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25-31
August 2005 : Michael Raffael, food writer
Gateway to Indian cuisine
Flick through
this pretty book and you’ll find half-a-dozen or so chefs credited
with recipes. Others are attributed to the authors’ friend and
relations. That is very different from most restaurant-led cookery
books, highlighting teamwork rather than the usual kitchen
hierarchy, where the buck (and the credit) stops with the celebrity
in charge.
The London restaurant La
Porte des Indes, part of the Blue Elephant stable, owes its name to
colonial French influence in southern India. The cuisine, though,
doesn’t seem to owe much to France. Like Keralan cooking, it relies
for its effect on coconut, banana leaves and the regional spices
fenugreek, peppercorn and aniseed.
This accessible cuisine
is easy to replicate – thanks to clearly explained, accurate
methods-good-looking and clean-tasting. Many of the dishes would
slot elegantly into gastropub menus.
Tony Le Duc’s
photography, too, makes the food look appetising without resorting
to stylised arrangements. It’s probably what will sell the book to
the public. Professional should go to some the sauces, seasonings
and techniques. “Dhungaar” (flash-smoking foie gras with a star
anise, brown sugar and cinnamon smoke sounds imaginative, as does a
smoked tomato rougail ( a chutney, really) and “vadavam”, a
seasoning made by drying balls of spiced onions, garlic, curry
leaves and dhal.
For those who come to
Indian cookery with limited experience, there are reworked takes on
routine dishes such as chicken tikka masala and rogan josh. Chefs
looking for a good tip could do worse than try dipping prawn in an
egg, cornflour and semolina batter before frying them. Is it
Franco-Indian fusion?
Je ne sais pas - but
it’s 100% Porte des Indes. Michael Raffael, Food Writer
We have a copy of the La Porte des Indes cookbook to give away,
courtesy of publisher Pavilion.
The winner will be drawn out of a hat.
Email your name and address by 31 August to
catererfeatures@rbi.co.uk
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