Indians are in love with our spices. And why won’t we beIJ We live in a land rich in what we colloquially call the masala, containing therapeutic and culinary properties. We have several cuisines across the country that incorporate a lot of the masala but not all make the cut like Punjabi cuisine. Punjabis are very liberal when it comes to adding ghee and masala in their food, and they are lip-smacking good, too.
Punjab Grill, at Select City Walk, is organising a separate menu with dishes derived from the hinterlands of the place. Called the Rangla Punjab, the menu is quite limited, and refreshingly so because a lengthy special menu can get quite taxing at times.
The first thing from the menu that we tried was the kaali gajar di kanji. Kanji is a popular drink in Punjab prepared with black carrots and is believed to increase appetite. What we really liked about this drink that came in a kullard and had a strong flavour mustard oil, which hit the nerves perfectly, setting the mood for the meal to come.
For starters, we tried the macchi de pakode delicious and crispy golden fried fish. The chef gave us good mint chutney to savour the fish with and it was quite delectable.
A full, Punjabi meal is incomplete without a range of achaars, radishes, onions, butter and long green chillies. So, before we were served dishes from the mains, the chef places before us three kinds of achaar gobi shalgum da achaar and two meat achaar (chicken and mutton).
We tried their Kotkapure da atta chicken which came to us in the hard atta casting. Chef Yusuf, almost like a surgeon, cut open the outer crust to reveal chicken pieces wrapped in a muslin cloth. Ashish, manager told us how the meat is cooked. “The chicken is marinated with ground spices and tied up with a muslin cloth. Then it is wrapped in an atta dough and cooked directly in the fire,” he said. The chicken tasted good but was a bit dry, or may be that is the way it is had.
Interestingly, the pind da saag was not smooth in texture. The chef explained that it tastes best when the saag is left a bit grainy. The ajwain roti and makke di roti went really nice with it. The khoya paneer, too, was quite unique because it was made with khoya, which is in itself tasty. Thepaneer, on the other hand, was soft.
The festival which runs till February 27, also has harey chholiya da pulao and maa di daal, for vegetarian lovers.
There was no way we could end a Punjabi meal without meetha so we tried their gudh waley chawal and makhane da kheer. Although they were not overtly sweet, it satiated our want of something meetha.
So, if you crave something Indian and you really want to go ‘all hands in’, we suggest that you try out some different dishes from the land of the i