SATURDAY, APR 13, 2013

17 WINE & DINE

A TOAST TO TASTE BUDGET BITES
Restaurants that fill you up without emptying your pockets
PHOTO COURTESY: JENNIFER VAGIOS

TAKE YOUR SALAD APART

DECONSTRUCTED SPRING GARDEN Ingredients for faux soil Q 2 slices of bread (toasted) Q 1 garlic clove (minced) Q 1 tbsp kalamata olives (minced) Q 1 tsp fresh herbs (minced) Q Salt to season Q Olive oil to saut Ingredients for dressing Q 1 garlic clove (grated) Q cup balsamic vinegar Q cup extra virgin olive oil Q 1 tsp fresh herbs (minced) Q 1 pinch sugar, salt and pepper to taste Ingredients for salad Q 3 beetroots (baked) Q 2 red radishes (thinly sliced) Q cup broad beans (boiled) Q kg baby carrots (peeled) Q 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste METHOD Q In a bowl, mix all the dressing ingredients and whisk well. To make faux soil, tear bread slices and blend in a food processor. In a pan, heat olive oil and saut minced garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add herbs and bread crumbs and stir. Remove from fire and add minced olives. Mix well and keep aside. Q To deconstruct Drizzle salad dressing on the base of your platter and scatter broad beans on top.

Delhi | Rollmaal
tep 1. Step 2. Step 3. And I always thought steps were only essential to solving tricky theorems or shedding that midriff lard. Who would have thought that you took three steps to a scrumptious roll too? At Rollmaal, the new roll place in New Delhis Defence Colony Market, you do just that. Step 1: Choose your roll (rumaali roti, ulte tawa ka parantha, flaky lacha, Malabar parantha). Step 2: Choose your maal (filling) vegetarian: Rs 99; chicken: Rs 130; mutton: Rs 150. All served with choorma, fried green chillies, chutney and spiced onions. Step 3: Feel as if you are in an Epicurean heaven without a hole in the wallet. The squat 15-seater restaurant looks straight out of a retro film. At the entrance, nearly 200 rolling pins peep from a glass pane; nearly 300 bhopus (trumpets) hang from the ceiling; the seats are rustic, music is Bollywood and the waiters wear khaki kurta/pyjama with a brown Gandhi topi and red/ white gamcha to complete that classic 60s look. A moustached, vest-wearing, beefy Rollu is the mascot chef and the tagline question is: Roll ke andar kya hai? Cheeky? Yes. But the food is so yummy and the price so reasonable that you forgive the cheekiness. And the loud Hindi music. The step-wise rolls are the Rollmaal Classics.

MY APPLE PIE IS IN PIECES

SONAL VED
deconstructed platter looks like a Jackson Pollock painting. All chaos and confusion at first glance, but look deeper and youll see an underlying method to the madness. The deconstructed dish, as legend goes, was born in an Eton dining hall when a cook dropped a tray of meringues on the floor and instead of putting them to waste created a deconstruction. But it was Spanish chef Ferran Adria of the award-winning elBulli restaurant who made it a science. Now, chefs across India are breaking down classic recipes and giving them their own twist. Deconstructing food essentially means taking individual elements of a classic dish such as an apple pie or a lasagne and separating them to create a fresh and contemporary form, says chef Azad Arif of

Chefs across the country are deconstructing classic recipes and plating them with a twist
place to introduce deconstruction. As we are a country of dessert lovers, guests are more likely to try deconstructed apple crumble than murg makhani with dissected gravy, meat and spices. As commonly deconstructed desserts such as carrot cake, trifle pudding and Black Forest cake have few elements, they are easy to assemble. On the other hand, a classic lasagne or a seafood pie has several ingredients that need to be

ITSY BITSY: Chefs feel that deconstruction is a healthier way of presenting food, especially during sultry spring and summer when the weather begs for light and refreshing food

Mumbai-based restaurant, Otto Infinito. At his modern Mediterranean diner, deconstructed Caesar and Waldorf salads rule the menu with various elements such as the dressing, vegetables, fruits, cheeses and croutons scattered across the plate instead of being sensibly tossed together. At Bangalore-based Caperberry, chef Abhijit Saha breaks down the classic Insalata Caprese, a classic Italian salad with chopped fruit and cheese, into tomato, basil and olive oil sorbet, balsamic jelly and molecularly treated mozzarella spheres. Both Arif and Saha say the key to deconstruction is to ensure that the individual elements are recognisable by themselves but work in cohesion. The taste and flavour of the dishes remain the same as their classic counterparts, only texture and form differ. Delhi-based chef Rajat Tuli of Double Tree at Hilton Gurgaon, says, If you make tiramisu and set it in a bowl, all the layers come in contact and there is interaction of flavours. In a deconstructed dish, the components come alive since they have been freshly made and plated. You taste the biscuit, coffee concoction and cream cheese independently. According to a recent survey by the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association, deconstructed desserts are among the top food trends in the industry. Chef Milind Patel, who heads the kitchens at Kitsch and Harajuku at Pune and Goas The O Hotel, says the dessert course is the best

Chef Milind Patel says the dessert course is the best to experiment with. Guests are more likely to try deconstructed apple crumble than murg makhani with dissected gravy, meat and spices
cooked in synergy and not separately for accurate results, he says. Mumbai-based culinary consultant Nidhi Behl of Tout de Suite says that deconstruction is a healthier way of presenting food. The sultry springsummer weather begs for light and refresh-

Lay beetroot wedges in a zigzag pattern and top it with baby carrots and radish circles. Scatter faux soil on the salad and serve immediately.
(Recipe courtesy: Nidhi Behl of Tout de Suite)

ing food. Deconstruction is the perfect way to break down last seasons hearty recipes into simple and effortless fare, she says. Chef Sheldon Engineer of Punes Cocopara agrees and explains how he breaks down the substantial Shepherds pie to suit the appetites and weather here. The dish is served as one portion of gently-cooked lamb mince with a piping of mashed potato and sprinkling of crumbs instead of a heavy-duty buttery base stuffed with meat. During deconstruction, all the elements are cooked lightly to retain flavours and are usually served in smaller portions since there is so much to display, he says.

PHOTOS: PREETI VERMA LAL

From First Class Rolls, pick from Chettinad Southy Mind It Roll, Bombay Franky, Keema Pav, Bun Samosa with Pindi Chana. In Doosra Maal, the options include biryani, dal makhni, mutton curry. Theres peene ka maal (ice tea, desi remix and colas) and only two things in meetha maal (honey date phirni and gulab jamun). At Rollmaal, youd want to roll over and pretend youre hungry. Again.  PREETI VERMA LAL
Rollmaal, A-28 Defence Colony Market, New Delhi110024; Phone: 011-41017360/61, 9873736881 Timings: 11.30 a.m to 1 a.m. Average price for 2: Rs 350/-

Brun-maska in Britain
Dishoom recreates the charm of Mumbais Irani cafs in London the quaintly worded rules, the berry pulaos and the many stories of their quirky clients
SHARMILA GANESAN-RAM
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

few months after 26/11, a couple injured in the attacks on Leopold Caf in Mumbai returned to the well-known Irani restaurant. I have come back to finish my beer, the husband said. For two weeks now, such anecdotes have been making patrons at Londons Dishoom restaurant stare into their plates a tad longer than an Irani caf owner might appreciate. After polishing off their keema puffs and brun maska, these Londoners start reading the curious text on their plates. In it, they find a man comparing the soft bread slices of Caf Excelsior to Cupids cheeks and also imagine another man smirking as he recalls that some cafs came with small wooden family cabins which were mainly used by courting couples. Theres even the story of a gentleman who fell in love with a waitress at a caf and the amusing one of a man who would shout,

The waiters are called babus and the captains, bade babus. And though the text on the windows lists Do not sit more among other donts, the plates campaign makes that difficult to follow

cuckoo so that the young waiter, who only spoke Farsi, would figure out that he wanted an egg. All of these are real stories contributed by a bunch of nostalgic Irani caf lovers from Mumbai. As part of Dishoom Plates, a campaign by Ogilvy One UK along with Dishoom restaurant, the agency gathered stories from the older generation in Mumbai and the UK, from oral accounts as well the internet. Of these, 80 were chosen and baked onto plates in various shapes a chilli, a slice of bread or even a beer bottle. Reading them after a meal has the same effect as ingesting sweet caramel custard; a smile is sure to follow. Everyone asks about Irani cafs after reading these, says Shamil Thakrar, who calls himself the founder-wallah of Dishoom, which has outlets in both Shoreditch and in Cotton Garden, London. Thakrar is not a Parsi hes of Indian origin but was born in Uganda and then moved to the UK but his idea is to introduce Londoners to this quaint, thinning

slice of mid-century Mumbai. And everything about his two-year-old restaurant pays homage to these eateries that came with the faded elegance of high ceilings and chequered tablecloth. Thakrar grew up in Kings Circle and has fond memories of Irani cafs. Often, outings involved a horse ride at Chowpatty beach (which Thakrar pronounces as chapati) and a quick meal at a caf or two nearby. It was the most democratic place where the taxiwallah could rub shoulders with rich lawyers, recalls Thakrar, who moved to London a few years ago. But on each of his subsequent visits to Mumbai, he saw these paragons of social democracy slowly disappearing. Frothy coffee was fast nudging out the comfort of Irani cutting chai. The city was running out of social spaces that forced the rich and the poor to mix. Caf Naaz and the quirky Bastaani, which had a long list of donts,

including No leg on chair, were gone. Where there were once more than 400 Irani cafs, fewer than 20 remained. Clearly pining for this quaint bit of Mumbai, he decided to recreate a part of it in London by opening a restaurant chain inspired by Irani caf elements. This, decided Thakrar, would also force Londoners to think of a Mumbai beyond clichs such as Bollywood, cricket, the days of the Raj and curry. South Mumbai, with its gothic architecture and decor so redolent of England, provided a fair bit of design inspiration. Thakrar also scoured the citys Chor bazaar for chairs and old photos. Soon, two recreations of mid-century Bombay haunts materialised in London. One, with all its disheveled corners, in the bohemian Shoreditch and another in the upmarket Cotton Garden locality. The menu includes, among other items, warm baked biscuits along with keema puffs (just like the ones at Sassannian), berry pulao, lamb rann burgers and kala khatta. The waiters are called babus

and the captains, bade babus. And though the stencilled text on the windows lists Do not sit more among other donts, the plates campaign makes that one difficult to follow. Most patrons of Irani cafs have their favourite caf stories. Thakrar is no exception. During one visit to Mumbai, Thakrar encountered the famous owner of one well-known example, Britannia. Do you know how old I am? asked Boman Kohinoor Irani of Thakrar and went on to answer the question himself. As old as this hotel. When Thakrar asked, What can I have to drink? the Irani caf owner launched into an impromptu rhyme Nimboopani is nice and sweet. Ideal to beat the Bombay heat. Thakrar plans to keep the campaign to record such vignettes going. The restaurants website encourages visitors to share stories and memories, of which the best are still being chosen to be baked on to the dishes. Incidentally, at his restaurants, there is no signborad that says, No stealing of plates.