22nd baburthday

Hi there. For anyone who’s not aware, we started celebrating Babur’s 22nd birthday on 9 July – a bit early but then it’s so unusual for a restaurant to be in business for that long we thought we'd make the most of it. The specials for July and August are all being presented as a tasting menu – a first for Babur - and the nenu was tried and retried and tried again. We did more tasting than we usually do to be sure we wouldn’t let our guests down with our first tasting menu and our birthday celebration.

We debated a lot over how to decorate for this 22nd birthday and in the end decided to keep it simple. We hung lots of pennant-shaped pieces of coloured card with the number 2 on both sides in upper part of our front window. The colours are similar to the colours of our signature piece of art, the kolum kari by Ajit Kumar Das that is built into the wall in our reception area. We’ve been pleasantly surprised with response to the tasting menu - we never did one before and were not sure what to expect. But so far the uptake has been about 30%.

If you’re on our mailing list you’ll have received your 22nd birthday voucher good for a £22 discount and if you’re not, you’ll receive one when you come in that will be good for a discount on your next visit.

Last week we took Jiwan and Rajendar Pandey (the head chef from my other restaurant, Planet Spice) to Rasoi Vineet Bhatia. We decided to go somewhere away from our kitchens because the chefs have been working hard and needed to wind down somewhere good for a reward. The restaurant is in Chelsea and has a Michelin star. We were very impressed with their service. The staff are mostly non-Indians and I quizzed them on ingredients of the dishes and their knowledge of the food was really very good. Along with our waiter, who was French, the sommelier also pitched in and, along with his knowledge of the wines, he also knew the food very well. We tried the tasting menu and also a la carte so that we tasted virtually the whole menu. There were dishes from across India, mostly presented in a European style and we enjoyed Vineet’s cooking very much.

Meanwhile, back at Babur, our two wine champions, Arjun and Rupom were very impressed with the Wine and Spirit Education course. Both want to go on and do the next level. Arjun went on to a cognac tasting class. They tried over a dozen different cognacs, including a taste from a very old bottle that $10,000.

I’ll leave you now with a recipe from one of our chefs who hasn’t been featured yet, Sanjay Kumar. Sanjay is a very diligent worker who knows his cooking but he’s so very quiet I’m afraid he’s been overlooked until now and wanted to give him a moment in the spotlight.



LAMB PATIALISAHI

Serves 4

Ingredients
1kg lamb a mix of boneless diced and lamb on the bone
250g chopped tomatoes
300g sliced onion
4 green capsicum (diced)
125ml vegetable oil
Salt to taste
25g ginger paste
25g garlic paste
4 black cardamoms
5 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
2 sticks cassia
1tsp whole black peppercorns
2tsp red chilli powder
1tsp turmeric
4tsp coriander powder
2tsp cumin powder

Method:

Clean the lamb in cold water and put in a strainer.

Heat oil in a handi or in a deep pan and add all the whole spices.

Add sliced onion and stir for a while. When it turns a light golden colour, add ginger and garlic paste and bhunao (cook over moderate heat until the liquid evaporates).

Add lamb and stir it continuously for 20 minutes. Add a little water then add all the powdered spices and salt. Cover and let simmer on a low flame until meat is tender, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoes and let continue cooking untill meat is completely done.

In a frying pan heat 1tsp of oil and add diced capsicum and cook for 1minute then add into the lamb curry and mix well.

Serve this lamb curry with naan or pulao rice