The best things about changing
seasons are the seasonal menus across restaurants. If you enjoy seafood, the
new Winter Collection menu at Spice Route, The Imperial New Delhi will surely
delight you. Although the restaurant is famed for offering the finest Thai fare
in Delhi, it actually serves a choice of South-East Asian cuisine as well as
that of coastal India, especially the region along the erstwhile spice route.
Chef Veena Arora, chef de cuisine, Spice Route, was born and brought up in Thailand. Even after she started living in India Thai food continues to be cooked at her home everyday. But having said that, she enjoys experimenting with other cuisines in her home kitchen as well as her professional space. One thus finds Chciken 65 inspired crisp and spicy Yera arvat anjj (stir fried tiger prawns with ginger, chillies, Kerela spices and yoghurt) and flavourful Meen rassam (mixed seafood rassam, tempered with Kerala spices) alongside the fresh and aromatic Yum thalay (Thai spicy sea food salad with tom yum paste, lemon grass and Kaffir leaves) or the hearty Khao phad thala (stir fried rice with sea food, flavoured with sri-racha sauce). And while the Malay Rendang curry typically features lamb, Chef has made it for this menu with succulent prawns in keeping with the season. The stars from the Winter collection for me are the seafood salad and the Kadugu meen masala. The latter is sole filet cooked in a delicious curry made with mustard and cumin paste. It is certainly one of the better meen masalas I have had.
Chef Veena Arora, chef de cuisine, Spice Route, was born and brought up in Thailand. Even after she started living in India Thai food continues to be cooked at her home everyday. But having said that, she enjoys experimenting with other cuisines in her home kitchen as well as her professional space. One thus finds Chciken 65 inspired crisp and spicy Yera arvat anjj (stir fried tiger prawns with ginger, chillies, Kerela spices and yoghurt) and flavourful Meen rassam (mixed seafood rassam, tempered with Kerala spices) alongside the fresh and aromatic Yum thalay (Thai spicy sea food salad with tom yum paste, lemon grass and Kaffir leaves) or the hearty Khao phad thala (stir fried rice with sea food, flavoured with sri-racha sauce). And while the Malay Rendang curry typically features lamb, Chef has made it for this menu with succulent prawns in keeping with the season. The stars from the Winter collection for me are the seafood salad and the Kadugu meen masala. The latter is sole filet cooked in a delicious curry made with mustard and cumin paste. It is certainly one of the better meen masalas I have had.
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| A few dishes from the Winter Collection Menu Left Top: Kung Tein; Left Bottom: Khao Phad Thalay. Center: Kerala Style Stir Fried Prawns. Right Top: Phad Khing Pla; Right Bottom: Yum Thalay. |
Sharing a table with Chef Veena
leads to motherly pampering, lots of talk about good food and sharing of cooking
tips (one-sided, of course!). In case you like to watch your weight and want to avoid calorie-laden coconut milk or deep fried foods, she suggests limiting portions or eating these dishes infrequently, "but whenever you do, they must be made the traditional way". The one ingredient that she cannot do without is the Tiparos fish sauce and her go to fish is sole for filet or pomfret for whole fish.
And when I asked her to share a recipe for you from the new menu, we hit jackpot, dear reader! Not one, but she gave us four delicious and easy to follow recipes. So without wasting more time, just dive into the recipes, collect the ingredients and get down to cooking up a storm, ‘cos you don’t get such recipes from an award winning restaurant every day!
And when I asked her to share a recipe for you from the new menu, we hit jackpot, dear reader! Not one, but she gave us four delicious and easy to follow recipes. So without wasting more time, just dive into the recipes, collect the ingredients and get down to cooking up a storm, ‘cos you don’t get such recipes from an award winning restaurant every day!
Details:
The
Imperial, Janpath, New Delhi-110001.
Lunch
& Dinner: 12:30pm - 2:45pm | 7:00pm - 11:45pm.
Meal
for Two without alcohol: INR 10,000 plus taxes.
Call
at 41116605 for reservations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RECIPES
TOM YUM THALAY
Spicy hot and sour
mixed seafood soup, flavoured with lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves.
Ingredients:
30
gm Squid
30
gm Sole fillet
60
gm Prawns
30
gm Lemon grass
15
gm Kaffir leaves
30
gm Galangal
½
no. Stock cube
10
ml Lemon juice
3
gm Chilli
8
gm Tom Yum Paste
10
gm Coriander
5
ml Fish sauce
Method:
Pour 2 cups water into
the pot.
Add the cube
then the herbs and the rest of the ingredients.
Bring it to a
boil and serve hot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MEEN RASSAM
Mixed seafood
rassam, tempered with Kerala spices.
Ingredients:
·
30gm
Squid rings
·
30
gm Sole fillet
·
60
gm Prawns
·
20
gm Tomato
·
05
gm Lentils (Arhar Dal)
·
02
gm Salt
·
15
gm Curry Leaves
·
01
no. Dry Red Chilli Whole
·
01
gm Black Pepper
·
01
gm Coriander Whole
·
01
gm Cumin Seeds
·
02
gm Ginger
·
02
gm Garlic
·
01
gm Mustard Seeds
·
01
gm Turmeric Powder
Method:
·
Make
Rassam Powder: roast black pepper whole, whole coriander seeds and cumin seeds.
Grind it all.
·
Boil
lentils (arhar dal).
·
Boil
tomatoes with ginger, garlic and rassam powder; strain it. Add lentils to it.
Pour oil into the wok, add mustard, dry red chilli whole, curry leaves and
turmeric powder, and then pour it into the tomato mixture. Add salt to it
then the seafood and simmer till the seafood is cooked. Garnish with fried
curry leaves.
Note: The soup should be spicy in taste and can be
served with steamed rice. It is extremely good for winters since it is infused
with Indian spices and seafood which helps in combating the harsh cold due of
the winter season.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KHAO PHAD THALAY
Stir fried rice with seafood,
flavoured with Sriracha sauce.
Ingredients:
·
100 gm Rice
·
2 no. Prawns
(20-25 grading)
·
10gm Squid Rings
·
10gm Sole
Filet
·
10 gm Garlic
·
5ml Fish
Sauce
·
20gm Beansprouts
·
15gm Spring
Onion
·
10gm White
Pepper
·
10ml Oil
·
10ml
Sriracha sauce
·
½ no. Lemon (sliced)
·
15gm
Cucumber (sliced)
Method:
·
Cook the
rice. Cut the prawns into small pieces
and chop spring onions.
·
Pour oil
into the wok add garlic, stir till light golden color, then add prawns, fish
and squid. Stir till it is done.
·
Now add the
cooked rice then all the rest of the ingredients, leaving half of the spring
onions for the garnish.
·
Before serving
garnish with cucumber and half lemon sliced.
~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PHAD KHING PLA
Wok fried slices of sole with
ginger, black fungus in oyster sauce.
Ingredients:
·
180 gm Sole
filet sliced
·
10 gm Ginger
·
10 gm Leeks
·
5 gm Garlic
·
10 gm Onion
·
10 gm Black
fungus
·
5 gm Soya
bean paste
·
3ml Fish
Sauce
·
3ml Oyster
Sauce
·
3 gm White
Pepper
Method:
- Soak the black fungus.
- Slice the fish into small pieces.
- Dust the fish with tempura flour and fry till light brown.
- Pour oil into the wok, then add garlic and stir till light
golden.
- Add fish, followed by ginger juliennes and diced onion.
- Add the remaining ingredients.
- Serve hot.
This article first appeared on indiatoday.intoday.in on December 15, 2016. It has been modified by the author to fit the requirements of AppetisingTales.com.
