A visual delight

When I get a wedding card, I try and hide it behind a sofa cushion. I hate attending weddings — mainly because I dislike the way you eat your dinner there. There was a time when wedding feasts were fun; I still remember the elegant way in which dinner was served at a family friend’s daughter’s reception eons ago. We sat on benches, and food came course by course on a bright green banana leaf placed in front of me.

It worries me that eating course-wise is almost going out of our lives these days. On most occasions, dinner outside — or even at a friend’s house — means a buffet laid out on the table. You take what you like, ignore what you don’t, heap your plate once so that you don’t have to keep going back to the table and eat everything together. And that’s how you kill the taste of food.

Even in a restaurant, Indian food is usually served all together. And while there are some restaurants that serve course by course it’s not often that you come across plated food — when your individual portion comes to you on a plate — in Indian restaurants. But the good news is that a few restaurants have started plating food. Khanasutra in Kolkata is one of them.

A couple of weeks ago I went to try the food out at a restaurant on AJC Road. I had been in touch with Subasis Bandyopadhyay, the executive chef of The Chrome Hotel. Khanasutra is the Nouvelle Indian food restaurant in the hotel. I found the food interesting.

But what is it that makes plated food special? In my mind, it is the only way of eating. I’ll tell you why. First, of course, is the ornamental value of a plated dish. What happens when you order dal in a restaurant? It comes in a bowl, nicely garnished, no doubt, with chillies or coriander leaves. But when it comes served on a plate, you can do wonders with its looks. You place a small portion of dal, say in a little heap. You scrawl a zigzag line over that with cream, and then put a little spot of tomato purée next to it. A whole green chilli peeps out from under the mound, which you can ring with pink onions. So clearly, when it comes to looks, you can’t beat plated food.

Second, of course, is that it encourages you to eat the right portions. Too much of dal — however much you may like it — will spoil your appetite for the prawns when they came at the end of the meal. And third, eating each portion separately allows you to taste each dish individually, with the right kind of pauses between courses.

I, for instance, enjoyed my meal at the Khanasutra. It started with a decorative platter of winter greens with colourful chutneys and pickles and then went on to an amuse bouche of cherry tomatoes stuffed with cottage cheese and tempered with carom seeds in olive oil. It was light and delicious — and great to look at. Then I had another interesting dish called tarkari tortellini ka shorba —a light vegetable and lentil broth with stuffed tortellini. The white tortellini bobbed happily in the greenish- yellow stock. Under the bowl was a naan, which you dipped into the broth and ate.

Chef Bandyopadhyay doesn’t just like to present food in the most appealing manner — his platter of vegetarian kababs, for instance, was beautifully presented with bright chutneys and dips — but enjoys giving a western twist to what is otherwise a traditional Indian dish, or tweaking a western dish with an Indian touch.

The chef, who graduated from the hotel management school in Lucknow and then had several interesting stints, including one in a luxury liner and at the Taj Tashi in Thimphu in Bhutan, likes to give you a nice surprise with his dishes. Take his Nawabi lamb shanks which he cooks in the traditional style — but tarts up the sauce with some red wine (see recipe). Or take his pin-wheel roll of cottage cheese, which looks really spectacular — shaped and designed like a pastry — and has an excellent taste of paneer flavoured with coriander leaves, mint and chillies.

The chef insists on a palate changer so that you get the individual tastes of all the dishes. The sorbet charger that came in the midst of the meal was a chilled wild berry bisque with creamy yoghurt. It worked well, and helped the palate recognise individual flavours.

I am all for plated food. One of the nicest Chinese meals I had was at My Humble House at The Maurya, where the food was presented so beautifully that it got the gastric juices all worked up even before I could eat a mouthful. Khanasutra too delighted both the sight and the taste-buds. Whoever said that food was only for eating?

Nawabi lamb shanks (serves 6)

Ingredients

750 g lamb meat on bones cut into 1-inch cubes, ½ cup ghee, ½ tsp cumin seeds, 1½ cups sliced onions, l6 peeled garlic cloves, 1-in piece of fresh peeled ginger, 3-inch piece of cinnamon, broken into four pieces, 3 pods of black cardamom, 7 cloves, 8 black peppercorn, 1½ cups yoghurt, ½tsp deghi mirch (paprika), 1tsp red chilli powder, 2 cups medium-bodied red wine (Merlot, Shiraz or a Chianti will do), salt to taste

Method

Make a paste out of the ginger and garlic and set aside. In a heavy bottom pan, heat the ghee. Fry the lamb till all sides are seared and the meat is brown.

Remove the lamb and set aside. In the ghee add cumin seeds, and then the whole spices. Add the sliced onion and fry over medium heat till golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the moisture evaporates. Add the lamb, and turn off the heat. Now mix in the beaten yoghurt and stir well. Turn on the flame slowly, which will prevent the yoghurt from curdling. Cook till the yoghurt has blended well with the masala. Add the remaining ingredients. Fry for about 2 minutes. Add 1/4th cup of water and the wine. Cover and simmer on low heat till the lamb is tender. Serve hot with naan or biryani.


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