The Slow Fire Chef

- Season 4

(2022)

Our new season is a collection of recipes we explored during our recent travels through 7 states. Shot in our friends abode in misty Dehradoon, the first chapter of this travel diaries is a special recipe from the hills of Uttarakhand - Garhwali Pahadi Chicken. This recipe is cooked and shown to us by our friends cook Vipin Nautiyal, who is from Garhwal hills. The recipe uses a lot of local herbs and spices and has a unique taste. Flavour and texture wise, it is a cross between a curry and a stew. A winter favourite of Garhwali people to keep themselves warm. Home ...

From the hills of Dehradun, the slow fire chef landed in the winters of Delhi where Semanti's sister Sharmila and her cook Sushil cooked up such a storm that it has to be shown in three parts. Part 1 features Sharmila cooking her aunt Memma's Bengali style spicy hot mutton curry. A simple recipe with flavours and aromas to die for. Head Chef Semanti's sibling shines no less in the kitchen.

Head Chef Semanti's sister Sharmila's sous Chef Sushil Jana shares what is uniquely different way of making a Shepherd's pie. Not only it is vegetarian but he also treats the potatoes and cheese topping in a very innovative way giving it a smooth creamy cheesy finish. Despite lacking the meaty flavour associated with this pie, it was a delicious recipe and surprising discovery in vegetarian cuisine.

In the 3rd and last part of Sibling Sunshine series in The Travel Diaries, Head Chef Semanti's sister's Sous Chef Sushil Jana shares a simple easy quick recipe to make Bengali fish head curry with potatoes and chillies. Recipes with Fish head are very popular in many countries. It is a delicious spicy treat and also fish head is an inexpensive rich source of Calcium and protein amongst others. This is why traditionally it has always been popular in rural, coastal areas and amongst the poor who can't afford more expensive fish and meats. Now it is a delicacy amongst ...

In Delhi Junior chef Amit's mother who is a great cook and inspiration for many Slow fire chef recipes, Mrs Chandni Mehra shares her own recipe of cooking Kashmiri Roganjosh and head Chef Semanti cooks it in her Mumbai kitchen following her mother-in-law's recipe to create Ma's magic in these three part series. Rogan josh is cooked on slow fire with goat meat also known as Mutton, fresh ginger, variety of aromatic spices, almonds, khus khus and a bit of yogurt. Kashmiri Mutton Rogan Josh is flavoursome, rustic and fragrant. By far one of the most popular mutton ...

Pickles are the most common, popular and widely used accompaniment with Indian Food across the country. Every region of India have their own recipes of Making Pickles and though pickles are made with a variety of vegetables, roots, herbs and fruits using all kinds of oils, spices but Lemon and Mango pickles remain the most popular across the country. Though pickles today are a huge industry with thousands of brands, they are also made in most of the Indian homes and every family has their secret Grandmother's or mother's recipes they rely on. Though Zero oil pickles ...

One of the most delicious Mutton Recipes comes from the Indian nomadic tribes of Rajasthan. Banjara is a Hindi word for Nomads. So that's how it probably got its name. Recipe was shared with us from a fellow food blogger Ms Anu Pathria. We are delighted to feature her recipe of this iconic vintage dish and head Chef cooked it on her newly acquired earthen cooking vessel called Chatti, which is from Kerala giving it rustic flavour and making it supremely aromatic. Head Chef followed Anu's recipe diligently and the results were amazing. Rajasthani Cuisine is one of the ...

Gatte Ki Sabji is one of the iconic vintage vegetarian recipes originating from Rajasthan but here made Uttar Pradesh U.P Style with Besan ke gatte (steamed spiced gram flour dough rolls) in spicy tomato and yogurt curry. This variation from Uttar Pradesh was shared by head Chef Semanti's mother in law whose ancestral roots are from there and was made by Semanti in her Mumbai Kitchen Light, flavourful with subtle undertones of popular North Indian spices, Gatte Ki Sabji is a perfect Summer Food Lunch for the family. Served with roti or steamed basmati rice. You can ...

Head Chef Semanti goes down the memory lane reminiscing her recent Lovedale school reunion of her class in Jabalpur a small town in central state of India Madhya Pradesh. The food and laughs they had, the shopping they did and the memorable Jungle Safari to meet the Tiger family. Meeting her dear friend, classmate and host Apu Verma who is a retired army officer, she is reminded of her own experiences with Indian Air Force, especially the mess food she grew up eating thanks to her late father Air Commodore Nirad Sinha Ray. Back in her Mumbai Kitchen, She recreates one...

Head Chef has been working on the iconic recipe of world famous Mutton Haleem for a long while to figure out a simple and quick way to make this Hyderabad's world famous speciality Haleem, at home. She finally succeeded in cracking it few years ago and now shares her super easy recipe to make Haleem at home.

Head Chef shares an easy recipe and a trick for how to make perfectly fried onions or Birista for popular recipes like Biryani, Korma, Nihari, Curry and many other recipes from across the world. Birista is used in many famous recipes for flavour and taste. Birista is also used for garnishing popular Mughlai dishes and Punjabi Dishes in Indian Cuisine. Typical problems in frying onions crisp are addressed in this quick recipe by showing tips and tricks on how to make crispy fried onions Birista. Rather we should say, perfect crispy fried onions. Secret Tips are ...

Head Chef shares recipe, an easy recipe for one of the most cherished dish Mutton Kofta Curry. Kofta is not only popular recipe of Indian Food Indian Cuisine but also a loved recipe in many countries and part of Lebanese food, America cuisine in the form of Meatballs pasta, Italian food, Persian Cuisine, Mediterranean cuisine, Turkish cuisine, Middle Eastern Cuisine, Afghani Cuisine, Pakistani Cuisine, Mughlai Cuisine to name a few. Within India, Kofta Curry is popular in Hyderabadi Cuisine, Lucknowi Cuisine, Kashmiri Cuisine, Punjabi Cuisine and vegetarian kofta ...

Head Chef Semanti shares a classic recipe for making decadent bread pudding. Bread pudding with butter, raisins and nuts. This is a Baked Bread Pudding recipe or a Baked Dessert recipe. Very popular as part of Classic British Dessert menu and also with most bakers. Every home cook too loves baking bread pudding.

Head Chef Semanti shares easy ways to recycle leftover food with some delicious recipes with leftover food. First up, chef shares recipe for Spicy Keema Biryani with leftover Keema. Mutton Keema Biryani is spicy, flavourful and a mouthwatering recipe. Do not waste food but learn to recycle food with simple easy recipes. There are so many recycled meal ideas with leftovers. Almost all food can be recycled and made into a new recipe. Chef also shares simple tip on how to make dum biryani. Biryani is one of the most popular recipes. World famous recipe for biryani ...

Head Chef shares what can easily be called the best halwa recipe ever. kaddu ka halwa or Pumpkin Halwa recipe is made with simple ingredients , sweet to taste and rich in flavour. Pumpkin is one of the most versatile vegetable and can be cooked in many ways. Pumpkin dessert is one of the best Pumpkin recipe. A sweet dish fit for kings. It can easily be considered Best Indian sweet dish.

Simple recipe for Karele ki sabji or Crispy Karela fry. Karela is a Hindi name for bitter gourd. Also featuring special tip for removing bitterness from bitter gourd. Karele pyaaz tamatar ki sabji is a delicious and healthy recipe for summer lunches. It is also nutritious vegetarian recipe. It is low oil recipe and not deep frying recipe. This bitter Gourd recipe is a great diet recipe too.

Head Chef Semanti Shares one of the most delicious easy recipes for roast pork. A Roast pork recipe with Minimal ingredients. She also shares how to roast pork in pressure cooker. This is a popular recipe for Easy Sunday Roast dinner all across the world. This is also a no oven roast pork recipe. Simple and mouthwatering recipe for Juicy Roast pork.

Head Chef Semanti shares a quick simple recipe for making one of the best summer vegetable curry recipe - sponge gourd curry recipe. In Indian vegetarian cuisine it is known as Turai Ki Sabji and made with sponge gourd or Turai, tomatoes, green chillies, lemon pickle, ginger, fresh coriander, desi ghee, half a cup of water, salt, red chilli powder and turmeric. This is a no onions turai ki sabji. Under 3 minutes learn to make a great summer recipe, delicious recipe and healthy vegan recipe for gourd curry.

Made jointly by head chef Semanti and Junior Chef Amit, this four hand Grilled Trout recipe is easiest grilled fish recipe and also the most delicious recipe. Simple recipe to grill fish using few ingredient like salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice, garlic and fresh parsley to retain flavour and taste of Indian Himalayan Trout fish. One of the most tasty fish recipe with trout. Healthy recipe using trout that can you can easily make at home. Oven grilled fish recipe is also a quick recipe perfect for last minute dinner plans. Just a 5 minute recipe of grilled fish and it ...

Head Chef Semanti shares a simple recipe for making crispy potato skins or potato skin crisps or crispy potato chips. We generally throw away the potato peels but there is an easy and quick recipe to make potato peels into crispy potato wafers. Crispy Potato Skins wafers recipe uses minimal ingredients like salt, whole wheat flour or all purpose flour and poppy seeds, also known as Khus Khus in some regions. You can eat Potato skins Crisps by themselves a snack or serve it with drinks. You can also eat it with regular Dal and chawal (Lentil curry and rice). You can ...

Head Chef creates magical recipe by marrying Tapioca with Prawns and making Kerala style Kappa Chemmeen recipe like you have never had before. With inputs from her Malayali friend to get that authentic Kerala style Prawn recipe and Head chef's own variation by adding few ingredients and Tapioca. A Sinful recipe of Tapioca and Shrimps with dollops of butter and aromatic shallots, curry leaves, mustard seeds, spices and chillies. It is a mouthwatering recipe of Tapioca with prawn. Delicious Shrimp Tapioca recipe is rich in flavour but silky in texture and goes ...

Secret to making vegetarian recipes delicious is, use few ingredients and let the vegetables do the talking. Head Chef shares a mouth watering recipe for Matar Paneer Masala. Spicy, flavourful with sweetness of peas and creaminess of cottage cheese, matar paneer masala is a perfect summer lunch recipe.

All the way from Jharkhand, comes a very special mutton recipe, a very unique mutton recipe called Mutton Atthey. This recipe was shared by one of our viewers Mayur Shekhar Jha on social media and it belongs to his father Shri Chandra Kant Jha. It is a unique recipe as it does not use the regular ingredients common to most mutton recipes like onions and garlic. This is why in some parts of India it is also known as vegetarian mutton curry. Bengali cuisine, Bihari cuisine also has variations of this recipe. However, Mutton Atthey belongs to Jharkhand cuisine and is a ...

Stand up comedy show with Food Detective known as Mehra Investigates. He returns after two years to investigate what offends him and the results are shocking. Junior Chef Amit's stand up comedy show Mehra Investigates are his observations of the world around him in general and food related issues in particular. Here he talks about how the world is an unfair place for meat eaters or as they are known in India - non vegetarians. He talks about various issues like being forced to use his meat only cookware, tableware by his vegetarian friends for cooking and serving ...

This unique and vintage recipe of Besan Ke Tinde for Apple Gourd or Round Gourd, also known as Tinda in Hindi, comes from North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and the recipe belongs to Junior Chef Amit's late Grandma Mrs Saroj Mehra. It is simple, it is delicious, it is healthy and it will change the way you look at Tinde ki sabji.

Head Chef's decades long hunt for authentic Hyderabadi biryani ends in her own kitchen when after research and many hits and misses, she discovers a recipe that has the exact flavours and aromas she remembered from her childhood spent in Dundigul, Telangana.

Junior Chef Amit has a tough time dealing with fruits and finds that they have a very difficult nature and an arrogant attitude. From an apple who is a stumbling block keeping you away from your doctor's appointment to watermelon which is oversized but has really tiny seeds that are often invisible. Pineapple can not be eaten by employed people as it takes years to cut and clean it. Mangoes are big pretenders, promising to be sweet but are often more sour than much maligned lemons. Hilarious observational comedy that takes a close look at food we eat and our eating ...

After much research and deep dive into French Cuisine, Head Chef Semanti creates her own version of unique, delicious, quick and easy Sandwich spread recipes for Mushroom Pâté and Beetroot Pâté. These Pâté recipes are a healthier option for regular sandwich spreads or butter. High on flavour with subtle undertones of carefully selected ingredients, these Pâté are creamy and rich in taste. They make a perfect pairing for some freshly baked bread or toasts or as spread on sandwich or even a party dip for bread sticks, potato wedges, chips or nachos.

Head Chef Semanti shares a quick, easy, delicious recipe to make classic mince meat croquettes at home. Croquettes are a popular snack all over the world and almost every region has their own version. Within India too, Goan Croquettes and Bengali Croquettes are quite popular. Croquettes are also popular with Anglo Indian community in India.

Head Chef creates a truly international version of iconic Italian Risotto by using Spicy Goan Sausages, Korean sticky rice, Italian olive oil and herbs and ofcourse cooked by Indian. Sausage risotto is a melody of flavours, from sharp spicy bite from the Goan Sausage to subtle undertones of fresh rosemary and thyme. And to round of the flavours, there is a touch of sweetness brought by shallots, carrots and peppers. End result is a rich creamy taste with burst of flavours and an intoxicating aroma.

Junior Chef and Food detective Amit investigates if the phenomenon of Mock Meat has gone too far and is worried that in the future they may mock him and serve him up as dinner. Junior Chef Amit's stand up comedy show Mehra Investigates are his observations of the world around him in general and food related issues in particular.

Simple, easy recipe for making delicious crispy vada and flavourful wholesome sambar at home along with spicy coconut chutney. Vada is a deep fried crispy fritter made from lentils, pepper and spices. They are served with a south Indian lentil curry that also has vegetables and spices. Spicy coconut chutney made from fresh coconut, curry leaves and green chillies is served with this. This is a popular South Indian breakfast and is adopted as a common breakfast menu in many parts of the country.

Simple Easy recipe for a unique fish curry that requires no oil to cook. Healthy, delicious and perfect for summer lunch - Goan Style Pomfret Curry is big on flavours, aromas with minimal ingredients, low on calories, light to eat with a long lasting spicy after taste. Indeed a mouth watering fish recipe.

Head Chef returns with a magnum opus recipe video featuring Exotic Wasabi Prawns, Tangy Mango Salsa and bonus recipe of unique Fried Rice in Oyster Sauce. Wasabi Prawns are deep fried crispy prawns using batter and marinade that includes wasabi powder. Mango salsa is made with fresh mango. Fried rice is made with assortment of vegetables and cooked in oyster sauce.

Head Chef Semanti's first podcast where she shares some of her journey as a cook, right from childhood to as a grown up woman. Recollecting various bloopers and some turning points when she learned from accomplished cooks in her family. Semanti has been cooking from an early age when she was still in school but took up cooking seriously by the time she was a young working woman in Kolkata.

Head Chef goes right to source in Tamil Nadu and receives a wonderfully simple recipe from a Tamilian friend for exotic and unique variation to much loved South Indian Rasam - Pineapple Rasam. Her Tamilian friend Mrs Vidhya Sokkalingam shares the recipe of Pineapple Rasam. One of the most delicious rasam you will ever have.

When junior chef Amit is cooking, it is hard to say who is more drunk. Him or his food. Another unique recipe of Mutton Chaap Masala soaked in dark Rum. Spicy masala rounded off with sweetness of rum with mutton chops done to perfection. Best served with salad and rotis and ofcourse, dark rum.

Head Chef Semanti recreates a favourite recipe from her childhood spent in Indonesia. Popular street food of meatballs and noodles soup known as MIE BAKSO. She also shares the recipes for making fiery Asian sauces that go with Asian food. Though the meatballs in the original recipe are made of beef, here Semanti made it with chicken mince. The three sauces include green chilli garlic sauce, red chillies vinegar sauce known as sambal and fresh coriander honey sauce.

In the second podcast, head Chef Semanti talks about how she went about planning and designing her own kitchen. She also shares some common challenges faced while planning and designing the kitchen and few useful tips on storage planning. After years of suffering cooking in badly planned kitchens, when she bought her first home, Semanti made sure that the kitchen was the perfect space for cooking and lounging and she is proud that she was able to accomplish that with her present kitchen.

Head Chef recreates a North Indian legacy recipe shared by Junior Chef's cousin sister - It is Spicy, it is tangy, it is sweet and it has all the richness of flavours of the king of fruits, Mango. Mango Curry is very popular all over India and every region has its own version. However, it is most popular in North India and South India. In East India, West Bengal, they roast the mangoes prior to making a curry with it, which is actually more of a chutney than a curry.