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Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category

April 9th, 2010 by bkbirla

Day 4 – Chaats and Juices and a big mess

Obviously. What else did you expect? Throw some kids around chaats and juices and a big mess is bound to follow. The first item on our list was Bhel Puri. Everybody had a great time cutting the boiled potatoes and tomatoes but when it came to onions, most of them gave up.One of the bigger kid did the job. Before we could finish the Bhel Puri, ice cream arrived and all hell break loose. The idea was to make some icecream soda by popping some vanila ice cream into soft drinks, but tough to control kids when you have two of their favorite things in front of them.

Lot of pushing and pulling. Somebody wanted a combo of Mirinda and Thums Up while some other kid wanted just ice cream. When there is so much of ice cream and soft drink around, some of it got to go to the floor also. Anyway we came back to Bhel Puri after that. We moved on to doing some yummy Papdi Chaat after that. The next thing was Aloo Chaat made using green chutney. The chutney was a little bit spicy and all the kids found an excuse to have more soft drinks. Chaat Masala and Kala Namak added amazing twist to all the chaats.

The next thing on the agenda was Mint Julep. Let me accept it that it was my first time making it. I was pretty nervous on how it will taste. But it came out really well and the best part was kids also loved it and multiple refills. The only problem with all these juices was that enough got spilled on the floor. I also loved the taste and planning to add this to my restaurant menu.

The end of the day discussions included revision of all the items and also a little bit of home work. I asked all the kids to ask their parents their favorite dish so that I can teach them how to make it.

PS:

1. These cooking lessons were part of the summer camp organized by Noah’s Show.

2. The cleaning lady needs my apologies again.

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April 8th, 2010 by bkbirla

Day 3 – The Barbeque Day

Bangalore weather has been grillings us for a long time. Time to pay back with grilling some vegies. We decided to do some grilling with Paneer and Baby Corn. We had a brand new electric grill gifted by a friend. And we started making our Tikka mix by getting thick curd, tandoori masala and ginger garlic paste in a bowl. The usual mixing fights happened but we managed to make sure that we can move ahead.

That is when tragedy stuck us. No power and electric grill can not work. You have noisy kids in front of you and you got to act first. We soon moved our action upstairs where we had access to a gas. Now the next challenge was to make sure that we keep kids away from gas and hot tawas. I had to resort to a little bit of shouting to ensure that kids maintain safe distance from gas and hot tawa. We changed our plans and instead of making Panner Tikka and grilled Baby corn, we decided to make Vegetable Kababs on tawa. The kids were waiting for it to get them and they were putting so much pressure on me to cook it quickly. The chaos started as soon as the first round of kabas came out. They were finishes within a minute and everybody was shouting to get more. I had to use two burners to do it faster.

By the time we were done with Kababs, the power came back and we resumed the action on the grill. The problem was again to ensure that kids kept a safe distance. We did layout the Paneer on satay sticks and placed it on the grill along with baby corn. We took lot of photos of the grill. Kids loved Paneer and we had to make another extra round. Some parents had also come around by that time and we shared food items with them also. We could not make some of the items like grilled cheese potatoes because of power cut but we had enough fun making all the stuff.

One interesting aspect I have started noticing in kids now is that they are asking me lot more questions related to ingredients, decoration and also stories of their cooking experience. I did hear from some parents that some of them went back and cooked some stuff at home.

Looks like it is working!

Tags: Barbeque, cooking classes, summer camp
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April 7th, 2010 by bkbirla

Day 2 – The chuski day

The second day had just one hero. Chuski or ice gola as lot of people call it. My teaching agenda was deserts. We started with making fruit ice cubes. Simple ice cubes made with pieces of pomegranate and grapes inside it. Although the taste of the dish is nothing great but a very nice and surprising way to serve drinks to your guests.

The next one on my agenda was a fruit salad not made using cream or ice cream but using lime juice and chat masala along with some Boora (powder sugar). Kids loved cutting all the fruits and usual fights erupted in an effort to cut more fruits. We also made an interesting version of fruit salad by covering it with wet bread and spreading some curd over it. This approach to salad completely transforms it to look like something else and tastes great. I also taught them how to make a quick shahi toast by spreading home made malai and sugar over a piece of bread.

Then came the storm, the chuski or ice gola. Simple crushed ice with Rose and Kesar syrup on a stick. The kids just got too excited and soon everybody was ready with the most innovative reason why he/she should be the one to get it first. The worst part was that crushing the ice was a manual process and took us some time to get it. The pressure was mounting and the demand was much more than supply. The entire room resembled a chaotic ice gola shop with a very sticky floor. Some kids wanted only rose and some other wanted to mix it and check out the color. Adults also got bitten by the chuski bug and we also enjoyed it.

We had few minutes left before parents would come to pick up the kids so I just started chatting up with kids. All of them were telling me how they will decorate or make a dish in a different way. Some of them started telling me jokes and one naughty girl put a ice cube inside my shirt. Overall lot of fun and one thing which I was certainly happy about was that kids were not just thinking about standard way of making a recipe but also were thinking through variations of the dish both in terms of ingredients and looks.

We also discussed last days home work and I told about the lot of recipes which can be made with left over food. A satisfying day indeed. Kids have become very friendly with me and they are also understanding overall picture of cooking.

Next day’s home work was ask all the kids to find from their parents if they had ever invented a dish. Let us see what they come back with.

PS:

1. These cooking lessons were part of the summer camp organized by Noah’s Show.

2. My apologies to the lady who came to clean up the room after the mayhem.

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April 6th, 2010 by bkbirla

Day 1 – First shot at teaching cooking to kids

To put it simply…. I was nervous. Many reasons to be nervous. You never know what kids might ask you. Adults are more predictable. There is a broad agreement between all the adults in the world that they will not ask you very uncomfortable questions unless they are your close relatives or co passengers in a train. Another reason for being nervous is that I have been cooking for a long time but never tried teaching it to anybody. Some friends picked it up on their own but never taught in a formal way.

And the last stumbling block was that the stuff I was trying to teach was a little bit new to me. The first day syllabus was three varieties of salad – Coleslaw, French Dressing, and Russian Salad. Since we were primarily teaching no fire cooking, we chose dishes which are safe enough for kids to make.

We started with a small introduction with all the kids and then I introduced myself. The nerves were still not relaxed. I asked all the kids to wash hands and also tie their hairs ( I also had a rubber band on my hairs ). Now we started cutting some vegies for our salads. It was so tough to ensure that kids cut vegetables without hurting themselves. Then there were some fight between kids to cut vegetables. We also did a little bit of grating and struggled to ensure that kids keep their fingers away from grater. By this time I was getting a little bit more comfortable. I realize that kids were enjoying their cooking a lot and they were keen to learn. The coleslaw came out pretty good and then their was a small fight to taste it. Next item was French Dressing and followed pretty much the same sequence. For russian salad we got the vegies boiled under adult supervision and mixed all the stuff in front of the kids. All the salads were kept in the fridge so that we can have them in the end.

We had a langar type of setup in the end and all of us enjoyed the salads. Some of the questions which stumped me were

- Why does not mayonnaise go bad if it has eggs in it?

- Why are you putting so much Mayonnaise?

- How can it become so creamy when you mix oil and vinegar?

- French Dressing is from France, Russian Salad from Russia but what about Coleslaw?

I don’t even want to write what my answers were. The day ended with home work for all the kids. The home work was to ask their parents what they do with left overs at home. The idea was to help them understand all the great things they can make with left overs.

I was certainly feeling more comfortable by end of day with kids as well as my teaching skills.

PS: These cooking lessons were part of the summer camp organized by Noah’s Show.

Tags: Cooking, noahsshow, salads, summer camp
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February 7th, 2010 by bkbirla

Republic Day Potluck Ishtyle

We had a lovely republic day. We celebrated it with chocolates and great food cooked by lot of housewives. The chocolate stall was handled by Geetika and she did a fabulous job of explaining everybody how to make chocolates and we had some extremely creative versions of chocolates

1. Crispy corn flakes chocolate

2. Mint Chocolate made using Polo

3. Coffee Chocolate

If you need the recipes, you just need to write to me.

Besides that we had an innovative cooking competition where 17 housewives participated with amazing enthusiasm. They cooked some amazing dishes. Our customers voted and Mrs Pacheesiya from Mantri Paradise emerged to be a clear winner. She made a Mix Veg ( Au Gratin Style). Second prize was won by Shaloo Agrawal and the third by Yukti from Mantri Paradise. Our sincere thanks to all the cooks as well as everybody who helped us manage the event.

Some photos to ensure that you don’t miss it next time.

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January 21st, 2010 by bkbirla

Celebrate Republic Day at Potluck

We are cooking up something special for you this Republic Day. You started the lazy morning with the parade watching on TV and now time to catch up on food. Just come over to Potluck in BTM.

We are organizing a Curry Queen Contest where you can taste a variety of curries cooked by housewives. You can vote for the stuff you like and and the winner gets attractive prizes from us. If you want to participate, do let us know.

Besides this we are also organizing a chocolate making workshop. The workshop is conducted by Noah’s Show ( http://www.noahsshow.com ). Learn how to make yummy chocolates and taste them too.

Here are our FB links to confirm participation or drop us an email on eat [at] potluck dot in.

Republic Day Chocolate Making Workshop

Republic Day Curry Queen Contest

Tags: chocolate, curry queen, republic day
Posted in Bangalore, Cooking, Potluck | 5 Comments »

November 19th, 2009 by bkbirla

Recepie – ParpuPudi( Tamil Iyer Style )

Ingredients

1 cup Arhar/Toor Dal

1/4 cup chana dal

6-7 sabut red chilis

hing(asafoetida) powder

salt

Method

Roast all the ingredients in Kadhai till they turn light brown in color. Grind them in a mixer when they are cold. Add some salt and hing(asafoetida) powder to the mixture.

Increase the chili amount if you love it hot.

Eating Method

It tastes great when eaten with with lots of ghee and plain rice.

By: Bhuvana ( my wife )

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July 19th, 2009 by bkbirla

Recipe – Tomato Bhujia Curry

OK… No issues with that name I am guessing. Let me get back to my Marwari roots here. Enough people have called me by names like naturalized Marwari, South Indian Marwari and ex-Marwari. Time to hit back with some Bhujia in the face.

So first thing you need to make is the tomato curry. This has lot of variations and based on your oil appetite you can choose the option. So let us first get the oil free version. You just need to put some chopped tomatoes and onions in a pan along with some water. More tomatoes and less onions. You can also add a little bit of green chillies and salt to taste. To make it sweet jaggery is the preferred choice but sugar will also do if you don’t have that. Keep boiling all the ingredients while crushing the tomatoes once in a while. 15-20 minutes will make a nice sweet and sour tomato chutney.

Another mild oily version is that you make a garnishing of little bit of onions, mustard seeds, garlic, ginger, salt, green chili in a pan with a spoon of oil. Add chopped tomatoes and water and keep boiling it. Oh ya and add sugar and jaggery also. This will also need 10-15 minute of boiling to become a smooth chutney.

So where is the Bhujia. Just before serving add crispy bhujia to it as a topping. Don’t use aloo bhujia but use proper spicy bhujia. The sweet taste of chutney combined with the spicy and crispy Bhujia is amazing. You can either have it with Dal/Chawal or you can also have it with phulkas or stuffed paranthas. My favorite item which goes along with this is Masoor Dal Chawal or Sattu Parantha.

Cooking time is 15-20 mins and the best part of this item is that it is very tough to spoil it unless you are a professional at that.

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July 17th, 2009 by bkbirla

Recepie – Toasts with Mustard and Curd

This is a rather easy one and can be made for breakfast or a quick snack and should not take more than 5-10 mins.

On a non stick tawa spread a little bit of butter or Ghee. You can also use olive oil if you want to go healthy. Put one spoon of mustard seeds on top of the melted butter or heated oil. As mustard seeds start bursting, cover it with a bread slice. Take one spoon of curd and spread it over the top of the slice. Sprinkle a little bit of salt over the slice also. Turn it over and keep it over flame till the toasts turn golden brown.

Have it with a cup of tea and enjoy. The best thing about this dish is that one side becomes crispy and one side remains soft because of curd. Besides that curd gives it a slightly sour taste which is amazing. You can also sprinkle a little bit of pepper before serving this.

BTW this dish got invented when I was preparing for IIT long time back. If you are a parent and this dish helps on securing better grades for you kids, send across some chocos to me.

Posted in Cooking | 2 Comments »

May 5th, 2009 by bkbirla

Stuffed Capsicum Recipe

I don’t know how to write recipes the traditional way so my style will be more conversational. If you are looking for ingredients, time to cook, preparation method type of sections, I am sorry. Cooking is not a industrial process but an art. Something which you got to do with love, affection and passion.

I have a different take on making Stuffed Capsicum. The traditional way of making gravy based capsicum I guess makes you forget capsicum completely. I strongly believe that the key ingredients should stand out in whatever you cook instead of hiding their taste and aroma.

Take big capsicums and take out the bottom part which has all the seeds. Don’t throw it away but keep it aside. For the stuffing you have many options. One key ingredient is boiled potatoes and you can miz it with different things. You can add grated Paneer to it or you can add grated vegetables like Gobhi, Carrot etc. Use boiled potatoes as a base and mix some more vegies along with it. Obviously you got to add some salt and you can add a little bit of mango powder also to this. Another interesting flavor you can add to the stuffing is by roasting some Jeera ( Cumin seeds ) on a tawa and adding it. I do not favour adding any oil to the stuffing as we will be using oil at a different place. One thing you should not forget is that add the seeds you took out of capsicum in the first step to the stuffing. This is what will ensure that the taste of capsicum stays with your dish.

Now fill up the capsicums with the stuffing and stuff it real hard so that you do not leave any space inside. Now you have two options. If you have a oven at home you can just put a little oil on top of these capsicum and bake them or the other option is to slice them and put them on a non stick Tawa. Fry it for around 10 minutes with little oil. Cover the tawa with a lid for faster cooking. You can put a little bit of oil on the tawa with cumin seeds on tawa before you put the capsicum. The cumin seeds will get embedded in the stuffing and taste great.

Before you serve you can decorate it using some cashew, onions and carrots. The sliced Stuffed capsicum can be served as a starter as well as a dry subzi.

Posted in Cooking, Potluck | 3 Comments »