CULINARY DESCENT TO KOLKATTA (CALCUTTA)

December 5, 2008 | By sherrie In regional cuisine | Comments(0)

Allow me to use the word Calcutta when I left the city after my hotel management education in the year 1999. The name itself does not matter a lot especially when the culinary offering of the city is always on a high much to the delight of the people who were a part of the thriving food culture in the past.

Culture descends immensely o the city and the fervour has also sneaked into for the food, right from the roadside eatery lovingly called Thela to the numerous five star hotels which dots the city line now.

Bengali cuisine has left some vivid memories in my three year association with the city and one thing is for sure, cuisine always followed the people of Bengal who migrated to different parts of the world.

I was in Delhi few days back and was not surprised to see that so many restaurants has cropped up in recent years to offer the flavour of Bengal. One that stands out to my memory is the Chowringhee restaurant located in the eastern side of Delhi. Well I may confess that someone looking for exact authenticity with the knife of high expectation may discount the experience but not everyone thinks the same. As the regional preferences and adherence are making way to new found wisdom of global cuisine, it is only apt that even non-Bengalis are making a beeline for the good Bengali food.

Chowringee lane which is close to Park Street in Kolkata has actually the real hub of pan Indian cuisine where a mere stroll will send your sensory organs on frenzy until you become a part of it and join hands to savour the spirit of the place.

The odd gramophone playing in a street corner in some old musical shop, the indiscreet amalgamation of the life forces, a few hand rickshaw pullers in the bylane is all reminiscent of old Kolkata which has somehow survived the test of time. Of course in the last nine year since I left the city, a lot has changed but what has not is the gastronomic spirit of the place.

Session in food:

Bengali cuisine is vast and consists of an array of sumptuous and healthy vegetable preparations in addition to the most delicate and eponymous fish curries and some meat curries. I frankly do not think of other state or place in India which can offer so many varieties of fish and the related preparation right from their own fried fish, numerous types macher jhol (fish curries) like doi maach, shorshe illish, macher kalia etc. and even in the lentil preparations like muro Ghunto which is fish head with lentils).

More than the red meat, chicken dishes are very popular and some of them you would come across can by Chicken rizala, murg firangi roast, chicken biryanis, slightly sweetened chicken curries etc. I would advise you to visit few Muslim restaurant around metro cinema who would offer you some of the best biryanis, kebabs, kormas, wraps, kulfis and falooda.

If you are looking for a bit of Chinatown in Calcutta, no other place qualifies better than Tangra. Food from Tangra is a distinct variety of traditional Chinese food adapted to Indian ingredients and the Bengali palate. This has spread to the rest of India, along with the recipes earlier unique to Tangra.. While the regular fare would be all types of popular oriental soups, all types of fancy sounding chicken dishes, wide repertoire of noodles and fried rice and not so famous desserts.

The challenge, though, lies in adapting to the Bengali palate which prefers sweet much more than any other taste. Sweetening the curries a little is quite common when you eat there and often results in complain. Most of the restaurants, however, have managed to find a solution by modifying and tweaking the taste as per the diners demand.

One sure you to get stunned is looking through the numerous varieties, lines and types of sweets which is almost incomparable and more than any other shops the one you are likely to cross very other minute in Calcutta would be the shops offering right from misti doi, numerous sondesh, kulfis, rosogulla and pantuas and calling it the sweet capital of the world would be no exaggeration.

Some of the future blogs will definitely be dedicated to sharing some of the popular Bengali recipes and if somebody has got some specific request, you can always let us know through sonzyskitchen. Hope you enjoyed the journey and wait for much more to come.

Bon appétit

Tags: murgh, desi, chicken, dal, roti, bhatura, bhatura, kebab, karahi, sambhar

Indian food and wine

November 8, 2008 | By sherrie In Recipes, cooking-tips, curry, lentils | Comments(0)

Just as the lentil series was threatening to take centre stage in the preceding blogs, I have
decided to change the topic a little just as to make a happy co-incidence with the election of US
president. The mood obviously is cheerful and optimistic and so wines will take the rightful
place during the celebrations centered on food and dining.
While some of the world cuisine goes very well with wine even to the extent of matching each
of the courses with appropriate grape variety and fizz. Same is not true of Indian food which we
are trying to investigate and explore today.
With the surge in economic activity and globalization of market, it is only a matter of time that
foreign businessmen and visitor will push the Indian dining experience towards acquiring a new
dimension in the form of pairing of Indian food with wine. One could very soon see the a bottle
of wine with the slightest excuse to go with popular Indian food like curries, kormas, biryanis
and tikkas. Some of the prominent Indian restaurant under the aegis of well known hotel
brands like Caridges, ITC and Hyatt have already started the initiative with guarded caution and
some other restaurants, within the hotel and standalone, would follow the suit to bring out the
culinary subtleties of food to complement the notes of wine.
Role of Sommelier
The surest way towards a better melody of curry and wine is to trust the knowledgeable
sommelier (the French term for wine waiter) but the overzealous waiter is equally bad. The
final decision is yours and your ability to afford the elixir of life. One should still be prepared to
question the selection of wine by the sommelier if all the notes are pointing to the same
direction without much informed choices. The idea is to develop the mutually complementing
symphony than the one overpowering other.
Most of the better Indian hotels and some of the up market Indian restaurants have tied up
with their foreign counterpart and arrange training and workshop for its staff to develop the
knowledge and skill. This is also a very good exercise in revenue maximization because of the
margin involved in wines and low labour cost implication in the long term. While the pairing is
still in the infancy in India, it is a common practice in western countries to plan the food around
wine, tapas like food being one of the examples.
Challenges of Pairing Indian food and wine
While it is easier to pair food with some of the cuisines of the world notable amongst them are
Italian, French, Mediterranean because it is a part of their day to day culture, it has always been
difficult to do so with most of the Asian cuisine as it was not a part of their culture. For example
drinking Sake is always very popular with Japanese cuisine. Indian food on other hand has never
been on the same side as that of their western counterparts.
The use of spices, the distractions of oil, the pungency, the inconsistency of recipes that one
wine working with the same food in one restaurant may not be the case with other restaurant.
Mushrooming of Indian restaurants all over the world with their own anglicized Indian recipes
has also not helped the cause. Exception to the rule will always be the delicate Indian
preparations the recipes of which are always guarded secrets of some select few in the India
kitchen.
The complementary notes:
While champagne will always be the natural choice to go with almost the endless variety of
food, the selection though will have to made between brut (dry) and sec (sweet).
Italian red wines like Chianti, Amarone, Barolo, or Barbaresco will go very well with chunkier
Indian food like lamb curry, tikkas and kormas. A good Riesling (white grape) from
Germany, France or Austria would do absolute justice to spicy and lemony food.
Some of the smarter people who do not wish to experience the pain of uncertainty of
choosing red or white would go with Rose wine (wine with the reddish tinge which renders a
pink hue to the liquid) to carry them through the entire meal experience.
Surprisingly the new world wines have charted the lesser known territories than their famed
old world counterparts. Young vintages work well with most of the food and if consuming
more than one wine during the meal experience, chose the lighter wines before full bodied
ones, dry wines before sweet one and lower alcohol wines before higher alcohol wines.
Always insist on tasting the wine before approving the entire bottle; for balance of flavour
work well when you know the spices and herbs and the floral notes of your wine.
We will try to explore more of it in the coming blogs with suggestions and alternatives. Unil
then just remember the popular Latin phrase “ In vino veritas” which means there lies the
truth in wine.

Tags: chana, handi, kebab, desi, roti, tikka masala, bhatura, curries, paneer, kulfi

Vindaloo or Vindalho

September 12, 2008 | By kuntal In Recipes, curry, goan recipes | Comments(0)

Vindaloo now a days, as it stands is a Goan interpretation of the popular Portuguese preparation originally called “Vindalho” which when dissected meant Vinho for wine and alhos for garlic. These two were the integral part of the dish originally made with pork which also contained ginger, pepper and red wine vinegar.

The modern version available in most of the Indian restaurant including the one in Goa is made with lots of chilli, tomato and potato. Potato because some of chefs have presumed that the last word in Vindaloo is equivalent to “aloo” (potato) which most of the Indian likes in some form or the other. The pork used in the Portuguese recipe is not a very popular choice with the Indians and is a complete taboo with the Muslim Chefs; hence it further underwent a complete makeover and local versions made with lamb or chicken are equally popular with undertones of local Goan feni made with cashewnut fruit.

The original recipe is contained in the curry manual available with www.sonzyskitchen.com. However I will try to recreate the most commonly found lamb vindaloo.

Lamb Vindaloo:
1 kg lean lamb, cleaned and cubed into 1 inch pieces
3 tbsp cooking oil
2 medium red onion, chopped roughly
1 inch knob ginger, scraped and chopped roughly
10 cloves garlic, peeled
¼ cup coconut feni
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered and deep fried until crisp
1 small bunch fresh coriander leaves, washed and chopped
Salt to taste

Marinating ingredients
10 dried red chillis (can vary the quantity to suit individual palate)
10 peppercorns
10 cloves
1 medium bark cinnamon
5 nos green cardamom
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp mustard seeds
1/3 cup malt vinegar

Method:
In a blender, make the paste of marinating ingredients. Marinate the lamb cubes and season a little with salt. Keep aside for 2 hrs to allow the flavour to penetrate inside the meat fibres

In a cooking vessel, heat the oil and fry the lamb, stirring occasionally, until it is light brown on all sides. Add chopped onion, ginger and garlic and continuing frying until the vegetables are brown and cooked. Add turmeric powder and pour in coconut feni and water, bring to boil. Reduce to simmer for 10-15minutes until lamb is tender and the oil starts floating on top. Check seasoning. Serve hot garnished with deep fried potato wedges and freshly chopped coriander.

Bon Appetit !

- Kuntal

Tags: lentil, desi, curries, vindaloo, dosa, palak, indian food, roti, chana, dal

Nutrition in Indian Food

August 20, 2008 | By kuntal In Nutrition, Recipes, curry | Comments(0)

Indian Cuisine – The Nutritional aspects by Kuntal Kumar

Traditionally India has never been so conscious about the nutritional breakdown but with general awareness level going up, most of the Indian dishes are coming under nutritional scrutiny. There has been effort by the Indian chefs to provide even the calorific breakdown of the Indian dishes in some of the restaurants. The meals have become not only light but also far more adaptable keeping in mind the preference of the diners who demand no less than the customized preparations of the dishes they order.

The western concept of segmenting the food as three main macronutrients as carbohydrate, protein and fat have ever present in the Indian meal known as Thali without much realization or analysis.

Indian Thali

India has a long tradition of regional “Thalis” which is like a combo platter (made of either, silver, stainless steel or iron) with small bowls which contain small amounts of various local dishes. Let’s do a close evaluation of an Indian Thali and see how it performs vis-s-vis western approach.

Carbohydrate- Most of the Indian Thalis comprises of Indian bread such as rotis, chapati, poori etc. and rice preparation like steamed rice, lemon rice, jeera (cumin) rice etc. and the meal is centered around them.

Protein- You may find around two to three preparation along with dal (Indian lentil preparation) which provides the bulk of vegetable protein. Some of the thalis may also contain meat or fish as well.

Fat: Some of the vegetables also contain fat apart from the cooking medium used for various delicacies for the Thali. Most of the Indian sweets also contain good amount of fat.

Besides, adequate fiber, vitamins and minerals are also present; hence tomorrow we can be sure of the nutritional balance of the Indian meal provided they are prepared in a healthy manner.

Tags: kebab, lentil, tikka masala, bhatura, vindaloo, balti, gosht, kulfi, dal, dosa