Wine - The Secret Ingredient

Cooking with Wine. The photo above says it all. Till 26th August, food and wine pairing meant serving wine with food. In fact, in my previous experience of wine tasting, I had learnt that wines could be paired with Indian dishes too, and that was surprising enough. I was invited to a Live Cooking session at Cheri One Qutub at Mehrauli organized by Four Seasons and Team Gingerclaps along with a few fellow bloggers, friends, photoghraphers and wine enthusiasts. What could be a better composition?

With a glass of excellent white wine, we started the event. Mr Shailendra Rahul, General Manager of Cheri introduced Mr Abhay Kewadkar, Business Head of Four Seasons and Chef Raman Kohli. It could be the wine, or the cloudy-breezy atmosphere in the lovely outdoor courtyard of the restaurant, that formalities were done away with. Mr Kewadkar urged us to forget all the showbiz, and "eat what we like and drink what we enjoy"!! 

We gathered around Chef Raman, an incredibly young guy for the experience he has, and he encouraged us to use wine in cooking. With tips coming in from Mr Abhay, we learnt how to deglaze the wine and cook a fabulous preparation of scallops.

The rains were about to play foul, so we shifted indoors, but not before we had gobbled off the scallops. The L- shaped interiors have been designed around the courtyard and looks very classy with its prim, dimly lit look and massive bar. I must say that Cheri is a beautiful place to go, relax and enjoy: the outdoors, including the terrace, is as inviting as the mystical interiors.

We tasted Red Wine with some delicious food coming in from the kitchen. The youngest contestant of Master Chef Australia, Ankita had also joined us. Already tipsy, we were chatting gleefully with each other and we almost missed Raman joining us back again.

This time, he made a chicken preparation with wine and cream - needless to say that it was wonderful.

Last but not the least, we had dessert (yummy cheese cakes) with another red variety, Rose Wine.

I leave you a teaser in the composition, which shows the scallops, empty and filled glasses!

 Next time you have the chance to have a dish prepared by me, you can guess the secret ingredient that has gone into it !!

Photocredits: Arvind Passey, Sushmita Sarkar, V J Sharma (Travellingcamera) and myself. 

Tasting Wine!!!

I still remember the first day I tasted wine ever. My cousin had taken our gang out, and red wine was ordered. I remember wincing at the first sip... but there was something in that sour taste blended with a quaint sweet flavour. I not only finished that glass, but although I am an essentially non alcoholic person, I would love to have a glass or two of wine occassionally. Oops, that's a secret let out!!!

So, when my blogger-and-more buddy, Sushmita invited me for a Wine Tasting event organised by  Four Seasons, I readily agreed ignoring the fact that it was on a Thursday afternoon. The venue was near my office, Fresco Restaurant in Connaught Place, which is famous for exotic Italian food. I was joined by seven fellow bloggers, (left to right in the picture): Rituparna, Pratik, Purba, Deeba, Sushmita, Sangeeta and Rekha.

The bright face you see behind our group is Shamita Singha, Miss Earth Universe. She came across as the girl next door and told us about wines, about Four Seasons and interacted with us freely. Never for once, did she sound like a celebrity. But she sure knew a lot about wines!

I mean, I have consumed wine on various occasions at different restaurants in a number of cities, and used to think myself as quite a  connoisseur. But never had I bothered to think how wine was made, where it got its colour from, etc. Shamita told us all this,and gave us ideas about pairing different types of wine with the type of cuisine. Yes, dont be surprised if I serve you wine with Baingan-ka-bharta (Roasted brinjal, a delicacy from the Indian cuisine) now! We tasted five types of wines over enthralling converstation, and were quite tipsy and gay by the end of the session. All of them were great!!! Two smart representatives from Four Seasons, Jyoti and a handsome young man (sorry, I forgot to ask his name) kept us company enthusiastically over the food and drinks.

We were gifted a complimentary bottle of wine for our friends and family. So come over, if you want to share my newly gained knowledge and taste the wine.

Some of my friends have also blogged about the event, and their posts are far more colourful, informative and exciting!! Read them here, while I leave you a teaser with the snaps above:

Deeba's, Sangeeta's, and Sushmita's .

Photo credits: Group Photo by Four Seasons, Wine Bottle and Glasses: Deeba Rajpal

When colours talk