Dastarkhwan - e - Lucknow - Feasting in the Land of Nawabs

Lucknow - For me, the name brings with it lot of Tehzeeb and Aada ( Manners and Elegance/Grace)  and a wonderful fragrance of royal cuisine or to put it more simply the aroma of good food. When P announced that he has some work in Lucknow over the weekend and asked me join him, the aroma of Awadhi cuisine wafted through the streets of Mumbai! And thus keeping the tradition of our sudden weekend trips, we landed in Lucknow late evening in the last Friday of February 2015.






Saturday P got done with his work by evening and we had time till Sunday afternoon; so we decided to make most it and when in Lucknow, you let your stomach make the decisions. First stop - Hazratganj, the most happening place in the city.

Royal Café : This place is a full fledged multi cuisine restaurant. But Royal Café is famous for the chaats; topping the list is the Tokri chaat. This one is very interesting. The whole chaat is served inside a tokri which is edible too. The chaat counter is outside the actual restaurant.

Tip : Avoid the restaurant and eat with the crowd outside.



The famous Tokri Chaat

There we met the steward named John Bell.

As he was moving with a smile from one customer to the other serving orders, clearing the dishes; we got talking with him. He said his grand father had come from Germany and his name was Arnel Bell. Arnel fell in love with an Indian lady in Lucknow and stayed back. John has been with Royal Café since last 9 years. Educated at La Martinere school, this father of a daughter and a son said he loves Lucknow and happy in his place. It was fun watching him work there, smiling and with a twinkle in his eyes.

Tunday Kababi : THE MOST iconic place in Lucknow. Any visit to this city of Nawabs and Kebabs is incomplete without eating at Tunday's. We went to the one at the Naaz cinema lane, near Aminabad. The original one is at Chowk,in the old city.This is where Haji Murad Ali single handedly began this  100 year journey of world Kebab domination!

Tunday Kababs deserve all the accolades that they enjoy. Their famous Galauti Kabab is a riot of flavours and just melts in the mouth. What one remembers is how the flavours of the  160 ingredients that go into creating this kebab reveal themselves layer after layers...wonder how Ghalib or Mir would have described these kebabs in their poetry. We had decided to get Kebabs packed next day for our friends in Mumbai. So we thought of going slow that evening and ordered only one plate with one Ulte Tawe ka paratha. But no true lover of good food can eat just one Galauti there. We ended up ordering another plate with Sheermal. They are heavenly and quite reasonably priced too!

Prakash Kulfi : Walk a bit from Tunday Kababi towards the main market and you have another famous place. Prakash kulfi is known for the awesome, mouth watering kulfis.

The Mughal's Dastarkhwan : There are many Dastarkhwans in Lucknow. All claiming to serve       " Authentice Lucknowi cuisine". For this we took the help of my colleague from Lucknow and went by his recommendation. This Mughal Dastarkhwan is at Lalbagh, opposite Islamia College. This one is the oldest in town. We reached pretty late and when we were finally seated, ours was the last order. We had Mutton chops for starter, Mutton Biryani for Mains and Shahi Tukda for Dessert. Each one of the dishes were very finely cooked. In each place the biryani has a unique taste and feel to it. Kolkata Biryani is very different from Hyderabadi biryani and Lucknowi biryani is again very distinctive from both.

Lucknow is surely a " paradise for foodies". With just one evening and a half day in hand it was not possible for us to explore the way we would have loved to. But it will be really unfair if I don't talk about the lunch that we had on Saturday. It was with a Sikh family residing in the city since last so many years. They made Kadhi Pakode, Chicken curry, Paneer Matar, Chapatis and Veg Pulao for us. The North Indian Kadhi Pakode is my favorite and when I saw that on the dining table I was sure elated. Nothing was over spicy or too oily. Everything was cooked with simple spices but each morsel tasted divine. For dessert, they served a super simple version of the classic Gajar Ka Halwa. It had no ghee, no mawa and no sugar either. Simply garnished with chopped cashew nuts, this is one Gajar ka Halwa I can indulge in without feeling guilty. Incidentally my version of Gajar ka Halwa is equally simple but I do use one spoon of sugar and little oil.

On Sunday early morning we went to Bara Imambara and the old city.We thought of having breakfast somewhere at the Chowk area but could not manage time as we had to get Kebabs and Biryani packed before we check out and head to the airport. Next to Tunday Kababi, there is Wahid's Biryani who serves excellent biryani. We got the biryani packed from there.

The foodie in me fully satiated, I had make a quick visit to the shopping area too. Thankfully the Aminabad market is full of Chikan Kari shops and I did manage to pick up a thing or two too. That was surely the icing on the "Lucknowi cake" :D


PS:-Reasons to go back?
we missed having the Makkhan Malai at Chowk and Dahi bhalles...there will be a next time soon.

Eggless Ragi Cup cakes

My confidence in baking is increasing every time I bake something; be it cakes or vegetable or fish. Along with it , the number of experiments are also increasing. Today I tried baking Eggless Ragi flour Cup Cakes.
Ragi Flour,also known as Finger Millet or Nachni is much healthier than refined flour or maida.

Here goes my recipe

One small teacup of ragi flour
One small teacup of sugar or one can use sugar free as per taste.
One tea spoon of baking powder
One pinch of baking soda
One tea spoon of Cocoa powder.

Half a cup of oil ; I used Ricebran oil.
Half a cup of milk ( in room temperature) 

Mix all the dry ingredients together.Add the oil and mix the ingredients. Once oil is mixed well, pour in the cup of milk. Now beat the mixture thoroughly until it is smooth and runny. Keep aside.

Pre heat the oven at 180C for 10mins. 

Now grease the cup cake mould and place the paper cups. If you have a silicon mould, then the mixture can be poured directly into the mould. Mine is an aluminium cup cake mould. 
Please do keep in mind that the whole cup must not be filled up as the cakes will rise. Just fill up half of the cup cake moulds and put in the oven for 15 minutes at 180C.

Once done check with the toothpick test. If done, let it cool and serve.

Eggless Ragi Cup Cakes

PS : I put 1 or 2 pieces of dry fruits in the cup cakes. 

Lemon Semolina Cake

      This Valentine, husband gifted an OTG. So now no excuse for not baking, I mean serious baking. 
Since then my experiment with the OTG is going on full swing. Besides the regular cake with all purpose flour aka Maida, I am trying to find out if this chief ingredient of cake can be replaced with some other flours like whole wheat ( atta ), semolina ( suji ), ragi (nachni) etc. In such attempts, I came across a recipe by none other than Nigella Lawson about a "Lemon Polenta Cake". Here she uses Cornmeal or Polenta and butter both of which I replaced to what I had in my kitchen and of course for health reasons. ( Both I and my husband are trying to avoid butter as much as we can). I will call it Lemon Semolina Cake.

        Here's my version of the Lemon Semolina Cake:

Ingredients for the Cake

One small cup of Semolina / Suji
Same cup full of refined oil; I used Rice bran oil.
Half a cup castor sugar or as per your taste
One teaspoon full of baking powder
2 eggs
Half a cup of milk
Zest of one lemon. Keep the lemon aside as we will need the juice for the syrup. 

Few almonds to garnish

Mix all the dry ingredients together. 
Beat in the eggs and oil first in a bowl.
Add it to the dry mixture, add the cup of milk and beat thoroughly so that it turns to a smooth paste. Of course it will not be as smooth as maida mixture. But smooth enough. Leave the batter for 10 minutes.

In the mean time pre heat the oven in 180C . Now transfer the batter into the greased baking tin. Bake it for 40 minutes at 180C. When you try putting in a fork in the middle and it comes clean, the cake is done. Also the cake will start to shrink from sides and come out of the walls of the tin when it is done. Leave it inside the tin while we make the syrup.

For the Syrup
Boil the juice of the lemon whose zest we used in the cake. Add a spoon full of castor sugar to it.

Prick the cake all over with a fork or the cake tester. But go very slow while you do that because it may lead to disaster since the cake is still hot. Now pour the syrup all over the cake. Let the cake get soaked in the syrup while it cools down.

Take it out of the tin and enjoy.

Trust me it tastes equally good like an all purpose flour cake.

This EID , it's Khubani Ka Phirni

Consider yourself lucky if you have someone at home who loves to cook. Since I cannot claim to be “in love” with the kitchen as much, I consider myself really blessed to have an “other half” who is actually a “betterinkitchen half”! This EID he came up with Khubani Ka Phirni. 

It tasted really awesome. Here goes the recipe for those who loves experimenting in their kitchens.

Ingredients

Half litre Milk
One fistful of Basmati or any fragrant Rice
Sugar as per your taste. ( We used Sugar Free)
8-10 Dried Apricots aka Khubani
Some Almonds
Some Pistachios

How to prepare

Wash the Rice and soak for 30minutes in warm Water. Drain and grind coarsely. You can add very little water too.
Wash and soak the Dried Apricots for 10 minutes in half cup warm Water. Simmer these in the Water till cooked on low flame. When it is cool, make a puree and set aside.
Soak the Almonds and Pistachios in warm water.

Method

Heat the Milk till it boils. Lower the flame and add the coarsely ground Rice. Cook for 5-7 minutes, keep stirring constantly. Add Sugar and cook for 3-4 minutes more. Remove from fire and let it cool completely. Stir in the Apricot Puree and mix well.

Garnish with Almonds and Pistachios / Nutmeg.