The other day, I tried out a very interesting recipe. I was on an errand and met up with a co-foodie. We started talking about food, and he urged me to try out a meat dish that he flavoured mainly with fenugreek seeds. To one kilo of mutton, he would add 1 kilo of onions, half a kilo of tomatoes, turmeric, red chillies and fenugreek seeds. Once the meat was done, he added some garam masala on top.

I went home and promptly cooked the dish — and it turned out really good. Since then, I have been mulling over the characteristic flavour of fenugreek — its seeds, fresh leaves and dried leaves. It’s been a favourite flavouring agent of mine for quite a while. I have often used the dried kasuri methi leaves for chicken dishes — and found that it does wonders to butter chicken, countering the creamy-tomato taste of the sauce with its mildly bitter flavours.

Not surprisingly, when I was chatting with chef Pradip Rozario, who runs K.K.’s Fusion in Calcutta, some days later, the plant with its pungent taste cropped up. How does one use fenugreek in different ways, I asked him. “I often give my recipes a twist with fenugreek,” he replied. Indeed, as I later learnt, one of his much loved dishes is a pork chop that’s been wrapped with bacon and perfumed with fenugreek leaves.

Mélange of char-grilled seafood marinated with fenugreek leaves

When I was growing up, fenugreek leaves certainly didn’t come with bacon or pork chops. But they were used in a host of other ways, and went especially well with potatoes. Through the winter, methi saag was a must, and when the plants grew in profusion, they were laid out to dry. The result was kasuri methi, a name that is derived from Kasur district in Pakistan. And of course the seeds went into the tempering of food and pickles.

Like me, the chef seems to have warm childhood memories of fenugreek-flavoured food. His mother, he says, cooks an “awesome” pork dish with the leaves. “She makes this hot pork cooked with methi saag and served with hot rotis,” he says. I must meet her one of these days.

His own recipes are wonderfully innovative. He does a mean involtino di pollo — a kind of chicken roulade — with pesto prepared not with basil leaves but with fenugreek, olive and garlic. “It had a nice taste — and is not very bitter if you add some yoghurt to it,” says the chef.

Bacon wrapped pork chops perfumed with fenugreek leaves

I like the sharp taste of fenugreek, which I find is quite a favourite leaf and condiment of foodies. Cookbook writer Ranjit Rai — whose recipes are always a delight to read and follow — uses fenugreek in many of his dishes that figure in his books. Its taste, he says in Curry Curry Curry, one of his most popular cookbooks, is “curry-ish, celery-like and bitter”.

The interesting bit about fenugreek leaves and seeds is the fact that it can complement all kinds of meat — from duck and chicken to pork. Its flavours work well with seafood too. The chef’s mélange of seafood, for instance, is a dish of char-grilled seafood marinated with fenugreek leaves. And when it comes to the gamey duck, he flavours the meat with fenugreek leaves — effectively enhancing the taste of the meat.

Fenugreek doesn’t just tart up a dish, it’s good for us too. Naturalists have for long been upholding fenugreek leaves and seeds as health builders. People with a sugar problem are often advised to soak methi seeds in water overnight, and drink the water the next day. Madhur Jaffrey writes that it soothes the intestinal tract and relaxes inflamed innards.

Well, I suppose my innards are suitably relaxed now, considering the fact that I like my food with fenugreek. Remember that old cigarette advertisement? Relax, have a Charminar — the ad went (in those days when cigarettes could be advertised). Now we could change that to: Relax, have some methi seeds.

Oven-baked Methi Hilsa (serves 4-6)

Ingredients

• 2kg hilsa (whole) ½ cup olive oil • 200g fresh fenugreek leaves • 1 tbs mustard powder • 4 tbs balsamic vinegar • 1 tbs fine red chilli flakes • 2 tbs chopped garlic ½kg yogurt • salt to taste

Method:

In a stainless steel bowl prepare the marinade by mixing olive oil, chopped garlic, mustard powder, red chilli flakes, balsamic vinegar and salt. Whisk well till smooth. Add yogurt and the fenugreek leaves. Clean the fish and place it in a baking tray. Pour the marinade all over the fish.

Refrigerate for two hours. Now bake the fish in a pre-heated oven (130°C) for 30 minutes. Serve hot with methi paratha.