HOW I MADE MY OWN PLATTERS

Few days i back i had to make an exciting meal for two people. Exciting? What do you mean, i make a good food and known for that so how do i make it exciting and that too an Indian food. Well in past i have done few 6-7 course menus with great presentations and seriously after doing them on and on i got bored, looking for my inventory for service ware, platters etc and trust me i could not find which pleased me.

So, i decided why not try and make or produce my own platters, generally chefs do look for platters online, through suppliers and on.I thought this time let me serve food in my own created platters.So my job got just doubled first make a menu and then look or make something where it looks stunning.

I have a pleasure of working in new property where i have been a part of pre-opening therefore i worked a lot with projects capturing the ideas and objects such has stone, glass, wood and many more.

So lets take something from around and make it interesting. Its a winter time so we had lot of wood to be burnt which was lying around, so i hand picked some with their barks and took them to my hotel carpenter and asked him to make two different plane surfaces, one with the bark on back side and the other with plane smooth bark in front.
I took a wood which was smooth from front and start to burn them from the surface holding them with the tong just enough to give them carbon color, please don't make a coal out of it.
While i was doing this my staff was thinking i have gone mad. Hahaha

Once the base or the platter is made just play around with the element so i picked up Hawkins pressure cooker, some flowers and leaf from the trees around.

Instead of toothpicks or satay sticks i decided to use baby bamboo stems which i plucked.

Another platter whose bark side was made smooth, i decided to use some leaf, flowers from around and placed toughened glass platter on top making it bright, colorful and close to the nature.

Look at that how beautiful and natural these platters look.

Now be creative and plate your food, i have done my bit for you.

GALTA JI---JAIPUR

In the afternoon on my off day sitting in my living room discussing where to go for a drive and my mother suggested to go to Galta ji on the outskirts of Jaipur. Galta ji around 13 kms lovely drive from railway station.

Galtaji is an ancient Hindu pilgrimage site in the town of Khaniya-Balaji Indian state of Rajasthan. The site consists of several temples and sacred kunds (water tanks) in which pilgrims bathe. It is believed that Saint Galav spent his life at Galtaji, practiced meditation, and did tapsya.The temple is believed to be 500 years old as per the sadhus over there.

An Aeriel view

This is where birds are fed

Hey Bhagwan

Inside the boundry

All the broken statues

 You will find loads of broken statues and idols all over the place.

One of the temple

My mom, Arudra and Vijeta

 

The place is known as Monkey temple (Galwar Bagh) in travel literature, due to the large tribe of monkeys who live here. These monkeys were featured in National Geographic channel's Rebel Monkeys series.

Hahaha lunch time

Lower Kund

 

The temple is famous for its natural water springs. which draw special attention of the visitors. The water of these springs is accumulated in the tanks (kunds). There are seven tanks, the holiest being the Galta Kund, which never goes dry. It is considered auspicious to take bath in the waters of Galtaji, especially on Makar Sankranti, and thousands come to bathe every year.

Prayer time

Cables

Waiting room with miniatures

One of the best fresco i have seen

You come across lots of miniature frescoes around the temple premises.

Add caption

Jal Seva

The most colorful picture of the trip

Spot me if you can

Word of advice when you plan a trip to Galta Ji, it is a good picnic spot and you can pack lunch and enjoy you time over there specially if its a rainy time. The water bodies (kunds) are always full with water. There is one small dhaba outside the temple premises.The drive is beautiful with trees around and prior to the temple you cross Ghat ke Balaji another holy place if you wish to visit

Shaken and Screwed this summer with Singapore Sling

Walking on the wide streets as clean as your drawing room, going through the market lanes, bargaining stuff, eating Chicken Nuggets at KFC, city so clean- city of Fines aha that’s Singapore.

 If in Singapore you have to try Singapore Sling which originated at Raffle’s Long Bar.



RAFFLES SINGAPORE



WITH FRIENDS AT LONG BAR



The Singapore Sling is a cocktail that was developed sometime before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon , a bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel Singapore. The original recipe used gin, Cherry Heering, Bénédictine, and fresh pineapple juice, primarily from Sarawak(east Malaysia) pineapples which enhance the flavour and create a foamy top.

Recipe-

8 Parts Gin
4 Parts Heering Cherry Liqueur
1 Part Cointreau
1 Part Benedictine
2 Parts Grenadine
16 Parts Pineapple Juice
6 Parts Fresh Lemon Juice
1 Dash Angostura Bitters

Over a period of time the recipe has been Basterdised and changed due to difficulty in getting those special Pineapples from Sarawak which gave a foamy character to this Cocktail. But still it is an experience to have this at the Long Bar and its worth.



LONG BAR

Long Bar has a character to it. It is like an old English pub with lots of wood, swinging old fans and lots of peanuts around. Once you enter you will find gunny bags full of peanuts lying around.

ELEVEN BIGHAS OF CHANE KE KHET

 Just got back to Jaipur from my 2 days trip to my village Deolia and I noticed there were plenty of thin scratches on the bottom of my lovely Toyota Etios………while driving to my farms I did notice small shrubs but that’s all right it was worth a tour.

Well we grow lot of crops and Chana alias Chickpea alias Bengal gram alias Ghegra(Rajasthan) is one of them and flooded in abundant when green are soft and eaten either raw or make a subzi or burn the plant and separate the smokey chanas, it tastes awesome.

CHANCHALI---SMOKEY CHANA

Well I tried all and will not forget to share a recipe for the same.

MY CHEF---HANUMAN JI KI BAHU

While strolling I noticed a very bright orange flower tree and I asked Ambaji. Caretaker what it was, to my surprise I could never imagine such a beautiful tree’s leaves are used for Pattal Dona.



AMBAJI



PATTAL DONA TREE



 Chickpea Story


EMPEROR SHAH JAHAN



When Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was house arrested by his third son Aurangzeb who declared himself as Emperor asked his father that he would only provide one Major ingredient for Shah Jahan’s meal throughout his life. An intelligent Emperor asked his son to provide him Chickpea/Chana. Chickpea is one the most versatile ingredient in India Cuisine which is used for all the courses of the meal, be it starter, soup, main course, bread or dessert.

Recipe of Rajasthani Ghegre/Chane ka saag



CHANE KI SAAG



Green Chana           100 gms

Oil                           20 ml

Garlic paste            10 gms

Red chilli pwd         10 gms

Turmeric                   2 gms

Coriander pwd        20 gms

Curd                        50 ml

Salt                          to taste

Method

• Heat oil in a kadhai.
• Make a mixture of all the powder spices, garlic paste and curd.
• Add the mixture to the hot oil and cook till sides leaves oil.
• Add in the green chana cook for a while.
• You can keep it dry or with gravy depends what you want to have if gravy then add water.