A Recipe From Our Menu - Chinese Chilli Chicken

When it comes to Chinese food, Chilli Chicken is an unparalleled and unanimous favorite in our Country. This spicy and delicious chicken dish is a definite favorite for people of all ages. Here is a recipe that lets you recreate the magic of your favorite restaurant at home - 

Ingredients-

STEP ONE

8 nos Chicken (Boneless)
4 tbsp Flour
2 tbsp Corn starch / corn flour
1½ tsp Salt (for mixing)
¾ tsp Ginger garlic paste
1 pinch Ajinomoto (Optional, add a pinch of sugar or white pepper powder instead)
1 tsp         Dark soy sauce
2 tsp         Vinegar
1 tsp          Green chillies (finely minced) (optional)
3 cup Oil (for deep frying)

STEP TWO

3 nos Onion
2 no         Green capsicum / bell pepper
4 no         Green chillies (long)
1 tsp         Ginger garlic paste (for sauteing)
1 tbsp Dark soy sauce ( for gravy)
2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
2 tsp          Red chili sauce (for sauteing)
½ tsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt (or as per taste)
1 pinch Ajinomotto(for sauteing)(optional, add a pinch of sugar or white pepper powder instead)
2 tbsp Oil
1 tsp         Cornstarch (for mixing in water)
¼ cup Water
1 stks Green onions for garnishing
1 no         Green chili for decoration


INSTRUCTIONS

STEP ONE

Wash the chicken tenders and cut into bite size pieces. Add flour, cornstarch, salt, soy sauce, ginger garlic paste, vinegar and minced green chilies to the washed chicken pieces and mix well. Make a tight batter, water from the chicken should be enough for mixing, add water only if necessary.

Heat oil and deep fry the chicken pieces in small batches. Drain excess oil using a paper towel and keep the fried pieces aside.

Slit open the long green chillies, roughly chop the onion and green peppers (about size of a nickel) and make a paste of ginger garlic.

Combine tomato ketchup, dark soy sauce, vinegar, red chilli sauce, ajinomotto and corn starch.

STEP TWO

Heat the oil given under table -2 and fry the green chillies, onion, bell peppers and ginger garlic paste.

Saute them for few minutes over high flame. Add soy sauce and mix.

Add tomato ketchup and chilli sauce to that and mix.

Add sugar, salt and ajinomotto.

Mix well over medium high flame for few minutes.

Add fried chicken pieces to this thick gravy.

Saute over medium high flame until well coated and the gravy thickens.

Garnish with slit green chillies and green onions.

A Recipe From Our Menu - Prawn Cocktail

The quickest, and simplest starter dish is a Prawn Cocktail. With this Prawn Cocktail recipe you can see just how quick it is. Use a mixture of king prawns and smaller prawns for the maximum texture and taste in this classic starter.

INGREDIENTS

For the dressing:
275g/10oz mayonnaise
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
6 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander
2 tbsp lime juice
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

900g mixed cooked unpeeled prawns, shells removed

To garnish:
½ lime, thinly sliced
small handful fresh coriander leaves
½ red chilli, deseeded and cut into thin strips

PROCEDURE

Place all of the dressing ingredients into a food processor and blend until combined and smooth, then season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place into a bowl and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

To make the prawn cocktail, place the prawns and dressing into a bowl and mix together gently and arrange in cocktail or shot glasses.

Garnish with a slice of lime, a few coriander leaves and a few shreds of red chilli and serve.

Decorating Ideas for a Bridal Shower

As you plan the bridal shower, be sure to give careful thought to the decorations. Decorations will be the most important thing for setting the stage for your event. 

Remember the Bride's Interests 

Consider the interests of the bride when you select your theme. Let guests help you decorate by asking them to bring a favorite photo of themselves with the bride (the older the photo, the better) and displaying them on a mantel or table. After the shower, you can make a photo album from the snapshots.

Follow Your Theme

When you've selected a theme for your shower, decorations will help to support your selection. 

Romantic Theme :

Romance is the underlying reason behind all showers, so why not celebrate it in your decorations?

Consider hosting a bridal shower tea party which is perfect for a romantic mood.

Top your tables with pink linens.

Use white napkins that have been pushed through heart-shaped cookie cutters as a napkin ring.

Your centerpiece should reflect the ultimate symbol of romance - a clear vase filled with red roses.

Sprinkle the table with heart shaped confetti in assorted colors of pink, red and silver.

A small heart trinket box that has been wrapped with a red bow is a lovely favor for your guests to bring 

home a little of the romance for themselves.

Create place cards by folding over small paper lace doilies.

A Kitchen Theme which is perfect for a bride who loves cooking :

Get plain white paper table cloths and stamp fruits and vegetables in garden colors around the border.

Create a centerpiece for each table using a stainless steel mixing bowl filled with a seasonal selection of colorful fruit. Alternatively, purchase attractive 6 inch pots and fill with dirt. Place a colorful candle in the center and plant herbs around it.

Give out small spice packets attached to measuring spoons as a favor.

Use recipe cards as place cards.

Tie each napkin with a small piece of twine and insert a miniature whisk under the bow.

Here are shower ideas for a bride who is passionate about the beach :

Cover the tables with blue, white and yellow striped cloths for a nautical feel.

Create seashell napkin rings by gluing miniature seashells around plain wooden or plastic napkin rings.

For this party's centerpiece, fill a clear bowl with blue marbles and water. Place a few starfish along the sides of the marbles so that they are visible from the outside of the bowl. Top with white floating candles.

Tie a length of rope around the back of each chair and glue a cluster of seashells at the point where it ties.

Give each guest a small votive candle holder that you have hand-painted or stamped with seagulls, and fill them with an ocean-scent candle.

Food :

Bridal shower menus are often comprised of finger food recipes that can be enjoyed while guests walk around socializing with one another. That is certainly one way to handle your menu, but a sit down luncheon can work just as well for a small group. Just be sure to leave time for guests to mingle after the meal.

You can have just about any kind of dessert at your bridal shower, but a cake is a fun and pretty way to top off the party. And it's a chance for you to get as creative as you like. 

As luncheons are a popular time for the traditional bridal shower that will include friends and family together, choose from our flavorful lunchtime menus that will put everyone in a celebratory mood.

Table Settings

There’s more to setting a table than knowing where the knives go. There’s your imagination, for instance. The way you add a pop of color or a special detail and suddenly, a quick bite to eat becomes a fun family dinner. Or maybe it’s the way your parties get remembered and talked about long after the fact.

Here are all the details about what you’re putting on your table.

The casual dinner table

For gatherings that are special but still cozy, this approach starts with the basic everyday setting above and adds a salad or bread plate with butter knife on the upper left, wine goblet next to the water glass on the upper right, and napkin to the side. Note that the knife blade always faces in—toward the diner and away from other guests. This symbolically reassures one's neighbor to the right that one does not secretly wish them harm.

The elegant dinner table

Building on the casual dinner setting, add a charger beneath the dinner plate for instant glamour, then position the dessert spoon and fork horizontally and head-to-tail above. A smaller salad fork is placed to the left of the dinner fork. Rule of thumb: Always begin dining with the outside utensil and work your way in, no matter how many pieces there are. When in doubt, look to your host or hostess with big, pleading puppy eyes and shrug your shoulders.

The centerpiece

As if you didn’t have enough to do before a dinner party, there’s still the centerpiece to consider. Phone the florist, create one, or make it easy on yourself and nab a ready-made showpiece. Do keep in mind that, a centerpiece should never block guests’ view of each other across the table. Generally, that means a maximum height of about 12 inches; very tall centerpieces should be placed on a sideboard or sturdy, slender pedestal that won’t obstruct conversation. Do keep width to about 18 inches for a small table, 18-24 inches for a larger table. Don’t limit yourself to a single centerpiece or just flowers—a row of glass hurricanes filled with candles or fruit can have a big impact.

Setting up a buffet

This table-setting business is all well and good if you're having a sit-down dinner. But what about a buffet? Here is a handy diagram for that easy-on-the-hostess approach to dinner parties -

Source - Pier1.com

A Recipe From Our Menu - Mutton Rogan Josh

Rogan Josh is a signature dish from the magnificent state of Kashmir. Brimming with flavors of fennel, ginger and marked by its striking red color, it is a celebration of all senses. Traditional Kashmiri Rogan Josh has a thin sauce layered with a slick of oil on the top. The dish gets its color from a rare spice called Ratanjot and Kashmiri red chili powder.

The signature spices in this dish are hing/asafoetida, fennel seeds and the dried ginger powder, along with a variation of combination of cinnamon, cardamom, and clove. Yogurt is added to add the slight tang and texture to the sauce. The fat in the meat enriches the dish and also allows you to cook with less amount of oil.

Rogan Josh: Kashmiri Mutton Curry with Yogurt and Spices

 Ingredients: (serves 2)

3/4  lb meat (mutton/goat meat/lamb), preferably meat with lot of fat - cut  in 2 inch pieces
scant  3/4 cup yogurt + 2 tablespoon yogurt (yogurt should be well drained or use Greek yogurt)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 green cardamom – powdered (peel the cardamom and grind the seeds to a fine powder either with a mortar & pestle or spice grinder)
2 black cardamom – powdered (peel the cardamom and grind the seeds to a fine powder either with a mortar & pestle or spice grinder)
1 inch stick of cinnamon
2 tejpatta/Indian bay leaf
6 cloves, powdered
3/4 tablespoon saunf/fennel seeds, powdered – divided
1/2 tablespoon sooth/dried ginger powder
a few grinds of fresh black peppercorn
1/2 teaspoon hing/asafoetida powder (a generous pinch if using pure hing)
3 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder or 10 whole red Kashmiri Chilis ground to a paste
4-5  tablespoon pure mustard oil + 1 tablespoon mustard oil
1 teaspoon Garam Masala (homemade or store bought)
fresh cilantro/coriander or fresh mint


Method:

Wash the meat and pat dry. Drizzle the lemon juice, and some salt and toss and allow it sit for about an hour. Add the 2 tablespoon yogurt and 1 tablespoon mustard oil to the meat and marinate it for at least 3 hours. Overnight works better.

If you are not using Greek yogurt, drain  the rest of the yogurt until thick and creamy. Whisk yogurt with red chili powder, half the amount of the green cardamom powder and half amount of the black cardamom powder , all of the ginger powder, half the amount of the fennel seed powder. Set aside.

Heat the mustard oil, or any other oil you are using. Traditionally mustard oil is used and it gives an extra edge to the flavor of the dish, but if you are not used to and do not like it, then just use any cooking oil.

Add the hing/asafoetida to the hot oil. Add the cinnamon, tejpatta/Indian Bay Leaf and the fresh grind of black peppercorn  and saute until aromatic, only a few seconds. When the spices sizzle add the meat to the pan and cook at medium heat, while tossing them occasionally until they start to brown. This will take anywhere between 10-20 minutes.

Now add the powdered clove, rest of the cardamom,  and the rest of the fennel powder . Toss well for the spice mix to coat the meat and cook on low for another 10-15 minutes while scraping the bottom of the pan.

Remove pan from heat. Add a few splashes of water to the oil to cool down the content of the pan.

Wait for a minute and then add the whisked and spiced yogurt a little at a time to the pan and keep stirring it. Keep doing this until you have added the entire yogurt. Put the pan back on the stove in very low heat. Add 1.5 – 2 cups of water ( more if you want more sauce), give it a good stir and tightly cover the pan. Cook until the meat is cooked through and is tender and the oil has separated on the sides. This might take even 2 hours depending on the kind of meat you are using.

Uncover, stir in the Garam Masala. Add and adjust salt. Gently stir everything in and cover it back again until ready to serve.

Add the fresh cilantro or fresh mint if you want just before serving. It is best served over hot steamed white rice.

Serve over hot steamed rice or with flat breads. Enjoy!

Preparation Time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking Time: 1.5-2 hours

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Serves: 2

Our Latest Event

With the new year came a lot of amazing events, and the one we're talking about in this post was particularly special to us and our client as it was such a memorable experience of all of us and their guests. The event took place at lush green lawns set up with beautifully decorated tables and as we finished the set up, we were all delighted by the ambience and decor it offered.

 The cuisine was a mix of Indian, Continental and Chinese in a range of delectable dishes that would appeal to one and all and we couldn't help but notice that our guests could not get enough of it! For starters, the menu included Golden Fried Babycorn, Chilli Paneer and Veg Fried Wanton for vegetarians and chicken Spring Rolls, Chicken Shanghai and Fish Finger with Tartar Sauce for non vegetarians.

Keeping the chill in the weather in mind the menu also featured a Veg Manchow Soup. Keeping the health conscious in mind, there was a versatile salad counter featuring six assorted salads. We know that most of us have an immense love for street food and to please all lovers of it, there also was a Chaat Counter featuring the ever popular Panipuri and Sevpuri.

Main courses had a variety of offerings featuring Amritsari Kulcha and Chana along with Butter Chicken,
Malai Kofta, Dal Tadka, Assorted Rotis, Tawa Vegetables and Jeera Rice for lovers of Indian food. The
Thai Main Course selection offered Basil Steamed Rice, Pad Thai Noodles, Veg Thai Green Curry and Chicken Thai Red Curry.

Every great party (and meal!) should end on a sweet note and to do so, we had desserts like Honey Noodles and Gajar Ka Halwa.

This was a truly delightful event for us, our client and their guests and we look forward to assist you to host the best party to entertain your guests with good food and great style!

More About Us

At Infusion Caterers, we present you with the expertise and legacy of FIVE acclaimed restaurants from around the world to give you the perfect dining experience for your guests.

Akbar Restaurants (New Jersey & Long Island, U.S.A)

Akbar's history began with Mr. A.N. Malhotra, who modeled his first restaurant after the grand Mogul Emperor Akbar; who was famous for the splendor of his hospitality. Over the years, Akbar and Mr. Malhotra have acquired an enviable reputation internationally.
After serving many years within the hospitality industry, expanding the Gaylord brand internationally, Mr. Malhotra and his son, Pradeep Malhotra, opened Akbar restaurant in Manhattan in 1976. The delicate cuisine and elegant ambiance found at Akbar restaurants can be traced back to the 16th century in Northern India, when royal Indian Mogul Akbar had a flair for dining in unique surroundings.
Today, thanks to his culinary expertise and over 40 years as a talented restaurateur, Mr. Malhotra and his children have succeeded in spanning the ages. With authentic recipes prepared by centuries-old methods and chefs imported from Bombay, they have made it possible for modern day gourmets to enjoy specialties which were virtually unheard of in the U.S. until the late 1970's.

Mr. Malhotra emphasized quality of service and food from the beginning. Thanks to its popularity, Akbar now has branches in Garden City, NY and Edison, NJ. While the latter is managed by Mr. and Mrs. Pradeep Malhotra, the Garden City branch of Akbar is managed by Mr. Malhotra's daughter, Ms. Meena Chopra. Through the leadership of Ms. Meena Chopra, Akbar has been recognized as a brand of top-quality service and one that values innovation, in both its ambiance and menu selection. As the first Indian Restaurant in Long Island, Akbar has lived up to its name by providing unparalleled food and service quality to its guests for years.

http://www.akbarrestaurant.com/

Tache Artisan Chocolate (New York, U.S.A)

Formerly Christian Vautier Le Concept, Tache Artisan Chocolate was started by pastry chef Aditi Malhotra in September 2012. A graduate of the Glion Institute in Switzerland, The French Culinary Institute and winner of Zagat’s 30 Under 30 Award, Aditi has taken the confectionary world by storm.
Originally opening the chocolate shop in March of 2012 as CVLC, Aditi landed write ups in The New York Times, Time Out, The Huffington Post, The Village Voice, Business Insider, Serious Eats and was invited to showcase her chocolate at The New York Chocolate Show in November 2012, one of the most esteemed chocolate shows in the world.

Renaming the company in September of 2012, Tache Artisan Chocolate made its debut as the chocolate caterer for The New York City Ballet Fall Gala Honoring Valentino.
Guests included Anne Hathaway, Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anjelica Huston, Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana, and of course Valentino. Later in November 2012, Tache again graced the presence of Martha Stewart, catering her benefit gala.

http://www.tachechocolate.com/

Chinese Room (Pune, India)

Chinese Room is one of the oldest Chinese Restaurants in Pune. It was started in 1976 and has completed 37 years. Well ahead of its time, over the years this restaurant has retained its iconic status through continuous innovation in the menus and service. The exquisite food is a blend of imported aromatic spices, mesmerizing fragrances, elusive oils, blissful sauces and delicious recipes. The development and diversity of the delights of Chinese cuisine are represented at Chinese Room.
The cooking tradition of this restaurant has been intricately linked to the use of herbs and other foodstuffs and/or spices that are believed to have a beneficial effect on the body, and in some cases may be considered as part of a traditional treatment.
Chinese Room pays emphasis on the presentation, smell and taste of the food thesame amount of attention is paid to the nutrition value of what is consumed. In fact nutritiontakes precedence over the rest of the elements found in our Chinese food.The restaurant is well known for its Chinese cuisine like Sharklin and Chimney soup, Taipan crab, Lobster fish, Prawn in different varieties of sauces like hunan. peking, schzewan and contonese etc.

www.chineseroom.co.in


China Grill (Pune, India)

China Grill is a 140-seater posh fine dining two-level restaurant that serves Chinese food. It is owned by Mr Vijay Kapoor.China Grill was launched 6 years ago. Its specialty includes sea food starters like prawns and fish. In vegetarian food, they are popular for a dish named Five Treasures made of mixed vegetables. On the second level they have a lounge bar where alcohol is served. It can accommodate about 70 people. Well ahead of its time, over the years this restaurant has retained its iconic status through continuous innovation in the menus and service.

The exquisite food is a blend of imported aromatic spices, mesmerizing fragrances, elusive oils , blissful sauces and delicious recipes. The development and diversity of the delights of Chinese cuisine are represented at China Grill. The cooking tradition of China Grill has been intricately linked to the use of herbs and other foodstuffs and/or spices that are believed to have a beneficial effect on the body. A Buddhist Altar at the entrance bestows good luck, health, and prosperity, while beautiful Chinese artifacts adds to the atmosphere. China Grill pays emphasis on the presentation, smell and taste of the food thesame amount of attention is paid to the nutrition value of what is consumed.
We are spreading our wings, opening shortly at Seasons Mall, Magarpatta City, Hadapsar.

www.chinagrill.co.in