There's a trip to India planned! It's only been a month in the planning, but I'm enjoying spending my time reading about the delights of Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan. One of the difficult decisions I've been trying to make is to decide where the final dinner of the trip should be. There are two options on my table - Bikhara and Dum Pukht in Delhi. It seemed like I needed to test a few dishes of both types of cooking to see which would be more memorable. Of all the Canberra Indian restaurants, Bollywood Masala is the only one that seemed to have different types of these regional specialties on the menu. I assume there isn't much difference between the Kingston and Dickson restaurants and Kingston is much closer and probably quieter. 6 people went to dinner tonight, to try and give a broad opinion of which cuisine reigns supreme (*Iron Chef joke*).
Dum Pukht is known for Awadhi cuisine. Dum is a slow cooked method of steam cooking using a claypot, sealed with a flour dough, and cooked over and under charcoal low and slow. Dum Pukht is apparently reputed for perfect biryanis, murg kundan qaliya chicken curry and fine lamb kakori kebabs. The awards include San Pellegrino Asia #17 (2013, not featured in 2014), Golden Fork (1989). On this night, I was lucky they had a special biryani that allowed me to pit two-on-two dishes.
- Dum ka murg (from Lucknow in North India - a slow (dum) cooked chicken dish prepared in a cashewnut and yoghurt base) - chicken curry in mild yellow creamy sauce. Tasty but quite simple;
- Lucknavi biryani - mildly spiced and flavoured rice, this one served with goat. Much less impacting than the Pakistani biryani that changed my culinary life at Needoo in London.
Bukhara is supposedly the most famous Indian restaurant in the world with a menu that hasn't changed in 35 years. It specialises in north-west frontier cuisine and largely tandoor based. Sikandari raan (whole leg of lamb marinated for 24 hours in malt vinegar, cinnamon and black cumin and finished in the tandoor) and the dal makhani (black lentil daal) and laccha paratha. The awards include San Pellegrino Asia #26 (2013) and World #37 (2007) and Golden Fork (1991).
- Bollywood leg of lamb (an off-the-bone ‘melt in the mouth’ Mughlai style combination of marinated leg of lamb, pan-cooked in a thick yoghurt-based sauce with a touch of rum and finished with Bollywood special herbs and home-ground spices) - oddly small leg of lamb with soft juicy meat flaked off and surrounding the bone in a rich creamy sauce;
- Daal Bollywood (a slow cooked combination of black lentils and red kidney beans enriched with cream) - simple smoky flavoured lentils, but not as smoothly blended as somehow I had envisioned.
Other than the 4 above dishes, the meal needed extra food, accompaniments and drinks to complete the meal.
- Chooza khas makhni (butter chicken) - a favourite of one of the diners. Not overly rich or or heavily tomato based. Kind of different but not what I'm used;
- Achari baingan (a delicious spicy combination of eggplant cooked in special pickle achari spices) - really fantastic heavily flavoured almost meaty eggplant curry;
- Saffron rice - ghee, rice, saffron, simple basic;
- Garlic naan - soft chewy naan topped with aromatic garlic;
- Peshawari naan (stuffed with a mix of spices, dried fruit and nuts) - chewy sweet naan. Nice but probably I'd stick to simple and plain next time to go with curries;
- Chai (traditional Indian beverage of white tea infused with aromatic spices) - mildly spiced and served without any added sweetness. Half a sugar brings out the flavour more;
- Rose lassi - sadly lassi seems to be made with syrups making them much too sweet. I'd stick to chai, water or BYO wine.
The meal is satisfying although I think I prefer heavier and more savoury curry flavours generally. The votes between the 5 were - 2 for dum style, 2 for Bukhara style and 1 for butter chicken. Although not as enamoured as I hoped to be, I think the more complex Bukhara-style flavours were my preferred too. Dinner is booked - hopefully will be the best ever.
(http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/bukhara-delhi-01-2015)
