Fusion Cooking at the Marine Plaza

Be warned, more of a rant than a recipe follows this line.
Was invited today to attend a fusion cooking class at the Marine Plaza Hotel taught by their in house Chef Mark Crocker.

The class turned out to be a very simple one - four recipes:
#1 Baby Corn Flakes Crusted
#2 Stuffed Mushrooms topped with Cashew nut sauce
#3 Potato Wedges with Cheese & Chillies
#4 Onion rings covered with Papad powder

There were approx 30 ladies in the class, u-shaped seating. Though the poor Chef tried his best to stick to the class, he kept getting accosted by the most stupid questions ever…

The women were asking him what knife he was using (??) what platter he was cutting on (???) what he used to wash his vegetables (????) help. They kept asking him alternatives, “… instead of maida, what other flour can we use” (ok, that’s a valid question) but recipe #2 (Stuffed Mushrooms) one asked “What can we use instead of mushrooms?” HUH?????

Bloody Hell. And I thought I was a beginner. Not only that, they tried to get their “full-vasool” by asking the Chef to tell them “how do we make this chutney?” and “how do we make that chutney?” BUY A BLOOMIN’ BOOK… I felt like telling them. The Chef had a lot more patience with them than I had (I suspect Sharda would have waived her baton & sushed them all) & answered (humored?) all their questions.

Back to the actual cooking though. The recipes as I said were all very very simple.

They were all also pretty much identical… #s 1, 3 & 4 - take this base, make batter, fry or bake, garnish.
#2 was tad better (I’m not to big on deep fried dishes). Stuff Mushrooms - he used paneer (cottage cheese) mixed with crushed nuts ( can substitute paneer with mince etc) & then gratinate cheese & grill.

Which reminds me, learned three new words today:

(01) Blanch: To scald (almonds, for example) in order to loosen the skin / To scald (food) briefly, as before freezing or as a preliminary stage in preparing a dish.

(02) Salamander: This piece of restaurant equipment resembles a broiler, but is placed above a stove. It heats from the top and is very hot. It is often used for rapid browning or gratin dishes.

(03) Gratinate: To cook, as macaroni, in a savory juice or sauce until the juice is absorbed and a crisp surface forms.

Most of the ingridients used are available locally (not sure how much fusion was involved!) & all in all (annoying women aside) it was a good class & extremely simple. Think I may try something out one of these days

Added 28th March, post Ashish & gps comments:

#1 Baby Corn Flakes Crusted
Ingredients:
Baby Corn - 250 gms
Corn Flakes - 200 gms
Maida Flour - 100 gms
Salt - 05 gms
White Pepper - 05 gms
Egg - 01 nos (optional)
Refined oil for frying

Method:
Cut the baby corn lenght ways.
Blanch in hot water for 3 minutes.
Make a batter using maida, egg & water. The batter should be pouring consistency enough to coat your finger.
Add a pinch of salt.
Marinate the blanched corn after draining out the water
Crush the corn flakes into semi powdery state.
Coat the baby corn one by one by rolling in the corn flake powder.
Heat the oil. Fry until golden brown / drain the oil.
Serve with mint chutney.