Weekly Wrap e-letter- Volume 1- Issue 2

Question Time- Chef Indrajit Saha

This article is a result of a recent interaction with Chef Indrajit. You will find the beginning of this interview in the ProChef360 Weekly Wrap e-letter- if you would like to receive your personal copy of the e-letter please contact Chef Matthew J.G. matthew@prochef360.com.

I asked Chef Indrajit the following:

Question Number 1

ProChef360- What pursued you to become a professional chef?

Chef Indrajit- To be honest it was an accident that I ended up at catering school but once I went there from the first day I knew that I wanted to be a chef. Basically, I felt the comfortable with the whole atmosphere.

Question Number 2

ProChef360- How many different Countries have you worked in? Which one did you enjoy the most?

Chef Indrajit- India, Maldives, Caribbean, Africa and Dubai. I enjoyed the Maldives the best. I had plenty of time to concentrate on my cooking.

Question Number 3

ProChef360- What is your favorite ingredient you like to use in your cooking? Why?

Chef Indrajit- Well Matthew, I have 2, the first one is “Aubergine” -it absorbs lots of flavours and release also lot of flavors and the second is “Lemon” – a dash of it changes the whole nature of the dish.

Question Number 4

ProChef360- What is the latest cookbook you purchased?

Chef Indrajit- Nobu. I haven’t looked back since- I picked up many nice ideas to include in my own cooking.

Question Number 5

ProChef360- Any tips for chefs that are just beginning their career?

Chef Indrajit- Be honest and passionate to your career and yourself. It takes lot of hard and smart work to be chef. Do not only run for the money, it will come in time.

Question Number 6

ProChef360- As a professional chef what is the most intriguing fixation you have witnessed in the kitchen?

Chef Indrajit- As an expatriate in the daily life you hear people speaking different languages, however in the kitchen all of the various languages boil down in the cooking. So you hear people speaking their own individual language however we as chefs can easily grasp the meaning.

 The parting words- why don’t you leave the audience

with a sentence or two to ponder over?

Chef Indrajit- To all culinary professionals, if you drop something on the kitchen floor make sure that you do not forget to pick it up. It only takes few seconds; do not leave the kitchen dirty, it is your pride.

ProChef360- Thank you for sharing your views and opinions with the readers.

Chef Indrajit would like to share the following recipe with us.

 Duo of Duck

Ingredients

160 gm duck leg

30 gm duck fat

1 each bay leaf

4 each black peppercorn

3 gm rock salt

100 gm duck breast

 Salt and black pepper- to taste

Sauce

5 gm shallot

2 ml olive oil

60 ml orange juice

40 ml duck stock

1 star anise

3 ml raspberry vinegar

3 gm brown sugar

Dauphinoise Potato

100 gm potato

20 ml cream

1 egg

10 gr parmesan

Vegetables

1 leek

3 asparagus spears

3 baby corn

3 baby carrots

1 Yellow zucchini

30 ml clarified butter

3 orange segments

Deco

Deep fried thyme

Herb oil

Preparation Method

Sprinkle duck leg with rock salt, and place under refrigeration for a day. Wipe off the excess salt and pat dry with tissue. Heat the duck fat with bay leaf and peppercorn. Add the duck leg to the pan and allow to simmer. Place the pan in the pre-heated oven at 50*C and cook until the meat is tender (approximately 40 minutes). Marinate the duck breast with salt and black pepper. For the sauce, heat the olive oil, add the prepared shallot and star anise, cook until the shallot is translucent, add the orange juice and brown sugar, caramelise. Deglaze with the raspberry vinegar, add the duck stock. Allow to simmer until a sauce like consistency has been reached. Slice the potato. Heat the cream and temper yolks add the parmesan cheese. Dip the potatoes in the mixture and arrange in a tin lined with sliver foil. Bake at 210*C and place under refrigeration. Blanch the prepared vegetables and toss them in clarified butter and chopped herbs. Arrange the vegetables into a bouquet. Pan sear the duck breast and reheat the duck leg. Sprinkle the parmesan on Dauphinoise and put in the oven. Cook the yellow zucchini slices on the char grill.  Place 4 slices of zucchini in layers and put the Dauphinoise potato in the centre of the slices. Place the duck leg on the top of Dauphinoise place the vegetables bouquet on both the sides. Slice the breast and arrange as shown in the photo, arrange the orange segments, spoon the sauce around and garnish with deep fried thyme and herb oil.

Enjoy!!!

Weekly Wrap, e-letter, Question Time, Chef, Cookbook, Nobu, Cooking, Career, Maldives, India, Caribbean, Duck, Potato

Wenchuan Earthquake, Sichuan, China

I had no idea what the time it was when the monster hit……………… as it turns out it was in fact 2.28pm.

I was sitting at my desk in the pre-opening office working on a kitchen training power point presentation when all of a sudden everything around me started to frantically shake.

I was the last to leave the building- oh by the way my office is on the 6th floor of a relatively aged 8 story building. The stairwell is close by, as it turns out my regular journeys up and down the stairs for health purposes assisted me in my mad dash to escape from the trembling surroundings.

People were gathered in the alley below the building- I began to make my way to the apartment building whereby Maria my fiancée was located. I was desperately trying to get hold of her on the telephone to no avail; the lines were cut and/ or jammed. The city was in a made panic, I was lucky to flag down a taxi, I showed the driver the address, which I have written in the local lingo on a piece of scrap paper. It was a mere miracle that I managed to get a taxi. Chengdu has a major taxi shortage at the best of times. I reached the apartment in limited time, there was ruble scattered all over the road.

I gave the driver the money for the fare and ran into the building and found Maria. She was beside herself- in fact she was talking to her mother on the telephone when the magnitude 8 hit. We gathered some of our important documents and ran out of the building and waited downstairs. The neighborhood was gathering on the footpath area wondering what was going to happen next. After some time waiting and thinking about what to do next, mind you there was no information provided in a language that I could understand. 

We went back into the building and started to arrange the personal belongings, packing a number of bags of essential items and left them nearby the door ready for evacuation.  The electricity was cut, however the gas was still available. I began to prepare some penne bolognaise and there was a knock at the door- the person – in Japanese suggested we should leave the building due to the fact that the tremors would soon arrive. My instinct has got pretty good dealing with the language barrier on a regular basis.

 We ventured downstairs with the previously prepare bags of essential items. At this point it was difficult to know what to expect. Would I see my cookbook collection again? Would I be able to find my collection of documents easily? The mind was racing. 

At the base of the apartment building we were greeted by the English speaking Singaporean Spa Director from the same property I work with. He suggested that we go with him to the stadium- about a 30 minute walk away; we briskly made our way to the stadium with him. We stayed there overnight- afraid to sleep, it started to rain at 4.20am. 

We moved onto the nearby Sheraton Hotel and waited in the lobby. It was at this time that we began to realize the extent of the earthquake via CNN. Devastating, whilst in the Stadium we heard the death toll was 70, CNN were reporting 10,000 deaths. The epicenter was a mere 90 km away- we both realized how lucky we were. So many thoughts were going through my mind during the previous hours. We trekked back to the apartment to gather a few items and went to stay in a fairly new local Hotel. We ended up staying there a couple of nights, all the utilities were available including the electricity.

A number of staff from my place of employment has family members that were directly affected by the tragedy. They seem to be handling the situation quite well under the extreme circumstances. 

There have been some huge aftershocks- some 6.5 magnitude. You could almost call them additional earthquakes. Record has it that more than 7,000 have been experienced. In fact at the time of writing this report a 5.4 magnitude aftershock hit followed 20 minutes later by a 5.7.

The Chinese authorities need to be complimented on the way they have handled this catastrophe from the heartrending outset until this very day. In addition support has come from near and far away destinations- basically numerous nations have rallied together and answered the call for help without hesitation.

To this day the drama is still unfolding – numerous flood alerts have been issued due to formation of the so called “Quake Lake”, 100’s of thousands of people were evacuated from the region, landslides caused by torrential rains, a disastrous helicopter crash with claimed many lives.

The death toll continues to rise- it currently stands at near to 70,000 and is expected to rise to over 80,000. It is said that well over 370,000 people were injured and more than 18,000 are still listed as missing.

It has been stated that the reconstruction will take over 3 years to complete. The quake caused major damage in an area covering 100.000 square km, 19 out of the 21 cities and towns in Sichuan have been affected, a total of more than 5.47 million people have been left homeless.

From a personal viewpoint- Maria and I honestly realize that we are both extremely lucky. 

Matthew and Maria 

Chengdu, Sichuan, PRC

Note:- This is an updated post which was previously submitted on web.