2014 Celebration Feast by Rajiv's Kitchen

Rating: 9.5

hosted by Rajiv's Kitchen

To celebrate a brand new year, on the 11th January, Rajiv's Kitchen is serving up 5 courses, consisting of 11 different dishes for you to feast on, from the comfort of our centrally located Bethnal Green/Whitechapel flat. This will be a cosy & homely affair.

The menu for this event includes:

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Complimentary Welcome Drink: Bellini cocktail upon arrival

PRE-STARTERS:

Pakoras: Mixed vegetable pakoras served with spicy Nepalese salsa dip

Hyakula: Nepalese spicy lamb ribs served with hemp seeds & tomato chutney

STARTER:

"Pigs in a pond"
*Pork momos (dumplings) served in a rich chicken broth

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MAIN:

Khasi ko maasu:
Braised goat curry, slow cooked with Nepalese herbs & spices.
*Mild

Chukauni:

Yogurt & potatoes salad with sweet red onions, green chillies, fresh coriander & fenugreek flavoured oil.
(Served cold)

Sekuwa:
Classic Nepali Chicken skewers, marinated overnight with timur, nutmeg, lime zest & yoghurt.

Kauli ko tarkaari:

Cauliflower & fresh garden peas curry

Kaalo Daal:

Black gram daal cooked with ginger & tempered with ghee & jimbu (herb found only in the mountainous regions of Nepal). Served with fresh lime.

Paneer ko tarkaari:

Paneer & capsicum chilli

Kukhura ko Achaar:
Tangy & spicy chicken pickle, served as a condiment

****Main course is served with fragrant rice/paratha bread.

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DESSERT:

Home made cardamom & Vanilla ice cream served with fresh mango, mango pulp & topped with crushed pistachio nuts.

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Note:We use fresh local produce/ingredients bought on the same day for our cooking.
If you are vegetarian or have any food allergies, please inform us in advance so we can improvise our menu to suit your needs.

This is a BYOB event!!!!

We look forward to meeting you all!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!!!

Have a query about this event? Contact Rajiv's Kitchen

Schedule

No future dates currently in our calendar.

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Rajiv's Kitchen - Nepalese to please

Rating: 9

The Spice Scribe attended in January 2014, reviewed on 16 January 2014

Having worked at one of Rajiv's pop-ups, I relished the chance to see him in action at a more intimate at-home event. Although he claims to suffer with terrible nerves, Rajiv is an effortlessly welcoming host and a wholly competent cook. He’s also adept at thinking on his feet; hence the swiftly-invented fresh melon juice and vodka cocktail dreamt up after an unfortunate accident with the Prosecco delivery. A decadent – and potent – way to begin the evening.

Plates of cauliflower, potato and spinach pakoras were zipped up with chaat masala and a spanking-fresh tomato salsa with a delicious, dangerous sting in its tail. Grilled lamb ribs are my favourite treat at Turkish restaurants, and are sadly underused – hence my stealing my companion’s last one AND begging seconds.

I never met a momo I didn’t like, but Rajiv’s are exceptional, especially when the juicy pork dumplings are served in an aromatic broth. Knowing what was to come, I turned down the offered top-up, but a big bowl of this is the kind of comfort grub you could eat by the bucketload. We had a welcome break as some late diners joined us – receiving their starters as a mixed platter to allow them to catch up (and a cocktail to help them settle in!)

Mains were served family-style along with an individual plate of rice. And it just kept coming. With his suspiciously slender frame, I suspect Rajiv is a bit of a feeder. Which is handy, because the general consensus was that we were more than happy to be fed. I even clocked those who claimed not to be keen on goat dolloping Rajiv’s deep, dark khasi ko maasu onto their plates after a first tentative spoonful proved pleasing. If you like Caribbean curry goat, this one’s for you.

Nepalese food has some interesting influences and many of the dishes will be familiar to Indian food fans. The aromatics are rather different, though, as is the way in which spices are used. Fenugreek seeds are cooked until dark; adding a earthy, pleasantly bitter savour to dishes like potatoes in a kadai-like yogurt sauce – a dish served cold and, like revenge, best so.

The contrast of cold and hot dishes on the table made for interesting eating for people like me who eat like magpies; moving between dishes, picking a choice morsel here and there. Chicken pickle was intriguing eating – the temperature cold, but the spicing hot and tangy. More chicken came hot, the Sichuan pepper in the choyela marinade all prickly-numbing on the lips as you tried to smack them in appreciation.

This menu offered plenty for vegetarians, who were amply catered for even without the additional veggie option of smoked, mashed aubergine that we all thankfully got to dive into as well. Simply-fried paneer and peppers, a dry-spiced cauli-pea dish and dal along with home-made mooli pickle meant five-a-day was well within reach – something not always considered with supperclub menus packed with lavish-but-heavy dishes.

That dal was another new experience – black-gram-based, thin, and flavoured with a native Nepali herb called ‘jimbu’ that added a haunting citrusy dimension and lifted the dish. By this stage, I think everyone was feeling they might need FORKlifting out of there; but somehow, a light pud of mango pulp and cardamom-infused ice cream disappeared without a trace.

Rajiv’s Kitchen is not a place to dine if you’re afraid of new and unexpected flavours, or you just want to get your head down, chow, and get the hell out. It’s a supperclub to savour til it’s way past your intended bedtime and you don’t care because the atmosphere is so warm and pleasant and you just can’t bring yourself to leave. I think people’s characters influence their cooking; in Rajiv’s case, both are ace and my point is proved.

Great food, great evening

Rating: 10

StephHH attended in January 2014, reviewed on 15 January 2014

I booked Rajiv's Celebration Feast with a friend from Hamburg and we had a lovely time! The food was absolutely fantastic and so was the very welcoming host. I'll definitely join again next time I'm in London.

2014 Celebration Feast