Zee TV Little Champs; New Book – Flavours of the Orient

After a long time I can say that I had a nice eased out weekend. Friday night I attended the Zee TV Little Champs Finale at Andheri Sports Complex. If I were to write about the traffic jams, I could fill up this space! But no complaints, because the programme and talented kids were worth all the effort.

Tried a flavourful mushroom and chicken biryani on Sunday and as it was created as I chopped and cleaned, I have yet to document the recipe! Talking of documentation, my latest book Flavours of the Orient is ready for its launch in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Going to these places end of this month.

My new book is all about Pan-Asian cuisine being a delicious fusion of flavours from all over Asia including Thai, Japanese, Malaysian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian dishes. It is not for nothing that these countries are collectively nicknamed the Exotic East. All spices and indigenous ingredients come together in woks and pans to create unique dishes that have no match in any other cuisine. Here I would like to mention that I have not included Indian dishes under the pan Asian realm. Though it is correct to say that India is to be counted as a part of pan-Asian but the contents of these pages emphasise on countries that are our neighbours as I have written numerous special books on Indian cuisine.

Well, there is more in store for you! Catch you later.

Sanjeev Kapoor

Post Diwali Happenings

This morning came on bright and shining but with the dark cloud of four kilos weight gain! So it was 90 minutes of brisk walking at Juhu beach for me. I think Diwali has taken its toll.

As I am writing this, it suddenly hit me that this has been a week of shoots with Zee! Not my own cookery show but other programmes like a Quiz programme Dadagiri with its host Saurav Ganguly for Zee Bangla. Good fun! And yesterday, for the game show Ghar Ghar Mein telecast on Zee TV. Watch it on November 9 at 7 pm.

What did we do? Well, best left as suspense but it was a lot of fun packed into three four hours. Our daughters and friends had joined in and we had a good time with lots of laughter. Rejuvenating!

My trial kitchen is abuzz with lots of activity as we are compiling the recipes that my mother makes! Alyona is busy with them as she has learnt mom’s style of cooking too. I sure am looking forward to the first printed issue that I will hand over to my mother. I think she is going to love it! The book is not a surprise for her as we had to cajole all the recipes and secrets from her.

Till I get back to the keyboard, Happy Cooking!

Sanjeev Kapoor

Diwali Weekend

Back from a totally friends-n-food oriented weekend! Diwali evening was quietly spent at home with family but on Sunday, did what I enjoy the most…cooking, to my heart’s content! First went shopping for some good rawas and mutton as I had long promised my good friend Roopkumar (Rathod) that I would make him a good mutton biryani and he was our special guest for dinner with Sonali and some other friends on Sunday night.

So, we started off with Prawn Golgappe with Solkadi, Paneer Shaslik, Chicken Shaslik for starters and then the main course of rawas fish curry, chicken curry and of course, the mutton biryani! For those who wanted vegetarian I made soya nugget biryani and Alyona said it was the best I have ever made!! Then as we had two exalted singers amongst us, a little cajoling and the singing started. We brought down our harmonium and then Roop and Sonali are very sporting…sang well into the night, fulfilling everyone’s request.

And yes, I even made a huge vegetable lasagne for the Bhai Dooj lunch at home yesterday.

With all this, travel beckons again..this time to Kolkata.

More later.
Sanjeev Kapoor