrinkled potatoes), Papa Bravas(spicy potatoes in spicy tomato sauce) and Tortilla de Papas (potato omelette)

Other than eating, potatoes are also used for other purposes: Using as fodder for livestock,  Potato starch in food industry as thickeners and binders for soups and sauces, in textile industry as adhesives, in manufacture of boards and papers. It is also used to brew alcoholic beverages such as Vodka.

Back home, we love aloo chat, alu dum, alu parathas. Vada pav is the popular dish in Maharastra. Aloo Posto is immensely popular in East India specially Bengal. Then there is Aloo Tikki, Samosas and Aloo Pakoras. In south India, Masala Dosa has potato bhaji as filling.

Potato bhaji is prepared differently in different part of India and can be enjoyed with dosa, or Puri and can make even sandwiches from left over potato bhaji. 

Happy to share my Potato Bhaji Recipe, which is simple and yet so very tasty.

1. Take 2tbsp Mustard oil

2. Add 2tbsp mustard seeds, 1tsp cumin seeds, small pinch of hing, 1inch chopped ginger, 2 chopped green chillies, few curry leaves.

3. Add 1 sliced onion

4. Stir and let it cook till onion change color to light brown

5. Add 1 chopped tomatoes, 1tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp red chilli powder, 2tbsp Podi masala( or garam masala)

6. Cook for a minute

7. Add 1 large boiled potato

8. Mix and let it cook on low flame for 10 minutes

9. Garnish with coriander leaves

Watch the video on my utube channel

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