The Cook In Me..

Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Cook In Me..

I have always been a good eater and of late the cook in me sprang up to life..the physics involved in dosas ,the artistry in samosas etc have always fascinated me...but whenever ive tried to cook something i get chased out of the kitchen.Maybe the ladies in my home are afraid of my talents.
And who says interest is enough to achieve things??all my attempts in serious cooking have ended up in vain.Perhaps theres much more involved in this than mere interest-the right recipe,utensils,timing,ingredients,quality all seem to play a role in this..
My friend Dhivya today gave me this wonderful link to aid me in cooking...www.vahrehvah.com ...this site provides excellent demos of numerous Indian recipes with videos and clear explanations .For those who dont want their preparations to end up before dogs or cats,,do visit the site...

Posted by arvind at 9:46 AM 1 comments

My favorite Indian Cooking Site,Mittagessen mit Antares

My favorite Indian Cooking Site, with the recipes demonstrated on VIDEO!

"Oh I am trying to selling the world on healthy, authentic and fresh cooking with fresh ingredients and today it was "Chicken 65" which I just finished demonstrating and recording", he says with a faint smile."

"Vahrehvah.com has the potential to shake up the Internet food portals like no other Food site has."

Vahrehvah.com is my favorite cooking site! If you would like to learn authentic indian cooking simply and easily and like being around happy, fun, glowing, passionate people, even if they are virtual, then you will love it too! Actually, it is not just for indian food "Your vah-reh-vah chef" teaches indian foods (he comes from Hyderabad) and is growing the site to include many other cuisines and even asks you to post your recipies.

I coppied all the rest from an interview on the site, if you want to read some more, but really, you should just get on there and get cooking!

"...the layout and design is built intuitively with allocated space for recipes classified by their origin and place on the food chart as well as by course on the menu. So for instance if you were to have a craving for Shahi Nizami cuisine and had some Chicken in the freezer and felt like making a lip-smacking entree out of it, all you have to do is access vahrehvah.com and search by chicken for an entree and Voila! You not only have the detailed recipe and cooking method and ingredients listed out but the amazing thing is you also have a video demonstration of the dish being prepared in Sanjay's chirpy and laughingly humorous manner. That is what is interesting too."

"...What I like about Sanjay's site is that the video actually takes me through a step-by-step process to explain exactly how to go about acomplishing this. For someone like me-and for you too I am sure, looking at it being prepared tells you exactly when to throw onions into the pan or why does mustard have to crackle or even what exactly goes into the Tandoori Masala you go and buy at the store. To me that rocks! It quite simply allows Mr. Nobody to impress friends and family with learnings from a gourmet. Suddenly I am chef somebody and my kids love it. I dare say I even have my wife talking about it with her girlfriends.

"...What I truly like about the site also is that it is participative. It does not lock the user out. In fact it locks them in. They register, they get hooked on his easy style and humor and ability to laugh at himself. Before they know it they are enthusiastically commenting and he is inviting them to post their own recipes on the site. A separate section on the website allows the user to claim their own spot of fame by posting recipes and videos that contribute to even more participation from fellow users. "This is going to be a food community soon" I inform him.
"I know", he says"

Bagara Baingan Source: VahRehVah

Bagara Baingan Source: VahRehVah

Ingredients
Small Fresh Young Brinjals: 8 - 10
Roasted Peanuts: 1 Cup
Roasted Sesame Seeds: 3 tbsp
Roasted Dry Shredded Coconut: 2 tbsp
Finely Chopped Onion: 1 Big
Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves: 1 tbsp
Sliced Green Chilllies: 2
Ginger Garlic Paste: 1 tsp
Tomato Paste: 1 tbsp
Curry Leaves: 1 Spring
Tamarind Paste: 1 tbsp
Jaggery or Sugar: 1-2 tsp
Cumin Powder: 1 tbsp
Coriander Powder: 1tbsp
Red Chilli Powder: 1 tbsp
Whole Garam Masala Powder: 1 tsp
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds (Jeera): 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds : 1 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds: 1 tsp
Asafoetida (Hing): 1/2 tsp
Cloves: 3-4
Cinnamon Stick: 1 (cut into pieces)
Elaichi: 3
Bay Leaf: 1
Salt to Taste
Water

Procedure
1. Grind peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut with water. Make a smooth paste. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and when they start spluttering, add cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add cloves, bay leaf, cinamon stick, elaichi. Fry for a minute. Then add chopped green chillies, onion and hing. Fry onions till it gets golden brown.
3. Add turmeric powder, ginger - garlic paste, red chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala. Fry for a minute. Then add tomato paste and some salt. Add some water and bring it to boil.
4. Then add paste of peanuts, sesame seeds & coconut powder & water. Cook for 10 minutes.
5. In mean time, make slits to eggplant (don't cut end). Shallow fry or deep fry them till they are 80% done.
6. Add these brinjals to gravy. Then add salt, tamarind juice, jaggery. Cook this gravy on medium heat till brinjals are 100 % cooked.
7. Garnish this with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with pulao, biryani or chapati.

This is called Vah chef so the appropriate name

Here is a review that made my day


Title : Got interested in cookingReview : Hi Sanjay I have never cooked in my life. I am 67 years old and you got me interested in cooking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks a million. Now I will never go hungry or never eat in restaurant. My wife is a great cook so I never got in to cooking. By watching your videos I started cooking. I made Nan, Dosa, Tandoori Chicken, Meduvada and Dahivada, Sambhar etc. Ev ery item I cooked from your video came out excellent in first try only. This is called Vah chef so the appropriate name. I am so excited that I even cooked for my friends and guess what they enjoyed it. They didn\'t believe me at first since they know I never cooked before in my life and they were scared to eat whatever I cooked. So Thanks Sanjay I appreciated your video and keep it coming. I am going to tell my wife to post her some great recipes.. All your recipes are great.

Jay Desai

my beloved hubby kumar made this for me from his favorite cookery show(Vahrehvah)

http://dhivyaskitchen.blogspot.com/

This is an easy to make eggplant fry, which goes extremely delicious with rice and dhal. We really enjoyed this combination.BTW I didn’t make this,,,my beloved hubby kumar made this for me from his favorite cookery show(Vahrehvah). I am just posting this recipe to encourage him (hope he like the encouragement and will make more yummy dishes like this..he..he).Here is recipe how he made this….

INGREDIENT:

Eggplant – 1(big)
Chili powder – 2tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1/2tsp
Salt – 1tsp
Rice flour – 2tsp

Eggplant Before cooked

METHOD:

Cut the eggplant into thin slices (1/2'' thickness) as shown in picture.

For marinating mix chili powder, turmeric, rice flour and salt. Apply this dry mixture on the eggplant both sides.

In the pan add 3tsp of oil and let it heat. Now put the eggplant pieces one by one and cook it on a medium flame. Turn frequently until brown color.

Once its cooked remove from the pan and do the same with rest of the pieces. Serve it with hot rice and dhal.
I am sending these eggplant dishes to pooja's Vegetable Of The Week-Brinjal.