On the eve of Diwali, I would like to share my winning recipes:

1. Creamy and Crunchy Surprise

2. Beetle Surprise

Creamy and Crunchy Surprise

Ingredients:

• Maida – 200 grams

• Rava – 50 grams

• Powedered. Sugar

• Paneer- 100 grams

• Khoya – 100 grams

• Dry Fruits for Garnishing

• Ghee – for shortening the Dough and Deep Frying

• Pinch of Salt

• Oranges

• Rose Leaves

Method:

• Prepare a stiff dough from Maida, Rava and Ghee. Keep aside for 15 minutes.

• In a Kadhai, put the Ghee to heat for deep frying. Make small roundels of the dough and speard it thin. Using a mould, give it a “katori” shape. Deep Fry on low heat.

• Squeeze the juice from the oranges. Heat a pan and pour the juice. Reduce it to a thicker consistency.

• In another pan, bhuno the khoya till it starts leaving the “oil”. In the meantime, grate the paneer. Mix and mash the mixture to form a thick and smooth paste.

• In one more pan, add water and rose petals. Add sugar and cook till a thick consistency is formed. Add the mixture to Paneer-Khoya paste. Mix well.

• Now add the reduced Orange juice to the paste.

• Remove the “katoris” from Ghee. Using a piping bag, fill the katori with the Paneer-Khoya mixture.

• Garnish with Dry fruits and Orange Zest.

Beetle Surprise

Ingredients:

• Beetle leaves

• Rose petals

• Khoya

• Cocoa Powder

• Sugar

• Chandi ka Vark

• Cloves

Method

• Bhuno the Khoya. Add Cocoa powder and keep aside.

• In a pan, boil water and rose petals. Add sugar. Make a gulkand by cooking consistently and adding water if needed.

• On a Beetle leaf place the gulkand, khoya mixture and close it with a clove.

• Place the chandi ka vark for design.

Be Fearless

There have been times when I have been offered opportunities which I was not worthy of and there have been times where I have struggled very hard for the opportunities to come my way. MasterChef India has been one unique opportunity that I did not think would come my way. I firmly believe that I have been blessed by such an opportunity.


My journey in MasterChef India is a representation of the fact that if you consider yourself an artist, you can have fun with what you can do with your passion. For me, my passion is food and photography. I have always loved to create something new and something different. There is no greater pleasure in life than to bring something to life. Something that the world has not seen.

My journey here in Master Chef may or may not be a long one. However, there is appreciation of the fact that if you treat your food as an artist does, you can create wonders.

After a brief interval I am restarting my conversations with you.

I have deleted my previous posts and will be coming out with many signature recipes very soon.

Till then, I shall leave you with my favourite line from the movie Ratatouille: “Cooking is not for the faint at heart. You must be strong, be imaginative. You must try things that may not work. And you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul. What I say is true, anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.”