Chocolate Blackout Cake ~ Happy Birthday Tarini

Happy Birthday Tarini....


Celebrating at home...

Special 'Chocolatey' and 'Anything Full of Chocolate' cake for the naughty imp....

Sharing with Vibha[her mum], Vivekji,[her dad] along with nani n dadi.

Her brief was.....'Chocolatey' and 'Anything Full of Chocolate' cake.... so there you go girl... Chocolate Blackout Cake.... with Rum soaked raisins, Cocoa-Creme center and Chocolate Ganache icing......
The basic cake recipe here.

The verdict:
They loved it..... have been getting ping after ping..... am so glad they liked it.... The B'day girl n her mom loved it..... :-)

Ragu and Olive Pasta Primavera for Parshad ~ Allll Izzzzzz Welllllll....

It's holiday time and I have the pleasure of making parshad for Durbar.... Mummy n I decided to make Pasta in Primavera Sauce.
Primavera sauce is wonderfully variable as is the name of this blog. Pasta primavera comes from the garden, and everyone's garden differs, there's an infinite number of variations on this sauce. You can use the vegetables that suit your personal taste or are in season at the time. Whatever you use, you will always end up with the wonderful tastes of primavera
The ingredients I used were.... Olive Oil, Bay Leaves, Garlic, Paprika, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, fresh Basil Leaves.
Vegetables are a must... in went Broccoli, Capsicum, Olives, Mushrooms and Corn.... White Pepper, Salt and White Wine Vinegar added an awesome flavour.
Now for the crunch added some fried Peanuts, Cheese, Tomatoes[Ragu sauce] and Cream . This entire process was repeated 4 times over.
I cooked in a very large quantity.... made pasta for 275 people... :-) Had a bed full of ingredients along with a dining table full of boiled pasta....
That's me, the cookie...... it was so much fun while making the parshad..... had borrowed this huge gas n pan for cooking from Mrs Dhawan... a huge thank you to her... else would have taken me 16 rounds to do what got done in 4 rounds..... had nervous butterflies in my tummy but as we know... while making parshad... Allll Izzzzzz Welllllll..... and it really was.... :-)

That's Kishan n Bahadur.. the help at my place who helped with all the chopping, garnishing n packing....

Mummy did the lion's share of work.... went shopping n organised all the ingredients...... what a blast we had....
That's Babaji and me..... Thank you for making this possible....
That's Upma mom sharing her parshad with me...... n Miss Mini... my matching colour partner.... We're matching again... mummy are you listening......
That's Priya didi and Neha didi....
Hard work and belief works well...... :-)

Kaanav's Zero(th) Birthday!!!

It started with my status message on facebook " Sounds preposterous n assumptious yet it's true....... The Mud Cake at Big Chill needs serious help.... am so so so disappointed with the cake.
The Liberation Party with Chocolate Blackout Cake was much better ~ http://thevariable-nachiketa.blogspot.com/2009/08/liberation-party-with-chocolate.html"

In reply Shruti wrote "really.... tats so depressing! coz tat's my fav...."

To which I said "Shruti: u want some cake? are you allowed chocolate cake? I know I can swing the clubs in my favour instead of big chill in this case :-)"

(That's the Mummy n Daddy-to-be)

I made her the Chocolate Blackout Cake at nite and went to see her in the morning before getting to work. This was the day before my nephew 'Kanaav' was born... Hence the post is titled "Kanaav's Zero(th) Birthday", he ate his cake even before he was born... ;-)
His Masi 'Esha' and Tai 'Geetayani' had made lovely posters to welcome him home.....
He's just so adorable n cute... :-)

The Proud Parents - Shruti & Rohit

She's gonna get a repeat dose around New Year's Eve..... :-)

Day full of Foodies, Chefs and FOOD - Upper Crust Show Mumbai, Dec 09

Shaheen ~ Purple Foodie, sent me the link to the Upper Crust Show Mumbai, Dec 09.... What luck, was in Mumbai on those dates.

After much trepidation, deliberation and instructions from my sister and Shaheen, I set of for the Andheri Station to take a Local Train to Church Gate...... I was very nervous about this travel..... after all the horro stories I had heard about the trains being overcrowded to the T..... am glad it went of smoothly....
Reached the venue and met Shaheen, Arjun and Anu. Had taken along some hazelnut chocolate for Shaheen as she loves it and it's all over her blog... glad she liked it.

Caught Chef Bill Marchetti in action. He almost looked like Santa Claus to me. [Bill in Oz Land, Bill in India, Decoding the great Indian transformation with Bill Marchetti, The Italian specialist, Oven fresh ] He was making mushroom risotto in tomato sauce. He proceeded to make crumb fried chicken n orange sauce and strawberry crepes and had the audience spell bound.


Met up with Simran ~ Bombay Foodie, She's such a sweet person...
We spent time checking out the food stalls as we had gotten hungry by then...... We were munching on 'Ginger and Honey Roasted Almonds' which shaheen [had made and posted the day before] generously got along for us... They were just addictive.....

Then we went up to the exhibition area... found a very cute cake stall who had the yummiest brownies.... [but mine are better.. ;-) I have honest kids vouching for it....lol.. what unabashed self promotion.... ;-)] But the stuff they had on their display window was really good looking.... Pooh and his friends stole my heart. The rum chocolates were very nice.

The stall for Anaarkali Butter chicken were serving their new 'Dal Pasta'... fusion food I've heard of n enjoy aswell... but who on Earth wants to eat 'Dal Pasta'!!!!!! Simran and I both turned up our noses..... Tasted horrible...
However what pleased me was the free sample of the butter chicken... which was promptly saved for dinner ;-). This indeed was yummy... However I cannot fathom paying Rs.6500/- for a serving......
Loved the colours at the sauf n supari stalls.... not to miss... achar being served from balti's.....
The was quite a bustle at the exhibition with most stalls serving samples of their wares. The most visited area would surely be the wine stalls.... :-) Simran and Shaheen are both pasta fans.... got glued to the pasta stall... n what do we see here.... a Chinese chef cajoling us to try his Italian pasta..... ain't that fusion.... it was made well... Shaheen very sweetly presented me with some pasta, which I shall make soon.... and try n post sooner... ;-)
We came down to the lawns again to catch the cooking contest 'Cook Off' between 5 Famous Chefs of Mumbai... This sort of thing was a first for me... Was full of excitement... Am sure the Mumbai girls found the Delhi girl to an excitable kid like Alice in Wonderland.... Clicking pictures like there's no tomorrow.

The audience was full up... we did the smart move by sitting right up front on the grass... who wants chairs when we can be right next to the action.....
The Judges were Mr Godrej, Chef Hemant Oberoi from Taj and Farzana, the editor of the Upper Crust magazine.
All the chefs were given a secret basket, revealed on the spot and to be whipped up in 1 hour 30 minutes... They had to use a minimum of 3 ingredients from the basket... The more the merrier ....
The ingredients in their individual baskets were Chicken, Peaches, Honey, Tabasco sauce, Almonds, Cream, Green Olives, Chocolate, Corn Starch and Leeks.
The common ingredients available to all Chefs were Salt, Pepper, Oranges, Prunes, Carrots, Potatoes, Eggs, Bread Crumbs, Breads, Wines and Balsamic vinegar.
(I may have missed some out... for that I'll have to wait for the next edition of the magazine, where hopefully these would be published with the recipes)
The Chefs were to be judged on their creativity, presentation, taste and their composure.


The Chef line Up had
Chef Moshe Shek [of Moshe’s fame, His story ],
Chef Matthew Cropp, Executive Chef, The Oberoi, Mumbai [The culinary pilot],
Chef Nikhil Chib, owner and executive chef, Busaba [Face Off with Chef Nikhil Chib, Nikhil Chib, he has a show on NDTV with his wife Natasha]
Chef Massimiliano Orlati (aka Chef Max) The new Head Chef and Chef de Cuisine at Olive, Mumbai [Head Manager, Purple Rain, Interview with Kalyan, honorary editor of Feastguru.com]
Chef Farrokh Khambatta runs JOSS, a fine dining restaurant. [Formed The Sake Club of India, Eat, drink and be merry]

That's Chef Max at work with his Chicken upper crust. he was really quick with his chicken n finished making his dish, the first....

That's Chef Farrokh. His son was very sweet n entertained the audience. The awesome clicks with the flambe this Chef did..... he has the audience raring for more....

Chef Nikhil.... with his 'Chib's Chicken'.... isn't he cute... [*Shy Grin*]

Chef Mathew with his 'Chicken Ala Fuzay'.... Such a quite, unassuming n charming person...

Saved the best for last... *Blush* *Blush* Chef Moshe with 'Zesty Chicken' and 'Grilled Peaches, Stuffed with Prunes and Chocolate Sauce'....

All the dishes prepared by the competing chefs.....


Grilled Veggies.... Grilled Peaches...... Chocolate... Prunes.......... He just had to win..... :-)

No guesses..... that's me with all of them... Chef Mathew left very soon... couldn't get a picture with him......

This just took my heart away.... :-)

The coupons we used to return back.... learnt a new punching system on the local trains... the ticket to get to the show..... what a long line.... But definably worth the wait for having such a lovely day...... :-)

Thank you Shaheen, Arjun, Anu and Simran :-)

Have finally figured out Akshita's sort of Apple Crumble

Remember my post on Apple Crumble and Apple Pie, for Neha Didi where I learnt the recipes from my Bua[My Dad's sister]..... Akshita is her daughter, my sister, just loves the Apple Crumble....

Now that've learnt how to make the crumble... had to get it right for Akshita.... just the way she likes it.... not too tart and fairly sweet.....
She's married n settled in the US where she has to do everything herself including cooking [which she treats only as a chore n isn't very fond of]. Like most of the other's she too loves to come home with an agenda for FOOD..... So my conribution to that list is her fav Apple Crumble.... That's us just before she left back for the US....
Have a good life sis...