Tiffin Club Cup

Hi there. Hope you had a good week. Sorry this is a day or two late going up. I’m still trying to get the discipline of sitting down to write for the same day each week, but I’ll get there.

No trouble figuring out to write about this week. We had an exciting Tuesday evening at the launch event for this year’s Tiffin Club Cup at Moti Mahal in Covent Garden, organised by Keith Vaz MP. The Tiffin Club is a group of MPs who like Indian food and the Cup goes to the MPs’ favourite Indian restaurant. The way it works is that each MP nominates their favourite restaurant from their own constituency and we were nominated by our MP, Joan Ruddock.

There must have been 40 MPs in the restaurant – I never saw so many in one room at a time. Anyway, the Tiffin Club Cup is in its second year and I’m confident we have a good chance of being shortlisted. Our MP, Joan Ruddock, said to me ‘I eat in lots of places and you’re still my favourite’. Other MPs also spoke to me and said they’ve had a takeaway from Babur.

There will be 10 shortlisted restaurants, chosen by the MPs. They’ll decide on the shortlist by making secret visits to all the restaurants nominated. The final 10 will be invited to cook in the House of Commons. So I’m waiting for our invitation to cook there.

Back at Babur, we’re still adjusting to the change of menu. We had sorbets from the last dessert list and didn’t know what to do with them, so one night our head chef Jivan sent them out between starter and main courses in tall skinny shot glasses as a palate cleanser. I think the customers liked it, especially as the weather has been quite warm.

Jivan was talking about new items for our menu – light dishes based on fish, seafood and salads. Like a Caesar salad but with slices of grilled paneer, small cubes of missi roti, whole tomatoes, chilli and coriander and mint relish mixed in with salad dressing. I made a meal out of it. I’m not a salad person but I liked it and finished it all. That will make my wife, Jasmine, happy. I think I will struggle a bit just like with selling wine with Indian food.

But light dishes, cold dishes, salads and street snacks from India are not highlighted enough in Indian restaurants. It’s always dishes being served hot. And yet there’s a big tradition of cold dishes like aloo chat and pappri chaat.

Jivan wanted to put up this recipe for coconut lamb, our most popular dish since we relaunched over a year ago. Our customers continue to like it and they know their food so it must be good.



Coconut lamb – serves 4 generously

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil
3 whole red chillies
small handful of curry leaves
1.2kg diced lamb
1 medium onion chopped
50g ginger paste
50g garlic paste
3g red chilli powder
3g turmeric
400g chopped tomato
85g desiccated coconut powder
15g curry powder
60g tamarind pulp
salt to taste
chopped coriander

Method:

Rinse lamb in cold running water and strain.

Heat oil in deep pan, add whole red chillies and curry leaves and stir for a few seconds.

Now add diced lamb and onions. Sear meat over low heat until both lamb and onions brown, stirring continuously. Add ginger and garlic pastes and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Add red chilli powder and turmeric powder and stir for 30 seconds. Add chopped tomatoes and stir until liquid evaporates.

Add coconut powder and tamarind pulp and continue to stir for 5 to 10 minutes. Add approximately 750ml water (to cover), stir then cover the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally until lamb is tender, about 1 hour. Adjust seasoning as required and sprinkle with chopped coriander.