Topic: Hyderabadi recipes from a Sydney restaurant

[beachbum]

Slow day at work and I was Googling away (why not, I retire today hahahaha so sack me  ;D ;D) and came across what could be a great resource for regional dishes, no BIR here but a hint of mainstream AIR with heavy use of caramelised onions in some of the recipes.

The restaurant is Nilgiri's at St Leonards Sydney which is in a "restaurant precinct" area just to the North of Sydney Harbour Bridge and you gotta be good to be able to lease premises there.

http://www.nilgiris.com.au/pages/indian-recipes/recipes.html

The chef Ajoy Joshi specialises in Hyderabadi cuisine and reputedly makes the most authentic Biryani. I'll shortly be moving about 3 hours drive north of there on the Mid North Coast to retire, and will give it a whirl when I'm down in North Sydney picking up spices from a big Indian store up the road.

In the meantime I've got a kilo of goat in the freezer and will try his Goat Rogan Josh Kashmiri Pandit style, which looks spectacular as well as my having all the ingredients apart from the Rattanjot root (red colour).

http://www.nilgiris.com.au/pages/indian-recipes/indian-goat-recipes/rogan-josh-kashmiri-pandit-style.pdf

Many of his recipes have a photo walk through version as well. It's great that he publishes recipes, and does cooking classes as well - I've got relations nearby, I can feel a road trip coming on 

I'll report fully on the goat effort.

[vinotinto]

Nice site, thanks for sharing

[Secret Santa]

In the meantime I've got a kilo of goat in the freezer and will try his Goat Rogan Josh Kashmiri Pandit style, which looks spectacular as well as my having all the ingredients apart from the Rattanjot root (red colour)...

...I'll report fully on the goat effort.

I'll be very interested to hear what you make of it.

I must admit, looking at the ingredients, it doesn't send me into raptures. It's basically lamb in yoghurt and garam masala. No onions or tomatoes or garlic, not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

Takes me back to the days before I started cooking BIR and was trying all manner of "authentic" Indian dishes. I never did make one that I preferred over BIR.

[beachbum]

I was a bit puzzled about the garlic and onions thing as well, but note that he goes fairly heavy on the hing. Before there were even Indian restaurants in Brisbane I used to eat at the Hare Krishna "Govindas" restaurant in the city and for several years I was convinced that they used a lot of garlic, as I would get a lovely fragrant burp all day afterwards.

Then as I got more into cooking I discovered that they cook to Vedic traditions that forbid garlic and onions, but use hing. So maybe that will be the saving grace with this one.

Good teaspoon, none of this sissy "pinch of hing" nonsense  ;D

[Peripatetic Phil]

Good teaspoon, none of this sissy "pinch of hing" nonsense  ;D

It may be that he is assuming that his readers will use the awful adulterated stuff to which most of us have access (rice flour, edible gum, turmeric, asafoetida in unstated proportions).  If you were using pure hing (hard to find), I suspect that "a pinch" would suffice !

** Phil.

[Secret Santa]

If you were using pure hing (hard to find), I suspect that "a pinch" would suffice !

It'd probably kill you, never mind "suffice"!    ;D

I do love the stuff personally though but to get the real taste of it it has to be the resin form (the little rocks) fried in high temperature oil.

[beachbum]

Good point, I was in fact going to email them to see what hing they refer to. I would guess the diluted form for their published recipe - the most common one hereabouts is "Gum Arabic, Wheat Flour, Asafoetida" no percentages, but they have to list in order of weight. I haven't seen the little rocks yet but might be in luck in Sydney with their bigger population compared to Brisbane.