Tarting it up

My cast of characters is every expanding.

A few days ago, HRH the Queen of Kutch’s mother i.e. the Queens Mother, proclaimed that she was having an intimate lunch party for 30 of her closest friends and relations.

The menu was predominantly Gujarati food. Nothing wrong with that. On offer was the delicious Rajwadi Daal or the classic Gujarati Daal which is sweet sour and spicy with Peanuts, Sambhariya which is a dry vegetable dish with a coconut based masala and Telia a fresh pickle once again with vegetables. Of course there were several other dishes too. It was a lavish meal.

Queens Mother requested us to make an appropriate dessert for this feast. This got us thinking. Knowing the target audience, dessert would ideally be an Indian one, but then again, Indian desserts are simply just boring, without texture, one dimensional and horribly sweet. More often than not desserts are bought out. But that was not an option. So we set about thinking.

Ultimately what we came up with was pretty cool, even if I say so myself. The brief was met and I believe the desserts were hugely appreciated. I must confess that though we did not taste the complete dessert, it would have been terribly sweet.

What we made were two tarts. We made the tart bases and lined them with Crème Patisserie or Pastry Cream. This is a sort of custard made with milk, egg and flour and is used as a base in several patisserie items. The Cream can be flavored as you want. So, in keeping with the theme we flavored the Crème Patisserie with Cardamom powder. In the first tart we used Gajar Ka Halwa. This was blended to make a smooth paste. The paste was piped into the tart base and topped with Gold Vark or Gold Leaf and garnished with flaked almonds. Job done.

The second tart had the base of Cardamom Crème Patisserie. On this base we placed mini Gulab Jamuns. To finally garnish the Tart we sprinkled sweet Boondi. Job done.

So there you have two beautiful tarts.

Gajar Ka Halwa Mousse with 24 Karat Gold

Gulab Jamun, Jalebi Caviar and Cardomom Cream 

Celini - Grand Hyatt Kalina Mumbai

Senior Mrs. Stonethrower decided to take us out for dinner. She said that we should eat at Celini the Italian restaurant at the Grand Hyatt at Kalina. We have eaten there quite a few times in the past and have always had good meals. For some reason, I had never written about it.

The Grand Hyatt has some really top notch restaurants. In my view, the Grand Hyatt at Kalina and the ITC Grand Maratha at Sahar have the some of best restaurants in Mumbai. The China House and Celini are excellent and you all know our fondness for the excellent Dum Pukth and Peshawri at the ITC Grand Maratha at Sahar. These four restaurants are by far the finest of their type in Mumbai.

A table was booked at the Celini and as is our wont, before dinner it was time to wet our whistles. The bar at the Grand Hyatt is fairly pathetic. Totally without any character and devoid of any sort of atmosphere, it is really quite sad. Its location is rather awkward too. It is slap bang in the middle of the lobby and you have to walk past it to go to other restaurants in the Hotel. Pretty grim place. I had my customary Kingfisher, the cheapest alcoholic drink on any menu anywhere. HRH The Queen of Kutch had Amrut Indian Single Malt Whisky. A fairly decent whisky, but, frankly, undeserving of the accolade `Worlds Best Single Malt’. Senior Mrs. Stonethrower had hot water with Lime and Honey as she had an itchy throat. I must say that this request was fulfilled with considerable charm and class by the staff. A Tea cup, a kettle of hot water, a small jar of honey and a bowl of Lime cheeks was brought. Well done.

Once the drinking was done we walked across the corridor to the Celini reception only to find that there was no reservation on their system. The restaurant was empty, so getting a table was no problem; however, not finding the reservation was disturbing and could have led to some ugliness. Once we were settled we told the waiter that all of us ate everything except cucumber which Senior Mrs. Stonethrower is allergic to. That relaxed the waiter.

Bread, a tomato sauce of some sort, olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar were brought to the table. The bread and the olive oil were really good. The tomato sauce was full of `masala’ so was abandoned.

For starters we got a selection of non vegetarian Antipasto which is a Celini signature dish. You got a healthy portion of some really good starters. The green sauce was Arugula Pesto, quite nice. The Antipasto was polished off. The Chicken on the extreme left of the plate was rubbish. The rest of the starters were really good.

From left to right: Chicken with a Mushroom sauce; Parma Ham with Cantaloupe; Grilled Tenderloin with Tonnato Sauce and Marinated Onion [center top]; Marinated Smoked Salmon, braised Lettuce, Salmon Roe and Lemon Chive Cream [Center bottom]; Fried Prawns; Grilled Tuna Arugula Pesto.

Now it was time for our main courses. Senior Mrs. Stonethrower ordered Pan Seared Chicken Scaloppini with Egg and Parmesan Batter with a Lemon Caper Sauce. This was served with Root Vegetables. She loved her dish. The Chicken was moist and the Lemon Butter Sauce was just right.

HRH The Queen of Kutch ordered a Diavolo Pizza which has Salami and Kalamata Olives. You have heard of the phrase – her eyes were bigger than her stomach. Well the Pizza was packed, taken home reheated and had for lunch the next day. Even reheated it was excellent. This was a real Pizza and not that ghastly abomination of a Pizza served at Indigo Deli which is so crisp that it shatters when eating. This one has a thin crust and great texture.

I quite like Schnitzels. On the menu was Pork Milanese which is simply a Schnitzel, served with an Arugula Salad with some Cherry Tomato and Parmesan. Just right. A crisp coating on the Port Loin a tangy fresh tasting Arugula Salad and pieces of salty Parmesan. I was happy.

Senior Mrs. Stonethrower wanted to have some dessert. We could not bear ordering the Gujju favorite Tiramisu, so after some scanning of the Dessert Menu we agreed on a Hazelnut Crème Brule. Excellent. The sugar on the top was freshly caramelized so it shattered like it should. The Crème was as it should be, cold, creamy, very smooth and silky and, intensely flavored. A fine end to a fine meal.

If you do want to have a decent Italian meal please do eat at the Celini. Prices are high as they are at any five star hotel, but, trust me, the food here is good. I believe they have so sort of discount if you eat lunch on weekdays. Do visit their website. I do not know if the lunch menu is the same as the dinner menu. 

Well worth visiting.

    

Cooking in December

A lot of new cooking was done in December. This was almost entirely due to the unbridled enthusiasm of the youngest Miss Stonethrower.

The first thing that she wanted was a Croquembouche. If you have watched Masterchef you would know what it is. This is a classic French dessert served at First Communions, Baptisms and weddings. A Croquembouche is conical and is made with either Choux Pastry buns or with Macrons which are stuck together with caramel. Choux Buns can be filled with a variety of flavored creams – chocolate and orange – being more popular.

At the center of the Croquembouche is a cone. I did not have one that could be used, so using old school card paper folded 4 times to get some strength and stability we made a cone. This we covered with aluminum foil which we oiled so that the caramel and Choux Buns would not stick. The filling was to be chocolate cream.

The Choux paste was made, the Buns piped out, egg washed and baked. This is where we had a technical problem. Unfortunately, the Choux Buns were not dry enough from the inside, so when they cooled, some of them deflated and fused. This caused a problem as the Chocolate Cream could not be piped into the Choux Bun as it had stuck together. Once the Choux Buns were baked and filled with the Chocolate Cream it was a simple assembly job of dipping the Choux Bun in Caramel and building up the cone.

I must say that for a first attempt the Croquembouche turned out well. It was a success, though not without its faults. All in all, we were pleased.

Macrons are a favorite dessert. The plan was to make plain Macrons i.e. without any flavor, but colored green. Yellow Lemon Cream would be sandwiched between two Macrons. Frankly Macrons are slightly trickier to make than Choux Buns. You need precise measurements for the weight of the ingredients, you need a thermometer to get sugar to exactly 118C and you need a stand mixer to make the meringue. To make the Lemon Cream you need to have a thermometer to ensure that you do not have scrambled eggs.

Macrons ideally, are best when made during the Mumbai `winter’. The humidity is lower so the Macrons remain in better shape and do not get soggy. This was the third attempt at Macrons. It was a grand success. The Macrons looked really good and tasted better.

Miss Stonethrower had eaten a Bacon Butty some months ago. She wanted to make them for lunch. According to her, a Bacon Butty has bacon [obviously] sandwiched between two slices of bread with Hollandaise Sauce and French Fries. This was a true heart attack on a plate. A true Bacon Butty has only Bacon between two slices of bread and is often eaten with HP Sauce. Anyway, we were game to make this extra rich version of Bacon Butty.

HRH the Queen of Kutch decided, after having been influenced by the meal we had at Borkonyha Wine Kitchen Budapest, to make a Squid Ink and Pistachio bread. So this was made. It looked really eerie, like a mutated monster. Black bread with lurid bright green Pistachio bits. Tasted great, looked scary.

For the meat in the sandwich we had two types of bacon; regular and so called `fatless’. This I put into a large frying pan with some water to render the fat. To this I added some sliced pork sausage and fried the whole lot in the rendered fat. In the interest of health the remaining fat was poured out.

We took a 500 gram pack of Amul Butter and set about clarifying it. Hollandaise and its sister sauce Béarnaise require clarified butter. A double boiler was set up and we stared making the Hollandaise. Hollandaise is a very trick and temperamental sauce. It splits. To quote Anthony Bourdain from his book `Le Halles Cookbook’ – “Know this. If you haven’t made Béarnaise from scratch before, you will surely fuck this sauce up. Don’t worry. Just do it again. This and Hollandaise, more than any other sauces, seem to smell fear and uncertainty.”

With this I started whisking the eggs. I added the now clarified butter drop by drop and kept whisking. With 3 eggs I was to use a lot of butter, but the words of Anthony Bourdain were ringing louder and louder with each addition of butter. I chickened out and stopped adding any more butter. The seasoning was adjusted and the sauce poured on top of the bacon. The Hollandaise was fine, really tasty; however, it was not light and airy. I think while I may have stopped it from splitting I had not added enough butter. But the sauce will be tried again. I have the remaining clarified butter resting in a plastic container in the fridge.

I survived the sandwich. I am staying far away from my cardiologist.

It’s been an exciting December.