Foodmall

Eating out is always a pleasure but fine dining is an exhilarating experience where you soak in the wonderful ambience and get pampered by the chefs to savor their “finely crafted masterpieces” cooked with the best of the ingredients. Of course, like all fine things, exclusive dining comes at a price and if you don’t mind paying for it, you get to savor the best and the exclusive. Forbes listed out the most expensive menus in the world and not surprisingly, the top three were from Paris!
Let’s take a look at them.

L’Arpege, Paris: Serves the most expensive menu that comes at $466. Chef Alain Passard grows his own vegetables and fruits in an organic farm about 100 miles outside Paris. The produce leaves fresh from the farm early in a high speed train to reach just in time for the lunch. The signature dessert is a candied tomato stuffed with 12 kinds of dried and fresh fruit, served with anise-flavored ice cream. Of course, you just can’t walk-in to enjoy your dinner there. Reservations are made 2 weeks in advance! Like it is said great things are worth the wait!

Alain Ducasse Plaza Athenee, Paris: In his Plaza Athenee restaurant, Alain Ducasse offers his guests modern and authentic French dishes for $437 in which the flavours of the ingredients are given pride of place. This Parisian ’symphony’ is conducted by the skilled and experienced chef, Christophe Moret. Guests can put together their own menu, choosing from a range of dishes from different cultures, regions or based on different produce.

Guy Savoy, Paris: Art is on the menu here and the chef Guy Savoy believes that cooking is the art of turning food into pure happiness. His signature dish is artichoke and black truffle soup, served with a layered brioche with mushrooms and truffle butter. A nine course menu would lighten your wallet by $402.The restaurant site asks you to dress in harmony with the aesthetics and elegance of its surroundings.

Bon Apetit!

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This Italian dessert is light, fluffy, exotic looking and above all, easy to make. The meringue forms the base of this soft and ready-to-melt-in-the-mouth cake, and is a great dish on a formal coffee table spread.

Wondering what to make for dinner tonight! Is it? I often feel butterflies in my stomach when I have to plan meal for my family. It is quite strenuous to plan and make a meal for working women, where daily chores as well as office work have no escapism.

I have found a way out to this menu planning and making phobia. The easiest way out that I could think of was ready-to-cook meals. They are easy to make, easy to store and ready to eat whenever you want to, all you have to do it heat it and its done!

It’s raining outside and your stomach is craving for some delicious hot n spicy pizza. Well what do you do? Dial a pizza from your local pizzeria. But hold on you have got to see what people have done with this humble little bread and veggie dish.

The Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company which began in 1972, has invented a cheese lovers delight. It’s called Pizza Pot Pies.
These pizzas are created using a ceramic bowl; the bowl is layered with cheese and then topped with veggie or meat stuffing, and covered with pizza dough. When taken out of the oven the pizzas resemble a mushroom, they are inverted and voila - pizza pot pie! This unique pizza is only available at the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company; check out their website for other pizza specialties.

Japanese pizza, anyone? A website claiming to be the world’s first Japanese pizza page shows off its unique pizza delicacies a la Japanese style. If you love sea food and don’t mind the taste of squid ink instead of regular tomato ketchup, then dig into these one of a kind Japanese pizzas. Check out the sea weed pizza, I’m sure it’s a class by itself!

Fruit pizza, ok now this may seem strange, but someone actually posted recipes to create unusual fruit pizzas. If you like the idea of caramelized pear, blue cheese and bacon on your pizza then you can try out the recipes on the gather.com website.

So the next time you have guests and want to order a pizza when hungry, you could actually try creating one of these unusual pizzas at home and impress your friends.

Set aside your calorie-count chart and enjoy this formal dish made with plum juicy tomatoes. Paneer blends in smoothly and absorbs the strong tomato flavour in this high protein dish.

The freshness of spinach and paneer add depth of flavour alongwith the mushrooms to this vegetarian wholesome snack. The mushrooms are mildly roasted, the spinach is ground into a fine paste while the paneer is softened, resulting in an unusually textured wrap. Apart from looking quite presentable on a special table spread, it is nutritious and easy to digest.

The spinach paste is the only essential ingredient, one can be a more creative and substitute mushrooms with some other tandoori vegetables. So, go ahead and try this vegetarian delight.

Spinach paste

225g baby spinach leaves, washed
45g fresh coriander, leaves and stalks
15g garlic (approximately 6 large cloves), peeled
15g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
6 tbsp roasted and salted peanuts
2-3 tbsp lemon juice, or to taste
1 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-3 green chillies (optional)
200g portobello mushrooms
6 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes
300-350g paneer cut into 2.5cm cubes
2 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying, plus extra for oiling pan
100ml water
1 ⁄2 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
5 flour tortillas

Marinade

75ml thick yoghurt
3⁄4 tsp each garam masala, ground
cumin, fennel and green cardamom powder
2 tsp garlic paste
1 rounded tsp ginger paste
2 tsp gram flour
salt, to taste
2 tsp lemon juice
1⁄4 - 1 ⁄2 tsp red chilli powder, or to taste
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp water

Clean the mushrooms, then boil them in water for 15 minutes. Drain and leave to cool, then slice thickly. Blend all the marinade ingredients to a smooth paste and tip into a non-metallic bowl. Add the mushrooms to the marinade and leave for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 and oil a roasting tin. Thread the mushrooms, well-coated in the marinade, onto the skewers and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, turning halfway.

Once cooked, add to a bowl with the paneer. Blend all the ingredients for the spinach paste to a smooth paste. Heat the oil in a large non-stick saucepan or frying pan and add the spinach paste and 100ml water. Cook over a moderate heat for about 15 minutes until it starts to thicken and become smooth and creamy.

Add the paneer, mushrooms and onion and cook for another minute or until the onion just starts to wilt. Meanwhile, wrap the tortillas in foil and warm in the oven for a few minutes. Divide the filling into five portions and wrap each in one of the tortillas. Roll up and cut in half on the diagonal.

And, your stylish wraps are ready.

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If you are bored with the usual spicy and ginger-garlic flavoured stuffing for your favourite fish, then, for once, be a little more adventurous and try out this dill and orange flavoured stuffing.

Brussels Sprout is probably one of the tastiest vegetables available today. Personally, I didn’t have the opportunity to try them out yet. But, I have heard of people who have had some of it. The only problem with these veggies is the poor wrap.

If you have only 10 minutes in your hand and yet want to whip out something simple and special to accompany any meal, then just read on. Ripe tomatoes with a generous helping of cream, cooked for just about few minutes gives you a refreshing new dish.

Just simple green tea? Naah...that’s boring. Why not jazz it up and have green tea rock lobster instead? So, are you game? Then read on and you are just few steps away from treating yourself to this wonder delicacy.

Ingredients:

(Serves 3)

600 g lobster medallions
100 ml lobster oil
1/2 teaspoon Gunpowder green tea ground to dust
Lots Salt & pepper
1/2 teaspoon Lime zest
1/2 teaspoon Lime juice

Sauce
1/2 cup Cream
1/2 teaspoon Whole Gun powder leaves
Pinch Salt & pepper
1/2 teaspoon Tarragon
1/2 teaspoon Lime zest

Method:

1. Season lobster medallions on both sides with salt & pepper & ground tea, dowse with lobster oil, zest and lemon juice & bar-be-cue on hot heat 3 minutes on one side turn and 3 minutes on the other side and rest.
Take off heat and rest.

2. Boil cream with the whole tea, add salt and pepper and boil for 5 minutes.

3. Serve two medallions per person on a plate with a trickle of cream sauce and some chopped tarragon and lime zest for garnish.