Indian demo pictures

Enjoy the pictures of the Indian demo at SpiceXing, courtesy Cathy of the DC Salsa meetup group.

Three nods from the press

Wow! Wow! and Wow again!!
My restaurant SpiceXing got three reviews in a span of two days and the floodgates really opened. Now I with my entire team have to step up to the plate and deliver to the level of expectation that has been set for us.
Here is thanking everyone for the support and patronage.
For those who have not read the reviews, the links are posted below:

The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/14/AR2009041400748.html

The Gazette
http://www.gazette.net/stories/04152009/enteres121019_32476.shtml

The Sentinel
http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/SpiceXing

Cooking Class

Another cooking class - this time in the new restaurant at SpiceXing in Rockville MD. The event is organized by Jared and the details can be found on the link provided. People who wish to join in need to contact Jared through the link.

A Happy Chef at last

One of our long time guest and now a close friend of mine Pradeep Singh caught me in this rare smile moment. Guess the months of tension of opening the restaurant had dissipated. I am posting this picture to defy all who keep telling me to get rid of the Famous Frown and smile more often, including my wife.

NOW OPEN

Phew!!!
My second restaurant SpiceXing (Spice Crossing) is finally open after an interminable wait of 5 months. It has been a very frustrating experience to go thru the bureaucratic tape for the licences and endless permits. Having my partner Harry and my wife Sonali by my side helped ease a lot of doubts that had come acreeping during this long process. We are going through the same teething problems of any new operation, but enjoying it. Almost reminds me of when I had just become a father and was astonished at the amount of energy/patience that nature gives you when dealing with any challenge.

The dining hall has a high ceiling draped with billowing gold silk curtains and muted lighting. One of the walls has a sea glass jeweled Tree designed and made by our friend Kerbanoo from New York. The comfy armchair Lounge has huge canvas pictures of the Spices that are used in the Indian cuisine. There is a full bar next to the lounge where a whole slew of innovative Maritinis are served thanks to Harry's love for being creative with drinks. There is the ubiquitous flat screen in the bar (much over my objections) for the sports aficionados.

Happy New Year

Wishing everybody a Happy New Year, though it is twelve days past, but I guess conveying best wishes is nice anytime. 2008 surely had been a tumultous year with war, terrorism, natural calamities, economy and recession plaguing the globe.
I have very fond memories of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai where I began my career in 1977 and learnt the trade from the Masters. It was a real tragedy to see a historic building like that go up in flames and the mindless mayhem that ensued.
I hope that the New Year will bring with it some semblance of peace, sensibility and we will forge ahead to more prosperity and happiness. A lot of change is coming in the political arena too with Obama's being elected as POTUS.
My second restaurant SpiceXing is still three weeks away, thanks to the permitting and licensing delays. Soon I will be able to post a few teaser-pictures of the interior and some snippets of the menu. The menu will feature Indian dishes influenced by foreign cultures, in addition to the contemporary specialties.

My second restaurant Spice X-ing

Thanks to all our guests at Passage to India whose support and continued patronage has encouraged me to open a second restaurant "SpiceXing" in the Rockville Town Square, Rockville, Maryland. I have with me in this project a very close friend, Harry Sanotra who brings 30 years of association with the hospitality industry. We are in the process of renovating the existing space and working on the menu. The offerings will be a selection of various kebabs, curries and lots of small tasting plates. This will be an upscale, family dining place with a full bar and will offer an exciting Executive Lunch Buffet. I will be posting more about this place as time goes by and I have more to share with everybody.

Some great Chinese !!

Last week was gorging on Chinese food at the Grace Garden restaurant in Fort Meade. Much has been written about the place on a lot of local food boards. Anything I might add will be superfluous, but the fact remains that this is THE BEST Chinese food I have had since 1986 when I lived in China for 3 months. Using the local, freshest ingredients the Chef is turning out some of the tastiest dishes. after having had the thin wonton skins in this country I was glad to dig into some real country style doughy wontons. The steamed sea bass just melted in the mouth and the scallions/ginger juliennes provided the perfect spice to the dish, in fact highlighting the flavor of the fish. We ordered way too much food for five people and as usual most of it landed on my plate. I was a happy diner. The highlite of the repast was the shell-on Salt & Pepper Shrimp. Unlike my companions who spent valuable time peeling the critters, I ate them shell and all (thanks to my time spent in China).
It is a bare bones place, BYOB and the neighborhood is not much. The best way is to order from the Chinese menu and not the dumbed down Americanized Chinese menu. I have learnt to go for more steamed items as it does not fill you up and one can taste a lot more items. Also try going in a large group for the same reason.

Cooking for a cause at Wagshal's

Bill and Aaron Fuchs, a father and son team from WAGSHAL'S STORE on Mass. Ave. DC have organized a DC grill masters series for cooking demos, the proceeds of which go towards a noble cause. Click link below for a preview. I was honored to be a part of this charitable event.

http://www.wagshals.com/Press/PressRelease.asp?PressID=15&Title=D.C.%20GRILL%20MASTERS%20Series%20%202008

You can click the link below for the recipes from my Recipe Blog

http://passagetoindiarecipes.blogspot.com/

Another Demo - for TasteDC group

Another cooking demo, this time for TasteDC group. This was a fun group and I quite enjoyed cooking for them. We would be doing the four regions of India and we started with the Western region. I did the demo for the following items and Charlie Adler, President of TasteDC had brought his flat panel TV with camera to project the entire demo for better viewing. The food was later served to all with saffron rice and freshly baked Naan bread.
West Indian Cuisine
Salli Boti Jardaloo - Parsi style lamb stew with apricots and straw potatoes
Chutney Ni Murgi - Another Parsi delicacy: chicken cooked in a spicy cilantro sauce
Aloo Bhopli Mirchi -Bell peppers and potatoes with caramelized gram flour
Shreekhand - Saffron and mace flavored sweetened yogurt

Cooking demo for DC dining society

I had a great time doing cooking demos in the last two weeks. An excerpt from the DC dining society's page. Will post some photos at a later date.

"On Monday, May 12, at 6:30 PM we will meet at Passage To India at 4931 Cordell Avenue in Bethesda.
We are very happy to add Owner/Chef Sudhir Seth's wonderful food to our rotation. Passage to India is rated by Washingtonian Magazine as the best Indian restaurant in the area and the 23 best restaurant overall. Chef Seth explores the varied styles of cuisines from the sub-continent in an elegant setting and will help us to learn more about the complexities of the food. Standard price event.
Our cooking demo by Chef Seth will be:
Chicken Malai Kabab - chicken breasts marinated and char grilled
Panchphorner Parmal Shaak - baby gourds tempered with five seeds
Zeera Pulao - Basmati rice cooked with cumin flavor
Dal Kalonji - lentils with nigella seeds
Assorted breads - will show Naan (in tandoor), poories (fried) and chapati (cooked on griddle)
And our dinner will include the above plus a broad variety of dishes to enjoy from the restaurant's repertoire.

Visit to Peru

Some photos of the local market, food, Machu Pichu and other ruins.

Once again a long delay in posting, these seem inevitable. Everytime I promise myself but again

fall back due to a multitude of reasons.

Had an extremely enjoyable trip to PERU for ten days. It had been my dream to visit the Machu Pichu and learn more about them. Some great Peruvian food and a flight over the Nazca lines were other highlights of the trip. The ceviche was great as was the Pisco sour (local brandy, suagr, lime juice, angostura and eggwhites whisked to a froth) - real cooling on a hot day. The Incas though much behind the rest of the civilized world technologically, have left a perplexing legacy in stone built monuments. With rudimentary tools they created an empire with massive stone structures but perished against the Spanish conquistadors and guns. This trip left me wondering as to the meaning of Civilization as we percieve it in the present day world and context. These long gone societies lived much more close to nature and thrived with all other species in total harmony, unlike the present where war seems to be omnipresent.

Greek food

One of my friends (also a Chef) from 1977 who I had not met for 20 years stopped by over the weekend enroute to Australia and joined wife and I for some Greek food at the CAVA restaurant in MoCo. The place was packed and noisy, the service varied from attentive to rushed. Well as much as I liked the taste of the food the tapas concept gets me unsettled as there is no rhythm to the meal. Perhaps I am too old fashioned and want my three courses interspersed with liquor and time to talk. The hummus was not as good as last time, salad with goat cheese was good, taramasalata (fish roe) mediocre. The grilled lamb chops were perfectly cooked and the piece de resistance was roasted fish which made my evening. My only complaint is the excessive salt which has been there consistently on all of my visits. Our waiter was good and before I forget the Argentinian malbec went very well with the food and for Espresso aficianados - you must finish the evening with a dessert and order espresso. All in all an average evening finishing on a high note.
Cheers

We made it again---TOP 100 IN DC metro area

I would like to thank all our guests whose support and continued patronage has helped us in maintaining a spot in the Washingtonian's top 100 restaurants. We feature at #23 in their latest issue, an excerpt of which appears below.
Thanks again and wishing everybody a Very Happy and Healthy New Year. May peace reign !!!!

# 23 Passage to India
4931 Cordell Ave., Bethesda 301 656-3373

Cuisine: Elegant Indian that goes beyond the usual – chef/owner Sudhir Seth’s menu spans the subcontinent with regional entrees that remind us that Indian cuisine is as varied and complex as any.
Mood: The formal servers and the dining room decorated with portraits of rajahs and viceroys and carvings of Hindu gods conjure the Raj as portrayed in the film A Passage to India.
Best for: Adventurous groups willing to explore - and share – exotic flavors.
Best dishes: Sev-Murmura chaat, a bizarrely delicious salad of puffed rice and vermicelli with cilantro, dates and tamarind; lentil “pebbles” flavored with ginger and dates; lamb curry with apricots and straw potatoes; succulent tandoori chicken; kulcha, bread stuffed with lightly spiced onions; and a pickle platter to cut the heat and weight of the curries.
Insider tips: You can travel the subcontinent two ways here – by jumping around the menu choosing something from each region or with a more methodical exploration – say, of the Parsi specialties of western India. Don’t see your favorite dish? Just ask.
Open daily for lunch and dinner. Moderate.

Taste Of Bethesda-2007 Oct. 6th

Taste of Bethesda, 2007 © Sonny Odom

Should have posted this a month ago but did not have any photos of the food-fest. Our restaurant participated in the Taste of Bethesda food-fest for the fifth time and for a change the weather held up nicely. We were serving our two most popular items

"Chicken Makhni-char broiled chicken in a buttery tomato sauce" and

"Vegetable Korma-a mix of 9 seasonal vegetables in an onion-tomato sauce with mace flavor".

Both items were served with Saffron Basmati Rice and Salad. Also we had the Mango Lassi-a mango and churned yogurt drink. Would like to know from our patrons/readers what would they like for the next years Taste.

KARVA CHAUTH "करवा चौथ" long live the Husband!

29th October, Monday was KARVA CHAUTH - a wife's devotion to her husband.


My wife Sonali applying a vermilion TIKA on my forehead after finishing the prayers and other rituals to the Moon God.











The ritual of touching feet is a kind of respect shown to elders and in some instances also means that the person touching the feet loves you so much that he/she is willing to share the burden of your sins.














All married women with their Thalis as they start the prayers for the long life of their husbands.

This is a festival for all the married women and is mostly celebrated in the North Indian states. Some overzealous Moms put their unmarried daughters through this very tough whole-day fasting ritual. Karva Chauth is celebrated according to the Hindu calendar and falls on the fourth day after full moon in the month of Kartik.

On this day women get up before sunrise bathe, pray, eat some sweets normally Ghevar (a vermicelli kind of thing with milk) and drink water - this is supposed to last them till almost 10.00pm when the moon rises and they offer their prayers for the long and healthy life of their husbands. Women dress in almost bridal like splendor usually in red and are bedecked with jewelry. Rituals involve story-telling, passing a tray around while singing hymns, lighting Lamps with clarified butter and finally offering water to the Moon God while praying for the longevity of their husbands.

In addition to all this the woman's day is spent in cooking dishes particular for this festival. Things like Aloo-Tamatar (potatoes & tomatoes), Poori (fried wholewheat bread), Kachories (pooris stuffed with spiced lentils), Arvi (taro roots), Kaddu Bhaji (pumpkin), Rice Kheer (rice pudding), Puas (wholewheat and jaggery fried dumplings), Dahiwadas (fried lentil dumplings in yogurt).

I personally find it a little bizarre since all widows, divorcees and unmarried women are excluded from this act and also find it to be a sexist kind of festival where the women go through all this for their spouse and the husband never does a thing like this in return for his wife. Maybe it was an accepted form of love when man was the sole bread earner and the protector of the family. But in today's world when women are in step with men on all fronts it seems a little silly.

I will be posting the recipes for a couple of the dishes served that day on this blog later.

Lemon Pickle

One of the Spice Nite attendees at Passage to India on Oct 7th had requested for the recipe of the Lemon Pickle that we make in the restaurant. It is one of my Mom's recipes and she used to make it without the oil but the salt quantity used to be twice. After two years the lemons would turn a dark brown and it was given to us as a digestive medication also. I still have almost a half pound of it that she brought for me in 1998 on her visit to US. It is a very dark and dry thing with the salt crystallized on top. Most of the Indian traditional recipes are all about a balance between the net effect of the food which is usually mentioned as either heat or cool causing. The Black Salt and Ajwain are a part of the digestive powder called CHURAN which is available in different forms, sometimes as a coating over dried fruits like Dates, Figs, Apples, Amla (Gooseberry) etc. Enough of that, on with the recipe:

Lemons (cut into 12 pieces and squeezed) 2 pounds
Oil (sesame or soybean- heat and allow to cool) 1 cup
Ajwain (Carom) seeds powdered 4 ounces
Cloves powdered 1 teaspoon
Peppercorns powdered 1 teaspoon
Black salt powder 2 teaspoons
Salt 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon

Mix all the ingredients and put them in a glass bottle with a tight fitting lid. Press down so that the top is covered with oil. Cover tightly and leave in the sun for 4-5 days. Open, mix well and press down so that the oil comes to the surface. Leave in sun light for another two days. The pickle will be ready in another 5-7 days. Keep in the frige where it should last for a couple of years. ALWAYS use a dry and clean spoon to take out any pickles.

The Spice-Nite dinner went off well and people could actually eat all the spicy food served. I eat a lot of spicy food but this group could definitely handle a lot more.



First Course with Chicken Kali Mirchi Kabab, Mirchi Pakora, Parsi Lamb Cutlets with chili-onion Kulcha

Second course had Fish in Raw Mango Curry, Lemon Rice, Garlic-Chili Kulcha,Shrimp Balchao, Aloo Chokha and Mussels in tamarind in the center.

Third course comprised of Mirchi Gosht, Red hot Pork Vindaloo, Green Chili Chicken, Spicy Mint Paratha, Mirchi Ka Salan, Green Tomato-Serrano Launji was served with steamed Basmati rice.

Steamed Rice flour dumplings stuffed with fresh coconut, cracked peppercorns, poppy seeds, jaggery and cardamom. Served with a coconut milk and burnt sugar sauce.

Something other than Indian food

Tried cooking Greek for my daughter's Graduation party। The spread has mostly mezethes items and I had to incorporate a couple of middle eastern foods as well। Most items were made from raw ingredients but for the dolmas, brined olives and the mozzarella balls. The dishes were:

Sardeles (sardines)

Lakerda (tuna)

Sadziki (also pronounced Tzatziki-the cucumber & yogurt)

Revitis Keftedes (something like falafel)

Tomato/Mozzarella/Olive Salad

Brined Olives (green and black)

Greek breads-bought from a store

Lamb Keftedes

Sun dried tomatoes

Greek cheese platter

hummus

Babaganoush

Taramasalata (fish roe)

Tapenade

Dolmathakia

For the main food which was served around midnight we had a Chicken and rice dish which was pretty close to a biryani using some greek ingredients for flavor.

I used up all the oregano and basil at home by the time I was done. I was helped in the menu planning by my contractor who had just remodelled our home. His name is .......you guessed it NICK. Everybody enjoyed the food but then I did not have a Greek to check it out. We all had dressed up in Greek togas.

SPICE NITE

I am preparing a SPICY dinner for the members of donrockwell.com on October 7th, 2007 at my restaurant Passage to India. Attendees have to be members, and those who wish to join can register for free at www.donrockwell.com, the premier foodie website in Washington DC area.
The menu is as follows

SPICE NITE
DONROCKWELL.COM members only
OCTOBER 7th, 2007 AT 6.30 pm

First course
Mirchi Pakora-batter coated chili fritters
Chicken Kali Mirch Kabab-char grilled chicken with cracked peppercorns
Lamb Parsi Cutlet- pan fried spiced lamb from the Parsi delicacies
Chili Onion Kulcha- leavened white flour bread stuffed with onion and chili

Second course
Shrimp Balchao- sour, sweet and spicy shrimp pickle
Mussel Vendiam- steamed with fenugreek, curry leaf and tamarind
Meen Kozhambu- South Indian fish curry with raw mangoes
Aloo Chokha- fresh baked potatoes with burnt chili and mustard oil
Rice and bread

Third course
Mirchi Gosht- lamb simmered with ground chili, coconut and cilantro
Pork Vindaloo- a Portuguese influenced spicy and vinegary dish
Green Chili Chicken- verdant chicken with garlic, chili and jalapeno paste
Mirchi Ka Salan- sautéed chillies in a sesame & peanut sauce
Tamatar Launji- fennel flavored tomatoes stewed with serrano chillies
Rice and bread

Chutneys
Green Chili & Cilantro
Garlic & Red Chili
Vengayam (Onion)
Thenga (Coconut)

Pickles
Mango
Jalapeno

Dessert
Spicy Modak (Steamed rice dumpling with peppercorns, milk solids & jaggery)




Only for Don Rockwell.com members
Please register at www.donrockwell.com for free membership
$65 per person (includes tax and tip)