My Experience.......

Lets start from the very beginning......I got married to Abhishek in December 2004 and came to US. I always had this passion for cooking, so I used to make a lot of traditional Indian dishes for both of us. Abhi use to enjoy them a lot, as before getting married either he use to eat frozen food or he used to cook himself...infact he is also a great cook, but at the time we got married he didn't liked sweets at all and I am a sweets person, specially Bengali Sweets.

One day I thought of making Rasgullas at home and called my mom in India to ask how to start with it. "You have to make fresh paneer for making rasgullas and than boil paneer balls in a simple sugar syrup", she said. The same day I started of by making paneer and than boiled the paneer balls in than syrup, but it was a complete disaster and I was very upset. Abhi tried to console me a lot but in my head only one thing was going on, and that was if I cannot even make a simple dish like rasgulla than how will I move forward in this field.... :O(

One day we called one of Abhi friends on dinner and she got some homemade rasgullas for us and they were awesome. Without letting a minute go, I asked her (Rashmi), how do you make it and she said I can teach you right now if you have whole milk and a big pressure cooker at home. I started to think in my head, that how can you make rasgullas in a pressure cooker. Anyways, I asked Abhi to bring milk at the same time from a nearby grocery store and we started by making Paneer and than rasgullas from it.....and thats how it all began or I can say thats how I started making paneer for all Bengali sweets.

I kept on experimenting with Paneer and making myself efficient in making these sweets at home, unaware of anything like FOOD NETWORK or any person named Emeril Lagasse. Actually, we didn't used to have additional channels at first, we just had those basic channels. So, I used to watch a lot of TLC shows and slowly it became my favourite channel.

Then one day, in the end of August 2005, someone knocked at our door and Abhi answered. A person from Time Warner Cable was there and he said there is an offer going on for free subscription of additional channels for the whole month of September and if you like them you can get them for an additional payment of just $10 per month, but this offer is for now only. Abhi immediately said yes for it and than we thought, lets see it for a month and than we'll extend it, if we'll like it.

As usual, I used to watch TLC and TLC only, but one day while flipping the channels I saw someone cooking and suddenly I stopped. That someone was Paula Deen...didn't knew at that time though and I got HOOKED on it. It was a whole new world for me. Day and night FOOD NETWORK and FOOD NETWORK only. Thats how I came to know about EMERIL Live, what a nice show.....OK lets watch it.

As far As I remember, in October, Emeril announced this contest called "Emeril Live Scratch Contest" and said they wanted something from stratch which should not be a complete dish, but can be put use for making some other dish and than Emeril will create one of his own dishes from it. Now I got something to think about and I kept on thinking that, what can I send that should just be a basic ingredient for making the dish and not a complete dish in itself. Nothing was coming to my mind and I was not even exposed to American Food that much. Never used to like Pasta or any type of cheese. But knew one thing and that was 'Americans Love Cheese'.

Abhi was in the office that day and was very busy in meetings....I called him and asked if I can send the recipe of Paneer in Emeril Live's contest, he was in a rush, so he said OK..OK, send it and I got a green signal. I wrote a small introduction about India and about my family along with the recipe of Paneer and sent it.

On 11th of February 2006, one of our very close friends Ila and Diwakar, met with an accident on their vacation and it was a big shock for us. Diwakar (Abhi's college friend) got hurt very badly but with the grace of God nothing was life threatening and all the injuries were curable. We went to see him and he was recovering fast. Everybody was trying to make him laugh and make him feel comfortable, as if nothing has happend and he was also enjoying it. Next day we were taking him out for a change and suddenly my phone rang. At first I thought of not picking it as the number was not familiar, but than I don't know what happend and I took the call.

"Hi, this is Alan Madison calling from Emeril Live, may I speak to Nidhi Gupta please", he said....I said, what??? He repeated that same thing and I said "OK, yes, this is Nidhi here"... "Congratulations Ms Gupta, your recipe has been selected as one of the 100 semi-finalists, can you tell me something about yourself, your husband and your family back in India." I immediately said, which recipe, I didn't send any recipe....actually, I totally forgot about it. Then he reminded me of sending the recipe of Paneer and I said, "Oh! yes, yes..now I remember." Everybody was waiting outside for me in the car, but Ila was there and as soon as she heard that its a call from FOOD NETWORK, she started telling everyone...."celebrity ban gayee" and I was still taking to Alen. After keeping the phone done, I thought I am a semi-finalist with 99 others...whatever.., I again forgot about it.

In May 2006, I was packing for our vacation to NY and again a call from a somewhat familiar number. "Hi Nidhi, this is Alan Madison"...he said and I said, (my heart was pounding out of my chest), "Oh! ya, tell me how are you doing?" He said, "I am good and just wanted to say Congratulations, you are one of the Four lucky winners of 'Emeril Live Scratch Contest' from 1600 entries. I'll be coming to your home along with my crew on 30th Of June 2006 to Shoot the recipe of Paneer." I was so happy....I thanked him a lot and immediately after it, I called Abhi.

At 30th of June 2006 at 8:00 am, they came for shooting of the recipe and stayed till 4:00 pm. They were amazed to see all the different Indian Spices and how Indian dishes like Palak Paneer, Matar Paneer, Rasgulla, Rasmalai etc.etc. are made from scratch in India. They were even more surprised to know that this type of cooking is a day-to-day part of Indian lifestyle. Alan asked me to speak in Hindi as well as in English and he specifically liked the word "NAMASTE". That day I prepared a lot of Indian dishes featuring paneer in them like Palak Paneer, Paneer Tikka, Matar Paneer, Rasgulla, Rasmalai, Paneer Cheese cake and some other dishes like Dal Makhani, Fruit Skewers, Jeera Rice, Naan, Chivda etc.

After the shooting of making Paneer was over, we all enjoyed all the dishes that I prepared. One of my close friends Jeene was also there with us during the shooting. Then they interviewed me for almost 45minutes, asked me all types of questions related to India. Alan said, he wanted to take some of my shots at the nearby Indian store. So, from there we went to the Indian store and did a little bit shooting there as well.

Alan and the crew had there flight back to New York at 4:45 pm, the same day, so they had to rush to the airport now. They said good bye to us and appreciated my food a lot. We both thanked them and came back home discussing each and every moment of the day that we spent with them.

On August 21st 2006, I recived a call from the same area code, different number though....again a surprise for me. I thought it was over, but no...there was something more for me in store... "Hi this is Patricia LaMorte from FOOD NETWORK, may I speak to Nidhi Gupta please", she said. I said, "yes this is Nidhi here"..."Hi Nidhi, this Patricia and I have called to say Congratulations to you and to set up your flight and hotel reservations for 21st of September 2006 (which is my birthday), you are invited on the show and the shooting will take place on 22nd September 2006 at 4:00pm. You can also bring 5 other people with you to the show".

Abhi (was sitting next to me during the show) and Two of my favourite Uncles and Aunts, my father's youngest brother and his cousin brother along with their wives, went with me to the show and we all enjoyed a lot. Rest you have already seen on the Television. In the end, I would like to say..........

..It was an awesome and one-of-a-kind experince....I will never forget it in my life.

See Me on Emeril Live............

Dear Fellow Bloggers and Food Lovers,

I am very excited to share this news with you all. I will be on TV on Emeril Live.........................

I am one of the four lucky winners of 'Emeril Live Scratch Contest'. The episode named "Emeril's Scratch Contest" with all four winners was shot in New York on September 22nd 2006. The episode will be aired on FoodNetwork channel on January 7th, 2007 at 8.00pm EST/PT. My recipe will be the first one on which Emeril will create one of his own alterations.

I feel good to see a very Traditonal recipe from India highlighted on National TV with one of America's best known chef.

See you there...

Best Wishes, Nidhi.

Palak Paneer, my mom's traditional way

In my family Palak Ka Saag aur Makka ki roti is a regular feature. I learned it from my mom, love the taste and texture of it. She makes it in the most traditional way, as my grand-father's mom used to make, she says. No need to deep fry the paneer, increasing it nutritional value as well and the ingredients used are the most basic ones that everyone have at home like Wheat Flour, Moong Dal, Butter Milk etc. So lets start cooking and fill our kitchens with the aroma of the past.......

Makes 4-6 Servings
Serving size 4 Tbsp

Ingredients:
Palak (1 Kg)
Paneer (200 Gms, Cut into small cubes)
Moong Dal (50 Gms, Washed & Pre-Soaked)
Butter Milk (1.5 Cups)
Wheat Flour (1/2 Cup)
Onion (2 Roughly Chopped)
Tomato (4 Pureed & Strained)
Ginger (3 Tbsp, Chopped)
Garlic (6-8 Cloves, Peeled)
Oil (1.5 Tbsp)

Spices:
Cumin Seeds (1.5 Tsp)
Turmeric (1 Tsp)
Red Chilli Powder (1 Tsp)
Corriander Powder (2 Tsp)
Salt (To Taste)

For Tadka/Garnish:
Ghee (1 Tbsp)
Red Chilli Powder (1/4 Tsp)
Hing (a Pinch)
Dried Red Chillies (2, Whole)

Method:

1. Wash Spinach and chop roughly. Then, boil it with moong Dal, a little water and salt in a pressure cooker. After one whistle, turn off the stove and let the steam release itself. Now coarsely puree the spinach in a blender, by pulsing it 3-4 times. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a large pan. Make a paste of onion, ginger and garlic and start sauting in the heated oil. While onion paste is getting golden brown, make a paste of Butter-milk and Wheat flour and keep aside.
3. Now put all the spices in the onion paste and saute for a minute. then pour the tomato gravy and again fry for 1 minute.
4. Now put the coarsely blended spinach in the pan and mix well.
5. Then after about 3 minutes of stirring, pour the butter-milk paste in the pan and let it come to a boil while stirring constantly.
6. Now simmer the gas stove and let it cook for 1 to 1.5 hrs.
7. When its done prepare the garnish or tadka in a very small pan. First heat Ghee and then add cumin seeds, dried red chillies, hing and red chilli powder. Fry for 30 seconds or so.
8. Place paneer in the serving dish, pour prepared spinach over it and serve piping hot garnished with hing infused ghee and Makka ki roti.

Tip: If you are very health concious, then don't put tadka made with ghee.