What I Ate In Bangalore....

India, is not a favourite business trip destination for most of us. I have yet to come across any one colleague or business contact who honestly looks forward to going to India for business. I cannot say I do either... but then when one travels too often for business like I do, one will no longer look forward to going any where for business trips anymore. Still, I need to find motivation to sustain my energy and ethusiasm. I always believe that positive energy begets positivity in what one does. No matter how dreadful and uninviting the destination may be, I have learnt to find interesting elements to keep me engaged. Very often, these elements are related to gastronomical or retail adventures - I am, after all, a true blue Singaporean.

My trip to India last month left me a little weary about my dining experiences. Limited to eating at the same multi-cuisine restaurant in the industrial estate for most part of the week, my initial excitement for Indian food  waned quickly and I started to feel cranky and yearn for variety.  As a result of which, when I had to travel to Bangalore again last week, I half loaded my luggage with biscuits and cup noodles. However, I am happy to report that these really became irrelevant as I had the best Indian food I've eaten for a long time. I share with you the one restuarant that impressed us so much that we returned for a second meal immediately the next day after our first meal.

Situated in the swanky UB City Shopping Complex in Bangalore, Khansama marketed themselves as the Royal Indian Master Chef. Khansama is a Persian rooted Indian term that translates to mean, a man servant who acts as a cook or a household butler.  While working in the stately royal palace kitchens, the Khansamas were known to' generate rare and flavoursome recipes to satisfy their King's gastronomic fancies....' and  'the Khansamas kept their recipes, a closely guarded secret'.  When one steps into the Khansama Restaurant, one feels like one has gained privy and access into the private dining hall of the royalties and statesmen of bygone Mughal era.




The Mughal Empire, for those who are not familiar refers to the Indian-Islamic power that ruled a large portion of India from 15th to 18th century. Almost all of the outstanding architectures we see in India now were built by the Munghals (E.g. Taj Mahal). The North Indian cuisines ( The Tandooris, Kebabs, Naan...) which we have become so familiar today originates from the Mughal -an era of conquest, construction, wealth and relative stability, Khansama brings back the magnificence of the Mughlai period with rich tapestry, golden copper tablewares, beautiful wall murals and emblems of conquest.

I remember poring through their pictureless menus, salivating over the description of each dish.There are so many dishes which I would love to sample but because there were only 3 of us, we couldn't order too much. We have learnt from our Indian dining experience, that we should never be greedy. One appetizer to share and 2 main dishes with bread or rice is more than enough. Indian cooking is generally so rich and heavy that eating any more than that would leave one uncomfortably full and flatulent. During this second dinner at Khansama, I started my meal with Chicken Shorba which is a chicken soup simmered in Indian spices with a drizzle of lemon juice and coriander. Vaguely similar to the Ayam Soto, this is richer and feels many times more comforting and nutritive than Ayam Soto - definitely going to be a repeat order for me if I get to go back again.


The appetizer, Garlic & Butter Prawns is another impressive dish made up of tandoori prawns embedded in a fragrant bed of spiced fried garlic. It was so good that my Chinese colleague requested to order a second portion.


As a result of the double portion appetizer, we only had one main dish to eat with the gorgeous rotis.(flat bread) My colleague picked a Curry Lamb dish which was so rich in flavours and spices that no hint of  'lamby' smell could be detected. However, I did find the dish a tad too salty for me.





Finally, I must write about the Masala Pan,the typical 'breath freshner' served after the meal. Masala Pan is usually a mixture of nuts and herbs which standardly consists of cardamon, menthol, fennel seeds with a little sugar chips. When the attentive staff at Khansama brought over the intricate copper bowl, I was intrigued.



Laden with crushed ice, the bowl consisted of 3 carefully prepared Masala Pan bundles. Wrapped in a silver foiled raw betal nut leaf is a mixture of  what I could identify as, rose jam, cardamon, menthol, toasted dessicated coconut and sugar chips. As I followed my colleague's example and chewed on the Pan, I was rather quick to frown and declare that it tasted wierd but as I continued to chew on it, the raw taste started to grow on me...I was able to finish the whole Pan bundle. These pretty little packets that came nestled in the copper bowl, had my breath smelling of roses....I wasn't sure if it was the roses or the intricate copper bowl but for a fleeting moment, I felt like a royal concubine!

Khansama

UB CITY
2ND Floor, UB City Mall,
Vittal Mallya Road,
Bangalore - 560 001.
Tel : +90 080-41114499

Tandoori Chicken - Following Sanjeev Kapoor's Recipe

I am sure it does not come as a suprise to most of my supportive bloggers that I would make time to comb through the cookery section of the nearest book shop when I was in India...and that I definitely did at the very first opportunity at the Bangalore Airport Crossword bookshop.I was prepared to find a dismal collection at the airport bookshop but what I wasn't prepared for was to find almost 90% of the cookbooks displayed on the 2 shelves by some guy called Sanjeev Kapoor. I was flummoxed by this Cookery Book Mafia King for his books come in all permutations - full A4 sized pictorial versions, smaller pocket sized condensed versions, compilations on Chicken, Vegetarian, Chinese(??), Cakes & Pastries... my head almost throbbed with disdain - for intuitive experience tells me that when something has attained such mammoth scale in commercialisation they usually lack sincerity or substance. The other well published author is a lady by the name of Tarla Dala but most of her publications appear to be mainly vegetarian recipes. Hence, as a result, despite my disdain, I still went ahead to purchase Sanjeev Kapoor's Tandoori Cooking @ Home.

I picked this because I have always liked food prepared the Tandoori way and also because during this trip, I have come to love assorted Tandoori vegetables - from mushrooms to cauliflower to potatoes...I have acquired the habit to order at least one tandoori vegetable dish at every meal and I really do want to learn how to do this. For those who are unfamiliar, Tandoori actually means well-marinated meat cooked over an intense open fire. Traditionally, burning coals are used to fire deeply-embedded clay Tandoors (ovens).These thickly insulated ovens only has one opening for heat to escape and hence are able to retain heat very well making them especially suitable for baking rotis, naan and parathas...

As I browsed through my newly acquired cook book, I wondered to what extent would I be able to replicate the taste of grilling in a coal fired Tandoor.

The first recipe I picked to experiment with is none other than the ubiquitous Tandoori Chicken. I had tried to make this before but because the instructions from the last recipe was vague, it did not turn out quite right. Hence, I am eager to give this a go to see if I would be more successful plus of course, I already have all the necessary spices.

I must say, the results are really pleasing. I was skeptical if I would be able to get some charring on my chicken but I did. I do not know if I should attribute this to the recipe or to my oven. (probably the latter) The taste was delicious and was not unlike the ones I had experienced at the restuarants. In addition, the chicken was tender - perhaps I could try to grill this longer in my oven the next time to toughen it a little more. I suspect the higher heat in the traditional Tandoor tends to cook the chicken through more easily.

Yes, I am pleased and I had to message L to tell him how GOOD it tasted. So I guess I was too quick to judge Sanjeev Kapoor... I will need to try a few more recipes to fully make sure that he is not just a gimmick...

Recipe (from Sanjeev Kapoor's Tandoori Cooking @ Home):
800g Chicken (I used Chicken Thigh meat.)
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
3 tbsp Lemon juice
Salt to taste
1 cup Plain yogurt
2 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp Mustard oil
Melted Butter for basting
1/2 tsp chaat masala

Method :

1. Make incisions with a sharp knife on the chicken meat.
2. Rub the mixture of 1 tsp chilli powder, one tbsp lemon juice and salt
over the chicken and set aside for half an hour.
3. In a separate bowl add yogurt, remaining chilli powder, salt, ginger paste, garlic paste and remaining lemon juice, garam masala powder and mustard oil
4. Rub the yogurt mixture over the chicken and marinate for 3 to 4 hours in the refrigerator.
5. Preheat oven to 200C. I used the rotisserie setting on my oven and placed a open rack near the top of the oven. Grill the chicken for 12 mins. Bast the chicken with butter and continue to grill for another 6mins.
6. Sprinkle with chaat masala and serve with Onion rings and lemon wedges.

Strawberry Rose Lassi

At the recommendation of my vegetarian sister, I have recently started to consult an Indian Ayurvedic doctor for recommendations and remedies to achieve overall general well being. I have always been interested in approaches to attain better health albeit I am not ready to give up meat yet. Since my younger days, I had been exposed to anti oxidants like pine bark extract and evening primrose oil. I confess I used to be somewhat of a supplement junkie but have toned down tremendously over the years. My first introduction to Ayurvedic treatments took place when these weren't even in fashion.  I remember my first experience in doing the Shirodhara treatment almost 20 years ago. They were dripping warm sesame oil on my temple - it was as can be imagined, a greasy, gooey experience - you end up with a whole head of oily hair - but interestingly, the process must have stimulated the right glands somewhere, for my face took on a healthy glow for days after that.

This time, I went into consultation primarily to see if there is anything that can be done to improve my health in a natural manner- I know this is madness - it makes me look like a hypochondriac or a modern day Emperor Qin trying to seek some elixir to longevity or something. Anyway, I do have digestive problem. After taking my pulse, the doctor explained that I have wind problem (which is very true) , categorising my body type as a Vata-Pita combination. (VATA - wind, Pita- fire) I was asked to take some Ayurvedic herbal powder every evening after meals (tastes awful) and was asked to boil water with coriander seed, cumin and caraway seed to drink everyday.... I haven't boiled the seeds in water yet but have been taking the yukky powder every evening. So far, it has been helping in my digestion and I am envisioning myself moving to the realm of higher well being... Oohmmm...

Anyway, instead of boiling water with the spices, I thought I would try to incoporate them into a more palatable drink. Lassi, as most would know is actually a yogurt based drink made with fruits and a variety of spices. I still have some Strawberries left over from my Lollies experiment so I decided to use that for my lassi preparation.  For a little elegance, I added a few drops of Rose Water.

I drank most of it but still managed to pour some of the left over lassi into my lollie molds to make lollies for my neighbour's little girl. For the lollies, I had added additional sugar and honey to sweeten it. The feedback for my previous batch of lollies was that they were not sweet enough for the children. (it was sugar free and 100% fruits) In fact, for this batch, I had to add quite a bit of sugar to sweeten the lollies - I was quite disturbed - it goes to show how much processed sugar the kids are putting into their system nowadays.

Recipe :

400g              Strawberries
300g              Natural unflavoured yogurt
25g                Soft brown sugar
300g              Ice water
A few drops   Rose Water
Dash              Mixed spices (I ground a mixture of coriander, cumin and caraway seeds, you can just add
                      freshly ground pepper if you want this to be easy)

Method:

1. Hull strawberries and cut them up coarsely. Blend this with 150g ice water until smooth.
2. Add yogurt, sugar, Rose water and rest of water to blend until smooth.
3. Pour into chilled glasses and add ground spices.