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In the Knorr kitchen with Master chef Marco Pierre White

December 7, 2014 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

Unilever – a name synonymous with some of the best and biggest brands , is headquartered in London at Leatherhead and I was invited a few weeks ago to spend an entire day exclusively in the Unilever kitchen cooking up a storm with some of the most amazing brands  in the food and drinks industry with a series of Masterclasses.

I arrived at the Leatherhead office on a rather grey and chilly October morning and since I managed to reach on time inspite of a massive delay on the SW trains and just before some major traffic signal issue threw the tube network off balance at the peak morning rush hour , I spent some time waiting in the beautiful lounge and gazing around. The fact that I was sitting in the very building where many brilliant minds conceptualise and give us brands like P.G Tips which are a part of our everyday lives lent a sense of admiration and awe to my thoughts.

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When the other bloggers arrived I was glad to see some familiar and friendly faces – Heidi from Heidi’s Kitchen Talks and Fiona of London Unattached . It’s always makes me very happy to meet in person  bloggers whose blogs I regularly visit and feel as if I already know – like Dom from Belleau Kitchen.

To kick start the day , we sat down to a very engaging and interesting session with Tea Expert – Jane Pettigrew. Of course we were served this lavish spread before the session and after much of crunching and munching we got onto some tea tasting.

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Now we are all familiar with the cute P.G Tips talking monkey and his friend Al who have been regaling us with some rather hilarious adverts on the telly for a while now, but are you aware of the vast range of teas available with P.G.Tips? Also, did you know that drinking Tea regularly helps keep cholesterol levels low?

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For all green tea aficionados – here’s a fab tip from Jane – Green Tea is best brewed at 80 C because adding boiling water will make the tea taste bitter. Useful tip knowing this, knowing that green tea has many health benefits – it helps cleanse the kidneys aids weight loss and is great for keeping age related diseases at bay.

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We tasted several teas including the new P.G.Tips range of fruity, herbal and green teas.

With a sudden flurry of activity the room was abuzz with an electric energy and the very charming and rather famous Master Chef – Marco Pierre White was in the kitchen with us. Gasps and silent whispering later we gathered around as he showed us how to cook the perfect steak and took us through a taste test. Steak which was rubbed with just sea-salt and pepper and steak rubbed a little olive oil and a Knorr Beef Stock Cube. Opinions for the which tasted the best strongly leaned in favour of the ones flavoured with the Knorr stock cube due to it’s rich meaty taste with well balanced herbs and spices.

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Then Chef Marco made a rich, creamy sauce using my favourite Knorr 3 peppercorn flavour pot and a whole bottle of Worcestershire sauce, which paired with the perfectly cooked steaks seasoned with Knorr Beef Stock Cubes went down a real treat.

We were then given workstations and assigned the task of cooking up one main dish in pairs. Fiona and me had to cook up a curried parsnip soup and flavour it using the versatile Knorr vegetable stock cubes. I must say that it was only when the masterchef stepped in to take over that the soup actually turned out really amazing…well, no shame in admitting that the Masterchef knows best right? 🙂

This is one picture that I am going to really treasure forever!

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The charisma of this great personality filled the room with an unmistakable electric energy. And yet inspite of his obvious charm he came across as very humble and very real as he shared his experiences of working in a professional kitchen at the very start of his star studded career.

The other bloggers made Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and Knorr Mixed herb flavour pot, a simple bolognese sauce and Risotto al Funghi – all using various Knorr flavour pots and sauces.

As you can see they also had great fun posing;)

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After a fabulous lunch sharing the food we had prepared together we then had a baking masterclass with Stork expert baker Sue Batty. We made fluffy cupcakes and Sue gave us complete rein to let our imagination run wild with the toppings and flavourings. The end result of course was a combination of colourful and delicious cupcakes.

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After we were given goody bags stuffed to the gills we were dropped off to the station, bringing to an end a fabulous day packed with masterclasses, cooking with a masterchef, getting excellent tips from a tea and baking experts.After a  rainy and chilly journey back home I enjoyed my evening cuppa with not one but 2 cute P.G.Tips company as Fiona’s monkey decided to come home with me. As you can see from the picture below, both of these naughty monkeys tried to sabotage my cuppa;)

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Keep an eye out the cute limited edition monkey available with certain packs of P.G.Tips – I want to collect them all!

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*With thanks to Master Chef Marco Pierre White, Tea Expert Jane  Pettigrew, Baking Expert Sue Batty ,Unilever and the entire PR team for a fabulous day out. No monetary compensation was offered for a positive review. As always all opinions expressed here are entirely my own. 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Events, Food Tagged With: Baking Expert Sue Batty, herbal and green teas, Knorr, Knorr 3 peppercorn flavour pot, Master Chef Marco Pierre White, P.G.Tips range of fruity, Tea Expert Jane Pettigrew, Unilever, Worcestershire sauce

Chicken and Red Lentil Stew – a complete ONE POT meal (Suran & Red Lentil Stew)

February 3, 2014 by manjirichitnis 33 Comments

There are times when I really want a hearty meal but don’t have the energy to stand and cook an elaborate meal. Its a times like that I turn to One pot meals, served with a warm baguette it is a filling , healthy and easy and quick to meal option which NO compromise on taste whatsoever! Moreover its home made , has flavour and is a satisfying experience to make .

I had been meaning to try and cook a stew using red lentils (masoor – Marathi for red lentil )for some time , they are my most favourite lentils and I am ALWAYS stocked up on a large 2 kilo pack of dried red lentils split and without skin , from my local Indian grocery shop at Tooting called Dadu’s. Also since all the other fresh ingredients were procured from my local LIDL this dish is GREAT value for money too! Am totally in love with the FRESH fruits and vegetable selection at LIDL right now.I bought some bright red long crunchy sweet peppers, a pack of medium hot chillies, fresh chicken breast fillets, a very cute packet of garlic, mixed pack of cauliflower and broccoli florets and a packet of gorgeous looking Shallots.( I have always wondered why the lentils are called RED when clearly they are a  lovely light orange colour !)

I love inventing a recipe as I go along and when I got my vegetable tray out on Sunday morning I had all these lovely vegetables staring at me and I just threw in what I thought would taste good together and VOILA ! A Steaming hot , thick, wholesome and tasty chicken and red lentil broth was born.

I love having some baby potatoes in stock and they are always handy in a stew , besides being quite the self proclaimed ”queen of curries” I always am well stocked on Indian spices so bay leaves and cinnamon sticks aplenty in my kitchen larder – oh yes

Please don’t feel put off by the ingredient list , trust me they marry well together in the taste department and the end result is well worth your time and effort!

The biggest bonus of this stew recipe is that you can create your OWN vegetarian version by replacing the chicken with Quorn or if you don’t for some reason like or have never tried or have no access to Quorn then try replacing the chicken fillets with  Suran/Elephant Foot Yam, it can be chopped into big chunks and it takes up flavours very easily. But with the yam the cooking time drastically will reduce as it can go from just right and chewy to soft, goeey or totally disappear into the stew ! My aai (mum) always used suran as a meat replacement and marinated it well in the spices we would use for chicken or lamb and made a thick gravy dish with it, when I was younger she has managed to fool me many times over thinking it was mutton 🙂 – Aai I miss you and all the food you cook – sigh…. no India trip in sight anytime soon 🙁

(Dangerous though it looks the elephant foot yam is very very tasty! )

suran

Cross Section:

surancut

Above 2 Images Credit here

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Serves:4  Preparation Time: 10 minutes  Cooking time:35 minutes

Ingredients:

  • Red Lentils / Massor Dal -3/4th cup
  • Chicken breast mini fillets – 750gm / Comparable Quorn fillets
  • 5-6 baby potatoes
  • 6 shallots approx 200gm
  • 2 large sweet and crunchy pointed Red Peppers – approx 200gm
  • 2 short medium hot chillies
  • 2-3 bay leaves dry
  • red chilli flakes as per taste
  • sea slat as per taste
  • 1 veg stock pot
  • 3 dried red kashmir chillies
  • 1 large roll of cinnamon
  • 4 tbsp sunflower oil
  • handful of Broccoli and Cauliflower florets
  • 2 large tbsp of tomato puree or half of a large tomato finely chopped
  • Red chilli powder
  • Sugar 2 tsp

Method:

  • Wash and soak the red lentil in water to soften them so they cook more quickly then get on with all the other chopping and cutting prep’s.
  • Chop the shallots lengthwise.
  • In a large stew pot or huge saucepan heat the oil and add the bay leaves,cinnamon stick and dry red kashmiri chillies which I have a very big packet of and am trying to finish , they only add colour and no heat so if you don’t have these you can totally leave them out – no harm done here.
  • Now add red chilli powder and sugar and just when the sugar starts to caramelise add the shallots and shallow fry them till they reduce and begin to turn a lovely brown colour.
  • Now add the 2 large tbsp’s  of tomato puree or half of a large tomato finely chopped and stir till it mixes well with the shallots.
  • Add the roughly chopped long red peppers and baby potatoes and saute’ for 2 minutes.
  • Add the washed chicken fillets/suran (elephant yam), soaked red lentils with the water it was soaked in.
  • Add the washed and roughly chopped Broccoli and Cauliflower florets and now add enough water.
  • I did not measure the water I added but add enough to get a nice thick stew , while the ingredients are cooking together on a low flame ,feel free to top up with more water as the lentils easily soak up as much water as you feed it with. Having said that you don’t want to end up with a watery stew so don’t add more than 3/4th cup at one go.
  • Season with sea salt , I love MALDON SEA SALT which I use and I have a few packets ALWAYS stashed away, great n salads it is!
  • Then sprinkle red chilli flakes and gently place a veg stock cube on top on this lovely pot of goodness bubbling away. I prefer the KNORR veg stock cubes , they have a great bouquet of flavour and are very handy at times when am exhausted and need to quickly cook up something tasty!
  • Stir well, cover with a lid and cook on a medium flame.
  • The red lentil will froth as they cook not to worry simply stir now and then and mix well, don’t allow the stew to get too thick we want enough lovely gravy to slurp this stew and dip the baguette into!

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I was so hungry that I didn’t click any photos of my lovely fresh ingredients but it was a brilliantly sunny day yesterday and after this wholesome stew for lunch we had to really force ourselves to go and get some much needed fresh air at Morden Hall Park – I happily left my smartphone behind so photos to share but suffice to say that it was a gorgeous walk through the huge grounds and we saw many happy families ,happy couples and cute old folks and even happier kids and dogs romping around in the muddy park  fun! And because we were so good we treated ourselves to hot tea and a sandwich at a local Turkish Cafe 😉 hehehe

Am very happy and proud of this new original recipe creation from my experimental kitchen. Next time I make this stew I will smoke the sweet and crunchy long red peppers and peel off the skin , to add a deep smoky flavour to the stew and not have the skin floating around – double whammy I say 🙂

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Am linking this recipe to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Mark at his wonderful  blog called  CookinwLuv

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Chicken and Red Lentil Stew – a complete ONE POT meal (Suran & Red Lentil Stew)

Filed Under: Food, Meat, Quick and Easy, Recipe Index Tagged With: baby potatoes, baguette, bay leaves, Broccoli and Cauliflower florets, Chicken & Red Lentil Stew, Chicken breast mini fillets, chop, cinnamon, combine, cut, delicious, dried red kashmir chillies, dry lentils, finely chopped, full bodied flavour, hob, Indian Spices, kitchen larder, Knorr, large tomato, low flame, Maldon Sea Salt, Massor Dal, medium hot chillies, ONE POT meal, original recipe, recipe development, Red chilli flakes, red chilli powder, Red Lentils, saucepan, saute, sea salt, sliceoffme creative kitchen, smoky, spicy, stir, stock, stockpot, store, sugar, sunflower oil, Suran and Red Lentil Stew, tablespoon, tasty, teaspoon, tomato puree, veg stock pot, yummy

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