A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Vikram Vij. He is a well known Indian chef from Vancouver. He has two restaurants in Vancouver called Vij’s and Rangoli which are known for reinventing traditional Indian cuisine. Read more about their food philosophy here. He also has a pretty wicked food truck called Vij’s Railway Express.
We met because because I was going to get to be his sous chef on a live internet Cook-Along. This was a really special event for me because I got to cook with one of the world’s best Indian chefs; and, in his restaurant he only has women cooking in his kitchens!
There were several mentions of the cook-along in local newspapers. The Metro mentioned me here:
The cook-along took place on June 6, at UBC in the Vij’s Kitchen, which was made possible by a donation from Chef Vikram and his wife Meeru.
We met an hour before the cook-along, so that Chef Vikram could brief me on what was going to happen, as well show me where all of the ingredients were. The technical guys also had to make us stand in our places so that they could test out how the shots would look.
We were cooking CHICKEN COCONUT CURRY. The ingredients for the recipe are:
- 2 chicken thighs deboned, skin off, chopped
- 2 chicken breasts, skin off, chopped
- ½ tsp saffron (optional)
- 1/3 cup cooking oil
- 1 Tbsp cumin seeds or black mustard seeds
- ½ tsp asafetida (optional)
- 2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic (6 medium cloves)
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp paprika (optional)
- 5 cups coconut milk
- 2 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)
- ½ cup chopped cilantro (optional)
People were able to shop for the ingredients before the broadcast, so that they could watch us cook, and cook-along live. You could ask questions via Twitter, by using the hashtag #VijCookLive
The cook-along was hosted by Dawn Chubai from Breakfast TV. She was reading the Twitter questions and letting us know what people who were cooking along had to say. Dawn said that it was almost like watching “smell-a-vision”, because the people at home could smell what was cooking because they were cooking it too!
Chef Vikram lead me through the steps, and I did most of the cooking. I had never made the Chicken Coconut Curry before, so it was exciting.
It was such a great evening for me. I hope that the people who were cooking-along from home had a great time too.If you didn’t get a chance to watch the live cook-along. Metro News made the video available to watch here:
VIDEO: http://metronews.ca/food/693637/cook-live-with-vikram-vij/
So go get the list of ingredients and cook-along with Chef Vikram and me!!
Interested in trying more dishes by Vikram Vij? Look for the Vij’s Railway Express food truck in Kitsilano this summer. You can check out where they will be via Twitter: @VijsRailway
Last modified: July 5, 2013
