CookGourmet - Delight At My Doorstep...

It is a thing of two weeks past when an invite had been extended out to me by the gastronomically inclined folks at Cook Gourmet. They expressed their interest to 'end my long search for new & exciting recipes every day'.

'We'd love your review' was what prompted the Blogger in me to go ahead and check out what was on offer.

These were what I noticed on their website at first glance.

After a mail from their Marketing Head, who was quick to explain to me, that their mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone - from the novice cook just getting started to the experienced chef, I decided to give it a try.  

Each week they send all the pre-measured and perfectly proportioned ingredients a budding kitchen connoisseur needs, to prepare delicious and healthy meals at home.  

They introduce their members to new ingredients, flavors, and cooking techniques with seasonally-inspired recipes that are always delicious, fun and easy to prepare. 

With around a dozen recipes segregated according to Meal Preference (Veg/Non-Veg) and Timeline (Previous Week/This Week/Next Week), the What's Cooking section looked like this: 

As you could very well guess, I ordered the Crispy Crusted Red Snapper with Sweet Chili Sauce & Red Pepper Salad prepared by Chef Nikkhil Kanwar. 

Finer details such as the calorie count of the dish, the utensils to facilitate preparation at home and explicit specification of the trivial ingredients (like salt) which would not be provided had also been taken care of. 

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Along with the attention being paid to customer-friendliness of the entire website, a week-long Days slot and a two-hour time slot await you at Checkout. 

You could choose any particular day in the week, ahead of the present and a particular timing (say 3-5) to get your recipe box delivered, with compliments. 

After I had cooked my savory recipe, I promptly reviewed it on their portal first. I found my testimonial to be one among many other positive ones. 

Are you wondering about the snapshots of what was delivered and made for, in reality? I have saved the best for the last. 

Presenting,  the ingredients to Crispy Crusted Red Snapper with Sweet Chili Sauce & Red Pepper Salad cooked at home by Yours Truly, thanks to CookGourmet! 

Dry ingredients came in small zip-lock pouches. Fluids like oil and sauce came in air-tight bottles. Sliced and chopped veggies came in air-tight packaging. The main ingredient, Red Snapper was shielded by a Freeze Pack - all stickers labeled appropriately in Green circles or Red. 

The Recipe Box was also accompanied by an elaborate recipe card which made preparing this savory delight a piece of cake.

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Now, for the plating: 

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My first experience with Cook Gourmet has been pleasant. I would like to suggest to them, two improvement points - a minor one for the website and one for the packaging of their recipe box. 

• On the 'My Account' page, my profile picture loads as a broken image. This had happened thrice. I do not know whether it is because my network connection is managing with tortoise speed this week or an error at the backend, but I found it proper to bring it to their notice as a part of this review. 
• I know that I'd be suggesting a complete makeover to their packaging but presently - if mishandled - the fluid ingredient bottles slide and wobble. They have been made air-tight to prevent spillage, thankfully. Could Cook Gourmet go ahead with a packaging similar to that of stationery kits, that have slots for appropriate items? It would be a pleasant change, in my opinion. :) 

I look forward to ordering, receiving and preparing many more CookGourmet delights in the future! Thanks CookGourmet for an opportunity to host you over. 

Yours is a finely crafted concept and I wish it keeps going strong. :) 

Legendary Gourmet Weekend Encounter

* EW ERA YRGNUH *

* EVIG SU DOOF *

* ESLE EW LLIW TAE UOY *

* EW ERA TON NI A DOOG DOOM *

       Shrilling shouts started surrounding us, we gave a look around and were shocked to see six of them surrounding us -- my family and me. They were quite strange looking, wearing so called "clothes" of some strange material, having weird looking head gears, weapons in their hands and shouting an alien language repeatedly (as written above).

       Actually, last weekend, we went for a weekend long picnic to a forest reserve to find ourselves being close to nature. Probably, nature made it go overboard as we never expected to be surrounded by aliens who came from God knows where! We were baffled and frightened by their harrowing looks and screams. On top of it we were unable to understand their language. We looked at each other to gain strength and held hands. We tried to sense from their actions and understood that they were hungry. So we had no other alternative to save ourselves from them except to provide them food. So we offered them some fruits but they declined by shaking their heads in the dissident.

       They tried to snatch the piping hot handis and kadais of Basmati Rice Pulao with Vegetable And Nuts, Butter Chicken Curry, Spinach and Cottage Cheese Curry, Fish Curry and Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani all from Kitchens Of India, which we had kept aside for our dinner.

        Now, we were enlightened by the fact that the heavenly aromatic fragrance from these dishes was driving them nuts. We heaved a sigh of relief to find that 'Kitchens Of India' would come to our rescue (although we felt a little gloomy that we had to share such mouth watering delicacies with those aliens).

        We all sat in a circle after keeping the utensils in the center and made them sit too using actions. They seemed to still be very excited but were now composed a bit. My daughter's Ipod turned out to be the saving grace with respect to the music department when she played soothing music from albums composed by A.R. Rehman. Even the 'outsiders' turned out to be great fans. Now, they seemed to be in a jolly good mood. As we didn't have any idea about their Meal Preferences, we served them both non-veg and veg delicacies as follows :-

• For drinks we had Aam Panna, Nimbu Paani and Seb Sharbat.
  
  
  
  
• For starters, we had Hariyali Kebabs and Chicken Skewers on tandoori sariyas alongwith Shredded  Mango Chutney and Papaya Raisin Chutney respectively.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani with Mild Chilly Pepper Curry.
  
  
• Basmati Rice Pulao enriched with Veggies and Nuts alongwith Red Kidney Beans Curry.
  
• Mughlai Paneer with Hot Butter Garlic Naans and Laccha Paranthas.
  
• Black Gram Lentils Curry with Yakhni Pulao.
  
• Malabari Chicken Stew with Malabari Paranthas served with onions and Tamarind & Date Chutney as accompaniments.
  
  
   
• For desert, we had Apricot Pudding accompanied with Mango & Saffron Conserve, Hazoori Petha Halwa and Sheermal (saffron flavored flatbread which is an Awadhi delicacy). 
  
  
  

     We all relished the sumptuous meal. The cool breeze with melodious sounds produced by rustling of leaves added an additional tinge to the music being played. Now, we were all feeling sleepy. They bowed and shouted " GNIHTYREVE ROF UOY KNAHT " but this time their shouts were very melodious with a big smile on their faces.

They retreated  & after some steps just vanished in thin air the way they had appeared.

     We shall never be able to know who they were! But that party was truly a Legendary Weekend Surprise Party  which can never be recreated. That was one party in which... 

We didn't send any invite...

had a natural ambiance of greenery and scented flowers around and Moon & Stars in the clear blue sky...

 music of chirping birds and rustling leaves mixed with the Ipod style which got enhanced by their musical voices and...

we all relished the palatable and savory dishes courtesy Kitchens Of India and made such good friends ( although for few hours but they got etched in our hearts & souls for a lifetime ).

This post is my entry for the "My Weekend Party With Gourmet Food" Contest organised by ITC Kitchens Of India in association with IndiBlogger. You can vote for my post here.

My Gourmet Party: West Meets East

My friend, a French citizen, came to visit me last week. She was really anxious to see and feel everything about our beloved India which I shared with her for the last six months when we became friends on Facebook.

I took her for 'Delhi Darshan' to start with. She was really excited to see all the historical monuments - Lal Quila, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, Lotus Temple etc. which she had seen only in pictures so far.

Then came the turn of culinary skills. On Sunday we decided to have our gourmet party with our other friends. I decided to give her a surprise of Indian food as she always talked ravishingly about her burgers and pizzas. Her favorite dialogue was "How you Indians eat such oily and spicy curries daily?". So I wanted her to have a taste of our relishing curries and change her mind and dialogue too. But it could not have been possible by using my daily recipes. I stormed my mind and then the best idea flashed in my mind. I rushed to the market and bought Kitchen Of India's delectable curries and to give it the titillating turn I bought their sweet and tangy chutneys. In curries I selected Mughlai Paneer, Murg Methi, Paneer Malai, Mirch Ka Salan and Daal Bukhara. I selected Shredded Mango, Tamarind and Date Chutneys.

Dinner was served and my friend was surprised

to see all these dishes on the dining table. She gave a hesitant look to me as if saying that she won't be able to even try them. I assured her that she could certainly taste a bite of each of them and then decide to which she agreed. I served all the dishes to her - a spoonful of each with fried rice. The aroma of the dishes brought a smile on her face. I got my 30 marks then and there. Then

I saw a twinkling shine in her eyes when she tasted the first serving. I got my 30 more marks. She kept on asking for more and more servings and relished each and every curry, dal and chutney. Result was obvious as it was a magic from Kitchen Of India for which I was dead sure to get 100% result.

But my 40% was yet left. So I served her the dessert - Delicious Gajar Ka Halwa and Moong Dal Halwa. That worked as icing on the cake. She couldn't control herself and hurled all the adjectives - tempting, delicious, palatable, yummy and savory. She persuaded me to gift her lots of packets of each of these dishes from Kitchen Of India to take back home and surprise her family too.

Hence I got my full 100 marks. Actually not me but Kitchens Of India is the winner.

This post is my entry for the "My Weekend Party With Gourmet Food" Contest organised by ITC Kitchens Of India in association with IndiBlogger.
You can vote for my post here.