Janani, Homebush

janani homebush

I believe in karma-of all kinds including and not limited to strange things such as karma of lifts. For not having a license for several decades means that I have gotten several lifts over the years and I probably owe the universe several thousand. So when I was confirming plans to meet with Laura at Janani she mentioned that she didn’t have her car. I offered to pick her up and drive her there in Purdie the Prius.

janani homebush

Slowly I fought my way through peak hour city traffic where I tried to find the lane markings which were slick and glistening with what looked like oil. We finally made it to Janani with a combination of the GPS and Laura’s instructions and fell upon it gratefully.

janani homebush

Laura is a regular here and she and her friend NQN reader Maddie have been going here for years so she gets a warm greeting when we enter. “I always order the same thing so let’s order weird things tonight and let’s order lots of food!” she says eagerly. We peruse the plastic coated pages and start at the drinks. The two owners, a husband and wife team are here 7 days a week and the wife answers any questions we have about the menu items.

janani homebush

Faludha $6 on left and Butter milk on right $3.50

The closest description of the faludha is a thick, rose scented milkshake drink with scoops of kulfi ice cream and faludha seeds. It’s is sweet, thick and delicious without being too overpowering with rose. In contrast is the butter milk-not buttermilk, the by product of butter making, but an entirely different entity. Here they blend coriander, curry leaves, cumin seeds and ginger with milk and serve it cold. It’s unusual and definitely savoury and your brain, especially after having the faludha thinks  “No” but when yo think of it like a cold soup like a gazpacho through a straw then it tastes better. It’s kind of like the first time I tried a salty lassi or ayran. Now I love them both but the first time I didn’t.

janani homebush

Ginger Milk tea $3.50

“That’s three drinks right?” she asks us and we both nod. I always love going out to dinner with people that love to sample a lot. The ginger milk tea is my favourite of the drinks, not just for it’s warming properties on this cold and wet night but once I add a couple of teaspoons of sugar it gives a bit of spicy, milky sweetness that is like a little hug.

janani homebush

Chicken 65 $8

“Don’t ask me what Chicken 65 means” the wife says to us laughing. “What does it mean?” we ask. They say  that it is called that because it has been made since 1965. The dish is made up of tender pieces of chicken marinated in what looks like a spicy yogurt marinade and grilled until juicy and charred on the edges. It’s similar to a Tandoori chicken in smaller, bite sized pieces.

janani homebush

Hopper: coconut milk and jaggery $3.50

Read More

Curry In A Hurry: Palak Paneer from scratch in 15 Minutes

“Turn left!!” I tell my father from the back seat watching in horror as he turns right into the cross city tunnel taking us in the opposite direction that we want to. We are running late for our date with Chef Kumar the chef and owner of Aki’s and Abhi’s Indian restaurants. He is going to show my mother and I how to make a curry paste from scratch-or so we thought…

akis_indian_curry

Escaping the tunnel and arriving at Aki’s breathless and panting we meet Kumar. “Cooking has to come from here (points to heart) and not here (points to his head)” says Kumar Mahadevan, chef and owner. Aki’s has just been given its first chef’s hat in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards and is the only hatted Indian restaurant in Australia while Abhi’s, well that remains a perennial Inner West favourite packed every night including Monday nights.

I must admit that I don’t often make Indian food at home as I want to stay away from using bottled pastes and sauces as much as possible and yet I don’t often have the recipes to make my spice pastes from scratch. I invited my mother along as she is a keen curry maker so I knew that she would be interested in this.

akis_indian_curry

Which brings me to my next point “I don’t believe in spice pastes” Kumar says. I look around. Hmm okay, I have come for a lesson on how to make my own Indian spice pastes and he doesn’t believe in them? He explains further that most spice pastes are meant for convenience but at his two restaurants, each sauce is made from scratch using different flavour combinations. Unlike say French cuisine where there are five master sauces, Indian cuisine has a multitude of different sauces and even within a huge country such as India, people find themselves as strangers to the cuisine from another area.

akis_indian_curry

South Indian cuisine tends to be  lighter, more watery and spicier whereas North Indian cuisine tends to be richer, creamier with more cream, butter and nut sauces. He explains the origin of the very popular butter chicken. It originated 60-70 years ago in Delhi where a chef had some leftover Tandoori chicken. He made a tomato, butter, cream and garlic sauce and that’s how we find ourselves with butter chicken. And check out this vat of butter chicken sauce being made. That’s a lot of butter (or buttah!). And Kumar tells us that the best results are achieved with a tandoor oven as that imparts a smokiness to the chicken that is hard to replicate at home.

akis_indian_curry

A pot of butter chicken sauce-now that’s a lot of butter!

But now onto the recipes. Today we are making my favourite curry a palak paneer. How long will it take? Once the mise en place is prepared, just 15 minutes. Palak Paneer is a delicious and very healthy curry made up of a spinach puree with cubes of Indian cottage cheese.

akis_indian_curry

The spice drawer

Read More

Flavour of India, Edgecliff

flavour of india edgecliff

“Oh my god, that’s Russell Crowe over there!!” one of Miss America’s friends says. And sure enough the Gladiator is sitting there metres away from us.

“What do we do?” someone asks.

“Nothing! Just keep taking photos of the food and not him!” I answer his reputation preceding him.

We’re dining at Flavour of India in Edgecliff, an establishment that has seen its share of celebrities. It occupies a block of road right next to one of Sydney’s most expensive suburbs Darling Point and our waiter tells us that Nicole Kidman has dined “over there” and he points to a quiet corner and this is of course the infamous place where Michael Hutchence had his last meal.

But back to us, it’s native New Zealander Miss America’s twenty year anniversary dinner living in Australia. So having Russell, a native New Zealander who now lives in Australia whom we’ve just reclaimed along with the pavlova is kind of a lucky charm no? We’re having the $49 banquet here tonight. Now I should add that the banquet is not really a banquet and it’s not very good value from what we can tell. You basically have a mixed entree and choose from a list of eight curries for your main and you end off with a tea. Which would cost you about the same if you ordered them separately and then you would get more curries to choose from and there’s no sense of “banquetness” i.e. an array of food unless there are a lot of you happy to share.

flavour of india edgecliff

Pappadums

We start with some pappadums with mint yogurt, mango chutney and a tomato, onion and cucumber salad.

flavour of india edgecliff

Mango Lassi

I try a bit of Mr NQN’s mango lassi and it’s not bad although it’s not quite sweet enough with the tangy yogurt but that’s just me perhaps.

flavour of india edgecliff

Mixed entree

Our mixed entree arrives and it has a tandoori lamb cutlet which is a superb, tender soft cutlet of lamb generously coated in a tandoori yogurt sauce. There is also a piece of chicken tikka thigh which is juicy and moist and also coated with a tikka yogurt sauce. The samosa, something that can often be dry and stodgy has a lovely crispy shell and a delicious interior that avoids all stodge.

flavour of india edgecliff

Chicken Butter Masala

Read More

Abhi’s Indian Restaurant, North Strathfield

abhis indian

Our evening routine when we go out for dinner goes something like this:

Mr NQN: Are you going to be ready to leave in five minutes?

NQN: Yes. I’ve got to get changed and then pack up the camera etc.

Mr NQN: Good because you don’t look ready.

NQN: Are you ready to go in five minutes?

Mr NQN: Yes of course I am

NQN: Then why are you naked and playing on your computer?

abhis indian

Tonight was no different. We were running a bit late for our dinner with David and Belinda. You may know our dining companions, David is the chef and owner of Perama restaurant and Belinda is his gorgeous wife. Tonight we’re dining at Abhi’s. Because David is a chef, that means that we can only really go out on Sunday and Monday evenings and this Monday evening we are amazed to see that Abhi’s is absolutely packed with people. We leave it to Belinda and David to order as they are regulars here.

abhis indian

Lassi Yogurt $3.80

Abhi’s is the sister and first restaurant to Aki’s. Abhi is more down to earth and relaxed whereas Aki’s is more glamorous and expensive. We start with the lassti which is always a must have. It is delicious with the added scent of cardamom along with the mango flavour.

abhis indian

Pala Patta Chat $13.80

We’re all over the moon loving this entree. It is spinach leaves in a crispy lentil batter, topped with yoghurt, date & tamarind and chilli & mint sauces. It comes out as a listening tower of crunchy chips that are streaked with yogurt and tangy, spicy sauces. It’s also very different to anything that we’ve tried before and I go for second (and third!) helpings of this.

abhis indian

Chatpata Squid $17.80

The salt & pepper squid is lightly dusted with spiced tapioca flour and served with a tamarind & ginger dipping sauce. The squid pieces are very tender and it tastes just like a good salt and pepper squid but with a little twist with the fragrant sauce.

abhis indian

Alu Tikki $12.80

Read More

An Indian High Tea at Aki’s, Woollomooloo

akis high tea

“Chocolate naan…” Queen Viv’s voice on the other said and that’s about all that I heard apart from the words “afternoon tea”. Queen Viv’s colleague had mentioned the new concept of an Indian Afternoon Tea at Aki’s, Woolloomooloo and like I complain that Mr NQN has selective hearing, drowning out all cleaning requests with  a gentle buzz, all I heard were the two words: chocolate naan.

I know, I know, high tea has a different meaning to afternoon tea and despite its lofty name, high tea was usually served to the working class, I get that, but I suspect that this high tea is not a working class affair. It’s on the Finger Wharf in Woolloomoloo and despite the sometime rainy day, there are already eager diners partaking of the afternoon tea. On every day during the month of October as part of the Crave International Food Festival in Sydney it will then be hosted every Sunday from then after.

akis high tea

Miss America and I take our seats at a table and we can see another table have just received their three tiered stand and are busy taking photographs of each other with their prized lunch. I secretly love it when tourists are about as I feel less conspicuous with my camera ;)

With the High Tea menu ($45 per person), you can choose a soft drink from a choice of three: masala chai or mango, sweet or salty lassi. Then you choose a Brown Brothers Sparkling wine-either a glass of their limited release Prosecco or their NV Pinot Noir Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. In the interests of trying something different, we order one of each sparkling, a masala chai and a  mango lassi.

akis high tea

Mango lassi, masala chai and Brown Brother sparkling wines

Our sparkling wines arrive first and then the masala chai which is a strong black tea made with Indian darjeeling masala tea with cardamom and milk. The mango lassi is a mango flavoured buttermilk yogurt drink which is just the right consistency.

Read More