Roasted Pumpkin Risotto with Haloumi and Chilli
Minestrone alla Casalinga
Recipe by Ajay Mathur, Executive Chef – The Lalit, Jaipur
Ingredients
- 1 Potato, diced
- 1 Carrot, dices
- 6 French beans
- 6 flakes of garlic, chopped
- 1 stalk celery (blanch the stems and string the outer hard skin)
- 3 tablespoons lima beans, peeled, soaked overnight and boiled till done
- 10 pieces of penne for thickening
- 3 Italian Finally Chopped tomatoes (MUTTI)
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon peppercorns, crushed
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 6 basil leaves, torn
- Salt to taste
- Parmesan cheese
Preparation
For Lasagna sheet
- Peel potato, carrot, onion, string the French beans and cut all the vegetables into small dices and keep aside. Chop garlic and celery. Blanch and peel tomatoes (MUTTI) and cut into dices.
- Boil the Penne and keep aside. Heat olive oil in a stock pot and add garlic, bay leaf and celery. Then add the carrots and beans and cook for a few seconds.
- Add the potatoes, lastly add the onions and cook till the onions are translucent.
- Add the oregano and crushed pepper and stir for a few seconds. Lastly add the stock and tomatoes. Allow the soup to simmer for a while and remove the scum.
- Add basil, check for seasoning and serve hot with grated Parmesan and bread.
Ajay Mathur, Executive Chef – The Lalit, Jaipur
Chef Ajay Mathur has over 29 years of managerial and professional experience in F&B operations in the hospitality industry and has done his hotel management Diploma from Institute of hotel management, Lucknow. His specializes in Continental and Italian cooking and tries to discover new foods and loves pairing flavours, food and ideas from different parts of the world. He is known for his culinary experience & has had distinctive tenures, promoting Continental and Italian cuisine in India, Dubai-UAE, and USA with known international hotel chains and he has worked almost 20 years with Taj group of hotels as an Executive Chef in different locations in India like Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai taj.
His style of cooking is modern yet traditional as he like to improvise the traditional Classics and interpret and serve them in modern way and also his aim is to surprise and delight the guest when he sees the plate of and put him out of conventional and also work stints abroad assist him a lot as he was exposed to modern cooking methods and techniques etc. his ability to create and grasp new concepts quickly combined with an extremely strong focus and service orientation gives him a fine eye for details. Being a dedicated trainer by nature, Chef Ajay has constantly involved himself in the culinary trainings and has developed many young talents throughout his career.
As a Trainee in Taj and before moving up the culinary specialist in Various field Like kitchen Layouts, Kitchen Set ups, food demonstrations, food Shows, food promotional concepts, Live cooking Concepts, Food and marketing, strategic planning, Menu Engineering, Menu planning, Food festivals devoted to providing professional and technical support to hotels.
Chef Ajay is not only well known for his great culinary passion, he is also an adventurous food connoisseur, who has travelled extensively and regularly seeks the opportunity to explore the different kinds of cuisines while developing his gourmet knowledge.
Achievements
- “External Examiner” for IHM, Delhi Pusa, Lucknow, Jaipur, Agra & Nasik.
- Judge of the Chefs Competition conducted by IHM in various cities.
- Actively conducted training session for Govt. of Tourism.
- Participated in the ‘Gourmet Quiz & Culinary Exhibition’ in Taj Delhi and abroad.
- V. Show ‘A taste of India’, NDTV and many more
- V. Channels show in star, Z-T.V. and doordarshan
- V. Show “Flavours’ of the world” with Chef Wan Ismail from Japan.
- Published in newspaper various articles for readers.
- Contributed 65 recipes for Hindi & English new papers.
