Spice it up

A hardcore Punjabi at heart, the culinary wizard Harpal Singh Sokhi has taken a different route this time. From his earlier ideology of cooking rich, hearty and fattening meals, he has gravitated to cooking healthy dishes that have gained recognition and become a thing of vogue in the cooking industry. Coming from a traditional Punjabi household that believes in eating lavishly, Sokhi’s inventive cooking style has incorporated his family values and health conscious techniques to come up dishes that won’t fail to satisfy a foodie’s taste buds.

Singh, one of the prominent figures behind the revolutionary culture of infusing western elements in Indian cooking and vice versa, has become the face of food innovation with his presence on various culinary platforms like Sony Kitchen Khiladi, Maa ki daal, Sirf 30 sec and the recent Turban Tadka. 

In the 90s the hotel industry was abuzz with talks of Sokhi’s signature style of mixing Indian flavour with other cuisine into a single hybrid dish. “When I first started experimenting with food, I didn’t get a favourable response because at that time the economy had just opened up and people were very restricted about their food choices. But slowly the tastes of the consumers have evolved and so did the flavours. Sometimes I used to add basil or lemon grass to chicken curry other times I used to experiment with adding exotic fragrance to sabz biryani,” shared Sokhi.

Sokhi, for the sake of his health conscious fans and followers, has boarded the Healthy Tadka bandwagon. His recent culinary demonstration comprised the use of nutritious and nourishing ingredients such as quinoa, amaranth, wheat bran, apple and wheat grass in the preparation of usual dishes like pulao, shikanjvi, parantha and aloo tikki. “I usually don’t make healthy food but in trend with the health fad I try to incorporate healthy ingredients in my dishes,” said the chef. As soon as he started demonstrating his first dish — Quinoa tawa pulao, the air became rich with the aroma of Indian spices, making our mouths water. “Quinoa is popularly known as a salad ingredient. It is usually white and red in colour.

Consuming elaborate salads everyday is not a routine activity but that shouldn’t stop one from benefitting from the goodness of anti oxidant and vitamin rich Quinoa. It can be used as a feasible substitute for oats or rice,” explained the chef. Following up the pulao with amaranth (laal saag) aloo tikki, the chef added, ‘You can also roast amaranth with some nuts and oats then add elaichi powder, ginger powder and mix it in the jaggery paste to make power packed energy bars.” The high in fibre and nutritious wheat bran apple parantha and wheat grass shikanjvi were next. By the end of the evening the audience was charged with excitement — everybody wanted to don their culinary hats and try out the delightful recipes taught by him. “With this demonstration I want to urge the audience to use the ingredients used in hotels to suit their own palette. Preparing food is an art, it demands experimentation and you don’t need to be a chef at a five star hotel to experiment,” said Singh. 

A staunch defender of the Indian culture and all things Indian, Singh shared, “I recently discovered that zucchini which is considered to be an exotic ingredient is a staple vegetable when it comes to cooking in the villages of Dharamsala and Mussouri. lemon grass has always been used in tea by the Parsis but surprisingly it was only when Thai cuisine was introduced in India that lemon grass started being seen as something that could be used for cooking as well. So there are interesting things in India which we don’t know about, through my show I enlighten the Indian populace about the exciting options that I keep discovering.”Sokhi who has been associating himself with culinary shows  since 1993 added, “It was only four to five years back that I became confident enough to showcase my skills through TV.” 

He intends to expand his restaurant franchise and food products under the brand name Raji. He shared the success mantra of his ongoing show, “The show works because of its straightforward and simple format. When I come on the screen the viewers feel as if I am cooking up dishes in their own kitchens. Being a celebrity chef I have received a lot of things but none of them have been as important and encouraging as the love of my fans.”