Friday 12 April 2013

The Gourmet Diary @ TWO ONE TWO


                            


" A perfect summer afternoon it was. The sun was at his best. Scorching heat I must say! It was already 3:00 pm and I was festinating on the streets of South Bombay..oops..South Mumbai* to locate this place TWO ONE TWO. I desperately wanted a seat in the first row for the masterclass arranged by GOURMET IT UP; so that I get a clear view of whats happening in Chef's wok. But I was disheartened when I reached the venue, to see that there was just one seat left in the LAST row. But the good thing was that the class had not started yet!
The Chef was apologizing for the delay and I was like, "Hey, its cool! So am I.". And then there was
some issue with the arrangement made and we were asked to turn around our chairs AND after turning around, I WAS THE IN THE FIRST ROW! HELL YEAH! I was glad that I was late. Had I been on time, I would have been the one to sit in the last row. Someone has quoted it correctly "Everything happens for good."


So the master class started finally. Usually, desserts are served as a last course of the meal. But the class started with two scrumptious desserts: Tiramisu and Panacotta.
Chef Kiran is the pastry chef at TWO ONE TWO. Young and peppy Kiran wore a beautiful smile throughout the session which added to the sweetness of the desserts. A graduate from Le Cordon Bleu, UK, Chef Kiran presented absolutely simple recipes of these two desserts.


Chef Kiran whips cream for Tiramisu

Tiramisu is something I always wanted to learn and considered it to be infeasible due to unavailability of some of the ingredients. But miss Kiran managed to change my outlook towards it. Simple ingredients, simple steps and skillful techniques together make abso delish Tiramisu. Panacotta was another dessert she demonstrated which was very very very simple to make. Hardly three major ingredients when blended with few other minor ingredients, produce a mindblowing dessert. This dessert was topped with caramel sauce. The sauce is just a simple combination of barely three ingredients but is a skillful task. These desserts, if served at a house-party, will surely bag you loads of compliments and it will be something your guests wont forget for quite-a-while.

Chef Kiran then handed over the control to Chef Mohammed Bhol, a BA in Culinary Arts from TVU. He took the session further by demonstrating five absolutely amazing recipes.


The first one he demonstrated was Panzenella Salad. While demonstrating the recipes, he happened to ask if one of us wished to assist him in salad making and an excited Ankita (that's me) jumped off her seat. Though I did not do much, I managed to prepare a dressing for the salad. The chef tossed other ingredients in the dressing that was 'almost' prepared by me, and presented a colourful and stunning salad before us.




The next recipe he took up was Ricotta cheese and Spinach ravioli. A creamy spinach filling inside the ravioli pasta was piquant and felt like heaven-on-my-tongue.


 Here Chef Mohammed demonstrates how he got his mushrooms look like fine threads

Then was the turn of Mushroom Baklava (pronounced as: Buck-laa-va).  Baklava is traditionally a dessert which belongs to Central Asian cuisine. It is basically is 'a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of phyllo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey.'  (Yes, I copy-pasted it from Wikipedia :P ). Chef Mohammed showed us a savoury-version of this dessert. Wrapped in phyllo sheets with layers and layers of butter inside, the cute little Baklavas where like mini flavour-bombs in my mouth. They truly deserve the tag line: No one can eat just one!


        
Olive oil for Baklava


Barley beetroot pilaf is a healthy option to all those who cant eat rice or starch in general.  Yes! Its the same barley using which your beer is made. This recipe was something different and unusual and yet very tasty. The pilaf was served with Grilled Chicken Breast. The chicken breast was marinated in few locally available ingredients and grilled on a pan with little olive oil. It was unbelievably sumptuous! You know, it's just hard to believe that how few basic, usual ingredients can be blended so well to create magic on your tongue!

Chef Kiran prepares caramel sauce while Chef Mohammed patiently looks around


The session was concluded by serving the above mentioned preparations for tasting. Each one of those was truly tasteful. Three hour long session with Chef Mohammed and Chef Kiran was stupendous. Had a wonderful Saturday afternoon. Thanks to GOURMET IT UP
Looking forward for more such events.

That's panacotta, tiramisu and ricotta spinach ravioli

And that is Barely pilaf, grilled chicken and baklava


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