Dawn & Al escapades to India - Days 5 & 6

We were invited to Puneet’s Mother’s House for lunch so that we could experience some real Rajasthani home cooking by Mummyji.

When we arrived Mrs Kothari had already been busy in the kitchen for a few hours and the house smelt full of the wonderful spices we love so. We were welcomed with open arms by Puneet’s parents and immediately made our way into the kitchen to see what was happening.

There was a wonderful selection of vegetarian delights simmering on the stove whilst missi rotis were being rolled out waiting to be cooked on a dry flat pan. Mrs Kothari gave us some Awala Amla to nibble on whilst she finished preparing the meal. Awala Amla is a fruit (similar to gooseberry) which has been dried with salt. The saltiness with the sourness of the fruit was the perfect way to get the appetite going.

Puneet, Mr Kothari, Dawn and I sat down for lunch and the feast began! We had so many great elements to the meal starting off with green chick pea curry and Besan curry. Both were very light and perfect to dip our missi roti in. This was followed by aubergines cooked with Mrs Kothari’s Garam Masala and Mustard oil, corn flour Dhokla, Bajara Beans & Moong Dal with mixed vegetables and plain roti. There was added heat from home made mango pickle and 8 year old lemon pickle (Mrs Kothari makes a batch of Lemon Pickle every year and nurtures it for 8 years by pickling the lemons with salt, jaggery and spices and leaving it in the sun to ferment with the occasional shake, resulting in an almost black coloured pickle with a medicinal bitter lemon flavour. This is probably an acquired taste (it is Puneet’s favourite pickle), but Dawn and I really enjoyed the flavour.

With bellies virtually full and Mrs Kothari still bringing food out we were in our element! One part of the meal that stood out was the Plain Keech which is a very traditional Rajasthani dish. This is moong dal boiled in salted water to an almost porridge consistency. Mrs Kothari went to Puneet first to dish this up, which he half heartedly said “not too much please”, whilst patting his tummy which was answered with a tut and a shake of the head in time with a large ladle of Keech being placed on his plate, Puneet’s Mother then topped this off with a table spoon of ghee and a handful of jaggery! Whilst laughing at this and at Puneets face of bemusement at his Mother’s insistence, Dawn wasn’t looking at her own plate as Mrs Kothari quietly moved round the table and filled it with Keech, Ghee and Jaggery! This was a mid meal dish and followed by more veg curry, moong dal, ladoo and Rabri.

Fit to burst whilst leaning back in our chairs Dawn and I asked Mrs Kothari to please relax and sit down to eat, expecting her to load her plate the same way she had with all of us and instead she sat down to a small salad and ladoo with a smile on her face saying she didn’t like to eat too much! If all of this hospitality wasn’t enough Dawn was then offered a bag of silver jewellery and told to pick something! We had an amazing meal with such a warm welcome (Puneets Aunt and Uncle popped by to say hi as well) this was the highlight of our time in Jaipur and we know that we will continue to stay in touch with Puneet’s parents. I have promised to send some of my pickles and chutneys to get Mummyji’s opinion.

                                          Alun, Mrs Kothari, Puneet, Mr Kothari and Dawn

One thing we were beginning to realise during our trip in India is that the more you eat the more you are hungry and by nightfall we were in search for our next meal.  We headed to a restaurant called Copper Chimney as we had been advised the local speciality, Laal Maas, was superb here and we were determined to try it out this. We were advised by the waiter that Laal Maas was very spicy which of course we didn’t mind. This was a full flavoured dish of Mutton pieces on the bone in a cracking fiery dried warm spiced gravy packed with a lot of dry red chilli and despite our chilli constitution we did feel the post chilli rush. Maybe we were being tested! We also had (which we have had as an accompaniment a few times) some hot little pickled onions which will make an appearance at The Chilli Pickle and Masala Papad which was a black pepper poppadom covered in chopped onion, tomato, coriander, green chilli, lime and chaat masala which will for sure make a tasty and popular nibble to start a meal.

Exhausted from over indulgence we admitted defeat and headed home.

We started the next day with heading to a temple to give our offering of ladoo to Ganesh, hoping it will bring us a successful start with The Chilli Pickle at myhotel. As always we were in awe and it is an amazing thing to witness such levels of devotion.

 Back to old town for last minute shopping and getting a few more samples together refuelling with regular stops for streetfood.  We were drawn in to a Pakoda dhabba which was crammed with people waving their 10ruppees to get their newspaper wrap of freshly fried pakodas cooked by the vendors in a giant korai full of smoking oil heated on a clay oven. The surrounding walls were black and there was a young boy sitting on the floor chopping vegetables to keep up with the constant demand. Once Dawn had finished taking some pictures of the vendor he handed her a freshly fried pakoda with a big toothless smile on his face, Dawn noticed it was a chilli and not the potato that was being sold and acknowledged with a nod and a bite as the seller shouted to her “don’t bite it is a chilli!!” The crowd then turned and watched as Al finished off the remaining chilli. Expecting a tearful reaction from both of us we were given a nod of approval when there was none and were handed our bag of goodies we were then back on our way shopping.

                                                         Some delicious Street food....

                                                   ...Followed by some more streetfood!

One of our other many stops was with a Chai Walla where we had some great Rajistani Chai, which is much stronger than the South Indian Chai we sell, with less cardamom, but with more black pepper and cloves in addition to the ginger and cardamom. Very nice.

Dawn & Al escapades to India - Day 4

his morning we travelled from Delhi to Jaipur by train on the Shatabdi Express. The Shatabdis are among the fastest trains in India and the Indian Railways considers them as prestigious.

Our journey started at 6am, it was both dark and foggy and although already busy Delhi station had a real eerie atmospheric quality to it.

We had Executive coach seats so were a bit disappointed that there wasn’t the chai walla or the hustle and bustle on coach like we had experienced last time in India. Our food was also not the constant stream of rustic Indian home style cooked dishes, but a rather sterile western style breakfast!! We did manage to get some good sleep though.

On arriving at Jaipur station we saw the familiar aggressive jostling of porters to offer their services, in fact one porter had received the nod from a passenger to take his heavy cases only to be gazumped by another, which resulted in an angry scrap followed by fisticuffs and all. But no doubt these fellas graft for a living and the bartering banter is usually always in good spirit.

Jaipur also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. During the British rule in India, Jodhpur was the capital of the princely state of Marwar. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.5 million.

Jaipur is the first planned city of India, located in the semi-desert lands of Rajasthan. The city which once had been the capital of the royalty now is the capital city of Rajasthan. The very structure of Jaipur resembles the taste of the Rajputs and the Royal families.
Jaipur is a very popular tourist destination. The main lure for this is the amazing shopping for arts, textiles, jewellry, gems, and handicrafts and the architecture with places like Amber Fort, Jaigarh Fort, Nahargarh Fort, City Palace and Jantar Mantar.

As we only had a couple of days we were excited to experience as much as possible so we had a quick spot of simple lunch at the hotel.

We both had lamb on the bone Rogan Gosht, paratha and saffron pilau and it was delicious, full flavoured and complex, the rice had a distinct saffron taste with a hint of rose and the bread flaky and perfect for mopping.

Our main personal reasons for going to Jaipur were a little different to the norm as this is where Punit has his import export spice business which we really wanted to see as well as the opportunity to buy some product for the interior of the restaurant, plates and kitchen ware.

Punit's spice shop is in the heart of the old walled city and it is all we hoped for, smelling and tasting the spices. Cardamom and black pepper from Kerala, the reddest dried chillis from Kashmir, cumin from Gujarat, the finest grade mustard oil from Calcutta, strong asafatoida uncut and the best you can buy. This is amazing for us and to think we will now be receiving our spices direct from here rather than months down the line via many a middle man. I am a happy man! The above picture is of Pathar Ke Phool - Black Stone Flower used in spice blends

In the evening we made our way outside the city to Chokhi Dhani. A tourist attraction popular with the locals and outsiders. It is a replica of a Rajasthani village, showcasing every aspect of Rajasthani culture. Having spent a number of years in Dubai we were used to the replicated and fabricated style tourist attraction so were a bit cynical, but we really enjoyed this place. It had a superb no frills typical local meal as part of the experience. We had to sit down on the floor cross-legged (my legs were splayed out as I am unable to sit crossed legged due to the many years of standing for long hours in a kitchen. I was quietly jealous of the 90 year old grandmother that was offered a wicker armchair). We were served lots of different dals, rice and curries as well as the famous ‘Dal bati Churma’ Unleavened bread balls with dal, lots of melted ghee and Churma which is coarse ground wheat with ghee and melted jaggery. It was delicious but a large portion would be a challenge as it is intensely rich and very sweet sitting alongside the other savoury dishes.

After dinner we walked round the attractions and Dawn got her fortune read by an old man with a parrot. The parrot picked the cards and we were translated the words of the wise old fella. He commented that Dawn works like a man and March will bring great success.

I wonder whats going to happen in March?

Another entry next week.

Dawn & Al escapades to India - Day 3

We felt a bit fuzzy this morning after polishing off a couple of decent bottles of red that we had brought with us from home (not an easy place to get good wine at a reasonable price).  We decided to take a morning stroll through Connaught place in search of more good book shops and were relieved no end when we came across a coffee shop (Dawn and I are complete coffee junkies and we struggle with India’s love of Nescafe!), revitalized from our double espresso we made our way to Halidrams.Kumar our chef from Calcutta at The Chilli Pickle said this is one of the places we must visit. Haldirams was founded in 1937 by Shivkisan Agrawal, as a retail sweet and namkeen shop in Rajastan and has since gone on to be a global brand as well as having numerous outlets in India for sweets, savoury snacks, quick eats and takeaway.

Halidrams has a feeling of organised chaos. There is an ongoing counter bending around the restaurant, broken down into different sections, ranging from hot food, cold snacks to sweets and take away items. You walk around to see what options are on the board and to sneak a look at what food is being handed over the counters, go to the till with your choice, pay and then back to the counter and wave your ticket order  to make sure you get noticed and then wait for a couple of minutes for your food to be given to you on a plastic tray. As I stood there waiting for our Raj Kachuri, Pao Bhaji and Choley Bature I watched a kitchen full of chefs doing very singular tasks. There was one chef dropping puris into a large frying vessel  and another (whilst leaning on a counter) flipping them over until ready. As we experienced in Dubai there are more staff per head than there would be in Europe. So, back to the food… The Raj Kachori is a large crispy puri filled with cold potato, pieces of dhokla (savoury sponge) soaked in yoghurt, chickpeas, chopped onion and coriander and topped with spiced yoghurt, tamarind sauce, sev noodles, fresh pomegrate seeds and fine beetroot julienne and a sprinkle of chaat. Tasted as good as it looked and definitely a possibility for the menu.

The Pao Bahji was good but not as fresh and flavoursome as ours and the toasted bun was a little oily. The Choley Bature is a full flavoured chick pea curry with large oval freshly cooked puris. The plate was mopped clean!  We couldn’t leave without taking away another box of sweets from their delectable display.

We then went in search of more inspiration for the restaurant and went to the shopping district Sunder Nagar where there are many antique handicraft shops and tucked away in the middle of them all was Mittal Teas, an amazing little tea shop owned by a very gentile Old Indian Man wearing a flat cap. Mittal Teas has an amazing selection of Indian teas and teaware, the owner was really interested in what we are doing at The Chilli Pickle as regards to our tea menu and is very keen to source some different teas from more obscure tea plantations and regions in India. We had a tea tasting of some very fine teas plus a curry leaf tea that was particularly interesting. We will be staying in touch and no doubt be ordering from him to add to our Indian selection of teas.  Dawn and I left Mittal Teas feeling excited at what this chance meeting might add to the restaurant as well as having such a nice fellow as a contact for us in India.

Looking around some handicraft shops both of us were drawn to a 5 ft 30kg wooden watchmen  and new we had to get it. Much haggling, walking away, blah blah blah later we secured a price and arranged a day to pick up.

We were recommended to try the The Great Kebab Factory at the Raddisson Airport. This is where the original restaurant has been since 1998 and gone on to be a very successful franchise all over India and the Middle East. Both being meat lovers, we were really looking forward to this. The menu was a set menu and there was a constant stream of tandoor cooked meats and fish with subtle spicing and experienced in execution. This was followed by a biriyani and 2 dals silver served by our 5 star service which was excellent. Another stand out dish was the first that we were given, a Galouti Kebab.  Mutton finely minced and then pounded with papaya (a natural tenderisor) and spices served with a saffron bread. The kebab was of a soft pate consistency and was very tasty, while eating this I knew I could do something similar served maybe with a crispy Misi Roti and a punchy mint chutney. We had a look around kitchen and although we probed the chef wouldn’t give away any hints about the Galouti Kebab as it was his secret recipe and no-one else in the kitchen was allowed to attempt making the dish. This is common in Indian kitchens and is probably more down to the chef protecting his senior position within the kitchen hierarchy rather than being overly precious about passing on his guarded secrets.

We weren’t so taken with the dessert as this was a selection of saffron Kulfi, Gulab Jaman, Rabri and Jelebi. All would be lovely on their own or in small doses, but the large plate was an intense sweet overload with nothing to cut through. This was one of those meals where we finished feeling like Mr and Mrs Creosote rather than being comfortably sated.
However we are also aware we have been scoffing since arriving!

Day 4 to follow next week.

Dawn & Al escapades to India - Day 2

To get over the jet lag Dawn and I opted for breakfast in bed, the only option being English or Continental. Big mistake! As they say ‘when in Rome…’ and never has this been more true.

                                  

We had a good walk around Connaught Place where our hotel is and which we know from our previous visit to Delhi. Found a great old book store which resulted in me buying 6 cook books all very different to the many I have got.
We then took a rickshaw to Delhi’s (and 1 of Indias) most favoured sweetshops ‘Bangla sweets.’ The visual displays in the glass counters were packed full of vibrant colour and all sorts of textures and flavours, shimmering with silver leaf. More than enough choice and quality to please the most fussy and selective of the sweet toothed . We opted for a half kilo box. A kilo of sweetmeats is usually the minimum – can you imagine? We chose a selection of Ladu, Halwa, Burfi, Sandesh and Rajbhog to take away and while we were there couldn’t resist a portion of their Rasmalai and Rasgulla which they are also famed for, both were toothsome and set the hunger pangs in motion ready for lunch. Pudding 1st?
This also helped to emphasise our wish to have a small sweet deli counter at The Chilli Pickle some time in the future.

Then headed on to another of Delhi’s cherished haunts ‘ Saravana Bhavan Hotel’ for a spot of South Indian lunch. I had the roasted Paper Masala Dosa which was a foot long filled with masala potato and served with chutneys and Sambhar. Dawn had the Veg Thali with puris, a tray filled with at least 10 small bowls of different curries, dal, vegetables, chutneys and a barfi to finish with. All tasted great and the puris and paper dosa were highlights as well as a fiery red pepper coconut chutney.

                                          

It was then time to move onto Chandni Chowk, a 300 year old grand market which is in the prosperous trading centre in Old Delhi for silver, metal, brass and copper ware as well as spices.
How to describe Chadni Chowk? Well once meeting Punit we had to take a bike rickshaw as cars struggle to fit through the traffic filled streets that are over flowing with sacks of dried goods, men loading up wagons that are to be pulled to their destination either by them on foot or by a push bike, customers buying fresh hot food from street vendors and people dicing with death trying to get from one side of the road to the other. There is a constant bustle of folk pushing you out of the way as they have places to be, raised voices bartering over goods, hooters constantly beeping to move other mopeds and rickshaws out of the way, a distinct aroma or street food cooking and incense burning, colours popping out from different stalls with the wide array of materials all framed by the surrounding tall, smog dirtied, crumbling buildings.

                                      

Once we had disembarked our rickety rickshaw we meandered through these crazy streets stopping to look at things that would look great in the restaurant, smelling spices and snacking on street food like simple roasted yam sprinkled with chaat masala we reached our main destination, Parathe Walli Galli. Dawn had been looking forward to this moment since she read about it in one of my food travel books a couple of years ago. We had to walk down a dark and dingy narrow side alley way with a bottle neck of people and the odd moped thrown in for good measure. At the end of the alley was a small open restaurant where the cook sat on a mat surrounded with flour, dough and fillings for their famed parathas, he would be shouted the order, make the paratha in a minute and throw it into a pan of hot oil directly in front of him, that was then cooked by a young helper. Once cooked your paratha would be given to you on a canteen tray alongside 2 veg curries and a pickle. The menu boasts up to 30 different parathas ranging from your well known potato, paneer (Dawn’s choice) to mint (my choice) and broken papad.

                                                        

After some more walking around the narrow streets we were in the close vicinity of Karims and although it was certainly not enough time for our Parathas to digest we couldn’t miss this opportunity.
Karims has been around since 1913 passed on through 4 generations with apparently a bloodline connected to the chefs of the great Moghal Empire. To this day they are beloved for their great tasting Moghul cuisine and Kebabs.
We found the place to be incredibly endearing although in a strange way, the kebabs were good (but you knew the quality of meat wasn’t), the biriani was made with long grain rice which must be blasphemy to those in the know and the mint chutney and salad were both lifeless, had some excellent tandoori chicken, amazing see through romali roti (1p each?) and lime soda all round. It’s one of those places you’d recommend anyone who loves food and adventure to experience. There is a real spookiness and romance to the place. The Formica tables were packed full of locals, tourists and weathered expats, a table is emptied and instantly filled with the next party.

Outside in the alley is the open show kitchen where the tandoor master sits cross legged on his mat in his pajamas with sage like posture as he works 8 small taftoons (Afghan tandoors) with calm and precision. Behind him a young cook makes the bread in a large tandoor built into the ground. On the second floor is the main kitchen, which we asked to see but were refused (probably to benefit us both), but as you looked up you could see long skewers of half cooked meat hanging from the windows, again surrounded by the familiar black crumbling walls. Brilliant!

                                                       

Day 3 to follow next week...

Dawn & Al escapades to India - Day 1

We arrived in Delhi at 1.30pm to a newly refurbished airport and were secretly disappointed that it had lost the craziness with the hustle and bustle that we remembered. A brand spanking new airport was built to accommodate the recent Commonwealth Games.

We got a lift from the airport to the hotel in a Hindustan Ambassador (my favourite car) which is basically the shell of an old Morris Oxford with a more or less up to date engine and a few mod cons, got bags of character and was until recently the preferred choice of the Indian Prime Minister.

As soon as we checked into the hotel all feelings of jet lag disappeared and we were itching to get out of the door. We met up with Punit who is a friend and contact of Vivek Singh from The Cinnamon Club as they worked together at the Oberoi Raj Villas in Jaipur, and is now Viveks main spice supplier and soon to be ours which we are very pleased about. Punit took us to The Delhi Haat Market which is a Government Market show casing the many regional cottage industries through out India in order for him to understand the sort of things we were looking to source for the restaurant interior and kitchen supplies.

The first thing we headed to was the Chai Stand as Delhi was going through a cold snap which we had not bargained on (Punit lent me one of his jackets which Dawn found amusing… see picture!). The chai was served in a the traditional terracotta cups and was a warm welcome, we then moved onto the next stand for some Aloo Chaat. It was a giant iron plate with a perfect moulded potato ring with a spicy redness. The vendor cut off a wedge and placed in the middle, fired up the flame below, then added water and reheated until bubbling, this was spooned into a plastic bowl and sprinkled with chopped onion, coriander, green chilli, gram flour noodles and topped with a spoon of yoghurt and a drizzle of tamarind and a pinch of chaat masala. A great combination of texture, flavor and heat and a nice start to our Indian food journey. After refueling we walked around the market and pointed out some of the typical bits that we would be looking for and had a good chat with Punit about The Chilli Pickle so that he had a much better understanding of what we are all about.

The next stop was Nizam Kathi Kebabs which is famous in Delhi for its wonderful Kathi Kebabs. On getting there this was obvious as the place was heaving, we made our order and took our number and waited patiently for our number to be called. Dawn had Paneer, Punit had Mushroom and I had Chicken with egg. All of them were amazing and I was particularly impressed with the bread although a little oily, had a flakiness to it. If the wait hadn’t been so long another round would have been in order!