It is not everyday that I feel good about myself and when I feel low cooking has always been a great way to revive my lost spirit. Never knew it could bring such happiness in life. The day I got message from Sulekha New York I could not really believe that they want my interview. I thought of is as a prank. But well, good things do happen....I know as some of my friends say that my blog needs more updates, pictures and improvements in various segments. I cannot get obsessed with anything and even though I love blogging I am not really obsessed with it. And now my belief has become even stronger that Simple things get attention too...Simplicity is not really easy to find after all ;)
So here goes the Interview....I would love to share it with you all-
Nabanita's outset on chilies and prawns (click on this for the interview)
Fathom a meal that’s inspired from Masterchef; A platter that contains Jude’s Chicken Italienne, Matt Preston’s 80-40-20 Passionfruit Sponge, Heston’s Fish and Chips—not to mention George’s Lemon, Lime Bitters. Nabanita’s love to cook food beyond certain inhibitions from India dons as a plethora in her happy shell, ‘eatwithnabz’. Who said that people from India cover up, even if they binge on BEEF in stealth? Nabanita is quite transparent about her outgoing nature with every delicacy on the planet.
How do you keep intact with regional cuisines and the respective signature dishes?
Food is all about taste and also texture. When I think of a certain cuisine I think about the texture and the things that I am not ready to compromise. As an example, for Bengali food, the spices like cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, mustard, turmeric, and various other spices are extremely crucial. On other hand when you think about Italian/Mediterranean or Mexican cuisine, you think about the fresh herbs or the different types of chilies.
So basically, when I cook any regional food I understand the basic core ingredients and after that I try a bit of permutation and combination in my own style. My motto always is to serve the signature dishes in my style while keeping the core somewhat intact.
Who’s the ‘kitchen fairy’ inspired you to unravel cooking “beef”? How do you choose your herbs and seasonings?
Aha Beef! The only type of meat I absolutely love is Beef and fortunately my partner can live on Beef for years. So he is you can say the “kitchen fairy” when it comes to cooking beef in my kitchen.
Choosing herbs and seasoning is actually a very easy task. I am an avid follower of Masterchef (AU &US) and TLC channel. From there I get most of my ideas about spices and herbs. After that I get whatever spices I can get my hands on. And from then on it is all about applying bit of permutation/combination skill & taste sense while cooking and BINGO!!
We personally like your Teriyaki Chicken Kebab & Adult mango Mousse. When we tried these recipes, what stroke our mind is “Yeah…it works!” Where do you get your ideas for barbecue?
Oh yeah, of course it works! I am my worst critic and a perfectionist when it comes to cooking. I love to experiment a lot and basically that is where all my barbeque ideas come up from. Along with that again the foodie souls inside me and my partner is a big help. My partner’s a really good food critique & helps me a lot to fine tune my dishes.
A hypothetical question – If given a choice between the ‘realm of touring at free of cost’ and ‘getting locked up in a 17th century Victorian kitchen’, which one would be yours?
It is a dream to have my own huge Victorian style kitchen & hence I would opt for the Victorian Kitchen. It would be great if it were mobile so I could cook while travelling but otherwise I would settle for the stationary kitchen of course. Cooking makes me happy from inside and helps me to forget the stress and tension. And I would love if this question wasn’t hypothetical. *wink* ;)
How did you find baking as a child’s play, while many people like us are easier with Karhai and gallons of oil? You know that you share appetize through food blogging! Who’s your inspiration driving you into the world of baking?
Baking is fun! One thing I do not like about Karhai cooking is gallons of oil. Apart from that, the way we can make thousands of different types of cakes, breads, tarts, muffins, kebabs, lasagna, roasted meat and everything- I just couldn’t save myself from falling in love with baking. I am lucky to have a friend who loves baking and few years back it is him who induced the enthusiasm about baking in me. After that I started reading about it more and experimenting on my own. It was the dream world for any foodie.
Can you share with us the secret of innovative cooking?
For any cook it is very important to have a foodie soul inside. I am a foodie and I love to eat everything that is tasty. Even though I have all the regards for traditional recipes, I like to make things in my way without following the conventional recipes. I like to leave my own mark on a particular dish so that the next time you taste it somewhere else, you would think about how it tasted when you had it here in my kitchen. I love to take risks in my cooking and I can say that they rarely fail. A few years back I could only cook Maggie noodles and omlette and I was proud of that. Today I can cook almost anything and everything and I am ready to take any amount of risk to cook something unique and appealing.
All you need is a little bit of courage… And as I say so frequently “If you can cook omlette and noodles, you can learn to cook any delicacies”. You just need to have that passion about food & cooking.
Happy Cooking! :)
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