Recipe: Lavender chocolate and dates torte

Okay, fine! So, I'm branching out!

Here's a recipe of a lovely dates and chocolate torte, which i love. I have beautiful childhood memories of monopolising an entire box that had home-made date torte except that it had a lot of almonds and pistachios. 

This recipe is by Dr Soundararajan P, corporate executive chef at Mahindra Holidays & Resorts.

Lavender chocolate and dates torte
(A lavender-flavored dense cake made with chocolate, dates and cashew nuts)

Dried dates: 100gm
Cashew nuts: 100gm
Milk chocolate: 200gm
Egg white: ½ no
Lavender essence: Few drops
Sugar: 1 tsp

Method
• Chop dried dates, cashew nuts, milk chocolate to the size of a brunoise 
• Beat the egg white with sugar to the foam consistency 
• Mix all chopped ingredients along with beaten egg white and add lavender essence 
• Pour in the mould or baking tray, which is already greased 
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 160 degree C
• Serve warm with your choice of garnish

Recipe: Feta cheese salad by Chef Inderjeet Singh

As a rule, I don't publish recipes on this blog, mostly because I'm not too crazy about food and I am no expert at it either. Plus, there are plenty of really good sites out their dedicated to food. 

But I'm making an exception to this because i love feta cheese and i love salads. Recipe by Chef Inderjeet Singh, Executive Chef at Country Inn & Suites, Mysore. 

Feta cheese salad with white wine vinaigrette

Ingredients

• 2 medium cucumbers, peeled 

• 50 mixed baby greens 

• 1 slice bread croutons 

• 20 shredded or matchstick  leek

• 20gm celery

• 1 large tomato

• 50gm feta cheese

• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 

• White Wine Vinaigrette

Method

• Using a Y-shaped vegetable peeler, cut cucumbers lengthwise into thin strips just until seeds are visible. Discard cucumber core.

• Shape largest cucumber slices into 4 (2 1/2- to 2 3/4-inch-wide) rings. Wrap evenly with remaining cucumber slices. 

• Fill cucumber ring evenly with mixed greens, and all ingredients with feta cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle salad with 1 tbsp white wine vinaigrette, and serve with remaining vinaigrette.

About Chef Inderjeet Singh

Chef Inderjeet grew up learning the art and science of cooking from his mother. This explains why the veteran with nearly 25 years of experience in the Taj Group, ITC Hotels and Carlson Hotels still has the enthusiasm of a child while engaging in his passion of conjuring eclectic culinary delights.

A believer that every culture has a unique food philosophy and the way we cook our food tells a lot about who we are, Chef Inderjeet has this inherent ability to transform cooking into a pleasurable art. 

Give him anything from a discarded bottle of spice, chipped plate from the restaurant, drift wood or the skin of a water melon and he will transform it into some exotic art piece. He believes that fresh organic produce is not just better because of its purity and lack of additives but because they taste better too.