"THE CHINA-JAPAN DEBATE ON A PLATE" AT ITC SONAR, KOLKATA

ITC Sonar, a luxury hotel in Kolkata having a distinctively modern and sleek architechtural design contrasting with the rich historical essence of Kolkata. After Delhi and Mumbai, an exquisite event is going on at Pan Asian, ITC Sonar, Kolkata; named  'The China-Japan Debate On A Plate' partnered with Johnnie Walker for a very short period from 7th Nov to 10th Nov. In this, the Corporate Chinese Chef Liang Xiao Ping and Contemporary Japanese Expert Chef Vikramjit Roy, both are offering delectable menu and contesting against each other. The pair have offered outlandish menu pairing with delicate blended Johnnie Walker Black Level. Join this event through Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Visit http://wcom.in/chinajapandebate and put in your words to get a chance to win exotic signature culinary experience in this short event. 

Before the main event begins, we were asked with a lovely cocktail as a welcoming drink, I choosen 'Wasabi infused drink Rising Sun'. It was an exquisite cocktail of pomegranate, whiskey, pickled ginger and some other ingredients, shaken well and served over ice cubes. This was a Japanese version of cocktail, on the other hand Debi parna choosen Chinese tea infused cocktail, which I tasted, a lovely stong cocktail of Chinese tea and Johnnie Walker Black Lebel whiskey.

Before sitting up in dinning table, Chef Vikramjit told us that he would have a special drink for us to start and when it came in our table, I was really very excited and that vodka based peachy drink, the glass rimmed with soy based salt and served in a very special manner. I really surprised to see how it was presented so wonderful way. Chef Vikram describes us how to drink it with plum tomatoes, bean curd, wafer with pinch of celery salt.

I choosed option for starter and soup, starters 'Golden fried prawns with crispy garlic chilli powder and sesame seeds', a Chinese classic; where as soup 'Edamame soup sansho crisp, foie gras foam', a fusion Japanese contemplation. In golden fried prawns, prawns were crisp from the outer side but soft and tender from inside, truely a mouthmelting dish.  On the other hand, 'Salmon with confit melon, miso cream cheese, bubuarare smoked corm mash' was made as Japanese non-veg starters. The second dish which was an absolutely delectable soup offered by Chef Vikramjit where 'Foie gras' i.e made of the liver duck or goose that had been specially flattened. Its flavour is rich, buttery, delicate and not like ordinary duck or goose liver. The speciality of soup served a covered dome, when it opened a roundel of sansho crisp with a slice of foie gras, warm Edamame soup poured on it, simply a super fusion and delightful Japanese combo soup. Mr. Raveen Mishra, Regional Brand Ambassador, Diageo India who describes about three types of Johnnie Walker whiskeys which we would be served with Four courses of dinner. The first it came with starters was Johnnie Walker Gold Lebel. I must say it was a wonderful paired menu.

For main course I opted Chinese classic, 'Double Fried Pork with mild chili and hoisin sauce' with chinese fried rice, actually a traditional and popular dish in Sichuan, China. Pork was tender, tasty, slightly sweet but I missed its crispyness. Raveen brought out for us 'Johnnie Walker Platinum Label' for pairing with this delectable Chinese speciality. Both flavours so well, which tuned with me for a long time. But Japanese segment's 'Blue cheese and spinach stuffed chicken breast, freeze dried tomato, whiskey ponzu reduction' caught definitely my attention, I tasted it little bit and it was just amazing!

For dessert, I choosen Japanese delicacy, 'Poarched pear carpaccio yuzu probiotic Yoghurt ice', it was absolutely delicious and wonderfully paired with 'Johnnie Walker XR 21' a whiskey which preserved in cusk at least for 21 years. The whiskey smelled so well and tasted divine with desserts. On the otherhand, PB went with fried ice cream from Chinese segment. It was also a mouth watery dessert.

Another surprise came from Chef Vikramjit, a fusion dessert and which was not in menu list. A lovely combo of sweet-bitter combo in a one dish, valhrona mousse based with crumbled biscuits and a scoop of yummy mint ice cream; small balls of fruits - a total fusion dessert, simply awesome!!! 

(Group Photo - Picture courtesy: Poorna Banerjee)

Lastly, we were gifted with a lovely pack of goodies by ITC and returning back to home with a ton of sweet memories, will remain with me forever.

Pan Asian, ITC Sonar
Date: 7th - 10th November 2013
Timing: Dinner Only - 7.30 to 11.45 pm
Price: INR 4000++ per guest
For reservation and further information call 033-23454545.

CHICKEN CURRY

This one is such recipe which can never be tired to cook this Chicken Curry. It is such a favourite dish which I made often is enjoyed by our friends and family. As usual Indian spices are used in this curry, only the special thing is fried onion grinded with yogurt and green chillies used while cooking.

INGREDIENTS:
500 gm Chicken, cut into medium sized pieces
3 Onions (sliced)
1 tbsp Ginger Paste
2 tbsp Garlic Paste
3 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
4-6 Green Chillies (as per taste)
1/2" Cinnamon, 2 Cloves, 2 Green Cardamoms (roughly crushed)
100 gm Plain Yogurt (curd/dahi)
3 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Clarified Butter (ghee)
1 Cup Warm Water
Salt to taste

METHOD:

Heat oil and clarified butter in a wok. Add sliced onion in it. Fry till onion turns into golden brown. Set it aside and let it cool.

Grind fried onions with yogurt and green chillies to make a smooth paste.

Add crushed garam masala (cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves) to the same oil. Stir for a minute till a nice aroma comes out. Add chicken pieces in it. Fry well till chicken turns into golden brown. Remove from heat and keep it aside.

Add ginger-garlic paste in the same oil. Stir for a minute, add coriander powder and kashmiri red chilli powder in it. Fry for 2 minutes till raw smell of spices gone.

Mix onion-yogurt paste in it. Fold well for 3-4 minutes.

Add fried chicken pieces in it. Keep stirring and mix everything for 2-3 minutes. 

Add salt and a cup of warm water in it. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes on medium heat or till the chicken is tender.

Serve warm with roti, paratha, naan, pulao or simply with plain steamed rice.
For Original Recipe: CLICK HERE

GULAB JAMUN - SN CHALLENGE

Today I am going to post this challenged recipe as I am the part of famous SNC team. South vs North Challenge doesn't require any introduction, which is created and owned by our sweet friend Divya Pramil. I am a part of Northern Team, triedout the recipes challenged by Southern Team arround the year. 

This month SNC completed 1 year, so this is the 'month of celebration' where Divya suggested to cook any of the 24 challenged recipes. All over India, people are in festive mood, our main festival 'Diwali' is knocking the door. This is the special time for all Indians for some special treats. Thus, I choosen the recipe "GULAB JAMUN", challenged by Pallavi Purani. This is a very famous traditional Indian sweet and really a very toothsome dessert as we all love it..."Yeh dil mange more....", thanks Pallavi for this awesome dish.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup Powdered Milk
1&1/2 tbsp Semolina (sooji/rava)
3 tbsp Wheat Flour / All Purpose Flour (maida)
1/3 tsp Baking Powder
4 tbsp Clarified Butter (ghee)
1/2 Cup Cream
Oil / Clarified Butter To Fry

FOR SYRUP:

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Water
1/4 tsp Saffron (kesar/zaffran)
5-6 Cardamom Pods (lightly crushed)

METHOD:

Sift milk powder, wheat flour, semolina and baking powder in a bowl. Add clarified butter in it and mix thoroughly. Knead it nicely by adding cream to make a soft smooth dough.

Bring the dough together and with a palm greased with ghee make a ball and place in a bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it sit for 30 minutes.

On the other side, to make sugar syrup, bring the sugar and water to boil. Add saffron and cardamoms in it. Let sugar dissolves completely and boil it for 8-10 minutes on medium flame.

Make small balls out of the dough. Mean while you can fry the rolled jamuns. Heat sufficient oil on full flame in a pan . Once it smokes, reduce the flame to medium. After the smoke disappears, add one dough ball first. If it turns black instantly, you must reduce the flame to low-medium. We are looking for an inviting brown color on the dough balls. Be sure to constantly rolling the balls in the oil so that they get an even color, don't dump the jamuns so many in oil.

Remove jamuns from oil by using a slotted spoon when gulab jamuns are evenly golden and browned and add them directly into the sugar syrup. Keep the jamuns in the sugar syrup for atleast 3-4 hours before serving, which will make the jamuns soft and sweet from inside.

Warm in the microoven, serve gulab jamun hot with topped with little cream or pistachios. But I personally love to have warm gulab jamun topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

A FESTIVAL FULL OF SWEET CHILDHOOD MEMORIES,

SKY FULL OF FIREWORKS,

MOUTH FULL OF SWEETS,

HOUSE FULL OF DIYAS AND HEART FULL OF JOY

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DIWALI!!!!

Sending to Priya Suresh akka SN Challenge

Sending to Festival Treats, Diwali Bash 2013

CORN PEAS SLICES

Today I bring sweet and sour, cheesy grilled bread slices filled with corn, peas, bell pepper and little spices. This crispy and healthy bread slices are perfect for breakfast or as an evening tea-time snack. It is very easy to make and yummy too. Tryout, you will love it.

INGREDIENTS:

8 Bread Slices

¾ Cup Sweet Corn (frozen)

¾ Cup Peas (frozen)

1 Green Bell Pepper /capsicum (chopped)

4 tbsp Bread Crumb

4 tbsp Butter

3 Cheese Cubes (grated)

1 Onion (finely chopped)

2 Tomatoes (pureed)

3-4 Chopped Green Chilies

1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chili Powder

2 tbsp Flour (maida)

1 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

METHOD:

Heat oil in a pan or wok. Add chopped onion and green bell pepper in it. Sauté for 2 minutes.

Add Tomato puree, salt and kashmiri red chili powder in it. Fold nicely for a minute.

Add sweet corn, peas and chopped green chilies in it. Mix well. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes on medium heat; stir occasionally. Turn off the heat now. Mix flour with this mixture, fold well again.  Set it aside.

Preheat oven to 180 C. Cut each bread slice diagonally. Spread little butter on each bread slice. Again, spread 1 tbsp of corn pea mixture on it.

Sprinkle bread crumb and grated cheese on the top. Arrange bread slices on the baking tray. Grill for 10 minutes. Switch off the heat now. Keep it inside of the oven for another 5 minutes.

Serve immediately with any sauce of your choice.

MURGH TIKKA

Here is an essence of Punjab, easy to cook kabab dish in which boneless chicken chunks are marinated in yogurt and other special spices. Grilled on skewers and serve as a great and toothsome starter. The word 'tikka' means bits or chunks. Traditionally, Murgh Tikka means juicy and spicy chunks of boneless chicken roasted on open fire. But in cities, it is not possible to roast chicken on open fire, so we use oven or microoven for this purpose. However this kabab tastes great. Tryout and relish these amazing kababs. 

INGREDIENTS:
300 gm Boneless Chicken Breast, Cut into 1" Cubes
1 tsp Ginger Paste
1 tsp Garlic Paste
1/3 tsp Freshly Pounded Black Pepper (kala mirch)
1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chili Powder
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 tsp Garam Masala
A Pinch of Carom Seeds (ajwaan)
1 tbsp Gram Flour
2 tbsp Hung Curd
1 tbsp Lemon juice
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Olive Oil + 1 tbsp Mustard Oil
2 Bamboo Skewers (soak in water for 3-4 hours)

METHOD:

Wash chicken pieces nicely and make those pat dry. Now marinate chicken with 1/2 tsp ginger paste, 1/2 tsp garlic paste, black pepper powder, little salt and lemon juice. Mix thoroughly. Leave it for 30 minutes.
Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan. Add carom seeds in it and mix gram flour in it. Fry till a nice aroma comes out and gram flour changes its colour a little bit. Switch off the heat now.
Take a large bowl, add curd, gram flour, 1/2 tsp ginger paste, 1/2 tsp garlic paste, kashmiri red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, mustard oil and salt. Whisk nicely.
Add marinated chicken (that was marinated before) to this mixture. Fold thoroughly, so that chicken will incorporated well with all spices. Set marinated chicken in refrigerator for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 220 C. Put chicken pieces in the skewers. Grease roasting tray with little oil and arrange chicken skewers on it. Bake it for 10 minutes. Take out the tray and turn the skewers to other side. Brush little oil on chicken. Put the oven on grill mode. Grill chicken pieces for another 10 minutes.

Chicken tikka is ready now. Serve warm with green salad, lemon wedges and sauce of your choice.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - FIRE AND ICE, KOLKATA

'Italian Cuisine' follows the Mediterranean pattern of food - focuses on natural as well as simple ingredients, i.e. whole grains, garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, dark green leaves and lots of cheese making it one of the healthiest diets of the world. The benefits of a Mediterranean style eating pattern may include improved weight loss, reduced risk of depression and better control of blood-glucose (sugar) level in human body. Recently we, a group of friends from CaL Bloggers Table explored out for some authentic flavours from Italy in our city, Kolkata. We selected Fire and Ice (a reputed Italian Cuisine Restaurant), located in heart of city. Fire and Ice is one of the best Italian joints in the city. The atmosphere is great, the place is very spacious, very comfortable and serves a good long menu. Although it can feel that way with all the aromas around making you hugrier.

I arrived little late, as I saw everyone ordered for drinks and starter. We ordered vegetarian 'Farcita' (Rs. 400/-) which was not included in menu card, first entree as a starter. As per my knowledge, farcita (Italian round bread) is hot and crisp from the outside and enfolding with cold mozzarella and tomato slices from inside. It would be very tasty by dizzling little olive oil and sprinkling red chilli flakes on the top. But here I observed it was very cold from inside and outside both, not satisfied my tastebuds.

Next came two skewers of grilled boneless chicken which arranged alternatively with slices of tomato, green pepper and pearl onion; named 'Spiedini alla Griglia' (Rs. 495/-). It was served with herbs melted cheese, really very delicious. Chicken was very soft, tender and perfectly grilled.

As I reached little late, so I ordered another starter 'Rondelle di Patate Fritte' (Rs. 295/-) came on our table. This was actually dip fried potato chips with tomato sauce and basil pesto. Loved potato chips with the dips, but according to me it was exuberantly high priced.

We selected few items from menu card for our main course. The first one came was 'Penne Bolognese' (Rs. 435/-), which was a choice of penne pasta with meat (mince lamb) sauce. Pasta was well cooked, but little salty and meat sauce of bolognese was lack of tomatoes. Overall, it was not satisfied my tastebuds well.

I always love the crispness of thin crust Pizza. Next came 'Half and Half Pizza', Fire and Ice on one half and pepperoni on the other. It was demanded by our house and truelly delectable. Fire and ice had tomato, creamy potato, mozzarella, rosemary and oregano, very creamy and mouth watery. Tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni and jalapeno made Pepperoni Pizza very toothsome and just wonderful. Personally I loved both the pizzas from the core of my heart.

Our meal was not completed except 'Lasagna'. So 'Lasagna Tradizionale' (Rs. 495/-) came to our table. A flat sheet of pasta dough cut into cut into strips, probably one of the oldest type of pasta. Lasagne is traditionally made with interleaving layers of pasta with layers of sauce, made with tomato sauce, mozzarella/ricotta cheese and various meats. Here I felt the lack of ricotta cheese layers in this dish with very less amount of tomatoes in the sauce too. Pastas were overcooked and meat sauce was very similar with bolognese sauce. I expected more delectable lasagne, so not fully satisfied with this dish.

As we had little space in our stomach, so group ordered for dessert, 'Apple Pie with Ice Cream' and dark 'Chocolate Mousse'. Apple Pie had a warm crust and filled with cooking apple, sugar and cinnamon. As cinnamon flavour was little high, so the taste was average. 

Dark, rich 'Chocolate Mousse' without ice-cream was very delicous and fully chocolaty. it was not that much silky, still was satisfied my taste buds.

My overall experience with Fire and Ice was nice. One thing I must say, they need to improve more on the quality of their dishes. I loved the place as well decorated with a nice ambiance, but I must say they are little poor in services. Looking forward with the next blogger table's meet with Chef at Large.

Fire and Ice

Kanak Building, 41, J.L. Nehru Road,

(Entrance on Middleton Street)

Opp. Jeevandeep Building

Kolkata - 700 071. West Bengal, India.

Contact No: +91 33 2288-4057

Cuisine: Italian Cuisine (pizzeria)

Timings: 12 Noon to 12 Midnight

Here's everyone from CAL Blogger’s Table had to say:
Megha Jhunjhunwala
Poorna Banerjee
Amrita - Vishal
Kamalika Chakraborty
Sarani Tarafder

CHERRY POUND CAKE

Here is a rich classic pound cake with the pretty surprise of chopped cherries, a very popular French Pound Cake. There is something tremendously comforting about pound cake. It's dense, buttery, supremely moist and baked perfectly. Some creative liberties have been taken here with the addition of vanilla essence and chopped cherries. Lets come to the recipe...

INGREDIENTS:
150 gm / 1&1/2 Cups Cake Flour
150 gm Granulated Regular Sugar
3 Large Eggs
3 tbsp Butter Milk
1&1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Powder
185 gm / 14 tbsp Salted Butter (at room temperature)
3/4 Cup Chopped Cherries

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 F / 180 C. Whisk eggs, milk and vanilla extract with a wire whisk. Mix all in together.

Grease a loaf pan and then sprinkle little flour on the inner surface of the pan. Place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the loaf pan. Spray with cooking oil.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking powder. Mix with a electric blender for 30 seconds. Add butter and half of the egg mixture in it. Mix in low speed for 30 seconds. Again blend it with electric hand blender for 1 minute on medium speed. Add remaining egg mixture little by little and mix well with the wire whisk. 

Add chopped cherries in it. Fold nicely. 

Pour mixture to loaf pan and bake it for 50-55 minutes, till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Cool it for 15-30 minutes on a wire rack. 

Cut into slices and serve. You may keep it in air-tight container and refrigerate for a week.