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Go Goa with Indian Zing’s Goan Inspired Christmas Menu – a Review

December 21, 2014 by manjirichitnis 4 Comments

A short walk from Ravenscourt Park Tube station, this Indian restaurant is at the end of a high street with far too many restaurants in close proximity to each other. But clearly Indian Zing seems to be favoured over the others as a few minutes after we strolled in there late on Monday evening it was heaving with hungry customers.

I was invited to review the Christmas Menu and seeing Pork sorpotel, Pork Vindaloo and a Turkey Jalfrezi on their Goan Christmas Menu, I couldn’t turn down a week day trip to a part of London that is not quite on my way back home from work.

We were greeted warmly by the maître d’ Rahul who got us a ‘welcome drink’ shortly after we were seated. This warming soupy broth of tomatoes, coriander and some other secret ingredients was just what we needed on a chilly evening.

While we selected our wine and starters, we were pleasantly surprised to have the owner-Chef Manoj Vasaikar stroll in for a chat. Like us he is a Maharashtrian from Mumbai and I guess one the reasons we immediately warmed up to him. Of course it is Chef Manoj’s down to earth demeanour that puts one at ease from the word go. The love for food and his passion to serve fresh food cooked using quality ingredients carefully sourced becomes evident as he shares the inspiration behind the new Goan Inspired menu and as we chatted away a small part of me seemed to drift away from the conversation to a pristine white sands beach in Goa.

The fact that we were seated in a restaurant which has beautiful Indian artefacts and carved wooden pillars  (an extension of the influence of the Chef’s Indian background and love for things Indian) may also have had something to do giving me the feeling that I was in India not London on a cold, rainy winter evening.

First up came the starters :

  • Goan vegetable cutlets (Almomdegas) – Exotic vegetable with Goan herbs and spices, pan seared. Served with red Goan chutney and baby cress
  • Pork Sorpotel  – A pork pickle mellowed with a distinct flavour of dried red Goan paste marinated in Palm vinegar. Served with sanna (a steamed rice cake).
  • Sun Dried Shrimps and Fish Cutlets – Small shrimps, seasonal fish with fresh herbs and spices, root vegetable with semolina seared on hot pan. Served with roasted coconut chutney.
1-Indian Zing Goan inspired Christmas Menu 17th Dec'14 Mon

One bite into the shrimp and fish cutlet had me oohing and aahing and of course greedily craving for more 😉 While for hubster the Sorpotel hit the spot. The tangy pickle flavour combined with the fiery Goan paste is cleverly balanced by the palm vinegar while the steamed rice cake – Goa’s answer to bread, manages to cut through the spice really quite nicely.

I could happily have had lots more of the shrimp and fish cutlets and continued sipping on aromatic red which the maître d’ kindly picked out for me. Cabernet Sauvignon, Les Templiers, Vinde Pays a red wine from France with blackcurrant and blackberry flavours with ripe balanced tannins – perfect match with our starters.

While Chef Manoj left to go check on his guests at his other rrestaurant Rahul continued to fuss over us and we left it to him to bring us his favourite picks from Indian Zing’s Goan themed Christmas Menu.

By now the festive spirit had us in it’s grips and hubster and me happily reminisced about all things Mumbai, when was the last time we visited Goa and other such happy memories. I was in Std 5 when my parents took my sister and me to Goa for a long vacation and I still can never forget the meal of steamed rice and the fresh catch of the day we all shared at a cute little beach shanty. Of course time has a way of erasing bits and pieces from your memories, something like old photographs in family albums that begin to fade and fray at the edges but the essence of the moment always stays captured somewhere in that picture. That is why food like what we were about to eat brings with a rush of memories, familiar sights and sounds tumble out of old hidden chests in your memory bank…

When Rahul arrived with a huge tray with 4 mains, plain naan, steamed rice and brown rice pulav we couldn’t wait to get started.

I had to taste the Zing’s Turkey Jalfrezi with Caramelised Cranberry first though and it is a fabulous marriage of east meets west with perfectly cooked diced turkey which has been marinated in a rich spice mixture served in a thick gorgeous onion, pepper and tomato gravy sauce topped with scrumptious caramelised cranberries.

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Hubster on the other hand dug into the Pork Vindaloo, a traditional  Goan delicacy, heavily spiced and usually fiery, this dish to me is Goa on a Plate. A hand me down from the Portuguese influence on Goan food , Indian Zing’s interpretation results in a dish of melt in your mouth soft pork dish in a rich sauce of  slow cooked spices which penetrate through the meat giving it an intense depth of flavour, almost like eating a juicy meat pickle. Mop this up with plain naan – makes a superb combination I say.

Seafood lovers that we both are, we were happy that Goan fish Ambottik was part of the selection of dishes we were sampling. Best consumed with plain boiled rice this fish gravy is seasoned with kokum which gives it  fabulously tangy almost sour flavour and the spices give it that familiar coastal curry flavour but with a dash of Goan red chillies. Not for the faint hearted though this is a fiery one but a true Goan dish , do not hesitate to order this. I highly recommend washing this down with several glasses of Gamay, Duboeuf Vin de Pays a Red wine from France, a lively red with a full aromatic character of crushed fresh berries,  which is slightly chilled to balance spicy food. ( I noticed that the wine menu had a Sauvignon Blanc from Sula Vineyards in  Nashik from Maharashtra state in India and I almost immediately wanted to order us a bottle to take home but have decided to go back and savour this wine on a relaxed afternoon some day soon over a meal of fish curry and rice – ummm)

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We ate spoonfuls of Caldinho de legumes in between greedy mouthfulls of the Ambottik and rice. A  green herb curry with a gorgeous combination of vegetables and mushrooms smothered in cashew nut gravy this is flavoured with a virgin extract of coconut milk and topped with wafer thin roasted almonds. Absolutely delightful this is a fabulous accompaniment to most of the mains especially the Turkey Jalfrezi. Frankly we couldn’t get enough of this green veggie coconut goodness.

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While we sat down quietly trying to get all that food down into our tummies, I was reminded of how every year my father used to bring a rich plum cake which we would hungrily devour after our big Christmas day dinner of home made biryani and lots of snacks and special fizzy drinks for all the kids in the family. And if we were lucky Baba would also give us Bebinca – a sweet flour multi-layered cake, which he always got back from his frequent trips to Goa (Indian Zings menu has Goan Bebinca though I was more inclined to sample the spiced pudding so we gave it a miss)

No Christmas menu is complete without a showstopping dessert and Indian Zing’s spiced exotic Christmas pudding with spicy brandy custard is the perfect ending to a festive feast. All we needed now was a warm bed and the day off work the next day … 😉

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I only wish I was going back for more of Indian Zings Goan themed food especially would love some on Christmas day but I guess my friends and me will just have to make do with what hubster and I manage to make.

If you haven’t already called Indian Zing to book a table, then grab that phone and let Rahul book you in for a feast you won’t forget.

*With  thanks to Humayun Hussain and Indian Zing for the invite. No monetary compensation was offered for a positive review .All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Find the menu here follow me on Zomato

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: Almomdegas, blackberry flavours, blackcurrant, Cabernet Sauvignon, Caldinho de legumes, dried red Goan paste, Duboeuf Vin de Pays, exotic Christmas pudding with spicy brandy custard, fiery Goan paste, fresh herbs, Gamay, Go Goa, Goa on a Plate, Goan fish Ambottik, Goan vegetable cutlets, Indian Zing's Goan Inspired Christmas Menu, Les Templiers, lively red with a full aromatic character of crushed fresh berries, maharashtra, marinated, Nashik, onion, ork pickle, palm vinegar, pepper, Pork sorpotel, Pork Vindaloo, Red wine from France, Review, rich plum cake, ripe balanced tannins, roasted coconut chutney, root vegetable, Sauvignon Blanc, seasonal fish, semolina, shrimp and fish cutlet, Small shrimps, spices, steamed rice cake, Sula Vineyards, Sun Dried Shrimps and Fish Cutlets, tomato gravy sauce, Turkey Jalfrezi, Vinde Pays, Zing’s Turkey Jalfrezi with Caramelised Cranberry

Vin Chaud – Hot French Mulled Wine with Red Wine

November 25, 2014 by manjirichitnis 14 Comments

Last week Sunday was mostly grey and rainy , but I wasn’t feeling blue about the weather, I spent the day mostly curled up with a good book watching Netflix with the hubster around. We also decided that since it was the day the lights went on at Regent’s street it was the perfect day to get out the ladder and reach for the large brown carton which contains amongst other odds and ends our plastic Christmas tree neatly folded and wrapped, all our precious baubles and ….the neatly wrapped bundle of lights…..

As the crowds gathered around to watch the lights go on at Regents Street around 3pm, as hubster was gently snoring away after a rather delicious (if I may say so myself) meal of fried king fish, red lentil curry and rice, I decided that it was perfect time to take stock of what was in my store cupboard and check on my dried fruits which are now steeping in a rather rich alcohol base – ready for the day I will make the Christmas pudding. It was then that I found a beautiful tin with 2 packets of gorgeous spices to make Mulled wine, which was part of my goody bag given during July at the Christmas Show by waitrose.

There is something absolutely magical and heartwarming about opening a packet of spices , it is like flipping through an old album, happy memories of holidays spent with family , turkey carved, gifts unwrapped on Christmas morning….. all seem to come tumbling out of my blue tin spice jar which has a picture of Santa pulling his sleigh along the snow. The light brown tightly curled cinnamon sticks and hard dried orange sitting amongst deep red dried berries and fragrant cardamom… like a bouquet of aromas…

Waitrose Cellar had sent me a case of carefully picked red wines to let me experiment and come up with a recipe for mulled wine, from a country of my choice and taking inspiration from their Mulled wine page .They have a beautiful collection of recipes for mulled wines from around the world.  They also sent as part of the case a bottle of wine that was mulled by their team of wine experts.

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I remembered reading a recipe for Vin Chaud  or Hot French Mulled Wine on  David Lebovitz’s blog long ago and I knew I wanted to pick this French version of mulled wine and create it using the red wine – Marqués de Calatrava Organic Selecci´on Reservada Tempranillo from my wine case sent by Waitrose. Priced at £8.99 it is described as having notes of juicy strawberry with subtle spices and vanilla. This  fruity red made from Tempranillo grapes grown in the La Mancha region. It is a medium to full-bodied wine with a rich palate. It sounded apt for making Vin Chaud as it would marry well with the ginger and pepper required in the recipe used by David Lebovitz, which was inspired by a recipe Food52 cookbook. He has very rightly mentioned that adding cinnamon into the Vin Chaud which is actually made with white wine, overpowers the taste of the other warming spices in the hot French mulled wine.

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I also found another recipe for Vin Chaud by Rebecca Franklin a French food expert on about.com and it recommends the addition of cinnamon and cognac –  now Cognac –  I am a huge fan of. Friends who know me well, tire of my boring old way of almost always ordering a large peg of cognac with hot water when we go out during winter season. It’s just something to do with the rich, strong ,smooth and warm drink sipped slowly that warms my blood ,like a mini warm toasty log-fire inside my body, an internal thermostat of sorts…  🙂

So I decided to use combine both the recipes and both hubster and me are really satisfied with the end result. So much so that we ended up greedily pouring ourselves a more than generous portion of the Vin Chaud to perilous after effects which involved both us falling fast asleep while the tv played a few episodes of Breaking Bad to no one in particular – humm

Note to self – do not guzzle wine on an empty stomach especially Vin Chaud made with a large ‘splash’ of Cognac added in….

This warm festive mulled wine infused with hot spices and spiked with Cognac, honey and pepper is a great choice for serving at Christmas Parties and for sipping on co during cold, winter evenings – imagine drinking this fab French mulled wine in the dead of winter when you have just stepped in after braving the wretched winter winds , as the heating and warm socks work their effect on the outside, the hot wine induces a sense of warmth and festivity within – no one will judge you if you do go a bit overboard…

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Vin Chaud – Hot French Mulled Wine

Manjiri Chitnis

Vin Chaud – Hot French Mulled Wine with Red Wine

Print Recipe
Servings: 6 servings
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: French
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Bottle Red Wine – I used Marqués de CalatravaOrganic Selecci´on Reservada Tempranillo
  • 3 Pods Cardamom
  • 3 Cloves
  • 2 slices Ginger
  • 1 Star Anise
  • 60 ml Cognac ie. 1/4 cup
  • 1 Dried orange slice
  • A generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper

Method
 

  1. Pour the red wine into a saucepan add in all the ingredients and simmer over the lowest setting on your hob
  2. Keep stirring and do not allow the wine to boil
  3. Heat until the wine begins to bring up steam
  4. Strain using a sieve or a cheesecloth-lined funnel
  5. Pour into glasses and enjoy the warm, spicy mulled wine

Serves:6

Ingredients:

  •  1 bottle of Marqués de Calatrava Organic Selecci´on Reservada Tempranillo
  • 3 cardamom pods
  • 3 cloves
  • 2 slices ginger
  • 1 whole star anise
  • 1/4 cup i.e 60ml Cognac
  • 1 dried orange slice
  • a generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper
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I do hope this festive Hot French mulled wine warms the cockles of your heart this winter. Cheers!

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Inspired to try your hand at some fun cocktails at home? Why not have a look at my other recipes below:

  • Spiced Pink Gin Cocktail
  • Festive Hot Chocolate Vodka Martini
  • Spiced Pomegranate Cocktail

*With thanks to Waitrose Cellar . No monetary compensation was offered for a positive review. As always all opinions expressed here are entirely my own. Thanks to David Lebovitz for his inspiring post on Vin Chaud.

Filed Under: Food, Product Reviews Tagged With: aromatic, cardamom pods, christmas, cloves, Cognac, easy mulled wine recipe, Food52 cookbook, France, French recipe, freshly ground black pepper, fruity red, ginger, honey, juicy strawberry, La Mancha region, magic of christmas, Marqués de Calatrava Organic Selecci´on Reservada Tempranillo, medium to full-bodied wine, rich palate, Santa Claus, spices, subtle spices, vanilla, Vin Chaud - Hot French Mulled Wine with Red Wine from Waitrose Cellar, Vin Chaud easy recipe, Vin Chaud recipe, winter recipes, winter warmer

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