TLC to premiere celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay’s adventure in Northeast

‘First ever Gastronomical adventure of India in its new series Gordon’s Great Escape to premiere on February 7, Saturday at 10 pm’

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter tasting his favorite ‘Indian Curry’, in North, he is on voyage to the north east of India to meet the tribal of Nagaland to learn some extraordinary dishes from them like Chicken with Papaya and special fish curry of Assam. The tribal culture still exists in northeast and people hunt for their food. Travelling almost up to 1200 KMs from Kolkata, Gordon reached the Nagaland border. The region has a reputation for being a dangerous place for Westerners to travel alone.
The celebrated Chef’s first stop was at Shiyong Village, Nagaland and upon his reaching Gordon at Shiyong village under Mon district; he stayed with the Konyak Tribe. Gordon will be the first Western chef to visit this village and the tribe welcomed Gordon with smoked boar and a delicious blood pudding cooked in a piece of bamboo.
Te next morning Gordon with an invitation by the community for a hunt and the villagers along with Gordon hunt down a deer and is gifted to the chief.
Gordon learns that the Nagaland curry is different from the curry that is prepared in the north.
“The curry here is prepared with leaves specially found in the forests and they also use some special fruits as their spice. Bamboo shoot is used prominently in the region, which gives it a turnip/cardamom sort of spicy edge to it” said the celebrated Chef.
Further on his journey he visits Assam – an island in the middle of the Brahmaputra River, where fish is plentiful and the locals make an amazing fish curry.
Assam produces the hottest chilies on earth. The chilies grown here are hotter than the jalapenos. Northeast has got a plenty of variety of Chilies.
Majuli is the largest river island in the world and for nearly 5 months, the area is covered entirely by water. Almost 150,000 islanders live here and they survive almost entirely on a diet of fish and all that comes from these freshwater ponds. Freshwater fish are plentiful and so there’s no better place to find a delicious traditional fish curry
With the help of Assam’s most celebrated Chef Atul Lahkar, Gordon tries to learn the traditional fish curry. They will prepare to cook tenga – a traditional Assamese fish curry that has a truly unique flavor
The dish is prepared by mixing a special ingredient in the curry which is called elephant apple. It is a tropical fruit that gives tenga its signature sour flavor, which will add bite to the earthy taste of our freshwater fish.
One interesting fact about the Assamese fish curry is that they only mix chilies and no spices.
From Majuli Gordon proceeds to Guwahati where he participates in a traditional cooking competition where he wins the 2nd prize.
With his next stop at Kolkata, Gordon installs a food stall on whatever he learnt from his gastronomic journey to the northeast. He hires two locals and with their help he prepares the Assamese Fish Curry and the Papaya chili chicken. In just 50 minutes, all of his food gets sold out and Gordon makes 2750/- Indian rupee. The celebrated Chef’s journey of Northeastern India and his experiment with Naga food will be premiered on February 7, 2015 (Saturday) at 10 PM at TLC Channel.