indian sweets in england, split from "zaika in london" Options

[Swati]

Chef Dwivedi of Zaika:

I don't do rasamalai. And I don't do rasagullas. I don't eat them. Nobody does, unless it's at a shaadhi... I'd make a crème brulee or chocolate samosas instead.

Umm......even an average rasmalai or roshogolla is hard to make. You need to be an expert specialist mishtir kaarigar or halwai to make truly remarkable rasmalai or roshogolla. There's a reason why Chef Dwivedi sticks to his chocolate samosas.

Back at the Cinnamon Club, they do serve a rogan josh, for which they import a spice called the rattan jyot, the bark of a tree that imparts the dark red colour to the lamb curry. 'Nobody knows about it or has seen it in this country,' Vivek Singh says.

I thought the red colour in Roghan Josh came from cockscomb flowers. Couldn't find any references online to the use of ratanjot in Kashmiri cuisine. Dark, where are you - do you know anything about this?

Red chillies are brought in from Rajasthan; pepper, cinnamon and cardamom from Kerala; mustard from Bengal; rattan jyot from Kashmir; and rock moss from Hyderabad. This last ingredient, which looks exactly as it sounds, doesn't taste of anything, but brings out the favour of biryanis. 'A real biryani requires a high level of skill,' Vivek explains, 'because the marinated meat is covered with rice that is already two-thirds cooked. Then it is sealed and steamed so that the raw meat cooks in the same time as the rice. It needs a large quantity to work.'

What is this rock moss thing?

Oh and while it is perfectly alright to make kachchey gosht ki biryani, that is certainly not the most popular style or the first thing that would spring to mind when people think "real biryani". Most people prefer pre-cooking the meat, either dry or extracting yakhni to simmer the biryani in.


Edit to add: that is certainly "not" the most popular...............

This post has been edited by Swati: May 7 2007, 09:05 AM

[Jenni]

At this point I feel the need to raise the profile of a sweet shop in the UK that is outside of London!

Bristol Sweetmart, the best of many Indian food shops in Bristol, does a pretty good job with Indian sweets. They have the usual (and rather unimpressive) boxed and tinned stuff in the main store, but they also have fresh sweets in their deli section. The manager told me that they don't actually make them themselves, they buy them in from someone else. But they are really quite good, especially since they don't just do the same old ladoo and barfi that most places in the UK seem to rely on. My fav sweets are all milk based, and they sell a good range of peda, as well as rasgulla, rasmalai and chum chums. The chum chums are actually really nice, but the rasgulla isn't anywhere near as good as the stuff I ate in Kolkata.