by Currylicious | Mar 7, 2013 | BLOG
I have been postponing this post now for a long time simply because I wanted to sit down and write about this wonderful cooking experience with a 10 year old girl, Anaya.
Anaya is such a sweet, brilliant, creative 10 year old who loves to cook. On her 10 th birthday, her mom Shruti decided to host a birthday party where Cooking was the theme. Anaya was thrilled with her mom s idea and decided that she wanted to throw a party by cooking a meal for a bunch of her close friends at her home.
Shruti had found me on Facebook through one of our common friends and decided to call me to help Anaya prepare this wonderful meal for her friends. I was super excited, immediately got working on what Anaya and her friends liked to eat and what they didn’t care too much for and so forth.
I exchanged a couple of emails with Shruti, Anaya s mom who in turn checked with her daughter to see if all of us were in agreement:)
So here goes the menu:
For Appetizers, we decided to make
Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese Quesadillas.
For the dip, we made fresh Guacamole with Onions and tomatoes and a hint of lemon juice!yum!
For Main course,
Penne pasta with broccoli and peppers in a Pink sauce.
Shruti also mentioned that Anaya loved mangoes so I decided to whip up a
Mango Smoothie with a wedge of strawberry!
We took about 2 hours to prepare everything. Anaya wore her apron and chef hat and looked like a Junior Master Chef:) in the kitchen. She loved to chop and sauté and mix and did such a wonderful job.
I am pretty sure she will be a great food critic when she grows up as she aspires to be one:)
What can I say? Anaya was thrilled to serve her friends with all the food that we cooked together and the kids simply loved it and were so appreciative.
I must certainly commend her mom of being so supportive and giving me and Anaya an opportunity as wonderful as this that I will treasure lifelong:)))
Thanks Shruti and Anaya for a great cooking experience in your wonderful home.
by Currylicious | Mar 7, 2013 | BLOG
I have been postponing this post now for a long time simply because I wanted to sit down and write about this wonderful cooking experience with a 10 year old girl, Anaya.
Anaya is such a sweet, brilliant, creative 10 year old who loves to cook. On her 10 th birthday, her mom Shruti decided to host a birthday party where Cooking was the theme. Anaya was thrilled with her mom s idea and decided that she wanted to throw a party by cooking a meal for a bunch of her close friends at her home.
Shruti had found me on Facebook through one of our common friends and decided to call me to help Anaya prepare this wonderful meal for her friends. I was super excited, immediately got working on what Anaya and her friends liked to eat and what they didn’t care too much for and so forth.
I exchanged a couple of emails with Shruti, Anaya s mom who in turn checked with her daughter to see if all of us were in agreement:)
So here goes the menu:
For Appetizers, we decided to make
Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese Quesadillas.
For the dip, we made fresh Guacamole with Onions and tomatoes and a hint of lemon juice!yum!
For Main course,
Penne pasta with broccoli and peppers in a Pink sauce.
Shruti also mentioned that Anaya loved mangoes so I decided to whip up a
Mango Smoothie with a wedge of strawberry!
We took about 2 hours to prepare everything. Anaya wore her apron and chef hat and looked like a Junior Master Chef:) in the kitchen. She loved to chop and sauté and mix and did such a wonderful job.
I am pretty sure she will be a great food critic when she grows up as she aspires to be one:)
What can I say? Anaya was thrilled to serve her friends with all the food that we cooked together and the kids simply loved it and were so appreciative.
I must certainly commend her mom of being so supportive and giving me and Anaya an opportunity as wonderful as this that I will treasure lifelong:)))
Thanks Shruti and Anaya for a great cooking experience in your wonderful home.
by Currylicious | Mar 2, 2013 | BLOG
Benjamin and Rebecca are this wonderful sweet couple who got in touch with me since they had received a gift certificate for a Private Cooking Class with Curryliciousme from Ben’s parents. As always, I exchanged a couple of emails to get to know their preferences- what actually were their favorites and what they did not care for much. After a few exchange of emails, I gathered that Becca was in Hyderabad, India for a few months for studies and that they both loved Indian food!!!
I cannot tell you how adventurous the both of them are! So we came up with a menu – an authentic Indian menu with an appetizer, Kadai paneer, Peas Pilaf and Dal/ Lentil Soup for main course and a sweet vermicelli pudding with raisins and cardamom(sweet heaven!)
They arrived at 1:30pm as we had discussed. We introduced ourselves and I made sure they were comfortable and felt at home:) I had everything ready and organized including the recipes printed out, all the ingredients measured out for ease and pots and pans for them to cook, Chef knives, chopping boards and so forth. Before every cooking class, I always like to see what each person is comfortable doing and assign them tasks accordingly. The main goal here is not to freak them out but for them to enjoy the complete experience and have fun with it. I am a happy girl if I hear from them a week later that they recreated something and came out awesome.
That is the confidence I want to give them and a wonderful fun cooking experience that does not frighten one to take risks and try new food!
Becca wanted to do the appetizer round so we let her be in charge of that and she did an excellent job. We made a chickpea salad with grated coconut, cumin and cilantro.
Then Ben was interested in making the Kadai Paneer so he started chopping some onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger and bell peppers. Me and Becca started working on the lentils on the side. It was so much fun. Just peeking at what each one’s doing, chatting, laughing, sharing experiences, food stories:)))
The reason we always start lentils early is since they take a long time to cook. So we toasted the lentils with a bunch of spices, ginger, garlic, onion and tomatoes and added water and let it cook covered for sometime stirring intermittently.
By then Ben had started to work on the Kadai Paneer. He had a hot pan of oil with some cumin, garam masala, lemon pepper, garlic powder, cayenne along with chopped onions, green chili, onions and tomatoes. Once that was cooked Ben transferred it to a blender and put it aside. Then Becca started chopping the Indian Cottage Cheese or Paneer into cubes and tossed them in butter to get all the sides browned up a little. Ben loved to crush some fresh coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle:) Then we added some oil on another heated pan, added some more chopped onions, bell peppers and tomatoes and let them cook the crushed coriander seeds and some dried fenugreek leaves.
We added the brown paneer cubes to the pan and transferred the blended mixture as well and let it cook for few minutes. We added salt as per taste and they simply loved it!!!! By then, the dal was ready as well.
We also cooked some hot peas pilaf in my traditional cooker that my mom had passed over to me from India. Ben and Becca were very excited to cook in a traditional cooker and Ben almost was surprised to hear the whistle that the cooker made!!! I had given them some taster samples of the hot peas pilaf with kadai paneer and dal and they enjoyed every bite of it. I also packed them “dibbas” or boxes with all the food they made:) so they can have it for dinner later today evening.
For dessert we also made a pudding with vermicelli, clarified butter, raisins and cardamom. I hope they enjoyed it!!!
Looking forward to many more cooking experiences with wonderful people like Ben and Becca….. and they have promised to be back soon:)
Much love as always…………………………
by Currylicious | Feb 4, 2013 | BLOG
I know that everyone was excited about the Superbowl yesterday and today is of course the discussion day about last evening ‘s game!
Well, I had an interesting time yesterday evening not watching the Superbowl but cooking for a group of wonderful people who got together to watch the game.
Debbie had called me a few days back and left me a message saying it was last minute and that she was planning on having me cook some delicious appetizers for game night. She wanted to see if I was available to cook for a bunch of her friends who were gathering at her place to watch the Superbowl yesterday evening. When I called Debbie, I was so thrilled to know that she and her girl friends were going on a trip to India and so she wanted me to make some Indian Appetizers so they can enjoy them while watching the game. So we came up with a Menu Plan and I promised to get her place at 5:30 pm with all the ingredients and grocery.
I shopped all morning yesterday, getting prepared for the evening’s cook off. I was very excited and reached Debbie’s place at 5:30pm. Words simply cannot describe how nice she and her husband are, and the beautiful house they have. They were such wonderful hosts and made me feel so welcome and at home. The kitchen was spectacular and Debbie was so kind to get me whatever I needed- like pots and pans and bowls and spoons. One by one, the guests started arriving. I started organizing and prepping. There were about 14 people altogether and a bunch of 7 beautiful girls who hung out with me in the kitchen chatting and asking me about India and the food.
The menu that we planned was:
Chickpea Salad with grated coconut, cumin and cilantro
Cocktail Papads with Onion tomato cilantro and chat masala
Crostini topped with baked eggplant
Bite sized Quesadillas with an Indian twist
I must say that as I put forth every single dish- everyone was so appreciative and gave me feedback on each dish. When you work with such a group of people, who tell you exactly what they liked about the dish and want to know about what goes in their food, there is nothing more rewarding than that.
My guess is they liked the Crostini with the baked eggplant the most:) I leave it to them to comment:) if I am right.
The evening was perfect and I enjoyed cooking for such a warm, welcoming beautiful group of people. I look forward to going back there like Debbie mentioned to cook some dinner parties for her in future.
I wish them a WONDERFUL, SAFE, ENJOYABLE TRIP TO INDIA!
With much love….
by Currylicious | Jan 30, 2013 | BLOG
I have not been writing much and the reason being it was my 5 year old’s birthday. She wanted a cup cake party and so I decided to take some time out to plan the event. I wanted the kids to have fun, get messy but also wanted to get creative with the idea.
I decided to order aprons for all the kids and got some foam stickers so they could first decorate their aprons. Once I had the final count, I even wrote each of their names, so it would be fun for them to find their spots and aprons:)
I rented two long tables and a few chairs. My 5 yr old loves Princesses! So I managed to get her Princess table cloths, Princess cups for the cup cakes, Princess Cup Cake stand and list is endless.
I baked cup cakes for all the kids, and filled some bottles with frosting. I got Pink, Yellow, Chocolate frosting for all the kids. I went and got some teeny weeny M&M s, sprinkles, decorations. I got some Tiara candies to top off each cup cake that the girls decorated and some cup cake shaped candy toppers for the boys.
I got colorful bags for party favors and some cupcake shaped stickers and fruit snacks for all the kids plus they were allowed to take each of their aprons that they had decorated.
The party began, the kids came rushing in found their spots and seats based on the names written on the aprons. They first decorated the aprons with stickers, then wore their aprons. Then I gave them each a cup cake that I had baked at home and handed them their favorite color frosting bottle. They needed a bit of a help squeezing the frosting out of those bottles. Thankfully, I had a few moms who were excited to help so it worked out great,
Finally I had all the cupcake decorations in small paper cups for each of them, so noone complained and everyone got messy and completely enjoyed decorating their cup cakes.
We also managed to get a wonderful click with the kids showing their decorated cupcakes before eating them up:) The fun doesnt end there. My 5 year old suddenly the day before her party wanted a BARBIE CAKE! I wanted to order one from the bakery but wasnt prepared to pay through my nose for a barbie cake:(
So- I DECIDED TO DO IT!!!! I must admit, it wasnt easy but it wasnt that hard too. All you needed was to bake 3 differently sized round cakes, trim off their surfaces to get a smooth surface, make a hole in the middle using a cookie cutter so you can insert the doll through it. Finally, smother it with your favorite frosting.
TIP: I coated it with a layer of frosting and placed it in the refrigerator for an hour for it to set before coating it with the second layer of frosting.
Insert the Barbie once you are done with the second layer of frosting and fill any empty spaces with frosting. I also wrapped the Barbie’s body tightly with cling wrap so I can do some decoration over it as well.
I then decorated the Barbie cake with small candied flowers on her so called gown! It was a lot of work but so worth it!!!! The kids were thrilled and wanted a bite of the Barbie Cake as well-(am sure they were high on sugar by the end of it)
They had so much fun and each of them got to take away their aprons home for future use as helpers in the kitchen!
I cant wait to plan the next event/ party!
by Currylicious | Dec 28, 2012 | BLOG
I hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday season. Yesterday was again a special day for me since I gave a private cooking class at home for Beth Robinson and her sister. Beth’s sister was visiting her from DC for the holidays and Beth wanted to make her sister’s visit special by doing a cook off! They arrived at around 3 pm and I was delighted to meet both of them.
We had discussed menu options and we finally agreed on a wonderful authentic Indian menu. Beth had mentioned that they love Indian cooking and had eaten “Saag Paneer” which is Indian Cottage Cheese cooked with spinach/ greens. She said she loved it. So I decided to add “Kadai Paneer” which is Indian Cottage Cheese cooked in a wok with a bunch of Indian spices in a red tomato gravy!
We also prepared a Chick Pea Salad for starters since they both love chickpeas. Then came the fun part, we made a Rice Pilaf using Basmati Rice toasted with Cumin and Peas.
For the preparation of rice, it is always a good idea to rinse the rice in cold water 2-3 times to get rid of the starch so the rice does not stick and is fluffy once you cook it.
I used my age old pressure cooker that was passed on to my mother from her mother. It was exciting to share family experiences as Beth had mentioned that their mother also used a pressure cooker but was much heavier. They remembered her making a lot of stews in it as their dad loved stews.
Beth’s sister – I noticed was very good at chopping and when I asked her she said she does cook in the kitchen and Beth mentioned that she bakes a lot- Cakes especially!
So we had cooked the Chick Peas Salad, Rice Pilaf with Cumin and Peas, Kadai Paneer. I wanted them to cleanse their palette with a yogurt based “raita”. So we wen for a Pomegranate Yogurt Raita.
Here’s the funny party- It has always taken forever to remove the seeds from my pomegranate and as always, I was struggling with it. Beth was watching me and said to me” Can I try”? I immediately knew that she had a better technique in her mind and smiled and passed on the half sliced pomegranate to her.
All she did was place it in a big bowl with running water in it. And since the membranes are lighter than the seeds -they float on the top and since you have water running – the juices dont splash all over you making you look like you had a pomegranate bath!!!
I thought that was smart and all it took her was 5 minutes to get the seeds out. I was so happy that I learnt something new from this class.
The good part about all these cooking classes is that I also learn all the secret tips or techniques that were passed on to my students by their families:)))))
Finally- it was sweet time!!!! We made a Sweet Lentil Pudding with cashewnuts, raisins and cardamom. They loved it.
Finally I packed all the dishes so they could take it back home and share with their family. It was about 6:00 pm when we had finished.
I was exhausted but thrilled to have cooked with 2 wonderful women who shared such wonderful stories and experiences with me!
Thanks much for listening:) and appreciate your time.
Much love……….
