Slurrp’s Great Indian Cookout powered by Weikfield and Glen saw celebrity Chefs Harpal Singh Sokhi, Nishant Choubey and Dhruv Oberoi grace the event with their presence and several foodies of Delhi-NCR take part in their workshops with enthusiasm. Saturday, 7th October was the second day of the three-day long cookout, where home chefs from Delhi are competing against each other to be named the best of the best home chefs.
The day started with a mid-morning masterclass with Chef Dhruv Oberoi, who talked about how to make healthy dishes, tasty for kids. In collaboration with HT School, in his session, the chef spoke about the importance of feeding the young generation good food, healthy food that they willingly opt for. For his workshop, the young and dynamic Chef created a mung bean banoffee pancake that was as nutritious as it was mouth-watering. Speaking with us, he said, “The whole idea is to make healthy food tasty! Our mothers and grandmothers ate very healthy food because it was not processed. We need to make it a habit too and have healthy home-made food!”.
Next, it was time to dive right into the cook-out and have 3 of the very talented home chefs compete, one amongst would be chosen as the 3rd finalist and compete with the 2 other finalists chosen on Friday. Following the Dil se Dilli theme, the challenge in this round was to make fusion bread pakora. With the ingredients provided, home chefs Simi Babbar, Sakshi Lodhi and Swati Khanna had 40 minutes to cook the dish. Chef Nishant Choubey judged the round and chose Simi Babbar as the winner, who not only made a bread pakora, but she also made a chaat to go with it!
Chef Nishant stayed back for his cooking masterclass and had the crowd hooked with his dance moves too! He created a delicious Jowar Nasi Goreng, a twist on the Indonesian fried rice dish along with an avocado and cucumber salad with turmeric and cranberry. Talking about the usage of millet in the recipe Chef said, “The entire world is progressing. So why not we make millet in such a way that it is fascinating in the 21st century”. He also gave some tips to use millets like soaking them for long hours, keeping a variety in your diet and not just introducing millets in the full meal at once and consuming them lie grains instead of powdering them down to a mixture. When asked how it felt to have an engaging audience, he replied that he loves Delhi and the city loves him back. “The home chefs here have come for passion, respect and to celebrate cooking. This event is about coming together and having fun for the love of food”.
The final session of day 2 was all about namak-shamak as celebrity Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi came with his joyful presence and headed a super fun cooking workshop. He taught the enthusiastic crowd how to make millet cranberry tikki with cranberry and til ki chutney along with some beetroot parathe. For dessert, he created a very healthy and tasty multigrain makhane ke laddu.
Talking about how millets have become a part of menus of restaurants, including his own, Chef Harpal said, “Traditionally, millets have been in the homes of people in different regions of India. Our traditional food is suddenly super-food for many.” Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi, who said he has grown up eating simple dal-chawal and seasonal sabji like karela or tindl with weekends being those days when his father would cook something special. “Now my wife cooks such variety of food! Whenever I am at home, I get to eat 5 different sabjis! People, in general, crave more variety in their meals now”.
As the second day of the Great Indian Cookout wrapped up, all fingers are crossed for the finale that is to be held today between the three finalists during the on-going 3-day fun at HT City Unwind. For all the foodies in Delhi, come and join team Slurrp and see who wins the ultimate battle of home chefs!