5 May - 16 June

Hi there. We’ve been busy the past couple of months. Our celebration of Babur’s 525^th birthday was successful – our chefs gained a lot of confidence through cooking a cuisine they didn’t think they were familiar with. But as they were trying recipes for the festival, they realised there were interesting similarities (and some differences) with the Indian cuisines they’re more familiar with. We also raised over £400 for Afghanaid and their programme of replanting orchards in Afghanistan, some of which were first planted by Babur 500 years ago.

We’re about to start celebrating Basant – Punjabi New Year – with a festival of Punjabi cooking. Jiwan Lal, our head chef, has been wanting to highlight his home cooking for some time now and I think he’s really come up with some terrific dishes. He’s using noisettes of lamb to make dhungar lamb tikka which is marinated with smoked, crushed spices so the meat has a smoky taste from the marination as well as cooking in the tandoor. We’ve got some other Punjabi lamb dishes I never tasted as well made before like raarha lamb which is cooked in a tomato onion masala; and lamb patiyala which is a slow-cooked knuckle of lamb. But then are known for Punjabis having a good way with lamb.

What surprised me was just how much I liked some of the vegetarian dishes like the Punjabi wadi ki sab, white lentil dumplings with a nutty taste and a crunchy texture that reminded me of the gate kadhi, gram flour dumplings from our Rajasthani festival. But the veg dish I really loved was the sarso ka saag, mustard greens and spinach with corn-meal crisp bread. Being Bengali, I like mustard greens but I never tasted anything like this before and I thought I could be vegetarian on this dish.

And the dish that delighted us all was the steamed shoulder of lamb, which is sort of like the Punjabi version of Peking duck. Thick slices of shoulder on the bone are marinated for three days in lots of spices then steamed slowly till all the fat melts and bastes the lamb and it falls off the bone. You eat it with roti and thin slices of cucumber and red onion. This dish came from Azra Ali who is the wife of Riaz Ali, one of the two brothers who have owned a series of very good Punjabi restaurants around London. Some of you may remember when they owned Mirch Masala in south London and 5 Hot Chillies and Nauroz, both in north London. Wherever you are, thank you. The recipe appeared about eight years ago in Tandoori magazine and this seemed like a good time to put it on a menu.

Steamed shoulder of lamb

10-12 portions

10 lbs lamb shoulder, sawn into wide strips (about 4”, 10cm) by butcher

4 Tbsps crushed red chilli

4 Tbsps red chilli powder

4 Tbsps salt

5 Tbsps cumin

6 Tbsps coriander

4 tsps ‘OUR OWN GARAM MASALA’*

large handful crushed garlic paste

large handful crushed ginger paste

250ml lemon juice

vegetable oil to cover meat for marinating

Mix all spices, oil and lemon juice in large bowl to get even marinade mix. Taste to be sure of marinade flavour. Mix meat in well to completely coat with marinade. Put in fridge and marinate for at least 3 days. Can be made extra hot with fresh green chilli.

Put in pot with oil and marinade on medium fire and turn over frequently for about 20 minutes as meat must not brown. Once marinade starts bubbling, seal pot with flour/water paste. Steam for 3 hours until meat is soft and falls off the bone.

Serve with tandoori roti, julienne cucumber, thin slices of red onion, sliced chillies, wedges of lemon.

*This is how the recipe appeared in Tandoori. Jiwan came up with his own blend that seemed to create the same taste but he was also being a bit cagey about exactly what the spice blend is.

Also, before I go I wanted to tell you about a couple of offers that will be starting when our Punjabi festival begins. We thought of this because so many of our customers want to come to our food festivals but we can’t always accommodate everyone who wants to come to dine between 7:30 and 8:30. We thought we’d offer a couple of incentives to dine early or late with us. So we have two offers for you: 7 by 7 – all main courses offered at £7 when ordered by 7pm; and Wine after 9, with a free glass of wine (matched to your main course) for orders placed after 9pm. Both offers are valid from 5 May to 30 June and for parties up to four persons. You can also view our Punjabi festival menu, see our offers and make a booking online at www.babur.info.

Thanks for stopping by and next time I’ll have some news about our summer festivals and probably some other things by then.