Chocolate Panipuri

A couple of months ago I attended my friend, chulbuli’s (for political reason cannot disclose her real name) engagement. It was my first outing to a Gujarati function in a long long time and didn't know what to expect at all... Never knew it would be an inspirational day... Got all decked up and went there...I was a bit surprised with all the events that was happening throughout the evening..

                                          After reaching the venue and meeting everyone we sat down and started watching the engagement ceremony as it happens but anyways that's not the point. There were waiters walking around with food, drinks and all the usual stuff, giving out confetti to throw on the engaged couple. After watching  the function for a while we started to get hungry and called the waiter for some munchies!!! He came by and gave us some spring rolls and random stuff.... After a while, baby yelled and said “Dana try the chocolate panipuri, its good" and I was like what the hell is this now??! Chocolate panipuri??? I thought I was the only one who was crazy with all wacko creations. So the guy came by and gave us and I tried it... It was a puri covered in chocolate and filled with some kind of falooda mixture with nuts. It was cold, crunchy and nutty... It was something different but good!!! I kind of liked it but I thought it lacked something, may be it could have been more flavorful or probably the burst of water you get when you bite the puri in your mouth or it needed some additional stuff..
                                     And at that very moment my brains started working towards creating something similar but in a very different and crazy way and would blow everyone’s mind!!! I told baby I would do something different and she said go for it and I am sure it will be good and can't wait to taste it!!! She pushed me towards it and I got even more excited and wanted to make it ever so more...

                                         Have been trying to make an inside out panipuri for a long time. This idea came to me when I was trying some molecular cooking and it’s been floating in my head for almost 2 years but haven't able to get the right consistency and balance of everything to get the recipe right... Where the water would be out, but encased in the water itself and sit atop of a flat puri with some mashed up potatoes and boondi... But haven't been able to get the proportion and ingredients of it correct. This is where I was using hydro colloids and science to make food and some people call it molecular gastronomy, but I call it playing with food and the minds of your guest or customers. So I decided would use the same principle to this and try it out. For the wacko dish to be called chocolate panipuri, it needed to have couple of components that would make it. It needed to have a puri, chocolate water and the burst!!! I said to myself this is the perfect time to experiment the inside out panipuri I have been trying for the past couple of years and won’t hurt to do a sweet version of it and wasn't difficult to make the chocolate water & sphere. So i began with process of recreating the classic street food into a dessert & a more modern version of it and I truly enjoyed the time I spent making the entire dish.

                                    So for the puri, I went with a flat one instead of a hallow puri, but instead of making it from a plain dough,  i mixed it with some cocoa powder and since I wanted it flat i decided not to fry it but bake it!!! It was gone be round in shape as I wanted to give it the authentic look ... For the chocolate water, took some chocolate, milk, cream and sugar and heated the whole mixture with some calcium chloride and bought it to a boil and strained it and kept it aside!! For the burst to happen I needed the correct proportion of everything and with the help of internet and some researching I figured it out. The spheres were gone be made from the chocolate water which would eventually give you the bursting effect. Took some cold water and mixed in some sodium alginate and set it aside for an hour or so for the bubbles to settle down.. 
After waiting for a while  came the moment of truth whether the sphere would form or not when the chocolate water comes in contact with sodium alginate mixture... Took a measuring spoon and tried it out and my heart was racing like a formula one car and was finally relieved when it did form a thin layer of skin around the water and the got encased in the skin which was form when the chocolate water came in contact with the sodium alginate mixture. Nothing got screwed up this time was ready to present the dish the other components were easy to make... The main headache was out of the way and it was time for the whole creation to be assembled. On the puri I decided i would smear some mixture like you get when you eat on the streets. As I wanted a similar texture, I went chocolate & orange mousse and smeared in on the puri. After that I carefully took the chocolate water sphere and placed it on the puri and to brighten the whole dish i grated some white chocolate on it and that bought the whole dish together!!! I was very skeptical whether the dish would live up to its name or would the water burst or will I fail??? It was time for the dish to be tasted!!!! Couldn't be the first one to try it, so as usual Manisha (due to political reason cannot disclose real name) was my Guinea pig and he tried it out!!! His reaction was a mix one as if he was asked whether he is a boy or a girl!!! Then my sous chef tried it out and he liked it... He said it was different!!! Had my restaurant manager also try it and he also liked it and said it is different and that there could be a little more burst of the water!!! Made most of the staff tasted it. It was a different thing for everyone to try and it was my turn to try it out and it was indeed 

The Final Product!!!

different and my manager was correct it needed a little more burst otherwise you could taste the chocolate, the orange and you could get the crunchiness from the puri as well....

I was happy with the overall outcome of the dish but somewhere I knew I could make it better and I did... So made some changes to the recipe and made another one with more burst and colder as you would get at the panipuri hawker. This time the burst was perfect, and everything synced together. Unfortunately the person who pushed me and inspired me couldn't taste it and I hope she could taste it. Inspiration is all you need and i am glad that I have such a special person in my life that will always inspire me to do the crazy and wacko stuff and see me successful!!! And the best part of all this is that she believes in me which I don’t. This is for her!!! Thank you!!

I hope you enjoyed reading the post and found it interesting... More to come soon, till then take care and enjoy and be safe!!'

Sayonara!!! 

War Zone!!!!

I guess there is nothing more scarier than being in a war torn country other than staring death in your face or maybe staring at  your angry wife!!

SIerra Leone

Cotton Tree!!

But let’s be serious, born and raised in a country where the per day income of an average working person is less than a dollar doesn't define what that country is but only gives you an overview of how unfortunate it is especially when the country is rich in minerals. What can I say, greed is your biggest enemy, I suppose.

Beauty of the country

                                       Waking up in the mornings with the sounds of gun shots or your father sending a car to pick you up from school because the city has been attacked by the rebels, is one of the worst experience you could have in your life. The fear of not knowing if you are going to be able to see your parents and your loved ones again makes everything all the more worse. While growing up in Sierra Leone, I somewhat had a normal childhood, but not the one an average kid usually had while growing up. For instance, going to the park and playing with your friends or watching cable tv or going to restaurant on a Sunday with the family or even getting a take out from your fast food joint so you could give mommy a day off from the kitchen.  My childhood was full of surprises & craziness, not realizing a bullet was aimed and fired at your mom or while travelling to another city you wouldn’t know if you are gone make it or you might get ambushed and probably get killed or all you could see & hear is gunshots and people running for safety and wondering what would happen next.

RUF(Rebels)

                                           I am here to write about the county that was torn apart because of the glitter and the fancy diamonds it had. Many people would think why a country would be so poor & underdeveloped even though it had all the glitter & gold from the minerals. The only thing I got to say its cause the developed countries aren't gaining anything from it so why bother and interfere....

 Merciless Killing

The war in the 90s, but shit hit the fan on 25th May 1997; three days after my birthday, when the government run by Teejan Kaabah was overthrown by prisoners who had broken out of the country's biggest prison and were led by one of their inmates. The war had now actually started between the rebels, the army who were supposed to protect, and the Kamajors who were also supposed to help in protecting the nation. But it had become an entirely different ball game when the coup happened! The capital was controlled by 2 parties, one was the ECOMOG, these were the armies from neighbouring countries, and the other party consisted of the rebels. When the coup happened, we had to leave the country and the only way to travel was by car and cross the border into the neighbouring country, Liberia, from where we could go to India. The main culprit of the war was the president at the time, Charles Taylor, and with the aid of the western world all this happened to be possible. I left my father and my life as a kid, and embarked on a journey which would change my whole life and what I am today. The funniest part of all this is that 90% of the population had never seen a diamond in their entire life at that time of their life!

Chopped off limbs!!!

                                                    Coming back to the war, things got worse day by day and it went on for 5 years. The atrocity the people suffered was cruel and I hope no one suffers as much as the people of Sierra Leone did. Chopping off limbs and legs of innocent people was one of their ways to cause and spread terror. Their motive was, "If you are going to vote against us, you won't be able to because we will chop your hands off!" Their way of asking was do you want short sleeves or long sleeves!!!

                                       The atrocity they carried out was beyond anyone's imagination. Diamonds there were found in numbers and one's luck would change in a matter of seconds if they found the perfect rock! But the diamond wasn't the only thing Sierra Leone had; it had rich culture and food. I still remember, every Sunday we would have pepper soup or cassava leaves or potato leaves. It was the local’s favourite meal and it was good, really good! I miss the place and it will always hold a special place in my heart, because I was born and raised there. And it taught me a lot.

Another beautiful beach!!!

                                    I have been planning a trip to see my parents but something or the other keeps coming up and I haven't been able to visit my birth place. It's been three years! There is nothing much to do there, but if you were to go there, I can promise you that it is something very different and something you probably haven't seen in your life!!! All you get is peace & tranquillity & i am in desperate need of both.

                                     That's it for now; I hope you liked this life changing post of mine. I will share a link where you can see the actual war that was captured by the brave journalist called Sorious Samura. Not bothering about his life, he wanted to show the world what his country & the people were suffering and what help the western world provided!!!

 The link: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHl2UmJXYU