Hautechef Comes Home With Exotic Meals

I first heard about ‘Hautechef’ when I went for food blogger’s potluck at APB studio.

This idea appealed to me of buying a box of ingredients that has just the right variety used in cooking and the exact quantity of the ingredients. The ingredients were fresh and neatly packed 

For example in the box for ‘Pan Seared Fish With Ratatouille and Mustard Beurre Blanc’

They sent

2tbsp Olive oil

2cloves garlic

1 onion

1tbsp tomato paste

1 red bell pepper

1 zucchini

1 eggplant

1tsp sugar

1 bunch parsley

2tbsp butter

1tbsp mustard

2 fish fillets

4tbsp semolina

The box comes with the recipe card with step-by-step method used for cooking a dish.

There are many times, when we look into the recipe book and decide to follow a recipe. The laziness seeps in when we have to go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients, and when we really do, we either buy more ingredients than necessary or forget one or two ingredients. So this idea of having all the ingredients in one box does inspire me to cook.

During the following week, I ordered two boxes on two separate days. In the mid week, I ordered ‘Arabic Fattoush Salad’ and made a visit to my aunt. I found this a perfect gift to take for my aunt. Together we chopped the vegetables and prepared the salad. It was fun really.

The salad was good, but the quantity of feta cheese and pomegranate was comparatively less as compared to other ingredients such as mint leaves, parsley and pita bread.

On weekend, I ordered French delight: Pan Seared Fish and made a visit to my BIL. I cooked for dinner following the instruction given in the recipe card.

“If we were to eat this in a fancy restaurant, we would be paying Rs2000 for this dish” said my BIL completely pleased with the most exotic dinner.

So, this was a success!!

I would recommend this product to all my friends who enjoy cooking exotic dishes. But remember, you still have to do the cutting, cooking and cleaning up the mess.

Chili and Chocolate Potluck

Chilli and chocolate, now that is an odd combination, therefore when my food blogger friend, Rushina, suggested this theme for potluck lunch, my mind did some somersault. I love chilies but am not too fond of chocolates, but thinking out of box is being creative, so I was game for it.

I thought of many dishes, and many combinations, changed many menus, finally decided to make a snack using Oreo chocolate, spicy Sambal of kidney n liver, topped with grated cheese and pickled red chilies.

It was too spicy, even though it had sweet chocolate biscuit as the base. Also it is important to develop the taste for kidney and liver. Therefore I am not sure whether others liked it, but I loved it.

It was a fun afternoon, being it Wednesday afternoon, a working day, not many of the food bloggers could attend, but all those who attended, enjoyed it a lot.

Two days prior to the event, I had pickled the chilies with lime, salt, sugar and soya sauce. On the day, this made a colorful ornament on the melted cheese.

There were many other interesting things too…Some of the other creations that I liked were

Stuffed Chillies dipped in white chocolate and the tequila induced filling inside  the chili gave quite a kick…

I am not too fond of Mexican, but this Veggie Mexican chilli was quite a favorite with the rest of the group.

Churro was crispy and spicy. When I dipped churro in hot chocolate, I was transported back to Spain, pity that Spanish would not be able to eat because it was spicy….

The salad was utterly delicious with candied chilies and it had sweetish strawberry flavor.

This one was nice roasted chicken with chocolate folded over it.

And finally came the dessert, we were anxiously waiting for…

Melt in mouth chocolate cream pots with mint-basil syrup

It was an interesting meet, chit chat over cups of hot chocolate and meeting new people is always a pleasure.

Blueline in Promenade at Puducherry

During my visit to Puducherry, My friend and I wanted to try a typical local food. Someone suggested Blueline, a restaurant in Promenade hotel at Goubert Avenue at White Town. It turned out to be a continental restaurant with Thai, French, and North Indian cuisine. Surprisingly there was no typical local cuisine. I was too hungry to look for another one so we settled on a two-seat table to try what the restaurant had to offer.

The ambience is very warm and vibrant. We sat by the large glass window facing the sea front. The view was beautiful with huge palm trees swinging with the breeze.

I would have loved to sit on those wicker chairs by the water fountain but the afternnoon was quite warm outside.

Blueline is one of the three restaurants in promenade hotel, where buffet is served for people staying in the hotel. It looked like a dining hall with souvenir shop at the far corner. We couldn’t eat too much so we settled for a la carte ordering just soft drinks, non-veg salad, prawn dish and white rice.

For a moment, I thought I was in Europe because while we waited for our order to arrive, we were served breads platter with olive oil and salt. The breads were freshly baked and they tasted divine. (It was so filling that we could have easily cancelled out order and walk away) but of course not, we wouldn’t do that!! ….

I reached nirvana when the Nicoise salad arrived. Such a fine combination of olives, anchovies, tuna, eggs and herbs in the bed of salad leaves with tomatoes, green beans, cucumber and onions.

Okay, although the Goan Prawn Curry cooked in kokam and coconut milk did seem tempting with its bright red color, I couldn’t eat because I was too full. Guess what we did, we packed Prawn curry and rice for dinner. It was delicious even after few hours as we feasted in our hotel rooms.

I would highly recommend this restaurant to everyone visiting Puducherry. The staff is very polite and alert. The quantity of the serving is good and does not create too deep a hole in the pocket although it is comparatively three times more expensive than normal restaurant at the end of the lane.

But then you pay for the ambience and the service…….and that complimentary delicious bread platter too.

Foodie Santa Comes To My Town

The festive season is in the air. Everybody is sending gifts to secret Santee…I chose to be Santa in two groups.

December has been bad month for me,(health wise) therefore, I couldn’t go out to shop for gifts, but then I am lucky to know friends who help me to send out my gifts.

At my Special school, I just send out secretly to my Santee,(one of the teachers at school) through my friend.

For my foodies group I decided to make gifts at home. This was organized by my Foodie friends at #FBAISecret Santa group. The elfs were the group of five food bloggers @suchetajt @HungryBawarchi @TheBigFatShetty @toxicbaker @lovetolivetoeat who volunteered to deliver gifts on their reindeers( oops, private vehicle)

Two days before the event, we were supposed to deliver our gifts to @HungryBawarchi's  house. Unfortuantely I was not well, therefore I requested him to collect it from my house. Thank you so much Mohit for this extra effort.

Since I could not go out to buy food gifts for my santee, I decided to make it at home…as a foodie, I think personalized food gifts are best. I made carrot pickle, pesto and eggplant dip.

I just ordered three pretty colorful storage containers, packed them up creatively with gold feathers, added a handwritten note and sent

My special thanks to elf Mohit, who came to my house to pick up my gift coz I was unable to go out..

And this was my note for my Santee…

Dear Santee Ms Punjabi

Ho Ho ho

Here we come

Pickles, pesto’s, dips

A specialty from my ribs

All packed in cups, so true

Packed specially for you

From land of green chilies

That also has basil frills

Amidst nuts and cheese

A pesto if you please

The carrots sliced and mixed

With garlic and mustard seeds

Now, isn’t that nice pickle?

A perfect afternoon treat

A roasted, blackened eggplant

Churned happily with hung yogurt

That’s the dip you may relish

For sure, it’s delish

So here’s wishing you X’mas

From a very secret friend

One foodie to another

Santa builds a stronger thread

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Merry Christmas!!!

And well, my gift arrived too…Thank you Roshan and Jagruti…the elves who came to visit me…

This is what arrived

Two boxes of Cadbury chocolates… I was expecting home made stuff too…and a written note..with a personalized signature of Santa

 Well maybe my Santa was very busy..

But the festive season has just begun…. Seems like a fun Christmas this year… more parties next week with different set of friends.

Now off to twitter to enjoy the visuals of other foodies….