The Independent on Saturday

Kamini Pather’s garam masala prawn risotto

- JASON WOOSEY jason.woosey@inl.co.za

YOU know her as the winner of MasterChef SA season 2 and intrepid foodie on Netflix’s Girl Eat World, but now you can finally bring Kamini’s hearty recipes into your own kitchen with her new e-cookbook, Eat Glocal: South African Indian Home Cooking. With fans like Sohla El-Waylly and Bon Appétit’s Sonia Chopra, you know you’re onto a good thing.

You can purchase your copy from Kamini’s website, likeharmon­y.co.za

GARAM MASALA PRAWN RISOTTO Serves 2

Cooking time: 30 minutes

I. Adore. Risotto. (So does my mum). Yes, it takes a bit of time to cook and you are standing over a pot while stirring but it’s also completely worth it. Risotto is the Milanese dish that I learnt while shooting Girl Eat World. The addition of garam masala in the dish didn’t skip a beat. The Gruberg cheese, with its sweet, nutty flavour is the perfect compadre to these warm spices.

Chef’s Notes Buying prawns:

I prefer to buy whole prawns with their heads and shells on. The flavour is so much more pleasing and I save the heads for pesce stock.

Gruberg cheese: It’s South African Gruyere, to put it bluntly. It’s sweet and nutty but also packs a mature cheese flavour. You’re going to love it!

INGREDIENT­S

750ml aromatic chicken broth 45ml olive oil

25g butter

1 garlic clove

1 white onion, diced 1 red chilli

2tsp salt

100g carnaroli rice

1tsp salt

80g gruberg cheese, grated ¼cup petit pois peas 2tsp garam masala

6 prawns, butterflie­d with veins removed, shells left on

Add chicken broth to a small pot and place on a low heat. The broth

DIRECTIONS

shouldn’t boil but lightly simmer.

De-head, de-vein and butterfly the prawns. Toss in 1tsp of salt and 1tsp of garam masala.

In a heavy-based pan, melt 20g of butter with olive oil. (Yes, there is a lot of oil and fat but the risotto was not designed to be anything but indulgent. So lean into it).

Add the garlic, onion and chilli. Saute on medium heat until the onions are translucen­t. Don’t allow the onions or garlic to take any colour.

Add in the rice and stir through. You want to coat each grain of rice in the aromatics. Allow the grains to absorb the fat. You will know it’s ready when the edges of the rice grains turn glassy.

Add in the warm chicken broth in ladle fulls. The first ladle will bubble away quickly and be absorbed almost instantly. When it has been absorbed by the rice, add the next ladleful and stir between ladles. Continue until the broth is almost finished. When there is about a cup of broth left (eyeball it), taste the rice. The rice should be soft but still have a bite to it.

Add in the Gruberg cheese and petit pois. Taste again for salt.

In a frying pan, add in 5g of butter. Flash fry the prawns and set aside.

To serve: Divide the risotto between the plates. Shake the plates to dispense the risotto, which should be gliding across the plate. Arrange the prawns and microplane over a final garnish of Gruberg.

THE GT3 has always been the go-to Porsche for those who want their sports car raw, unfiltered and heavily influenced by the company’s motorsport division. Purists will be glad to know the new 992-generation 911 GT3 follows the same formula.

While many had feared that it might go the downsized, turbocharg­ed route like the rest of the modern 911 family, the new GT3 is still powered by a 4-litre normally aspirated flat-six engine that revs, or should we say screams, all the way to 9 000rpm. The revised engine produces 375kW and 469Nm, which is 7kW and 9Nm more than the previous model mustered and not too far off the 383kW produced by the outgoing GT3 RS model.

At sea level, the GT3 should haul you from 0-100km/h in 3.4 seconds, according to factory claims, and on to a top speed of 318km/h. In keeping with its purist ideals, the GT3 is available with a good ol’ fashioned manual gearbox, although customers can also opt for Porsche’s brilliant seven-speed PDK dual-clutch transmissi­on.

The GT3 is not pretending to be the

fastest nor the most powerful 911 on the block, but it is arguably the most intense and entertaini­ng to drive and that’s not just down to the high-revving engine. Featuring lightweigh­t components, and a motorsport-derived chassis and aerodynami­c package, the GT3 simply lives for track days.

On that note, Porsche says the newcomer has lapped the Nurburgrin­g-Nordschlei­fe a full 17 seconds quicker than its predecesso­r, posting a time of 6:55.2. A cool new feature for circuit driving is the “track screen”, which can reduce the digital displays to the left and right of the rev counter to essential informatio­n needed for track driving.

The new GT3 is highly customisab­le too, with customers able to treat themselves to optional components like a lightweigh­t roof made of exposed carbon fibre, carbon exterior mirror tops, darkened LED matrix headlights and matching taillamps.

When can you buy one? Porsche South Africa is expecting the first units to arrive in the fourth quarter of this year, with pricing to be announced next month.

MSC Cruises’ newest bartender on the soon-to-be-launched MSC Virtuosa has an impressive résumé. Rob can speak eight languages, create out-ofthis-world cocktails and is unlike any bartender you’ve seen at sea before.

He is the first humanoid robotic bartender at sea, and guaranteed to steal a few hearts. Rob’s playground is Virtuosa’s MSC Starship Club, an integrated bar and entertainm­ent experience, which is “inspired by MSC Cruises’ vision of the spaceship of the future: MSC Starliner”.

Here, travellers can experience 3D holograms, an immersive digital art wall and a 12-seater infinity digital interactiv­e table while Rob whips them up a delicious cocktail.

Rob isn’t the silent type either and has a few tricks up his sleeve to woo guests, like his mesmerisin­g voice, human-like expression­s and emotional responsive­ness.

Guests can place their order using specifical­ly designed vertical digital cockpits to alert Rob. The robot immediatel­y starts to prepare the order, from

pouring spirits, juices and syrups, shaking, building or stirring the concoction­s and garnishing.

Rob can speak to customers in English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese, which guests select when they place their order. He uses his LED face to convey emotion so that guests can enjoy his performanc­e while they take in the gorgeous setup.

The cruise company said in a statement that it sought out “new ways to employ the latest technology to create something unique and to develop innovation­s on board to elevate the guest offering to the next level.”

MSC Virtuosa, which will launch in April, will be equipped with cutting-edge technologi­es and environmen­tally conscious capabiliti­es.

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 ??  ?? THE new GT3 is expected in SA later this year.
THE new GT3 is expected in SA later this year.
 ??  ?? ROB’S playground is MSC Virtuosa’s Starship Club, an integrated bar and entertainm­ent experience.
ROB’S playground is MSC Virtuosa’s Starship Club, an integrated bar and entertainm­ent experience.

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