Vegetarian Dining @ Pipedream Restaurant

I'm cooking up some vegetarian dining at Pipedream restaurant in London on Monday 19th September.  I've decided to make the paneer shashlik from my audition round, together with the best rice dish Gregg's ever tasted, my channa pilau.  I'm also making a few twists after my stints at Benares and Ottolenghi.

I've been working on an amuse bouche, based on one of my favourite snacks, aloo paratha.  This is an indian flat bread stuffed with spiced potato, and topped with aubergine and pickled radish.

I've also been making lime curd. I got the recipe from here:

http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipe/1082/lime-curd-recipe/

This was to accompany the lime parfait, coconut sorbet and pistachio wafers I was practising for Pipedream.  But it turned into this... 

Lime meringue croustades, an Ottolenghi inspired tart if ever I saw one!

My dessert for Pipedream is a creamy lime parfait, served with a tangy coconut agave sorbet and crispy pistachio wafers.  And a little lime curd perhaps....

To book a table for my vegetarian dining at Pipedream, go to their website and follow the link.

http://www.pipedreamrestaurant.co.uk/book-a-table/event/id/15

Next stop... Benares!

Not Varanasi the holiest place in India, but still, pretty damn exciting to be going to Benares restaurant in Mayfair.  My bag is packed already, but I don't need much given I'll be working 14 hour shifts, 6 days straight!  Apparently we get two hours off in the afternoon, at which point I was planning to collapse on the grass in Berkeley Square.  But then some other chef friends snorted with laughter, saying that rarely happens and to prepare myself for a non stop day.  Do you think they'll let me have a stool?

Having this opportunity to learn how to make really beautiful Indian food is just mind blowing.  It's one of my all time favourite cuisines, and I think some of my best moments on MasterChef probably involved my favourite Punjabi delights.  Although thinking about it, so did some of my worst!

I probably won't be able to blog about it until I get home, but I will try and take lots of photos of gorgeous looking scrumptious food.  Wish me luck!