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How would a biryani, cooked in a fusion of Awadhi and Hyderabadi styles, taste? Ask Nisar Ahmed, executive chef, ITC, Fortune Select Loudon, who loves playing with flavours of Awadhi, Hyderabadi and Kashmiri cuisines. Ahmed did a diploma in hotel management at the National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Delhi, after graduation and joined the Ashok Group of Hotels as a kitchen management trainee. “There I discovered that my forté lay in cooking,” he says.
Apart from working with the Ashok Hotels in Bangalore and Chennai, he has also worked with a host of other hotels. He even manned the kitchens (along with two other chefs) during the Doha Asian Games in 2006. He joined Fortune Select, Loudon, in August last year. “I find balancing flavours very challenging,” smiles Ahmed.
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Mirch murg bukhara
(Serves 2)
Ingredients: 500gm chicken 100ml oil 500gm mutton bones 40gm aniseed 50gm garlic 70gm Kashmiri chilli 100gm plain curd 50gm aloo bukhara 150gm onion 3gm cinnamon powder 1gm clove powder 2gm green cardamom powder salt to taste
Method: Fry the chicken lightly in oil. Prepare a stock of mutton bones with aniseed and peeled whole garlic and set aside. Boil Kashmiri red chillies and make a paste. Cook plain curd on a slow fire till granular in texture. Soak the aloo bhukhara in water for 30 minutes and de-seed. Slice onions and fry till golden brown, and make a paste. Heat oil, add the chilli paste and the cooked curd. Add the chicken to the mutton stock and cook till half done. Add the brown onion paste, soaked aloo bhukhara and salt, and cook. Add cinnamon, clove and green cardamom powder. Serve with plain rice or khameeri naan.
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Murg-e-gulposh
(Serves 2)
Ingredients: 360gm boneless chicken 50gm garlic paste salt to taste 20gm green chilli paste 7gm white pepper powder 3gm green cardamom powder 60gm cheese 20gm coriander stems 120ml fresh cream 3 eggs 20gm rose petal paste 1gm saffron 60gm coriander leaves
Method: Marinate the chicken pieces with salt, green chillies and garlic paste. Set aside for 15 minutes. Make a paste of half the grated cheese, white pepper powder, chopped coriander stems and add one beaten egg and cream. Pour this mixture on the chicken along with green cardamom powder. Make a paste of rose petals, saffron, the remaining cheese and add the second egg to it (leaving aside a little for basting) and set aside. Skewer the chicken and cook in a charcoal tandoor for five minutes. Remove and coat with the rose petal and saffron paste. Cook again for six minutes, basting it in-between with the remaining egg and coriander leaves.
Thought for food
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■ An Awadhi cooking technique is called ‘dhungar’. A hot, smoking piece of coal is placed in the centre of a lagan (a deep vessel) in which marinated meat is placed. Ghee, mixed with spices, is poured over the coal and covered by betel leaves. The meat is allowed to smoke for about 30 minutes and then removed.
