Tasting India

Tasting India is a new-ish virtual restaurant. From their website:

Chef Jasmine Sheth is a James Beard Foundation grant winner and creator of Tasting India; a weekly culinary adventure where she creates a flavor rich Thali, highlighting a different Indian Regional Cuisine each week. Woven together with her personal stories of growing up in India, her weekly menus are like a rich cultural scavenger hunt!

Intrigued, I began to follow them on Instagram. Menus typically are announced at 6 PM on Saturdays and usually sell out that night. Non-Insta users can sign up for email alerts.

I was able to get the Valentine's Day special. The box consisted of two savory and two sweet items.


Bharta Hand Puffs (spicy eggplant paste in puff pastry)


Makhani Arancini (crispy exterior around Makhani risotto with center of marinated paneer)


Malai Cham Cham (stuffed dessert -- the description provided isn't terribly helpful)


Thandai Shortbread Cookies (spiced cookies with white chocolate glaze decorated with pistachios and dried rose).



The shortbread cookie was hands down my favorite of this box. The runner up was the hand puff. There were a lot of interesting flavors and textures in this assortment.

The GP wrote: There were a lot of interesting flavors and textures in this assortment.

True of her thalis as well! She's really leaning into sour, vegetal, herbaceous flavors--there's nothing else like it in the area right now.

We took part of the Banaras Thali at the end of February. I've modified the descriptions from the spreadsheet sent. If there is not much of a description, there wasn't anything provided.

Chooda Matar: flattened rice soaked in milk combined with fresh green peas and spices

Banarasi Dum Aloo: potatoes stuffed with a mix of paneer and nuts simmered in a cashew nut and tomato gravy

Ashtami wale kale chane: black chickpeas

Puri: puffed fried bread

Lauki ka halwa: a condiment of sweet bottle gourd halwa laced with cardamom. Serving suggestion (that I didn't notice until now): top a piece of puri with some of the chickpeas and a dollop of the halwa.

We added on a special dessert: a white chocolate cheesecake with thandai brown butter crust and home rose and date jam (gulkand).



Plated:


Close-up of the halwa:


We loved the chooda matar and the aloo dishes. The spicing on the chickpeas was tasty but on their own they were a little dry. We might have enjoyed them more had we followed the serving suggestion. The cheesecake was also delicious.

Due to popular demand, Chef Jasmine is offering a monthly cheesecake special. Since we enjoyed the last one so much, we signed up for this month's.

Description: Pistachio cheesecake, dark cocoa shortbread crust, saffron whipped cream, raw honeycomb, dill fronds, makrut lime leaves, roasted almonds

This was a great dessert. And beautiful! Might be the first time I've had dill fronds on a dessert.

I highly recommend following them on Instagram or signing up for their newsletter. They are doing such interesting stuff. http://www.tastingindia.net/