Indian Take In

Michelle and Andrew visited our apartment for the first time this past weekend, an occasion worthy of a special dinner. They both love Indian food, and since guests make great guinea pigs for new recipes, I decided to make our favorite Punjabi dishes: chicken tikka masala and saag paneer. Everything was homemade from start to finish, including the chai coconut ice cream!  My favorite part of the night was seeing the look on Ronak's face when he came home and realized that the familiar scents of Indian spices were actually coming from our kitchen.

Chai Time

A while back I had posted about my love for the Shah-family chai, and now I'm excited to share the recipe. I'm in the habit of picking up ginger and mint with each trip to the grocery store so that I can make the tea on a regular basis.

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp. Wagh Bhakri brand tea, a granular black tea found at Indian grocery stores
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 6 fresh mint leaves

Makes 3 cups

In a small saucepan, combine the water, milk, tea, sugar, and ginger. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once the tea reaches a boil, reduce heat and stir in the mint leaves. Return the tea to a boil and then promptly remove from heat. Strain tea and add more milk and sugar to your desired taste.

DISHOOM!

Six years old, asleep in flannel pajamas, it was always the rapid successions of the sound “DISHOOM” which woke me up. I’d open my eyes to find my mom watching a Bollywood film. Dishoom is the sound of a punch making contact during a fight sequence in any Indian movie during from the 1980s. When Sara and I walked by the sign for DISHOOM in London, it immediately spoke to me in that primal part of my gut and brought a huge smile to my face. We decided we would have to go there for breakfast the next day.

The restaurant is the pinnacle of creative execution in both ambiance and food – with strong connectivity to the lost times of comfort food across Mumbai – Dishoom calls itself “A Bombay Café” in the same vain of that tradition. The menu is full of Bombay classics, with a beautiful modern touch. Case in point – our breakfast: Bacon Naan (oh yes, naan with m’f’n bacon in it, along with a light yogurt and cilantro), Bombay Omelette (a fluffy omelette with tomatoes, onions and masala), paired with masala chai and coffee in classic Indian café glasses. The food was perfectly prepared, the naan was very fresh, the bacon was crispy, the portions were reasonable as were the prices.

The décor is a whole other conversation. Pure class. Mahogany wooden trim panels, accented by large mirrors. Beautifully arranged collages of Indian families (mostly the owner's family), and vintage advertisements. A seamless, graphic print on the floor. Small touches, too: an old Indian apothecary cabinet in the bathroom stalls, a lower-level dining room which feels like a underground club in 50's Bombay.

The visit touched our hearts, and made our creativity soar. Our time there concluded when I spoke with the owner, Shamil, and spent a little time trying to convince him to open up Dishoom in New York. We’ll see what happens next….. but in the meantime, he asked us to visit his other location in London's Southbank…. (see below)

Chowpatty Beach on the Thames

While still digesting the amazing wonders of Dishoom 1 (above), our next stop was Big Ben, well maybe. Secretly, we really just wanted to check out Dishoom 2. So we went to Big Ben, took the requisite pictures and hastily walked across Westminister Bridge. Strolling along the waterside, our eyes were on the lookout for Dishoom…

In the distance, in pink letters we saw “Chowpatty Beach”, the Dishoom pop-up restaurant on the waterfront of the River Thames. Since Sara visited Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai, both of us grew very excited.

At the front entrance there was a cutout board so we took a moment to pose as vintage 1960's Bollywood models... Further along there was a wooden ramp, painted to look weathered with pastel paints, and blue plastic streamers. Very Bollywood beach party. The party and creativity continued inside... There was a wall of rolled up vintage Indian newspapers, brightly colored bottles across the bar, hand woven canvas wallpaper, spray-painted chairs and old relics of “found items” lining the walls. The bathrooms were wall papered with plastic Indian mats and authentic vintage signs.

For food, we wanted to order the spiked coconuts (coconuts full of water and spiked with rum), but they were all out. So we opted for Limca and Thumbs Up, the classic Indian sodas. Since we had just eaten breakfast, we ordered a small appetizer – bread crumb calamari, which was perfectly seasoned and delivered to our table in a kraft paper cup with wooden forks. The space truly evokes the colors, and the feeling of Chowpatty Beach, but with a modern and fun twist. Truly a restaurant experience not to be missed in London.

Family Recipe

One of the perks about going to Ronak's house is eating an abundance of delicious homemade Indian food. His family is Gujarati vegetarian so the flavors are very different from the Punjabi dishes I'm used to ordering in Indian restaurants.

Another perk is that we can have one-on-one Indian cooking lessons anytime we like. I recently took advantage of this generous offer and spent the afternoon cooking with Ron's mom. I learned how to make Batata Suki Bhaji (potatoes with tumeric, mustard seed, cilantro, lime juice & green chili peppers), as well as roti and parathas. Once we get set up with the necessary spices and cooking tools, we're going to have a lot more Indian food at home.

The Beat

To me, life's best relationships have always carried a rhythm. The hum of your favorite teacher. The sound of your mother fiddling around the house. Flipping the pages of an exciting book. Well, the rhythm of our relationship has always been food... and on this special night, we were enchanted by the BEAT of the Tabla. (Tabla is the word for Indian drum)

Tabla is a Danny Meyer-owned restaurant just a block from our apartment, with the brilliant Floyd Cardoz as chef. The waitress characterized the meal as seasonal ingredients using Indian spices and French cooking techniques. A perfect fit for me and Sara.

This was a truly notable meal. We shared everything, starting with the Five Onion Soup, a tangy broth with a delicious light spice to whet the palate. For the main course, we had the Fawa Crispy Skate with Peekytoe Crab Biryani (!!) and the Goan Beet Salad. The skate was perfectly prepared with a Fawa breading that gave it great texture and glimmer. The beet salad had crispy bacalao chips (salted cod) with an intense saltiness that heightened all the flavors. For dessert, we ordered the Mango Ice Cream Sundae, which is something I will never forget. Topped with mascarpone, meringue 'kisses', hazelnuts and crumble, the mango ice cream was perfectly creamy and not too sweet.

As we were leaving the the restaurant, we noted that the 80's decor seemed a bit out of place. It was then that Sara noticed a bin full of huge pomegranates and joked about swiping one... when the busboy told us "its all yours, go ahead and take it! We are closing in a month anyway."

.... and so we left this amazing meal with a bittersweet ending. Another new favorite soon to be gone... yet, we are so glad we had our chance to experience it and will try to go one more time before its gone, even if just for dessert.

Cha-ahhhh...

In my family drinking tea is a household ritual. After school my sister and I used to curl up on the couch and engage in typical teenage gossip while recounting our daily dramas. In the evenings my mom made tea to gather the family from our respective corners of the house. Having lived away from my family home for 11 years now and lived with countless roommates, I've always sought to continue this ritual wherever I am (possibly force-feeding tea to a roommate or two).

But alas, I have found a family that also honors this tea-drinking tradition. Visiting Ronak's family for the first time, riddled with nerves, I was greeted with kindness and a cup of steaming hot chai. While ordinary to them, chai is a novelty tea in my home, where Lipton is the norm. The experience inspired me to recreate the chai using Ronak's family recipe, one that is simpler than I would have expected: a blend of loose black tea, water, milk, grated ginger, fresh mint and sugar. A simple formula that stirs up a nostalgic sense of home.