Design A Cuisine Newsletter (June - July 2011)

Design A Cuisine June-July 2011 Newsletter In this edition 1. Editor’s Message 2. Design A Cuisine in the media a. The Business Times newspaper, Singapore b. Vegevibe Magazine, Singapore c. HOST Magazine, Singapore d. Absolute Thai, Singapore e. Mediacorp Television, Singapore’s national broadcaster 3. Corporate Team Building Cooking Class with Emerson Process Management at Palate Sensations Cooking School, Singapore 4. Holistic Indian Food Promotion at the Carousel Restaurant, Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel, Singapore 5. Modern Indian cooking Master Class at Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel, Singapore 6. Design A Cuisine Launches Holistic Corporate Catering services 7. Holistic Recipe Ideas 8. Get Involved 9. Contact Us Editor’s Message It was a pleasure to receive the overwhelmingly positive feedback from readers of the May-June 2011 Design A Cuisine Newsletter. No matter where you are in the world, please stay in touch either through partnering with us, incorporating holistic recipes into your meals or simply sending us your best wishes. We’ve had a busy month over June and July. The company has launched a Corporate Catering Service for business meetings and events in Singapore. Our creations and those of our consultant chef Yogesh Arora have appeared on television and in print media. Our partners at the Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel, Singapore provided a wonderful venue at Carousel Restaurant for a Holistic Indian food promotion. And we had a great time with senior management at Emerson Process Management at the Palate Sensations Cooking School in Singapore, running a cooking class for their corporate team building exercise. Please stay in touch. Your support is much appreciated as we grow the venture, helping more people eat the healthiest, tastiest, and most sustainable food on the planet! Till our next edition… Love and Light, Rohan Belliappa, Editor Design A Cuisine in the media The Business Times newspaper, Singapore Design A Cuisine and consultant chef Yogesh Arora were featured in The Business Times, Singapore’s major business daily. Many thanks to the publication for kindly requesting an encore presentation of Design A Cuisine’s creations! http://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/07/design-cuisines-healing-and-pleasing.html HOST Magazine A leading luxury food and beverage industry publication.http://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/07/designing-calming-cuisine-in-host.html Absolute Thai magazine A lifestyle magazine based in Singapore.http://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/07/absolutely-holistic-in-absolute-thai.html VegeVibe Magazine, Singapore A leading vegetarian publication in Singapore.http://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/07/design-cuisine-gets-vegelicious-with.html Vasantham Express television show, Mediacorp, Singapore national television The work of Design A Cuisine was featured on the Singapore national broadcaster Mediacorp's Vasantham Express show. Hosts Guna and Gayathri were in the Carousel Restaurant at the Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel, Singapore for the filming.http://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/06/design-cusine-on-vasantham-express.html For all other media coverage of our company, check out our blog athttp://designacuisine.blogspot.com/. Cooking Class with Emerson Process Management at Palate Sensations, Singapore Senior management at Emerson Process Management worked with Design A Cuisine on a corporate team building program at Palate Sensations Cooking School, Singapore. For all the photos and details, check out http://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/06/emerson-team-building-with-design.html. Modern Indian Cooking Master Class at Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel, Singapore Design A Cuisine’s Chef Yogesh and the culinary team at the Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel put on a modern Indian cuisine cooking master class for the hotel’s guests. Those in attendance learned about the healing properties of herbs and spices included in the Design A Cuisine menu while sampling numerous delicious creations by Chef Yogesh. It was a fun, upbeat and informative afternoon. Read more athttp://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/07/holistic-cooking-masterclass-royal.html Design A Cuisine Launches Holistic Corporate Catering services Does your company host meetings and is looking for a delicious, healthy and visually tantalizing feast prepared by an award winning Chef? Design A Cuisine has launched a new corporate catering service, currently serving businesses of all sizes in Singapore. If you would like Design A Cuisine to cater your next corporate function, please email Rohan at info@designacuisine.com, or call us at +65 93858477. Holistic Recipe Ideas and Cooking Classes Would you like to incorporate holistic cooking into your next meal? Visit our blog for some easy, nutritious and very tasty cuisine ideas.http://designacuisine.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-always-exhilarating-experience-to.html Get Involved Design A Cuisine welcomes support from anyone with an interest in food and its healing properties and welcomes support from anyone with an interest in holistic food and encouraging people to make better dietary choices. If you would like to assist, wherever in the world you may be, please let us know. We welcome all talents to join the Design A Cuisine family to make our world a better place one plate at a time! Thank you for your continued support. The Design A Cuisine Team, Singapore

Design A Cuisine at Singapore Food Festival 2011

Singapore Food Festival 2011 recognises Design A Cuisine's participation during the food fest. Chef Yogesh shared the message about holistic cuisine and demonstrated how to make a zesty black and white chickpea salad and some divine carrot halwa both of which were healthy and easy on the palate. It was an up close and personal session. Chef Yogesh enjoyed sharing health tips and answered audience's questions with much enthusiasm. Audience were also able to taste holistic cuisine when Chef Yogesh served up the dishes to them!

Healthy appetite, holisitic style in Appetite Asia, www.appetiteasia.com (July 2011)

Holistic Indian cuisine is featured in Appetite Asia (http://www.appetiteasia.com/), July 2011.

 Again, Indian cuisine is being redefined through the use of holistic principles.  The article says that Chef Yogesh's Indian cuisine is unlike any other, and "each dish is packed full of flavours that are so fresh and organic that even afterwards, you don't feel like your stomach has an uphill battle in trying to digest everything"!

Chef Yogesh uses only fresh produce and herbs in Design A Cuisine's holistic style to harness the healing properties of food and bring the science back to eating.Article as follows:

A touch of spice with all things nice in Singapore Women's Weekly, a Singaporean lifestyle magazine (June 2011)

Design A Cuisine's really nice with a little bit of spice cuisine has been featured in Singapore Womens' Weekly's June issue that writes "if you think Indian food is rich, greasy and spicy, heading to Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scott's for its holistic Indian cuisine promotion" where patrons will be treated to a mouthwatering array of piquant chutneys and healthy, calming dishes prepared by Chef Yogesh using holistic principles.

Article as follows:

Holistic Indian cuisine in Simply Her, Singaporean women's magazine (July 2011)

Simply Her, a Singaporean magazine for women has featured holistic Indian cuisine in the July issue. Chef Yogesh shares about using certain spices to create foods with fountain of youth properties: "Many people have the perception that Indian food is heavy oily and difficult to digest. This is not true! Home cooked Indian food can be healthy, light and nutritious. Certain spices, when used appropriately, can also detox and heal". 

Article as follows:

Holistic Indian cuisine in Elle, Singaporean lifestyle magazine for women (July 2011)

Elle, a Singaporean lifestyle magazine for women, published a feature on holistic Indian cuisine in the July issue. This article sums up the cuisine in an amusing quote: "This is the one Indian meal that will not have you rolling out of the restaurant from too much basmatic rice. Instead, you'll feel light and detoxed as you would after a meal at a wellness camp."


Indeed, Design A Cuisine redefines Indian cuisine, bringing it back to its true taste. The use of holistic principles and fresh produce help enhance the flavour and healing capability of dishes. Herbs and spices, when used appropriately, can do your body a great deal of good, and assist in healing common ailments. Design A Cuisine creates food for the soul!


Article as follows:

Holistic Cuisine featured in Tamil Murasu, Singaporean Tamil newspaper (12 June 2011)

Design A Cuisine's 10 day holistic Indian food promotion was much raved about with various features in different media.

The Tamil Murasu published an extensive article on the hearty cuisine that's nourishing to the soul on 12 June 2011. Chef Yogesh shares that "food should never be prepared in a hurry. Vegetables ought to washed with care, and sliced with much love. Even cooking utensils are to held with concern. Only then, can one taste the true goodness of food. Good eating though good handling and preparing"

Article as follows:

Design A Cuisine @ Singapore Food Festival 2011

Food, glorious food!

Food Mecca, Singapore celebrates its diverse cuisine and culture through a month long food festival that no self respecting foodie would dream of missing!

Design A Cuisine shared the passion for creating pleasing and healing cuisine during a cooking demonstration at Clarke Quay on July 19 2011, as part of Singapore Food Festival 2011.

Chef Yogesh taught a lively crowd who ranged from young student foodies to amateur cooks how to whip a refreshing chickpea salad and an Indian favourite Carrot Halwa a la holistic style! It was an up close and personal demonstration, and Chef Yogesh was able to interact with the audience. He provided some healthy, holistic tips for a healthier lifestyle and answered audiences' queries.

Patrons also got a chance to try his creations. It was a delightful evening, spreading the love for wholesome and tasty food. Design A Cuisine was able to interact with a diverse crowd to spread the message about eating well for better living.

Full of smiles

Chef Yogesh manages a Kodak moment in between the session

Chef Yogesh at the cooking demonstration stand

Recipes!

Umaima Khumushi is back again with a duo of fun-tastic and creative recipes to tickle your taste buds. They are versatile and can be served as sides during dinner or hors'devours at parties. Umaima guarantees that these recipes are simple for even unseasoned cook!

YAM KEBABS

Yams get revamped into tasteful morsels that have spiced beautifully! This dish is simple to make and a crowd pleaser. 

Ingredients:

• ½ cup green peas(boiled and coarsely mashed)
• 100 gm purple yam (boiled and mashed);
• 2small potatoes (boiled and mashed)
• 100 gm cabbage (chopped fine)
• 50 gm groundnuts (roasted and chopped)
• 1tbsp ginger –garlic and green chilli paste
• 100 gm flour, roasted till light brown
• 1tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp asafoetida
• 2tbsp corn flour (mixed with water)
•  ¼  cup each of freshly chopped mint leaves and spring onions
• salt to taste
• oil for deep frying.

Method:

Mix all the ingredients properly except the roasted flour and the corn flour paste.

Make it into a smooth dough.
Shape it into finger like kebabs or patties of your choice.

Dip into the corn flour paste, roll in brown flour and deep fry in medium hot oil  until done.

Serve hot with green chutney or tomato ketchup.

DELIGHTFUL LIME RICE

This dish lives up to its name, and delights your taste buds with a refreshing tangyness!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups basmati  rice(boiled)
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 50 gm grated coconut
• 2tbsp juice of limes
• 10-12 curry leaves
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• 4-5 green chillies (slit and chopped)
• 3-4 cloves
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• a few sprigs of fresh coriander (for garnish)
•  salt to taste.

METHOD:

Mix turmeric powder, lime juice and salt together and keep aside.

Heat ghee in a wok.
Add mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, cloves, cinnamon stick and let it crackle.

Add the boiled rice in it and mix everything properly.
Transfer the rice into the rice pot.

Add the lime juice mixture in to the rice pot.

Mix all well and add 2 cups of water.

Let it cook until done.

Serve hot garnishing with grated coconut and fresh coriander leaves.

Accompany it with salad and soup of your choice.

An eyeful of holistic Indian cuisine in I-Weekly, Singapore

Design A Cuisine's Indian food promotion has been featured in I-Weekly, 23 June 2011. Oogle at the pictures of the array of healing, homemade chutneys and a holistic take on the Indian dessert, Zaffrani Gazar halwa. Chef Yogesh also shares his reccomendations and holistic approach to food, as well as his dedication to serve others! Chef Yogesh also shares about his ideas on serving: "I learnt from my Guru how to respect food and diners, how to make use of herbs to enhance flavours and bring out the medicinal properties. The most important ingredient is not salt or pepper, but love."


Article as follows:

Holistic Indian cuisine online publicity via asiacuisine.com

Design A Cuisine's holistic Indian food promotion at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel Singapore has been featured online at www.asiacuisine.com. The snippet reads that "his healing cuisine draws inspiration from Ayurveda, a land where food is believed to have medicinal properties, and the native country of Chef Arora".

Chef Yogesh's holistic cuisine was inspired by ancient Indian cuisine when food was scientific and meant to heal the body of its ailments. Snippet as follows:

Absolutely holistic in Absolute Thai, Singapore lifestyle magazine

Lifestyle magazine, Absolute Thai has featured Design A Cuisine's absolutely delicious and healing cuisine at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel Singapore. The article writes that Chef Yogesh's "calming cuisine creates more awareness about the advantages of healthy cooking and eating. Fresh produce are used to prepare the spread, without artificial colours or flavour enhancers. Herbs and spices incorporated to these dishes are beneficial to health in various ways."

Chef Yogesh's healing and pleasing cuisine was showcased Carousel restaurant,located in Royal Plaza on Scott's, is well known for wide variety of dishes at the buffet counters.


Article as follows:

Design A Cuisine's holistic Indian food promotion featured in Berita Minggu, Singapore

Design A Cuisine's holistic food promotion at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel Singapore was a highly sucessful and popular event and has been featured in the Berita Minggu, the Sunday version of the Malay newspaper Berita Harian.


Article as follows:

Design A Cuisine gets vegelicious with VegVibe magazine, Singapore

VegVibe, a popular Singaporean magazine that espouses on vegetarianism, has featured Chef Yogesh in their Jul/Aug 2011 issue. Chef Yogesh spoke openly about his experiences learning about holistic principles from his Guru, Sri Sri Poonamji, as well as how he turned vegetarian that in itself was a healing experience. He also shared a triad of vegetarian dishes using holistic principles and some health snippets about spices.

"Focused on creating a "symphony of all the senses", Chef Yogesh considers all aspects in preparing his dishes - looking and tasting good while providing the body with wholesome nutrition."


Article as follows:

Designing a Calming cuisine in HOST magazine July 2011, Singapore

The holistic Indian food promotion at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel Singapore keeps rocking up waves with a feature in the HOST magazine where Chef Yogesh shared a page with famed Michelin chef, Joel Robuchon. The hotel invited "renowned chef, Yogesh Arora, whose healing cuisine is inspired by his native land, the land of Ayurveda."

Article as follows:

Design A Cuisine's healing and pleasing cuisine featured in The Business Times newspaper, Singapore

Design A Cuisine's 10 day holistic Indian food promotion at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel, Singapore proved to be a highly sucessful event and came to a close on Sunday, 10th July 2011. Chef Yogesh's holistic take on Indian cuisine was lauded by many patrons and was also featured in various media.
Recently, Singaporean newspaper The Business Times reviewed Chef Yogesh's cuisine at Carousel. The holistic cuisine presented a range of new flavours to the buffet table and was great "introduction to what the chef could do, and hopefully for the next time, he'll get a platform for himself."
Article as follows:

Recipes!

It's always an exhilarating experience to treat your taste buds to a completely new culinary sensation. A unique combination of spices can create such a mouthwatering complexity to a dish. That's exactly what Design A Cuisine's dear friend, Umaima Khumushi has so kindly offered to share in this post through two of her personal recipes.

CORN KOFTA IN GREEN GRAVY

Umaima presents the ultimate Indian comfort food: dumplings made from corn and Indian cheese than smothered in a flavoursome green gravy that's spiked with an array of spices.

Serves: 4-5 persons

Cooking time: 30 min

INGREDIENTS:

For Green Gravy

• 2cups boiled spinach(minced)
• ½ cup curd
• 2 green chilies(chopped)
• ½ inch ginger
•  ½ tsp each of coriander powder
•  chili powder
• cumin seeds
•  garam masala powder
• turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 2tbsp chopped coriander leaves
• few sprigs of mint leaves(for garnish)
• 3tbsp oil
• 1-2 tbsp butter

For the Corn Koftas

• 1 cup chopped corn
• 50 gm cottage cheese(paneer)
• ¼ cup breadcrumbs
•  ¼ tsp red chili powder
• 2 green chilies
•  1tbsp coriander leaves
•  oil for frying

Method for koftas:

Mash cottage cheese and breadcrumbs.

Mix the chopped corn, green chilies, coriander leaves and chili powder.

Mix well and keep aside for 10 min.

Heat oil and fry koftas till golden brown.

Method:

Grind the boiled spinach.

Take a pan and heat the oil.

 Add cumin seeds and then add all the spices except the garam masala.

Then add the curd.

Stir well and add the spinach paste and mix well followed by green chili, ginger and coriander leaves.

Add garam masala.

Remove from heat.

Put corn koftas in a Pyrex baking dish.

 Pour the prepared spinach gravy into the dish.

 Dot it with butter and bake the dish for at least 15-20 minutes so that the koftas are coated well with the gravy. 

 Garnish with mint leaves. Serve hot.

STUFFED LETTUCE TREASURE

Stuffed Lettuce make tasty appetisers and will steal the show at any party! It's any carb conscious dieter's dream! It's a blend of stir fried vegetables are tucked within lettuce leaves.

INGREDIENTS:

For Filling:

• 8-10 big lettuce leaves
• 1 clove garlic(crushed)
• 100 gm mushroom(chopped)
• 2 spring onions(chopped)
•  2 cups cabbage(shredded)
• ½ cup grated carrot
• 2tsp soy sauce
• 1tbsp corn flour
• salt n pepper to taste
• 1 -2tbsp butter
• 8-10 spring rolls

METHOD:

Remove whole lettuce leaves and blanch in boiling water for ½ a min.

Plunge in cold water and drain.

Heat oil, add garlic and mushrooms and sauté for 1 min.

Add onions, cabbage, carrot and cook for another 2 minutes.

Mix together water and corn flour, then add to the vegetables together with soy sauce, salt n pepper. Remove from fire and divide the mixture between pancakes, fold sides in and roll up.

Place each rolled pancake on a lettuce leaf and roll up lettuce leaf keeping seam side down.

Brush lightly with butter and place on a baking dish.

 Bake till heated through for about 20 minutes.

 Cut length wise and serve with sauce of your choice.

PS: Can substitute cabbage leaf in place of lettuce leaf.

Design A Cuisine @ Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel, Singapore : Day 4 Snippet

Chef Yogesh's been cooking up a storm over the past few days. Feast your eyes on a holistic appetiser, mushroom and vegetable patty served with some of Design A Cuisine healing chutneys packed with herbs and taste!

Design A Cuisine @ Royal Plaza on Scott's July 3, 2011

Carousel Holistic Food Promotion Day 3: Chef Yogesh wows patrons with an array of sensational Indian salads and exotic desserts that will have you wanting more.

Potatoes smothered in spices and topped off with dabs of yogurt that cools down the palate!

A refreshing crunchy green bean salad flecked with spices to tantalise your taste buds.

Mangoes and yogurt - a simple light and healthy way to cap your meal. The creamy yogurt complements the sweet mangoes beautifully!

A delightful rice pudding flavoured with basil. The combination of flavours are a party in your mouth!

Holistic Cooking Masterclass @ Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel

Chef Yogesh conducted a cooking class at Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel. Participants learnt how to cook stuffed mushrooms, seasoned rice and carrot halwa. It was a successful event and participants took home some meaningful insight on Design A Cuisine's cause and how to use holistic principles in their own cooking.

Showcasing the holistic delights!

Stuffed mushroom with a dab of mint chutney

Deelish Carrot Halwa - a nutritious way to end any meal!

Seasoned rice

Holistic ingredients

Chef Yogesh is enthusiastic about the holistic cuisine!

Design A Cuisine is grateful towards Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel for this opportunity to make holistic cuisine known to masses.

Design A Cuisine @ Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel!

Design A Cuisine kicked off a 10 day long holistic Indian food promotion at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scott's today. Chef Yogesh whipped some delightful holistic Indian cuisine that's got people raving.

A fab salad spread!

Stir fried mushrooms oozing with flavours!

A zesty carrot and radish salad

An array of freshly made chutneys that taste good, assist digestion and detox the body!

Dry Fruit Radbi presented in shot glasses! You'll want doubles of these and more.

Chef Yogesh is all smiles!

Think you've seen enough? Chef Yogesh will be showing you how to cook holistic dishes in your homes on July 2, 2011 at Royal Plaza on Scott's Hotel. Do join the class to whip up healing and pleasing cuisine in your own kitchens.