About four and a half years ago Prachi Mistry shifted from Mumbai to London and like most Indians she felt very strange when she first came here.
“For people here, most of the Indian food boiled down to curry. What most pass off as Indian food here often tends to be Bangladeshi/Pakistani/British Indian food!”
That thought of showcasing authentic Indian cuisine maybe considered as the beginning of the journey for the Mistry family who won the BBC 2 Family Cooking Showdown. There were a total of 16 teams participating in total with each having a total of 3 members and Prachi's team comprised of Prachi, her husband Mitesh and his nephew Anup Mistry.
“I randomly filled out the application for the show one day and I wasn't even expecting a call and all of a sudden one Sunday afternoon BBC called up to say that we were selected and when we actually won the show, it was a surreal experience.”
For the unprepared one-pot meal round they were allotted only 3 minutes after showing them the available ingredients and they had to instantly think of a dish in a budget of £10. Prawn Biryani was the outcome and a dish in which they substituted red chilli powder with Paparika powder instead based on the availability of the ingredients.
The biryani was so delicious that one of the judges even said- “I can eat that three times a day!”
But the biggest hit for the Mistry family was the Chocolate Pani Puri that they served with a trio of Lassi shots. They fried the puris and coated it with dark chocolate to maintain a balance of the sweetness of the white chocolate mouse stuffed inside it. The lassi shots came in different flavours of mango, rose and cardamom.
The Mistry family after winning the show are now excited to start their own blog and perhaps in the future conduct some cooking classes as well.
