Odisha’s Abinas In Top 15 Of Hungry For Haldiram’s Cooking Contest

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Abinas Nayak, a techie by profession and cook by passion, has made it to the Top 15 of Hungry for Haldiram’s cooking contest.

Those shortlisted will be cooking with Chef Kunal Kapur in the finale.

A picture of Abinas’ dish – Little cone with Barta Swirl and a Very special Sattu’ got selected for the contest.

He had posted the picture with the caption that read, “During winter especially I tend to crave snacks. One them was hot Litti Chokha, grilled fresh and topped with ghee.
So, inspired by the chills of winter and Litti chokha #whatsonmyplate is LITTI CONE WITH BARTA SWIRL AND A VERY SPECIAL SATTU using Haldiram Snacks. It looks like you are having a cold ice cream but actually, you will be having a warm Litti chokha and bharta with chatpata sattu.”

A regular member of ‘Food Findo’ group on Facebook, he has been sharing pictures of whatever he cooks. What took the members by surprise by a ratatouille-style dalma- the traditional and regular Odia food item included in the everyday meal. Even when there is not much one can say with pictures, the dish definitely looks delicious.

He says being an Odia, Dalma is the most integral part of his diet. “This Medley of lentils and wholesome vegetables is even dear to our own Lord Jagannath and I believe as we get all the energy and nutrients from a bowl of Dalma, he also gets all his power to run the world from this nutri-pack dish. Similar to Odisha’s Dalma, is a French Dish Ratatouille. I find both of them very similar not only in terms of flavour but also in terms of cooking and adaptation. Both of them are cooked with mixed vegetables and known as farmers food, both are wholesome and nutritious,” he said.

Inspired by Ratatouille, showed in the Pixar movies, he tried to recreate Dalma with all the same ingredients and spices just cooked in a different technique.

One of the group members, Panchami Manoo Ukil, wrote, “I had never ever expected someone to make Dalma in a MasterChef style, retaining the originality, combining creativity and skills to elevate a simple dish to a global level with such panache. He has held all foodies pretty spellbound today with his ratatouille style dalma and one look at the photographs of the dish will explain the sensation its created.”

His other dish, the pictures of which went crazily popular in the group were of ‘Dahi Baigana’. His post read, “I have been growing up eating a lot of yogurt-based food from my childhood, starting from Dahi pakhala , Chalha(butter milk), Dahi Bara , Lassi and many many more but my favorite combination with yogurt is Bringal or aubergine in form of Dahi Bingana. So #whatsonmyplate today is DAHI BAIGANA (deep fried Bringal in Yogurt) with a tempering of mustard, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds and crushed garlic and chilly oil.”