'Little Chefs Workshop' with Amrita Kaur at Godrej Nature's Basket!!!

I have been associated with Godrej group for quite sometime. And Godrej Nature's Basket has been one of my favorite Food stores, for their variety and quality of food offered. Recently I was invited  to cover their Kids Workshop by Amrita Kaur at their Koregaon Park Store here in Pune. Being on her summer vacation kiddo didn't wanted to miss the workshop and were we both at their store last weekend. 

The recipes included Rainbow noodles Salad with Peanut butter dressing, Rainbow Nice Cream topped with nutty sprinkles and delicious Mango No-Bake Cheesecake Tart, easy, no flame colourful recipes which the kids really enjoyed whipping. Amrita wore Rainbow shades as well to go with the theme, and she made the workshop more interactive and interesting by giving kids nutrition, health and food vocab gyan.

No Bake Cheese Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 Packet digestive biscuits, crushed coarsely.
• Toasted nuts of your choice(almonds/pistachio/walnuts)
• 2-3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 pinch cardamom powder
• Pinch of Salt

For the cheesecake

• 1 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 cup whipped cream
• Fresh mango pulp + sliced for garnish
• 2 table spoos caster sugar
• Juice/zest of half a lemon
• Pinch of cardamom powder

Method

• Combine the crushed biscuits with the nuts, melted butter, cardamom powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Take a spoonful and press tightly on bottom tightly on bottom of a tart shell.
• Blend cream cheese, whipped cream mango puree, lemon juice & zest and cardamom powder and sugar using an electrical mix or a whisk until well combined. Top this cheesecake filling over the prepared tart crust and refrigerate.

Rainbow Noodles Salad(with peanut butter dressing)

Ingredients:

• 50g soba noodles, boiled as per package instruction.
• 1/2 cup mixed veggies, julienned(carrot, purple cabbage, spring onions, red & yellow bell peppers, raw mango)
• Few springs of fresh coriander.
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame tp sprinkle on top.

For Peanut Dressing

• 1 table spoon peanut butter
• Juice of a lemon
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce.
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1/2 inch ginger grated
• Few tablespoons water(to thin the dressing)

Method:

• Toss all the Salad elements together veggies and noodles. Pour the prepared dressing over it and give it a good mix. Serve in a salad bowl with sesame and coriander on top.

Peanut Butter Dressing

Whisk all the ingredient together(Peanut butter, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, soy, honey, garlic, ginger and water as required)

Chef's Gyan: prepare dressing in glass jar, if excess can be stored and refrigerated for next use.

Rainbow Nice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 Bananas, sliced and frozen

For Variations

• 1 tablespoon fresh strawberries/raspberries
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon Blueberries
• 1 tablespoon fresh mango slices
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of cardamom powder
• Toasted nuts to top(almonds, pistachio & cranberries) finely chopped

Method

• Make sure that banana are ripe. Slice and freeze. When the bananas are fully frozen, toss them into a food processor or high speed blender and blend until you achieve a consistency that resembles soft serve ice cream
• Divide into 5 portions. Set one aside
• Add strawberries/raspberries to one & blend
• Add cocoa powder + vanilla to second & blend
• Add blueberries to the third & blend
• Finally mango slice & cardamom powder to the fourth and blend
• Transfer all the blended flavours in one big bowl. Cream swirl using a spoon. Make sure to not mix completely.

Note: If your blender is having trouble processing, you can add 1-2 tablespoons milk/nut milk/soy milk to make it easier.

All smiles with their Rainbow Nice cream

Armita's Veggie, Fruit Vocab Gyan

Avacado in Hindi - Makhan Phal

Jamun in English - Black Plum

Fruit with 1000 seeds - Strawberry

These are only ones I could recall ;)

The store also had a photo booth where kids got their framed photographs in chef look. All in all the day was well spent whipping some yummy colorful dishes with lovely chef.

The Bombay Bronx Restaurant, Mumbai

I was at The Bombay Bronx for the Aegon Religare blogger's meet. The restaurant has been designed to give it a typical Bombayya look. Chandeliers of the lunchbox of the famous dabbawalas of Mumbai, also the glass top dinning tables, have dabbas lined up.

The cash counter was given the Bollywood and advertisment look from the 80s. Also one side of the restuarant is given the look of a local train.

The entrance has the painting of a koli women and the upper wall is given the look of EROS International.

The food too included Mumbai street foods along with pizza and Punjabi. For starters we tried Dhokla pakoda, vada pav, cheese balls, most of which were served in Mumbai style too, in paper cones placed inside small buckets. The starters maintained the authentic Mumbai taste in all of them. We also tried pizza, which was served on a grill atop wooden pan.

For main course, we had paneer gobhi with naan, which was served on a small carrom board. A single board is served to each table and everyone on the table can have from the same. The paneer gobhi for me was just ok when compared to the starters. At the bar I tried Aam Panna. It tasted very refreshing and I couldn't resist myself from having 3 of them.

Cost: Rs. 1500 for two people.

Cake Exhibition at J W Marriott Sahar Mumbai!!!

I was at J W Marriott Sahar, Mumbai few weeks(few months to be precise) back as part of Blogadda's Win 15 and Pampers #SoftestForBabySkin event. The best part about Blogadda events is they always have a pure vegetarian plater, including Jain counter. That was the event when I tasted Sushi for the first time, oh man, I just fell in love with Sushi and looking for a Japanese Restaurant somewhere around.

Center stage of the buffet was awesome sugar craft by talented chef of J W Marriott. I was so much impressed and went on clicking as many pics I could. Looking at my enthu, chief pastry chef asked me to visit the lobby where there were lot more cakes for display for the cake exhibition they had as part of 'Celebrate with JW Sahar' campaign. Have a look at all the cakes I got to click. Along with the looks, the cakes were in mouth watering flavours, which included Crunchy Hazelnut Almond Marzipan, Toffee Coffee, Caramelized pineapple cake, Red Velvet, Chocolate Truffle and Dry fruit cake.

 

Life size replica of one of the chandeliers at the lobby made of chocolate.

Isn't this awesome, do visit their cake exhibition if you get a chance to. They are treat to your eyes and to your taste buds.

'Master Class with the Masters' @The Lalit Mumbai, #BNLF

BNLF(Blog Now Live Forever) was a much awaited event by the blogging community. Day 1, thats 30th of Nov, being the 5th Saturday of the month, I had office and didn't register for the event, while I had registered for the second day. My facebook timeline on 30th evening was full of BNLF updates by all my blogger friends. Harley Davidson motorcycles, Segways, rock-climbing wall and much more and that made me not to miss Day 2 event. 

I managed to be at The Lalit Mumbai, the venue for BNLF only by 2. Just as I reached, a group of bloggers were heading for the Master Class. I had registered for the Master Class as well and joined the group. 

Who don't like Tortellas, I just love them and when the event invite read the chef was about to prepare Tortellas, I didn't wanted to miss it. What better than trying your hands in making the pasta dough, sheeting fresh pastas and shaping your tortellas. Here is what the chef made for us,

 Dish

 Ricotta Spinach Filled Tortellini on the Bed of Mushrooms

Ingredients

Ricotta Cheese - 25gm

Baby Spinach - 50gm

Farina flour 00' - 50gm

Semolina - 15gm

Eggs - 1 nos.

*EVOO - 5ml

Button Mushrooms - 50gm

Onion - 25gm

Asparagus - 25gm

Sage Butter - 5gm

Sundried Tomato - 10gm

Pine nuts - 10gm

Chives - for garnish

Cherry Tomato - 1 no.            

Salt - To Taste

Cracked black peppers - 2gm

Method

1. Make a mixture of ricotta cheese and spinach with seasoning for pasta filling.

2. Make dough for pasta with Farina flour, whole eggs, salt and olive oil keep for resting. Sheet the pasta and fill with the spinach filling. Give a shape as described.

3. Chop mushrooms and saute with chopped onion in EVOO. Place it as a base for the pasta.

4. Blanch the pasta in salted water for 8 minutes.

5. Make a sauce with sage butter, add chopped onion, garlic. Cook it until translucent, add chopped sundried tomato and chopped pine nuts. Add chopped parsley and fresh sage. Toss the blanched pasta in the sauce. Place the blanced pasta on bed of mushroom.

6. Garnish with butter poached asparagus, balsamic reduction, chopped chives and sundried cherry tomato.

Executive Sous Chef Ravish Mishra and Chef Rajeev Kumar

Blogger trying hands on Pasta making

Fresh Herbs

Plating the dish

Chef with his dish

 Cookery tips:

1. Floating pastas are the indication of cooked pastas when boiling in the pots. 

2. You can give flavours of sage, rosemary or any Italian herb to butter.

2. You can replace eggs with potato starch for vegetarian pasta. 

3. Substitute for mushroom for bed could be Spinach, while you can choose other filling.

* EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil

After Master Class we headed to '7 Key Steps to blogging mastery' by Jeff Bullas, a workshop on blogging.

Thank you Indiblogger for the wonderful event, as always you people rocked. I badly missed the day 1 Clear Trip activities, hope to be part of the next #BNLF :)