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Imagine and create
RADHIKA RAJAMANI
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One can make one's own recipes using the various ingredients provided at the on-going `Tava & Kadai' festival at The Tulip Manohar.
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PICK AND CHOOSE: Take whatever you want and mix.
IF YOU thought kadai and tava are items of the kitchen in homes think again. For these are very much part of the restaurants too. And you can cook your meal in them in restaurants like you do at home. Wondering how and where and who would permit you? Just hop over to Copper Pot restaurant at the Tulip Manohar hotel and indulge in experimentation and cooking. A Tava and Kadai festival is on here till June 2.
All the ingredients like vegetables and meats, chicken and fish, gravies and spices are laid out at the restaurant. Take your pick from the spread and put them in along with condiments like green chillies, coriander and curry leaves and voila! Your dish is ready of course helped by the chef. This is certainly different from the usual fare one is used to at restaurants or at food festivals where everything is served cooked. "We did not want this to be a routine food festival. So we worked out this new concept," says Rodericks, in charge of Copper Pot. He admits that there was some hesitancy on the part of the guests but later they started to appreciate this.
The spread is quite large - vegetables include potatoes, peas, fried ladies finger, brinjals, baby corn, tender corn, capsicums, mushrooms, vegetable koftas, palak paste, onions, tomatoes, fried and unfried paneer and the non-veg items include lamb chops, kheema, brain, mutton liver, fish and chicken. There are a few gravies like white gravy (made of cashewnut paste, boiled onions, bay leaf and cardamom), makhni gravy (tomato- based) and a yellow (made of brown onion paste, turmeric and few Indian masalas).
The guest has to just use his imagination and make his own recipe. It could be a regular one or a totally new concoction. Some people over the last few days have been little adventurous in creating their own recipes, while some have stuck to the usual gobhi-aloo, mutter-aloo informs Chef Shaukat. He enlightens us about some of the recipes created so far. One was a mixture of babycorn, mushroom and makhanas (lotus seeds) with onions and tomatoes tossed in a palak gravy. Another innovation was mixing mutton kheema with brain cooked in a tomato-based gravy with the normal Indian masala of salt, red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste and garam masala. If you have not heard of a combination of lamb chops with mutton liver then try it out as one of the guests did with of course onions, green chillies, salt and red chilli powder. A veggie recipe tried by Girija Gyan, Sr, Manager, Co-ordinations, of the Hotel was a mixture of babycorn, tender corns, potatoes, peas, onions, tomatoes, coriander cooked in white gravy with just salt. "This was a yummy combination with roomali roti and quite a few others who tasted it liked it," she said.
CHEF AT WORK: Shaukat stir fries the ingredients. - Photos: K. Ramesh Babu
On the face of it some of the recipes may sound bizarre but it is worth experimenting. Of course those who are not in this mood can get the regular food cooked. The diet-conscious can have just veggies tossed and everyone can monitor the butter and oil which goes into the dish. Chef Shaukat's personal recommendation is paneer with mushrooms in a coriander gravy garnished with tomatoes. You can imagine how colourful the dish will be.
For Rs. 299 one can have a sumptuous meal comprising as many dishes as one wants along with accompaniments like rotis, parathas and rice and five desserts. These recipes may be recommended to people and depending on the feedback may perhaps figure in the menu as a special item.
Wait there's more. The best and unique recipe wins an attractive prize at the end of the festival. While the food is being cooked listen to some ghazals too. So all the gourmets get ready to create and eat but remember you can do so till June 2.
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