Party's over, clean the system

You need to get rid of the memories of all the fried food, plum cakes, cocktails, spiced rum etc from your system. Chef Nimish Bhatia, of The Lalit Hotel Bangalore, shares some of his favourite recipes...

Chilled whey and celery refresher
Serves: 4

You need
400ml whey
100gm cucumber
100gm celery sticks
Salt, to taste
Few drops of Tabasco

Here’s how
Peel the cucumber and remove the seeds, wash celery sticks and blend them to obtain the juice. Strain it in a jar and keep it aside.

Hang the yoghurt in a muslin cloth for an hour to obtain the whey. Pass this through a strainer and keep chilled. Now mix the whey with the juice. Strain and serve chilled in glass with drops of Tabasco.

Shaved cucumber salad
Serves: 4

You need
250gm Dutch cucumber
80gm lettuce
20gm of basil and parsley
25gm asparagus tips
60gm grapefruit or orange wedges
30gm cherry tomatoes
10gm walnuts
40ml olive oil
4 vanilla stems
10gm paprika powder
10ml honey
10ml lemon juice
Salt to taste

Here’s how
Shave the cucumber with a mandolin into ribbons and put them in chilled water.Now mix the lettuce, herbs, cherry tomato in a bowl. Top it with citrus wedges. Make a dressing with olive oil, salt, paprika powder, honey and vanilla stems. Pour this dressing on top of the salad and serve chilled.

Avocado salsa with chilled shrimp and Alfa Alfa sprouts
Serves 4

You need
2 avocados, ripe
40gm chopped onion
40gm chopped tomato
20gm chopped coriander
10gm chopped jalapeños 10ml lemon juice
Salt to taste
5gm pepper
30ml olive oil
50gm blanched shrimp
40gm Alfa-Alfa sprouts
120gm shrimps

Here’s how
Neatly scoop out the flesh of the ripe avocado and chop it. Add chopped onion, tomato, coriander, jalapeños and season with salt and lemon juice.

Finish it with olive oil. Now spoon out the salsa in serving glass top it with shrimp that had been de-veined and cleaned properly and blanched and sprouts. Garnish it with coriander and lemon wedges. Serve chilled.

Raw spinach and avocado soup
Serves 4

You need
250gm ripe avocado
250ml water
100gm cucumber
50gm fresh spinach
10gm green onion
2 garlic cloves
Sea salt, to taste
5ml fresh lime juice

Here’s how
Wash all the vegetables in running water. Blend half cup of water and the avocado in a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients one at a time, blending it till the desired thickness is achieved and thinning with remaining water if desired.
Serve chilled.

Watermelon chest
Serves: 4

You need
1 watermelon
100gm feta cheese
15gm chopped mint
15ml olive oil
10gm pine nuts
A sprig of dill, for garnish

Here’s how
Cut bite size square shape chunks of water melon from the center of the peeled water melon.

Scoop out the flesh individually from one side of all the square shaped size water melon. Now prepare a mixture of feta cheese, mint and olive oil and roll it into small size round dumpling shape.

Fill the cheese mixture in the centre of melon and sprinkle pine nut on top, garnish it with dill sprig, serve chilled.

Tomato and orange gazpacho
Serves 4

You need
200gm plum tomatoes
200gm fresh oranges
100gm cucumber
10gm red onions
2 garlic cloves
50ml fresh tomato juice
10ml lemon juice
Tabasco sauce
Salt to taste

Here’s how
Peel the oranges and squeeze out the juice In a blender combine the tomato, cucumber, onion, orange juice and blend altogether Strain and season with salt and TabascoFinish it with a spoon of olive oil on top Serve cold.