A great mid-week culinary escapade came in the form of a Masterclass with the internationally acclaimed show Master Chef India Season 5’stop 3 finalist, Dinesh Patel at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Agra.
The afternoon began with Mr. Paritosh Ladhani, Executive Director, Radisson Blu, Agra, welcoming the guest and Chef Dinesh Patel. Mr. Ladhani has driven the property towards greater heights with powerful strides into the hospitality domain. He hails from a business family that happens to be the biggest Bottler for Coca-Cola India. His family has been the No.1 bottling group for the company for the last 20 years, and this continual supremacy inspired him to venture into other business ideas, such as, hospitality.
With a background in law, Dinesh has followed his heart for baking and embarked on to pursue his passion on such an illustrious platform (Masterchef India) which has enabled him to set his foot forward to his home country India and connect with his roots. Chef Dinesh Patel, who is better known as the ‘dessert king’ whipped up a two course meal which included a non-vegetarian starter and a mouthwatering dessert for the media and the guests present.
Showing solidarity to the city, Dinesh named his starter “Agra Petha Savoury Salad” and the dessert was called, the “Shahi Tukra Summer Pudding.”
Speaking on the event, Dinesh Patel says, “I feel extremely thrilled to be a part of the master class hosted by the gorgeous Radisson Blu hotel in the beautiful city of Agra. It’s always an amazing feeling to meet new people and cook for them. I’m so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to share my love of cooking and food with so many more people through this master class.”
The enormously talented, Chef Dinesh Patel seeks inspiration from his grandmother’s cooking skills which has enabled him to develop a strong zest towards cooking. Adding an element of culinary delight, Dinesh kept his demonstrations interactive, highlighting the tips and inspirations for each of the dishes.
Speaking on the event, Executive Director, Alka Ladhani says,”It has been a wonderful experience hosting the talented Dinesh Patel and his Masterclass at Radisson Blu Agra. We are very proud of our food heritage in Agra, and who better than Dinesh Patel to embark on this culinary journey with us. I am very grateful to our guests who took out time to be a part of this mid-week culinary getaway.”
Chef Dinesh’s unique techniques and approaches in combining ingredients and creating magic through his delightful food kept the guests and participants immersed throughout the session. With a beautiful ambience at Radisson Blu, Agra and some appetizing food, this master class was truly a treat for every individual present there.
Recipe 1: Shahi Tukra Summer Pudding
- Take stale bread – a bread which is one or two days old. Cut than into triangles.
- Then fry that bread in salted butter until it turns golden and crisp on both sides.
- Dip that bread into a chashni made of 2 parts sugar, 1 part water – the chashni should not be too thick, it should just be less than just 1/3rd consistency.
- Once it’s dipped, quickly leave that on the side while the bread absorbs a little bit of that chashni.
- Now for the mousse, take whipped cream – around 2 or 3 cups of it.
- To that, add 2 or 3 cups of rabri – rabri should be made very simply by just reducing the milk – it has elaichi, nutmeg and sugar.
- Fold the rabri into the cream until it gives a nice and soft texture – don’t get rid of the lumps of the milk, let those remain as it will give a textural difference.
- Into the mousse, add nutmeg powder, ginger powder, cinnamon powder and elaichi powder just for taste – you can start off with around a quarter tea spoon of each but you can adjust this as per your taste.
- Once the mousse is mixed, move on to the compote which is of strawberries.
- Take around 300-400 grams of strawberries and add 3-4 table spoons of water, 1 table spoon of sugar and a squeeze of half a lemon into that. Allow that to cook down until it’s a nice jammy consistency but not dry at all.
- Let the pieces of strawberries remain intact – you can let that cook down a little bit but not too much.
- Once that’s done, leave this on the side as well and let it go completely cold.
- Now you are ready to assemble.
- Serve this in a glass, hence first put a little bit of the mousse.
- On the sides, add the smaller triangles of the fried bread that was prepared which by now will be nicely soaked.
- In the middle, add the strawberry compote and then again repeat – the mousse, bread, compote and then finally finishing with the mousse.
- On top, you can do a nice and generic peeked piping and garnish with fresh pistachios which are slivered, almonds if you wish as well, edible flowers and the silver varakh for a traditional touch.
Recipe 2: Agra Petha Savoury Salad
- Take the Agra petha, boil it for 2 -3 minutes and allow sugar to dissolve a bit.
- Take the petha, chop it finally and then caramelize it with one two table spoons of butter until its slightly crisp – not too much as we want the texture to remain.
- Now to marinate the chicken, take the chicken breast, make perforations with few cuts here and there.
- To make the masala, take chat masala, yogurt, fresh coriander, dried coriander powder, red chili powder, green chili, garlic and garam masala. Then marinate the chicken for around 10-15 minutes.
- Now sear in a hot pan with the touch of butter until the chicken is charcoal grilled and let black bits to come on the chicken. In the same pan, toss some sesame seeds and peanuts for a textual difference.
- Alongside take lemon, cucumber and onion and a French dressing made from black pepper, eggs, oil and French mustard.
- For the dressing, take 3- 4 egg yolks, 2 table spoons of French mustard, to that add oil very slowly whisking all the time – around 100 ml – 150 ml depending on the size of your egg yolks.
- Add salt and black pepper to that and that’s the dressing done.
- Now you can assemble the salad.
- Take the toasted sesame seeds, peanuts, take caramelized Agra petha. Into that, add juliennes of cucumber, sliced onions, lemons, extra fresh coriander, a pinch more of the chat masala, salt and black pepper to season.
- By now the chicken will be cooked – allow it to rest for 5-6 minutes.
- Now slice the chicken (very thin slices), almost shred it and add to the salad at very end.
- Now mix the slices of lemon, cucumber and onion to tossed sesame seeds and peanuts and add two table spoon of the French dressing to it. Now add the salad leaves into that.
- Add a little more fresh lemon and extra fresh coriander and now add only half of the shredded chicken into it.
- Mix it thoroughly.
- While serving, garnish it with further chicken on top, a little more of sesame seeds, a little more of fresh coriander and touch of lemon, edible flowers just for the color and pop to make it look tempting.
