Punjabi Food Festival at Saffron

I was traveling in Spain during the time Masterchef India 2, a reality food show, was broadcast in India, therefore I was not able to follow this season, but those who watched must have seen the culinary skills of the participants, specially of Jyoti Arora, a housewife from Amritsar.

With no professional career, nor a blog space to boast, her culinary skill alone gives her the popularity of being talented and expert chef. All her experience comes from the hours she has spent in her own kitchen for 29 years experimenting on food that is healthy and fat free, erasing the myth that North Indian food is oily and spicy.

April is the Baisaki, a NewYear month, celebrated by various hindu communities in their own way of praying, socializing and eating authentic food. Saffron at Hotel Marriot invited Jyoti Arora to host a typical Amritsar style cuisine at Punjabi Food Festival.

The Saffron restaurant is dressed with sugarcanes and assorted dry spices in large jute sack at the entrance, there are bundles of garlic pods and bottles of fresh lime at the counter separating the area of the kitchen, colorful streamer closer to ceiling giving it a festive look. A live Indian music or folk songs in the background could attract more guests into the restaurant and do justice to the moods.

The food is excellent, non greasy and healthy as the chef promised. Some of the dishes on the menu had names like ‘Beera’ and ‘Prakash’ names of the most famous joints in Amritsar who have shared their recipe with Jyoti.

The melt in mouth Beera Chicken (from the house of “Beera”, the most popular chicken joint of Amritsar) and Amritsari Prakash Meat (Australian lamb, bone cooked on dum in spicy curry), is good enough reason to believe that you are transported to Amritsar.

I could not keep my eyes off these roasted king-size shrimps on skewers that arrived at our table. Perfect cooked, succulent and sweet, it was the dish to die for.

One by one, the dishes arrived, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, till tummy begin to explode. How much can one eat? The food is not very spicy, but you are served freshly chopped onions, green chilies, chutneys and pickles. Jyoti was most gracious, willing to take any criticism (we didn’t have any), sharing her recipes and relating her stories of her hometown and her learning experience during her MasterChef days. Jyoti believes that Punjabi food is all about cooking and feeding the loved ones.

Have you ever eaten chicken pickle? This was awsum! I liked chicken pickle so much that when Jyoti offered me to a bottle to take home, I couldn't refuse. What is interesting is that this chicken pickle can be stored in the fridge for three month and still retain its freshness. I plan to eat on every non-veg days, maybe I could make a nice sandwich too and share with my guests.

Then came the best part, the dessert. A platter of assorted sweets like Jalebi (made from overnight fermented gram flour and cooked in desi ghee), Mango Rabdi (fresh mango pieces with sweetened reduced milk, chilled), Dal Pinni (Lentils cooked in milk and sweetened with jiggery and Gur Ka Karah (traditional dessert made from jaggery) arrived at our table

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There were drinks too, that included wine, mocktail, sweet and salty lassi and of course Mawa Lassi, made of just mawa, sugar and crushed ice. Unlike sweet lassi, this Mawa lassi is very light and refreshing.

And like all Indian food must end with, what else? Paan..hmmn delicious!!!

The Punjabi Food Festival can be enjoyed till 18^th April, if you are Indian food lover and health conscious, do head to Saffron, at Marriot, because food is yummicious!!!

Restaurant: Saffron, JW Marriott Mumbai

Date: April 02 to 18, 2013

Time: 7 pm onwards

Pricing: Approximately INR 2200 plus taxes for two (without alcohol)

For Reservations: 022 66933344 or log on to www.jwdining.com

Play Holi With Colors But Without Water

There is acute water shortage in Maharashtra. Water meant for industrial projects are diverted to private developers of real estate projects like water parks and golf courses. Providing clean water is going to be the biggest challenge for Indian states in the coming year

This morning, I was watching news channels and saw children of Maharashtra making a pledge of not wasting water during this festival of Holi. They will miss out the fun we had during our growing years. But then we didn't play in extremes. We never ordered water tankers to have rain dance and waste water. Anything that is used in excess becomes a curse. We have to set limits for use of water. The sooner the awareness begins, the better. Last week I had also seen kids of ‘Podar School’ walk down the street raising the awareness of water shortage. Imagine that! Five years young kids educating the public! They pledged to play Holi without wasting water. 

Holi is fun to play with colors, but we have to be careful in selecting colors too. Some of the colors are quite harmful and can bring permanent damage to the sensitive skin.

To play safe Holi, it is best to play with eco-friendly colors.

Colors are everywhere. You find them in fruits, vegetables and flowers. To play safe, it is best to make them at home.

Red colour can be obtained from tomatoes and carrots juice. This can be diluted with sufficient quantity of water to remove the stickiness. You could also use Pomegranate peels, boiled in water. Or, better still, you could soak red hibiscus flowers in water overnight get a red which also has medicinal value.

For dry red colour, you could take red sandal wood powder, known as Raktachandan/lalchandan or Pterocarpus santalinus. This is extremely beneficial to skin and is used in face packs.

For Yellow colour you could mix 4 teaspoon of turmeric powder in to two liters of water. This can be boiled to increase the concentration of color.

For dry yellow colour, you could mix two tablespoons of turmeric powder with four tablespoons of gram flour, these are extremely healthy for our skin. Flowers like Amaltas (Cassia fistula), Marigold / Gainda (Tagetus erecta), Yellow Chrysanthemums, Black Babul (Acacia arabica) yield different shades of yellow. Dry the petals of these flowers under shade and crush them to obtain a fine yellow powder. Mix appropriate quantity of the powder with gram flour or use it separately.

Green colour can be obtained by mixing a fine paste of leaves like spinach, coriander, mint, tomato leaves, etc. into water.

For dry green colour, you could use henna powder, separately or mix with equal quantity of any suitable flour to attain a lovely green shade. You could also crush the tender leaves of the Wheat plant or the leaves of Gulmohur (Delonix regia) tree to obtain a natural safe green Holi color.

Blue colour can be obtained by crushing the blue berries (fruits) of the Indigo plant and adding to water for desired colour strength. In some Indigo species, the leaves when boiled in water also yield a rich blue color.

For dry blue colour, you could dry and grind the Jacaranda flowers or blue Hibiscus to obtain beautiful blue powder.

Magenta colour can be obtained by soaking grated Beet-root in one litre of water, to get a deeper shade; you could boil it for ten minutes.

Saffron colour can be obtained by soaking a few stalks of saffron (kesar) in two tablespoons of water. Leave it for few hours and then grind it. Dilute with water for desired colour strength. Though expensive, it is excellent for our skin.

For dry saffron colour you could dry and powder the dried flowers of the ‘Flame of the forest’ (Butea monosperma), known as Tesu, Palash or Dhak in vernacular languages, which is the source of the wonderful, traditional colour for Holi

Brown colour can be obtained by boiling tea or coffee leaves in water. Also ‘Kattha’ (Acacia catechu), the one eaten in pan, when mixed with water will give a brownish color.

Black colour can be obtained from the juice of black grapes; you could dilute it with sufficient quantity of water to remove stickiness

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Holi is all about playing with colour, singing and dancing to the rhythm of dholak and having bhang. The intoxication of bhang brings mischief to the party. This intoxicant that hits you slower than alcohol at first, could knock you off totally when it finally enters your system. It could keep you laughing or crying for hours together, as most people will testify from their experiences.

How to make Bhang

Ingredients

50 grams Poppy seeds

1 ounce marijuana (fresh leaves and flowers of a female plant preferred)

2 tablespoons whole black pepper

3 teaspoons Cumin seeds

3 – 4 pieces of cloves

70 grams Almonds

 20 strands Saffron

15-16 green cardamom

¼ teaspoon powdered ginger

4 glasses of milk

2 cups of water

 12 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon rose water

Method:

1. Soak poppy seeds overnight
2. Bring water to rapid boil and pour it in a clean tea pot and brew the marijuana leaves after removing seeds and twigs from it.
3. Strain out the leaves and flowers and save the water
4. Crush the squeezed flowers and leaves with 2 tablespoons of milk in a mortar.
5. Slowly but firmly grind the milk and leaves together.
6. Gather up the marijuana and squeeze out as much milk as you can.
7. Repeat this process until you have used about 1/2 cup of milk (about 4 to 5 times).
8. Collect all the milk that has been extracted and place in a bowl.
9. Soak almonds for 30 minutes
10. Wash the poppy seeds, letting the dirt settle at the bottom
11. Grind the poppy seeds, almonds, cardamom, cumin seeds, whole pepper and saffron and little water (that you had saved while straining the leaves) to a fine paste.
12. Mix this fine paste with the milk that was extracted from marijuana
13. Soak and strain with your fingers, squeezing the muslin cloth to extract the milk
14. Tie the remaining paste in muslin cloth and pour cold milk over it
15. Squeeze out the milk till the pulp is dry.
16. Add sugar and serve cold.