Curry Recipes from HHI Bhubaneswar

TheTaste of Britain Festival was held in the Hotel Hindusthan International in Bhubaneswar, India in April this year. Bhubaneswar is otherwise known as the "Temple City" and has a growing reputation as a leisure destination with wonderful beaches and important archaeological centres close at hand.

The festival allows top UK-Bangladeshi, Indian and Bangladeshi chefs to showcase some of the dishes that have made curry such a success in Britain. An added bonus is that it also enables chefs of the host countries to share some of their signature dishes with us.

Here is a recipe from Chef Abhijit Dutta of HHI Bhubaneswar, many of whose dishes are based in authentic Awadhi techniques. This type of cuisine dates back to the 1780s and was popular at the time of Nawab Asaf-ud Daulah, the erstwhile ruler of the State of Awadh. Awadh was the ancient name for the present Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh in North India and surrounding regions.

In fact the whole area is famous for its cooking techniques such as “dumpukt” (“Dum” meaning to “breathe in” and “Pukht” meaning “to cook"), “Dhungar”, “Rang Khilana” and “Gile Hikmat”.  Cooking is generally done by charcoal which makes the food more tasty and full of flavours.

"Every evening at Lucknow is like a food festival", Chef Dutta told us, “And that is why it is said – 'Ek Bahar e Khahiza hai Shaam-e-Awadh me Jannat-e-Hindusthan hai Shaam-e-Awadh me....' I have been a chef at many different places and have tasted different cuisines but the best cuisine I have ever known is Awadhi cuisine,"he said.