Pesto.

One of my favourite sauces, if you make a jar of good pesto, you'll never have a tasteless meal! I have a pot of basil in my kitchen so I'm never out of basil to make me some pesto. Once made, you can store it in a jar topped with some extra virgin olive oil and it can last you for days. The first thing that comes to mind when you say pesto is ofcourse, pasta. But I like my pasta with creamy pesto and not with claggy lumps of basil. Where did I learn to make great pesto? Jamie Oliver. He is my guru and I think I'm his apprentice. Small glitch: He doesn't know...yet ;) So to make perfect pasta with pesto, mix the pesto you've made with some belchamel sauce until you get a light green colour. Add pieces of soft chicken breast, whole olives and some almonds soaked in warm water for about 10 minutes and you have the best pasta ever!

Let's do this!

How to make pesto?

INGREDIENTS:

• Basil
• Olive Oil
• Lime
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parmesan Cheese
• Pine Nuts
• Garlic

Put everything in a pestle and mortar (or food processor) and keep adding more of the seasoning until you're happy with the taste. I can't really give you amounts for the ingredients because everyone likes their pesto different.

Once you have this basic pesto you can use it as a spread, marinade and sauce and make the most spectacular dishes! If you need some more ideas on what to use it for, tweet me!

Stay Hungry!

xoxo

D

My George & Gary Moment.

EEEEEEEEEEEP! I met them, I met them! I know you know how much I love Masterchef Australia, I even had a post dedicated to it. Not only did I meet Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, I COOKED FOR THEM! Yes, hold your horses, it's true. All I have to say is Gary and George are AS cute as we thought they were. What did I make? Good question. I made them a bruschetta antipasti consisting of 3 types of bruschetta: Caramelized onions and walnuts with feta, roasted bell peppers with a honey and lime vinaigrette and mozzarella and last, char grilled zuchini with balsamic and mozzarella. George said his favourite was the roasted bell peppers and mozzarella and Gary loved the caramelized onion and feta concept. Me? I was just ecstatic that they were tasting MY food :') It began in complete Masterchef style with,"Your time starts NOW!" and ended with the,"That's it, time's up." I really don't know how Andy, Ben and Julia did it.

Cookin'

Then George asked me about my dish in complete Masterchef style and I tried my best to answer without fainting, and succeeded! That will have to be my greatest achievement! The minute I heard George and Gary were coming to Bombay, I had made my mind that I HAD to meet them. But never did I ever think that I'd cook for them! It was one of the most exhilarating moments ever.

Gary showing me how they get the contestants to tear up!

George and Gary telling me about my dish.
VERDICT: The bread should have been crunchier and more caramelized and the mozzarella should have been melted. The 3 flavours were really distinct.

In all honesty, Gary and George are one of the cutest and most genuine people I've met and dealing with Bombay crowds can really be hard, even for us. But they handled it so beautifully! In the end, the perfect day: A cuddle from Gary, a dish inspired by Jamie Oliver and George and Gary tasting it and telling me exactly what it needed. I woke up the next day and wondered whether it was all a dream? But then I had these to testify ;)

Gary ♥

Me: Gary's my favourite.
George: Do you want to give him a cuddle?
Me: YES!
♥

I've never been to Australia, but when I go, I'm heading straight to Fenix and The Press Club!

xoxo
D

Teppanyaki.

My first memory of teppanyaki is when Ross from Friends took a girl on a date to a teppanyaki restaurant and bumped into his ex- wife and her lesbian partner. I remember him catching a hot mushroom straight off the teppan into his mouth and spitting it out immediately because it was too hot. Since then, teppanyaki's always seemed fun, spectacular concept as opposed to just ordering your food or helping yourself. It's an art. There are teppanyakis in Vegas where they have a chef who is their star performer and people come just to see him. Why am I telling you all this? It's just my introduction to my post about the Teppanyaki Night at Shiro!

The stage.

Cheers!
(The green apple and peach sparkling wine)

It's the first time I went to Shiro and had an amazing time. The ambiance is amazing with the stone Buddhas, I love the high ceilings and the music's great. The chef started off with some tricks with his spatulas and made some rice and noodles. He then broke some eggs, which was also quite entertaining. We all had drinks as we watched this. I had the sparkling green apple and peach wine with vodka and some red wine sangria, both of which were really good. There were entrees to go around: Sushi and Chili Potato. Now sushi isn't usually my favourite but I LOVED the Crispy Spicy Avocado Sushi. Then we took our places on the tables to enjoy the food properly. The rice had a nice sticky texture but a bit too peppery for me. The noodles with vegetable butter were also really nice. There were too kinds of chicken which were really well cooked. There were prawns with some goat's cheese which were really light and fresh and the basa was also enjoyable.

All in all, I'd say go there for the experience. I had an amazing night with great company and at the end, was completely stuffed. ChicChick went with me as well, you could ask her!

Stay Hungry!

xoxo
D

JDF: British Vanilla Ice Cream.

Now there's a reason why I call it BRITISH vanilla ice cream because the main difference is the ice cream in England has a lovely, rich, light yellow colour which makes it look so wholesome as opposed to the Indian ice creams we buy which is a tasteless spotless white colour. This was the first time I made ice cream and it turned out great! Since I don't have an ice cream machine (yet) I did the next best thing Jamie advises to do: Go to the freezer every twenty minutes and stir the ice cream mixture to give it that amazing, creamy texture and so that it doesn't taste like icy crystals.

This was the first time I used an actual vanilla pod instead of the vanilla essence and I'm telling you, it makes ALL the difference! I couldn't believe that this was something you actually just picked off a tree! Vanilla, somehow sounds so man-made but then you realize that something this perfect has to be natural.

THAT'S how it turned out. Pretty awesome, eh?

MY TIPS-

• Don't forget the stirring, it's more important than you can imagine!
• A little less cream if you find it too rich is absolutely okay.
• Ice Cream is kind of just frozen custard and if it does scramble while on the pan, don't worry ! Just transfer it to a cool pan and pass it through a sieve.
• To make a tiny vanilla sundae, add some brownie crumbs and a shot of Bailey's!

If you're counting that's dessert #3 in the Jamie Dessert Fest! The weather's perfect for some ice cream, eh? And ofcourse, here's the recipe http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/member-recipes/Vanilla%20ice-cream/1454 This isn't the exact recipe from the book but I couldn't find it anywhere online. Instead of vanilla sugar, use regular sugar and a vanilla pod :) If you have anymore doubts, you can always tweet me at https://twitter.com/devikambing

Enjoy!

xoxo
D

Cricknfashion.

Hii everyone!☺ Its time for my 2nd article, finally!
This should have come up earlier, but well, never mind. So, since this nation is cricket-crazy, and I mean that in the best way possible, I thought it would be a good idea to take cricket and fashion up. Now I know this isn’t the IPL season where the entertainment and fashion quotients are high, but there is still SO much cricket going on! There are so many matches you can flaunt your fashion at. Let me just quickly tell you what’s in store for you. India is getting ready to host England, Australia, and arch rivals Pakistan in the months to follow, and that means so many matches to go to! :D If you’re as cricket crazy as I am, this has got to excite you.

Cricketers have always been those kind of people that people look up to, and want to be like. Remember Kevin Pietersen’s punk hairstyle? Which guy didn’t think that was cool!  I personally think a lot of cricketers dress well and when they step out, they always step out in style. But, my favourite has to be Virat Kohli and I’m sure a lot of you girls out there will agree with me ;)
Here, have a look for yourselves -

This young emerging, or should I say emerged, cricketing star has been named the 3rd best- dressed international man by the GQ magazine. With his charisma and good dressing sense, he makes for a perfect style icon. 

More on what to wear and what NOT to wear to a cricket match coming up in my next article ‘Howzzzat!’ So look out for it ;)

Stay chic, stay classy

Xoxo
ChicChick❤

JDF: Fifteen Brownies.

In case you thought I forgot about my Jamie Dessert Fest, think again! I'm back with a new dessert. These brownies are the ones on Jamie Oliver's menu at Fifteen, his restaurant in London. They are by far the best brownies I've made and I'm not just saying this cause I'm a fan. I've tried countless brownie recipes but none have given me the result that this recipe did.

Let's do this!

Brownies are something that everyone loves. I don't think I've met a sane person who doesn't like a good brownie. I made this without any nuts and sour cherries cause I didn't have them at home at the time :P

This is it.

And THAT is how they turned out. YUMMMM. I've never seen my mom eat so much dessert before!

My tips:

• Try using one less egg than the recipe says cause they can turn out a little too moist.
• Give it ENOUGH time to cool in the tray.
• Serve it warm- NO EXCEPTIONS!
• Send me some for critical acclaim ;)

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did! No one can refuse a good brownie. Also, don't forget a dollop (or quinelle ;) of good vanilla ice cream. You can check out the recipe here http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/bloomin-brilliant-brownies (It's under a different name but the same recipe, I checked :)

That was Dessert #2 of the JDF. Hope you make these this weekend! You're welcome ;)

xoxo

D