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Deccan Herald » Metro Life - Sat » Detailed Story
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Secrets from the Nizams’ kitchen
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Rashmi Vasudeva
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Delhi has Karim’s, Kolkata Nizam’s but Bangalore has waited long for that truly Mughal experience. The wait is now over.
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Taj, named in tribute to the delectable and famous Taj biryanis in Shivajinagar, is one place where you will realise why Bernard Shaw gushed that there is no love more sincere than the love of food. Taj, one of the two restaurants at the newly-opened Hotel A J International, serves Mughlai food like none Bangaloreans have tasted before. Chef Firoz from Lucknow dishes up Awadhi and Lucknowi delicacies with an 'andaz' that’s as Lucknowi as you get!
Hotel Director Saad Anees’ grandfather began serving biryanis in a hut in Shivajinagar decades ago. Today, Taj serves not only the Basmati preparations but also has an array of kebabs, daals and tandoori dishes in an ambience done up in muted browns and greens with a touch of copper on the cutlery.
The seduction starts with ‘pehli pesh’, where you have a choice between ‘Shorba-e-Gulzar’ – tomato puree sorted with roasted cumin seeds and coriander or a simple garden green salad. Our recommendation is to forget the starters and head straight to the main course. (Remember that Mughlai food is heavily mutton-based and the stomach can take only so much red meat!) Bhurra chops – lamb chops marinated with a secret recipe of Nizami masala -- is yum. But the ‘taj’ in kebabs definitely goes to the melt-in-the-mouth Kakori kebabs. Syed Rafi Ahmed, Vice-President of the Hotel, narrates how these succulent kebabs came into being. Apparently, an old Nawab who was a great foodie could not eat the regular kebabs and requested his cook to make them soft. The cook invented these kebabs, prepared with minced meat and cooked on charcoal. The cook’s name was Kakori.
Vegetarians too need not despair. There are many kinds of kebabs to choose from: Paneer Kastoori Reshmi, which is marinated in yoghurt and cooked on charcoal grill to Aloo Nazakat – potatoes stuffed with cottage cheese and nuts. For those who would like to stick to less-heavy stuff, Murg Afghani, boneless chicken pieces marinated in cream and dry fruit paste and Jaitoni Jhinga, king prawns cooked in olive oil, are great choices.
And if we are talking Mughlai food, we cannot forget the Dum Biryanis. The ‘dum’ way of making biryani where the raw meat and the rice is prepared together is a hallmark of this kind of cuisine. Dal Bhukara makes a perfect light accompaniment to this high-calorie dish. But for those willing to go the whole hog, there is nothing better than the legendary ‘Raan –e-Sikandar’, whole leg of lamb marinated in Afghani spices. There is also the ‘Taj-ke-shaan’ paratha for those who prefer their rotis sweet. And 'aakhir may', as a royal chef might have said, phirni is a must. The mughal cooks believed that no matter how much meat you eat, phirni, made with rice and chenna in saffron milk, does the cooling act.
Taj is at Hotel A J International which is diagonally opposite the Bowring Hospital in Shivajinagar. For reservations, contact 51971111.
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Saturday, October 8, 2005
English
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