The Hindu Business Line : Kebabs and cocktails

For those who have been swearing by the kebabs of Lucknow or Peshawar it will be surprising to know about the legacy of spicy and scrumptious kebabs from the royal durbar of Tanjavur. And, the royalty those days in the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu did not only feast on prawn, fish and lamb kebabs, they washed them down with wines, sparkling et al, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, mint and nutmeg.

True to his reputation of burying his nose into cuisine-related literature of the past, Praveen Anand, Executive Chef, Park Sheraton, Chennai, has this time unearthed a treasure of kebab recipes from Tanjavur, a platter of which is being presented at the hotel’s signature restaurant Dakshin (till April 20).

My favourites were the prawn and fish kebabs — Sunkat Shunti and Mashyachie Kebab; the first is an offering of succulent jumbo prawns wrapped in a masala of coconut and chillies and cooked on charcoal. “Normally you cannot think of using tamarind in a kebab, but in this kebab the prawns are marinated in browned onions, coconut and tamarind. The treatment is so totally different and yet it tastes so delicious,” says Chef Anand.

His quest — to research the origin of “kebabs in the south, if any” began a couple of years ago when he was invited by the ITC Hotels to make a presentation on the subject at a conference in Delhi. With a friend telling him about his “dining experience at the present royalty’s house in Tanjavur” and the food-related literature he had found at the palace attached to the Saraswathi Mahal library there, Chef Anand began his research. “He only said the food is very different but didn’t tell me anything about kebabs.”

During his research he came across a translation of recipes from Marathi to English and Tamil; “they call it Modi records. The translation was bad but we chefs can find out what they mean. So I got hold of some recipes and have used them in this kebab collection.”

Chef Anand is excited to “break the myth that the kebabs originated only from the northwest. We know that the kings in those days were good hunters and when they returned after a hunting session with the game, a meal was immediately prepared from it. That’s what enjoyment is all about when you go hunting or on a picnic… cook the food. And in the forest you could rustle up a fire using dry wood but the cooking was only rudimentary but it was definitely done on direct fire. Later of course the cooks in the palace would have fine-tuned the recipes,” he says.

The most defining aspect of this kebab collection is the flavour that hits you and all the non-veg kebabs are tender, thanks to the overnight marinades, except the lamb kebab, which was tough on the teeth. When asked if he had left the lamb meat rare by choice Chef Anand says this was because the kebabs were made on the tawa, and probably the almond paste used as an ingredient might be responsible.

But the fish kebab was just right… neither too tender nor rare. The Chef says this particular “recipe is very misleading because basically it has a large quantity of green chillies. Initially we were hesitant to use it in that amount but when we tried it, it came out well. How we cook today is so different; in those days they used an abundance of one ingredient, and yet they could bring out such flavours and taste.”

In the vegetarian kebabs, the two outstanding ones were the Khanthali Gola, which was so soft that it crumbled on touch, and the Phansachi Bhaji made with jackfruit seeds. When you comment on the first being so soft and delicious, the Chef smiles: “Oh, it’s so simple, just green gram and greens which are boiled and ground together with spices, and deep fried.”

The second dish is where he has brought a change. As usual, for vegetarians the choice was limited and there was a recipe using raw bananas, “but I thought that would be quite average and commonplace so we replaced it with jackfruit seeds.” The result is a clear winner.

A surprise is the choice of three cocktails on offer with the kebabs, right from the tanjavur durbar! There is a burnt wine, which is a red wine mulled with spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. The appropriately named East India Cocktail is a heady combination of brandy, pineapple juice, and red curacao (brandy). One was tempted to try the ‘Bubbly a la Durbar’, which promised a “sparkling wine with mint, curacao, and Vermouth flavoured with cloves and lemon”; the vote was in favour of sparkling wine as it is!

To this comment, Chef Anand says, “Well, this was perhaps the English style of eating kebabs with wines and cocktails. They developed bunt wine and would spice up their liquor; I don’t understand why they did so, but they seemed to have enjoyed it this way.”