by Currylicious | Mar 20, 2013 | BLOG
Hello everyone,
As promised, I am posting some pics from my cooking demonstration at Williams Sonoma in Short Hills Mall, NJ on March 23rd. It was a lot of fun and
like always I had a wonderful audience. This time, I must confess that I had this one lady who came up to me and asked me how I could stay vegetarian for so long? and
if I missed eating meat? I said to her ” Not really since I love to cook with veggies and put a ton of flavor in it and share my secrets with everyone:)”
She was so thrilled she sat in a chair and watched me as I cooked away my dish. She had a pen and a book and was making a note of whatever I said.
So the dish I made was an Eggplant Tapanade with cilantro chutney served on a cracker. Lot of people walked in tried my dish and appreciated the flavors!
It was a truly memorable experience since the manager of the store at Williams Sonoma, Short Hills walked up to me, ate my dish and said to me” There was this lady who walked up to me and said that you did a great job answering all her questions, she loved your dish and thought it was great. That must mean a lot to you”.
And yes it did, I was so happy to merely listen to something like that and would consider myself lucky and all my efforts seemed to have paid off. This is the most rewarding job that I ever had – not in terms of money but in terms of happiness and appreciation! Nothing can beat this:)
Thanks again to all who walked in and tasted my dish- for all your kind wo
rds an
d time.
by Currylicious | Mar 20, 2013 | BLOG
Hello everyone,
As promised, I am posting some pics from my cooking demonstration at Williams Sonoma in Short Hills Mall, NJ on March 23rd. It was a lot of fun and
like always I had a wonderful audience. This time, I must confess that I had this one lady who came up to me and asked me how I could stay vegetarian for so long? and
if I missed eating meat? I said to her ” Not really since I love to cook with veggies and put a ton of flavor in it and share my secrets with everyone:)”
She was so thrilled she sat in a chair and watched me as I cooked away my dish. She had a pen and a book and was making a note of whatever I said.
So the dish I made was an Eggplant Tapanade with cilantro chutney served on a cracker. Lot of people walked in tried my dish and appreciated the flavors!
It was a truly memorable experience since the manager of the store at Williams Sonoma, Short Hills walked up to me, ate my dish and said to me” There was this lady who walked up to me and said that you did a great job answering all her questions, she loved your dish and thought it was great. That must mean a lot to you”.
And yes it did, I was so happy to merely listen to something like that and would consider myself lucky and all my efforts seemed to have paid off. This is the most rewarding job that I ever had – not in terms of money but in terms of happiness and appreciation! Nothing can beat this:)
Thanks again to all who walked in and tasted my dish- for all your kind words and time.
![Savory Phyllo shells with Onion Tomato Chutney, Goat Cheese and Cilantro!]()
by Currylicious | Oct 28, 2012 | Nandini's Food Court, Recipes
Serving Size (4)
Ingredients:
Athens Mini Phyllo/ Fillo Shells(Frozen)- 1pack
Onions 2
Tomatoes 2
Olive Oil 2 1 tbsp
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Lemon Pepper
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne powder
1 tablespoon goat cheese
Bunch of Cilantro leaves for garnish
Preparation:
Chop onions, tomatoes very fine. Place a pan over medium heat and drizzle some olive oil. Now add salt, lemon pepper, cumin seeds, cayenne powder, turmeric and cumin powder. Mix well with a spatula. Transfer the finely chopped onions immediately and mix well. Let it cook till onions start to sweat a little bit. At this point add your tomatoes and cook covered for about 3-4 minutes stirring in between.
Meanwhile open the frozen package of Athens Mini Phyllo/ Fillo Shells. Remove the shells from outer carton and inner tray. Place it on a baking pan. Place it in the oven at 350 degrees F and bake for 3-4 minutes.
Now cook until you reduce the onion- tomato to a chutney consistency( water from tomatoes help us gain the required pasty consistency along with all the spices). Switch off the gas.
Take out the shells from the oven and let it cool. Spoon in the onion tomato chutney into the cooled shells and crumble some goat cheese. Finally to give it some color, add chopped cilantro leaves as garnish. Trust me these are pure quick simple healthy pockets of HEAVEN!
Enjoy making this quick recipe this holiday season !
Tip: You can save some time by adding the filling to the frozen shells and baking it together till the filling is hot for about 5-8 minutes but I have just noticed that when I do it separately, I get a crispier lighter effect with the shells.
by Currylicious | Oct 24, 2012 | BLOG
Hello everyone,
I wanted to invite everyone to my cooking demo @ Williams Sonoma at the Short Hills Mall, NJ on 10/28 from 2 to 5 pm. I am going to be showing you how to cook up some quick and healthy horderves in no time ! Also, I am going to be using the ATHENS MINI PHYLLO SHELLS! With the holiday season around the corner- you will be amazed as to how quickly you can come up with fancy horderves using Athens Mini Phyllo shells in no time and impress your guests!!!
http://www.athensfoods.com/
I wanted to thank everyone for making it to the event! I had a fantastic time cooking as always and I hope that all of you who came in had a great time tasting my food as well. I also promised a lot of people that I would post my recipe so please look up Savory Phyllo Shells with Onion Tomato Chutney, Goat Cheese and Cilantro under the Recipes section.
Initially Chef Laura Edwards had requested that I come early and start my demo at 12 pm and wrap up by 2pm due to the impending hurricane warning. But thanks to all of you who came by today- I was at the store cooking up my chutney and filling my fillo cups with chutney and goat cheese up until 4.00pm. I was forced to stop since I ran out of my most ingredients then:))) else would have loved to stay till store closing lol!
I am sure a lot of you were amazed to see how quickly you can come up with a tasty healthy yet delicious horderves using the ATHENS MINI PHYLLO SHELLS.
It took me less that 15 minutes to make the Savory Phyllo Shells with Onion Tomato Chutney, Goat Cheese and Cilantro and to be honest I had both kids and adults come back to pick more than one from my tray!!!!which I was very glad about.
What I noticed was that not many were aware that the ATHENS MINI PHYLLO SHELLS bake within 3 minutes into crispy light pockets of heaven. I guess all the kids that walked in today became huge fans of the phyllo shells and I had a lot of moms asking me where they can purchase them. I had an availability list printed out so everyone knows where to get them from and its available in the freezer aisle of most supermarkets.
Please email me @ curryliciousme@gmail.com if you cannot find it and I shall email you the availability list.
So here are some pictures from the event today. Hope you enjoy.
A lot of people were interested in taking some cooking lessons from me, some were interested in catering for parties , some in kids cooking classes and a lot of them were up for Girls Night Out Parties! So please email me @ curryliciousme@gmail.com and I can definitely work with you to organize any of these classes or parties at very reasonable costs!
Thanks much again to all !
Please tune in to my blog for future events and more recipes!
by Currylicious | Jun 24, 2012 | BLOG
As promised, I am posting some pictures that were clicked while I was cooking @Williams Sonoma, Short Hills in NewJersey.
I was asked to start at 12pm and so I went 1 hour early so I can pick some pots and pans that I needed and few spices that WS carried.
Laura Edwards who is an outstanding Chef herself and the lead for all cooking demo’s at WS is a sweet heart and was so helpful. She helped me grab everything that I needed and made me feel perfectly at home:)
I placed all my stuff in a cart and rolled it to my cooking station. It was just about 12pm and I started heating my pan.
What was I making? I had pondered for weeks together to come up with something for the summer that everyone can relate to and enjoy a burts of flavor in their mouth!
I finally decided to make VEGETARIAN SLOPPY JOES for the first half which was from 12 to 1 30pm and then a SAVORY RICE CREPE with INDIAN COTTAGE CHEESE from 1.30 to 3pm!!!! Right around 12pm, I had my pan with all my veggies and was thrilled to mash everything in the pan to get to my desired consistency. I also had my grill pan with buns toasting and grilling them crisp so I can serve my Vegetarian sloppy joes with the grilled bun along with some cilantro and spring onions as garnish!
I had a few people who arrived at the store and it was going slow and I was enjoying my chats with the customers and providing them a detailed explanation of how to create the dish and completely enjoying myself.
All of a sudden after about 12.45pm or so, the store began to get crowded and I was wondering even if I could keep up with the pace. I am trying to toast my buns and get nice grill marks on them, at the same time spooning my sauce and garnish while talking to them. I have a couple of people who had some questions about the dish and my recipe. OMG!!!!!It was craziness at its best:)
Then I had this lady come up to me and ask me: “Is this what’s smelling so good that I was tempted to enter the store and see whats cooking”? I was thrilled and excited to listen to her say that and offered her and her kids some extra samplers!!!!
I had some people come up to me and ask me if I owned a restaurant and if they could come over for dinner:(. That is when I remembered Gordon Ramsay, Graham and Joe during Master Chef. They asked me what my food dream was and I said to them it was to own my own place/ restaurant one day! Ambitious but I think this country is about dreams and following your dreams so lets wait and watch:)
Meantime, I had a special guest who showed up- YAY! My room mate from Master Chef – I call her the CAKE GIRL- SAMANTHA KATE! I was jumping with joy when I saw her. This is the first time we meet after Master Chef! So I really want to thank her for stopping by and showing her support as a great wonderful friend. x0x0x0x0x.
I had some many kids come again and again and sweep my serving tray clean and I am thinking where did those 10 samplers that I just put out go? And then their mom would come running towards me and apologize saying ” Thats his/ her last one”.
I must tell you this that the Vegetarian Sloppy Joes that I made had cauliflower, peas, carrots, green bell peppers, potatoes and I cooked them separately with a bunch of my special masala/ curry powder blend that I make from scratch and then add it to this delicious spiced onion tomato mixture and mash them all up and finally add a touch of lemon juice for acidity!
How else do you think I get my kids to eat their veggies???? And so I was so happy to watch those kids grabbing those samplers and its all gone in a second- Vanished in thin air!
Some people came up to me and said that they would like a meaty texture in their sloppy joes and nothing but meat would do it! Well, I have an answer to every meat question you ask me, people! So there is something called as TVP which is Textured Vegetable Protein. TVP is made from reduced-fat soy beans and is used to replace or extend ground meats and you can basically use it to get that meaty texture along with the above veggies !
Now time flew by like crazy- It was like I blinked and it was 1.45 already! So I was lagging behind in making my Savory Rice Crepes. So I try to put my Veg Sloppy Joes aside and start on my pan of rice crepe. Once I take out the pan, I see a line of people gathering and eagerly waiting to see what I put out next! So I took out my Crepe dough that I MADE ALL FROM SCRATCH.
I had promised a lot of people at the store that I would post the proportions and the recipe to making Rice Crepe dough in my blog. So here goes:
The dough to my Rice Crepe has: 3 CUPS OF RICE GROUND TO A SMOOTH PASTE + 1 CUP OF WHITE LENTILS GROUND TO A SMOOTH PASTE! Then mix everything and add salt to taste and let the dough rest overnight at room temperature. This is important for fermentation to happen (thats my inner Microbiologist talking) and also for the slight acidity that you are looking for when you bite into a thin crispy crepe.
I start making the crepes and filling them with my Indian cottage cheese and placing my samplers on the serving tray. I am not sure if I was slow making the crepes or if it was the people lining up but it was all gone in a flash!!!! I was using 2 pans simultaneously to make Crepes so I can keep up with the crowd.
Finally, Laura came to my rescue and said that I can stop and start cleaning up!
Laura also mentioned that they needed people with great energy who would draw people in with their food and laughter! She has asked me to go back again and we are working on a few dates so will post the dates for my future sessions soon!!!!
I want to thank my husband without whom I couldnt have pulled it off so well…his immense support and encouragement motivates me to do the best I can of whatever life has to offer!
I hope you enjoyed reading and a big thank you to all my friends who showed up and all the rest who were so kind and appreciated my food and walked away friends!!!!
With much love……….
