What's Best in the World of Food

KhaanaWaana caught up with food connoisseur Karen Anand and Adrian Pinto, Senior Manager, Wines, Pernod Ricard India at the Pune Farmer’s market at the Westin Garden City Hotel, Goregaon, recently. In this freewheeling conversation, Pinto talks about where wine fits into the market’s concept of natural produce.

Food connoisseur Karen Anand's Mumbai installment of the Pune Farmers' Market was everything a Sunday outing ought to be. Winter light, canopied expanse, lots of wine and food. You could perch yourself on a high chair, sit with friends around a round table, lounge around on a cane mat or simply sprawl out on the grass. So unlike any Mumbai event. That could explain the turnout at the far-flung venue, The Westin Mumbai Garden City Hotel at Goregaon. Find all photos in our Facebook album here.

Years ago, I stocked only one kind of vinegar – the cheap variety that’s better suited for cleaning than cooking! Besides, I hardly ever cooked with vinegar. But when I got into sophisticated cooking, creating recipes from all parts of the world, I learnt there are many varieties of vinegar that act differently on different foods. Today, you’ll find at least 5 kinds in my kitchen.

Here's a one-dish meal that combines the look and taste of everything children love - think pizza and cheese - with all the things mothers obsess over stuffing their kids with - think broccoli, spinach, peas, green beans... you get the idea!

After getting eliminated in final week of MasterChef Australia, Rishi Desai's indisputable talents in the kitchen - aided by his chocolate boy looks - has earned him a fan following not only Down Under but also back in India, from where this Kolhapuri chemical engineer originally hails.

So it was only natural that his cooking demonstration at Godrej Nature's Basket in Bandra last week would be populated by a predominantly female audience who had the pleasure of watching Rishi recreate some of the magic that made him a strong contender in the MasterChef kitchen.

In case our videos passed you buy unnoticed through the busy work-week, here's a selection of our best 5 put together. Learn how to make perfectly creamy scrambled eggs; the classic, laborious Hollandaise sauce made easy; watch celebrity chef Vikas Khanna at a launch of his picture recipe book for children and get a lowdown on the ongoing Thai street food festival at the JW Marriott, Mumbai.  

Here in India, we are so accustomed to the regular squeeze-between-the-stainless steel pods variety of lemon juicers that we automatically reach out for them at the store. But there really are many other kinds that are more efficient to use. I found one recently during my visit to Home Stop, Shoppers Stop’s home and kitchen accessories store. It's called the GRIP-EZ Citrus Reamer from the brand Norpro.

I picked it up because, honestly, I just liked the way it looked – the head made of white porcelain with a black silicon handle. When I got home, I set out to make green tea with lemon to quickly put my new find to use.

After watching MasterChef Australia judge Gary Meighan effortlessly make Hollandaise sauce in a recent Master Class, I thought to myself - 'Wow, that looks simple!' I was so excited that the minute the show finished, I went into the kitchen to try out Gary's recipe for Hollandaise, a rich tangy sauce often paired with steamed vegetables, which has pride of place as one of the five 'mother sauces' in classical French cuisine.

Dear men, expecting the woman in your life to shoulder the responsibility for every single meal you consume is not very attractive. Today's Times of India article quotes the results of an online poll by a matrimonial website that has found an overwhelming percentage of Indian women want men who know their way around the kitchen. Of course, we've been telling you that forever now.

Published by DK India and promoted by Penguin India, the illustration-heavy book, said Khanna, is specifically designed so that children can learn to get inventive with ingredients they find at home.

It's amazing what just a little bit of patience and technique can do in the kitchen.

No English breakfast is complete without eggs and scrambled is a pretty popular choice. In India, we tend to cook everything over direct flame and that's one of the main reasons our scrambled eggs turn out dry.

SKKY is Ramada, Powai’s new open-air rooftop lounge bar, removed from the city buzz, if that’s the sort of thing you like.

Since it only opens post 5 pm, you have no choice but to wade through evening rush hours to get there. Leaving the homebound traffic behind, we take a narrow road through the Mhada-Aarey Milk Colony area to get to SKKY.

When I say kebabs, you will probably think of your favourite restaurant or neighbourhood street joint that you believe serves the best kebabs in the city. We all have a place like that and tend to land up there every time a strong meat craving strikes. But what if I told you the best kebabs you'll ever taste are the ones you can very easily make at home?

Unless you're a veritable kitchen savant who could whip up a gourmet meal while stranded on a desert island, unannounced guests whom you have to feed is probably your worst nightmare – especially when they show up just a day before your trip to the grocery store and you have an empty pantry staring at you blankly!

As Diwali nears, I've been receiving frantic calls from friends who want my advice on which Indian sweets they should make for the holidays. Interestingly, many of them have asked me for halwa recipes, especially vegetable-based ones. These dense sweet confections are indeed quick and fairly easy to make. If you're not entirely confident about your kitchen skills, halwa is the way you should go.

Soundtrack: BugaBlue / http://freemusicarchive.org/music/US_Army_Blues/ / Public Domain Mark 1.0

Four courses at four different restaurants and lots of wine. That was the menu for the day at Sula Wine Rides, a Sula Vineyards sponsored event for a few of Mumbai’s food bloggers, conducted by Sovna Puri, Sula’s Head Tastings, Mumbai.

Located at the end of the Famous Studio lane in Mahalaxmi, Auriga is very clearly aimed at catering to finer sensibilities in a setting that is a pleasant departure from Mumbai's space-starved restaurant scene.