A COOKING CONTEST



I was leafing through a Vanitha, the leading  malayalam women's magazine here, when i ran across the entry coupon for a cookery contest..and i thought..why not?So I filled in the application form, sent in my entries for ,a veg sidedish, a non veg side dish, and a dessert..Lazybones that I am...I selected recipes which were the shortest to write..without much thought or idea..
...And..what happened was that I got selected for the preliminary round! I was asked to join a zonal competition with 15 other ladies from around Kochi..and told to make the veg recipe i had sent in..Cool!I had sent SPINACH ROULADE as the veg entree..Got thruough the first round..was selected as one of five finalists from Kochi zone ..Yesterday was the finals, where fifteen women from all over Kerala battled it out for the title of Paachakarani 2010.
Having made it to the finals, I didnt have much hope for getting anything other than a consolation price(snifff!) since (as i told you guys earlier)the recipes I had sent in were selected by me for their brevity in writing..not for dramatic cooking.
Anyway..so there I was.. making a simpleNUTELLA CUSTARD and an equally easy to make MALLU CHILLICHICKEN , while all around me fourteen expert cooks made comlex koftas, variety puddings, fusion curries and pies....Sigh!not even a snowball's chance in heaven!!
So I decided to relax ..two and a half hours time to do my easy to make dishes!way too much time! 
Anyways..net result, a perfectly set mousse pudding and well cooked chicken, which netted me the 2nd place..and ten thousand rupees worth goodies from whirlpool!!!!
wow!!
But it wasn't that which got me excited..it was the fact that, for the first time in my life, I was in a totally different environment..where food production,perfection , is of utmost importance..where every single person in that hall was a foodie through and through.It wasn't just me..all the other fourteen particapants, the three celebrity judges(Lakshmi Nair, Tv cookery expert, Mr Raheem,executive chef of the Taj group of hotels, and a home science professor)the organisers..we were all equally passionate about cooking!
I still haven't come down from the high I experienced when I chatted with a real live chef...when he asked me if I am a professional chef...(teehee!!)when about 50 other strangers descended on the dishes that  I had made and pronounced them yummy...That was the real prize..everything else pales in comparison .

NUTELLA CUSTARD

Ingredients
Arrowroot biscuits   150gms
Butter   2tbsp

Nutella  1 cup
Fresh cream 1 cup

Custard powder  3 tbsp
Milk 2 cups
Sugar  6 tbsp
Fresh cream 2 cups
China grass 1 packet(10 gms)
Condensed milk 1 tin(400 gms)
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Choclate shavings to decorate

Method

P ut the biscuits in a mixie and crush till finely powdered. Rub in soft butter till it resembles bread crumbs. Press down into a pie dish and keep in fridge to set.
Beat together nutella and cream , then pour onto the hardened base, refrigerate again.
Soak chinagrass in 1 cup of water, melt till smooth.
Mix  together the  milk, custard powder, and condensed milk  and heat in a saucepan, stirring well till slightly thick .
Mix this with the melted chinagrass .
.  Combine cream, vanilla essence, and sugar, and whip till softly peaking.
Fold the cream into the custard mixture gently, then pour onto Nutella layer. Leave to set in  fridge. Garnish with choclate shavings and serve cold.


not my own pic,obviously! this is how it looks, though..

7 comments:

  1. hey, congrats on the award. This dish looks yummy. Do you mean the nutella chocolate and hazelnut spread????

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  2. Congrats,it looks great.Glad you are blogging again:-)

    Saf

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  3. hi,made nutella custard n it came out well.......my kids really enjoyed it.thanx n keep posting more n more pudding recepies

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  4. I am a regular reader of Vanitha Magazine and happened read ur recipes too... Accidentally happened to stumble across ur blog... and was really surprised to read ur blog... A big Congrats!

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  5. hi ritz...yep i meant the nutella choc and hazelnut spred..sorry for such a LATE reply...
    thank u guys..all who made the dish and enjoyed it...
    fatima..thank u...have been getting a lotta comments like urs nowadays and am still confused by all the fuss...anyways..keep cooking and have fun!

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  6. hi i tried making it..but it came out yellow in color when i added custard powder..how do u make it white??

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  7. Any substitute for arrowroot biscuit??

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