Breaking Bread with Chef Saby of Olive Bar at Leonardo Olive Oil's Blogger Table

What do you do when you get invited to to meet Chef Sabyasachi Gorai, better known as Chef Saby and blogger friends from Chef at Large over a discussion about olive oil..... A happy monkey jig jig :) This meet was sponsored by Leonardo Olive Oil, hosted by Himani Dalmia and Chandana Paul at Olive Bar and Kitchens in Mehrauli.

Any place that I visit is judged not just on the FSA (Food, Service and Ambiance) but also on how the cloak room / washroom is done up aswell.... This was definitely going to be an afternoon well spent as the teaser to this campaign was lovely... naturally lit, aesthetically done up and importantly spic and span.

Chef Saby played to the gallery... His warm welcome and friendly banter while carrying on the serious business of cooking up a storm was endearing. He's among India’s top ten chefs and has recently been awarded Best Chef of India National Tourism Award, 2011-12 by President of India. WHoaaaa... Quite a celebrity he is... appears regularly on Page 3 too... for all the right reasons ;)

Not just talented, also a willing teacher, he runs an academy for young chefs. He comes from a family of artists, no wonder his food reflects his artistic side. Good news or Bad news.... He plans to retire next year to spend time with his lovely daughter and paint....

Rare captures.... Sid having fun with the camera, just that it's on the other side of the lens this time. About the food, we were served fish and asparagus done in a nitrogen batter.

Vaibhav, the Executive Sous Chef was frying up a frenzy with the Espuma technique, which is part of molecular gastronomy . It's basically done with a Nitrogen vial which is attached to a 'gun' that pumps the gas into the batter and makes it light fluffy and crisp in texture when fried. It was quite yummy n crispy fresh out of the pan.

Aastha, assisting Vaibhav and Saby through the afternoon and a really sweet host. She even gave us little prize hampers if we answered her quiz questions correctly. She's a crossover like me... studied at Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and then working with Saby to train as a chef at all of 22. Cheers for Girl Power.... Hip Hip Hurray :)

Blogger paprazzi.... where Food is the star.... We descended on the food like a species which Himani's never seen.... Yes, we are a different species... were the 'Foodus Bloggerus'.... noone eats till we are done clicking ;)

Lovely plating of anti plasti platters, mushroom pate and yummy starters. They were a treat to our eyes and tasted delicious too.

 We were joined by Mr Donato Pantaleo(from Leonardo oils Italy) and Mr VN Dalmia (president Dalmia International) for lunch. Yes, we had the gumption for a sit down lunch after being plied with all that yummy food throughout the afternoon. There was Black truffle porcini risotto (White Alba truffle paste, summer black truffle, truffle oil), Classic lasagna Bolognaise (Rustic hand ground tenderloin Bolognaise.) and a Mezze platter too. Each table had it's own mortar and pestle accompanied their unique handmade artisan skillet bread.

D-E-S-S-E-R-T-S......
Mouth Wateringly  delicious Apple and walnut crumble, Olive’s signature tiramisu, Praline mud cake

Chef Saby is truly special... at a mere cheeky mention of wanting to see his kitchen.... He walked us through and gave us demonstrations and let us into his pantry too... and YES... His BAKERY too... *Jumping up and down with GLEEEEEE....* 

Picture Credit - Sushmita of My Unfinished Life

The bunch of us had a lovely afternoon with Sid Khullar of Chef at Large, Sangeeta Khanna of Banaras ka Khana,Ruchira Hoon-Philip of Cookaroo, Charis Alfred Bhagianathan of  Culinary Storm, Sushmita Sarkar of My Unfinished Life, Deeba Rajpal of Passionate about Baking, Parul Pratap Shirazi of The Shirazine, Rekha Kakkar of My Tasty Curry. Ps: All the pictures you see of me are clicked by the lovely Rekha. Special hugs for you Rekha {{{}}}... Thanks :)

Ps: All these yummy goodies were cooked and drizzled with Leonardo Olive Oil.... 

Great Steak Festival at Geoffrey’s

December is a month of festivities and celebrations... No celebrations are complete without food and drinks... Was invited to the Great Steak Festival at Geoffrey’s,which has been from 02nd Dec’ 2011 and continues till 18th Dec’ 2011 at Select City Walk, Saket and Noida.

Geoffrey’s is a typical hangout place for us, being regulars at Noida(as that's where I use to work), we visited Select City Walk for a change. The menu had Chicken Cordon Bleu, Hawaiian Chicken Steak, Grilled Pork Chops, Lamb Medallions, Pan-grilled Red Snapper Fillet, Norwegian Salmon Steak, and Tenderloin. We wanted to sample all the steaks but the portions were huge so we requested the chef if he could give us smaller portions, to which they readily agreed.

While waiting for the food to arrive, we chatted up and had loads of catching up to do since we had all been busy with work and life in general. Hawaiian Chicken Steak arrived the first... pineapple and chicken are a favourite combination with me and when cooked well, makes me smile :) The sides of hash brown, tomatoes and vegetables was a nice combination.

The Pan Grilled Pork Chops on the menu are grilled to perfection, were succulent and tender. The mustard sauce blended in really well with the meat. Along with this the butter glazed potatoes and tossed vegetables were a delight. In my defense for eating all these carbs... winters is a good time to stock up on energy *Wicked Grin :)*

The Lamb Medallions grilled to perfection with its dark red color are a treat for the eye and so is the taste. Perfectly seared, served with parmesan mashed potatoes, butter sauté vegetables, topped with rosemary.

The peppered Sole steak had the wonderful flavouring of black pepper, lime n garlic. This steak had accompanying sumac potatoes, tomatoes and buttered vegetables. Would personally have preferred the fish to not be cooked for long as it reduces the flavour.

For dessert we indulged in a wonderful chocolate cake served warm with icecream and chocolate sauce.... This was such a perfect end to a wonderful afternoon. Small note on pricing, the steaks start from Rs.455/- onwards and are quite reasonable for the quantity we observed for guests who ordered full portions.

The 3 of us had such a wonderful time thanks to the folks at Geoffrey’s and the folks at Impact PR.

Banana Cake ~ A comforting farewell Gift for Gunjan

This is a Happy and Sad post... Sad cause my friend from work Gunjan will not be working with our company any more and Happy cause she's moving on and I'm very Happy for her n Happier for the awesome time we've had together.

Gunjan, G- great, U-understanding, N-naughty, J-jovial, A-awesome, N-nice and so many more fabulous qualities.....

With loads of confidence, I can say that she's God's own child and has a heart of gold with a joie de vivre so infectious that it's impossible to be glum while she's around..... Have admired her readiness to party-at-the-drop-of-a-hat.... Her presence lights up the room with a zillion watts.... Her sense of style is just fabulous :)

Her hardworking and dedicated self at work is going to be missed at lot... We've spent long hours at work and even longer nights at work for special projects, which won us a trip to Bhimtal....

Am sure by now all of you know that I bake only for people who are On-My-List and Gunjan is so On-My-List :) Gunjan is synonymous with Colour and hence her birthday cake last year had so much colour.....


Her farewell had to be something special... She loves Chocolate and Rum..... So I made her a Banana Chocolate Cake which has a layering of rum soaked raisins n chocolate... am so glad she enjoyed herself.


Gunjan Writes.....

Nachi as we call her is one of the kinds.She is adorable,she is beautiful, she is cute, she is crazy,she is demanding and what not!! Its been now three and half years that I have been frens with her. More I know her, more i like her. Always full of life and passionate about everything she does.Whenever I look back @ the moments spent with her, I feel proud to have her as my fren...special being - Nikhil's and her mom b'day celebration, her b'day party, drinking party after diwali party and I don't think list can ever end.

Stayed back at her home after late parties and not just parties, she made all those night-outs in office memorable ones.Your mom has been the part here. Whenever she knew I gonna be there, she would pre-arrange all the stuff from tooth-brush to next day clothes! She is the best

Nachi is such an amazing personality that she left her nachi factor even on my hubby in the first meeting itself... u can take a look @ some pictures clicked @ her b'day party...

BTW, she bakes amazing cakes with all those icing( earlier I used to think icing has something to do with ICE!! M really bad with this stuff). Can't thank her enuf for the valentine cake and the B'day cake she baked.I could see all her love and care in the presentation of the cake.So much effort in the name of love !
Now let's talk about my fav part - she has got a very gud sense of clothes and accessories. I get some gud advices and appreciation as well.Not to forget I like her jewellery collection(something I am very fond of but I don't think looks gud on me). She matches and carries them amazingly well !
Best I liked her in was orange saree - U looked show-stopper in that dress Nachi.

There is always an aura of confidence around her.You feel happy with her.She will advice you wenver she feels its important.I know Nachi, how u won't care about the receptiveness and keep giving them over and over again without feeling bad about it !

I can't forget all those moments from salsa classes to bhimtal trip to late work hours to midnight parties.I love you for whatever you are ! U r d best ....

One thing which is beyond explaination - "TRY FORGETTING HER B'DAY.. U WILL GO THROUGH SERIES OF EMOTIONS WHICH WILL BE BEYOND WORDS" ;-)

I Just love you way too much and yeah your mom as well...

All The Best... :)
Ps: Will treasure your note....

Cherry Chocolate Cake for my Dessert Soul Partner, Vibha

Celebrating a special birthday, my soul partner for desserts, Vibha. People dirty talk porn... we dirty talk D-e-s-s-e-r-t-s.... ;)

Her brief for this cake was Low Sugar, Chocolate, CHERRY for a party of 25 people. What I love about her is that she'll share her inputs and let me work with them and in most[that's me being modest... actually all] cases we hit a H-i-g-h N-o-t-e :)

Celebrations at her place always mean super-yummy-food, drastic drinks and fabulously fun filled times..... She had made a delicious Thai spread and her hubby fixed us our drinks[Oh yes, he ensured we were happy n high] Since I'm not driving these days due to my hurt foot, i could really pull out the plugs and have a blast :)

Cherry Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Eggs - 4

Sugar - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Flour - 1 1/2 cups

Vanilla Essence - 1/2 Teaspoon

Baking powder - 1/2 Teaspoon

Dark cocoa powder - 2 Tablespoon

Coffee Powder - 1 Tablespoon

Cinnamon - 1 Teaspoon freshly ground [2 teaspoons if used a packaged variety]

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Sift the dry ingredients and just mix together with a spoon to get an even mix.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar beat until creamy and light in colour.

4. Add vanilla extract and oil to the mixture.Mix to incorporate without loosing the fluff from the mixture.

5. Add the Flour, Baking powder, cocoa powder, coffee and cinnamon and incorporate with a light circular movement without losing the fluff. The color of the cocoa batter should be quite dark.

6. Pour in greased and floured the sides of the cake tin.

7. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes till the tester comes out clean

Assembly:

1. Slice the cake in half.

2. Brush both insides generously with brandy.

3. Spread the cherry preserve evenly.

4. Place the soaked cherries evenly arround the cake so that every slice would get some fruits in it.

5. Place the half back on the cake and refrigerate before decorating with ganache for atleast an hour.

Decoration with Chocolate Ganache:

1. While the cake is baking, put 200ml cream with the dark chocolate on simmer & continue to stir till the chocolate has melted. Take off from heat & allow to cool completely,[NEVER the freezer]. Give it a few stirs, this will thicken as it cools.

2. Spread the ganache over the top and sides of the cooled cake evenly. Refrigerate.

3. Use the white chocolate shavings to neaten the edges of the cake.

Tip: To moisten the cake you could pour come of the warm icing so that cake absorbs it and is moist without having resting time in the refrigerator.

We shared her Birthday with Ajita didi's mom..... The cake was Hogged :)))))))) She loved it...

That's Vibha's longtime friend from college , Hubby and kids
Verdict:

Vibha: Thank you my dear! The cake was simply the perfect one for me. really relished it! You made too much of an effort.

Your smile make it all the effort worthwhile, Dessert Soul Partner :)))))

A walk in Nature's lap n a Friend's Company over awesome Breakfast..... Can you ask for more?

Waking up to a rainy morning in spring after a dry n hot spell was just so refreshing...... A friend n I decided to go for a walk in the morning followed by breakfast at one of my favourite places...
Nehru park is an amazing stretch of green near Chanakyapuri. It's a place where a lot of my childhood has been spent..... We use to come here almost every Sunday to play, practice n picnic with family n friends..... Cut back to present:) The blooms here are extremely colourful and vibrant, everyone comes here for different activities.... Walking, Yoga, Jogging, Playing, Practicing sports and loads of other stuff.....


My dadaji(granddad) and aunt also go to the park everyday regularly.... They have their own set of park-friends and dadaji even has a party with eats from Chandni Chowk..... Dadaji was surprised to see my friend n me at the park so early in the morning......

We started walking, I was painfully slow due to my injured foot but the weather, people n fab surrounding n my friend had me going :) A lady was meditating between the tall trees.... Her face looked so calm n serene.... Didn't want to disturb her.... took a long shot from far, between the tall trees... The kids were having a blast, play cricket on simultaneous pitches n enjoying themselves....

The only thing which really irks me all this beauty is the litter..... This mentality just beats me... If we won't litter in our houses, then why litter in public places.....

Moving on we go for breakfast .... So you have till the end of this post to figure out where we went.... Do leave your comments on where you initially thought we went.
Is breakfast complete without Milk n Coffee... nah...

My friend's healthy breakfast......

My spread.... pork Sausages, fried Tomato with cheese, scrambled Eggs, multi-grain Pancakes, with a side of Bacon strips.....The weather and company made up for the lack of alcohol.... They just wouldn't serve before 11am....

So let's finish the suspense n tell you where we had gone unless you've figured out all ready.... Had gone to All American Diner at India habitat Center for Breakfast... n now you also know why we were looking for alcohol... I love the Margarita's they make here... Ok back to breakfast.... We met these gentlemen there enjoying their breakfast...

These pinwheel shaped pink-n-white flowers at the Habitat Centre held my fancy for a bit... Haven't seen them before n didn't even know their name.... A google search later I found that they are called 'The Phlox Peppermint Twist'....

Love this shot at Shanti Path..... need I say more... :)

A morning really well spent....... :)

So did you figure out where we went...... or did the picture reveal it?

Almond Mocha Brownies to Celebrate 8 Fabulous Years at Infoedge....

Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else.

George Halas

A good boss makes his men realize they have more ability than they think they have so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could.

~Charles Erwin Wilson

This is exactly what my bosses n mentors have done for the last 8 years.... Sanjeev, Hitesh, Ambarish, Simeryn, Saroja, Ayesha, Vivek, Vibhore, Deepali, Vineet and Partha have been my mentors and bosses... It's on 31st March 2003 when I joined Infoedge fresh out of business school..... In 8 years I've learnt so much in Infoedge, not just about work but so many other things which are way more important in life....

Celebrating 8 years at Infoedge with my favorite flavours, making Almond Mocha Brownies....

These brownies are rich, dense and full of flavours like all my years at Infoedge... Have seen it grow from Fledgling to Eagle... few lakhs to many crores.... very proud of the entire team...

We've had a blast working.... making new products, analyzing data, drawing up marketing plans, managing ad campaigns.... late nights... revamps....these times spent in office have been most fun despite being the most tiring.... leading to winning contests...

This was the training workshop which changed so much for me... so many new friends, a fresh new perspective.... a super experience. How can we forget what the long meetings would do to Shiv..... The wonderful 'Prashikshan' workshops where many eminent personalities spoke with us....

Have hosted some lovely parties on my birthday at home...... we've had loads of fun... pictionary and tambola being an important part of all the parties with free flowing alcohol and yummy food. It was so much fun organising the Spring theme & Red n White parties.....

Our outdoor camping, rafting and parasailing trips have been really adventurous. Have had the most fun with Vivek, Julie, Puneet Makkar and Puneet Chawla(Mad Hatter) amongst others. The Tunganath trip stands out as the most difficult yet exciting one.

Diwali parties in office have been a blast... dressing up for fashion shows, shine n shimmer, dabangifying the show... spreading cheer n festivity...... poking fun at all the seniors(risking our jobs n appraisals)... making special presentations and awards.... awesome shows hosted by Payal and Harveen...

All festivals and special days like Independence day n Christmas saw us coming together and doing all sorts of crazy stuff.... The boys would constantly be pushed into doing off-the-cuff stuff at these celebrations making for some very precious memories....

Lots of weddings and new family members were added.... some farewells were much more painful that others... but they were friends for life.... Food and food trips (esp to Chandni Chowk) have always been a huge highlight for all of us...

I saw these Brownies on Martha Stewart's site and lost my heart.... I just had to make these for my celebration....

Almond Mocha Brownies

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan

1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs

few toasted almonds for garnishing

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. Place butter and chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan. Add sugar; mix to combine. Add eggs, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Add instant espresso powder. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with toasted almonds.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper). On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

The parties we've done are just something else... most of the censored pictures are still censored. all the people who attended these will see these pictures n have huge grins across their faces.... just like I do now :))))

A few party rituals, lots of pictures of people and food n drinks.... crazy pictures of silly things we did... insane behavior n total masti.....

There is so much more to life at infoedge, 1 post isn't enough to capture them all. Would like to thank everyone who made these 8 wonderful years pass by in a jiffy... Would I change anything about them.... [In retrospect No, yet some stuff for improvement yes]... Just like I won't change a thing in these brownies....

Sending these warm fudgy brownies to wish Divya all the best for her 3rd Blog Anniversary e-Party and she is giving away a gooey gooey brownie book!!! Pl drop by to wish her...
sd