Dubby Bhagat

Sanjay Verma is one of the most knowledgeable, efficient and effective cultural, press and information attaches that India has ever fielded to Nepal. His daughter Saniya is cute, intelligent and at under 10 a wonderful hostess. But it is Sangeeta Verma who adds a whole new meaning to the old saying: “Keeping the home fires burning”. The fires she lights have always got a delicious dish cooking and she inevitably has about three recipes for it. Some clever people threw a farewell for the departing Verma’s and they handed it to Chef Narender

Singh at the Hyatt who produced a menu that Sangeeta confessed to loving. Chef Narender chose a Mughlai menu and excelled himself. As a starter the ‘Murg Ke Potle Kebab’ was a morsel of delight that had chicken tikka wrapped in chicken crackling or skin, and filled with Amul cheese. It was a smoky wonder. And the Verma’s (and Dev Anand who dropped in) thought the ‘Nalli Ka Rara Gosht’ was magnificent. In creating it, Chef Narender fused two Mughlai dishes, the minced Rara gosht and the Nalli gosht from Lucknow of which the great Camellia Punjabi said, “This Lucknowi recipe is made using only mutton shanks or nallis as they are called in India. It has a rich, thick gravy, not particularly spicy but aromatic with cardamom, mace, essence of keora or the screwpine flower, and saffron. The dish has a Moghul influence. Originally almonds would almost certainly have been used instead of cashew nuts. You can use a mixture of two, for even better effect.” It was literally fit for an emperor.

The chef’s Kebab Platter included a ‘Murgh Zaffarani Malai Tikka’ with a sensitive use of cardamom so that his specially ordered saffron heightened the taste of the melt-in-your-mouth kebab. Of Kebab’s, Madhur Jaffrey said, “Because as Hindus we liked Moghul food, our community of the descendents of professionals who worked in Moghul courts were called sharabi-kebabi or those who like to eat and drink. They inevitably used to say ‘No I won’t have the sweet but if I had room left in my stomach, I would have eaten another Kebab’.” The

Bhindi Ka Korma was brilliantly conceived and the ladyfingers were in a curd and cream mixture. Says Madhur Jaffrey, ‘’All Korma-style dishes probably originated in the Islamic courts

of the Moghuls (16th-19th century) and of the Muslim rulers of the Indian subcontinent that preceded them (10th -16th century). I say ‘korma-style’, as I cannot find the word itself in any Moghul or earlier reference. Today, the word korma has developed two distinct meanings. In India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the lands of its evolution, it generally suggests a rich banquet/party dish, using a lot of yoghurt in the cooking as well as expensive spices and flavourings such as cardamom, nutmeg, saffron and nuts.”

A richly satisfying banquet for the richly deserving Vermas and a coincidence since Sanjay an

avid collector of movie memorabilia had just acquired the original set of designs for Mughale-Azam, which he will treasure in his new posting to China. My only advice to the Vermas in China comes from Hilaire Belloc who said, “Birds in their little nests agree with Chinamen, but not with me.” And Wilfrid Sheed who said inelegantly, “That hot Chinese cooking can really Szechwan your ass.”