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Saturday 31 January 2015

Recipes from Subrata Debnath, 

Executive Chef Hyatt Regency Chennai


Spice Haat Buffet at Hyatt Regency Chennai
Chef Subrata Debnath, the Executive Chef at Hyatt Regency Chennai, leads a team of around 100 chefs to create amazing culinary experiences across the hotel’s eight restaurants. 
A graduate from the Institute of Hotel Management, chef Subrata hails from the steel city of Jamshedpur. With 22 years' experience in the kitchen, he has been with Hyatt for over a decade working at their hotels in Kolkata, Singapore, Bangkok and Kathmandu. 

As a seasoned gourmand and connoisseur of flavours, Chef Subrata has an adept sense of food styling and presentation. He tries to give both a local and authentic regional taste to each of the specialist restaurants at the Hyatt which include Italian, Chinese and Asian street food.  A self confessed foodie with a passion for perfection, he believes in crafting his dishes with love, passion and an artistic touch.

Here, is Chef Subrata's recipe for Appams and Chicken Stew (Appams are a kind of pancake made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk, served with a range of sides such as vegetable stew, chicken stew, kerala egg curry or chutney):

Recipe for Chicken Stew


Ingredients

  • 250gm boneless chicken cubes
  • 0.30ml coconut oil
  • 0.10gm bay leaves
  • 0.10gm cardamom
  • 0.10gm cloves
  • 20 gm sliced onions
  • 2 Slot green chillies
  • 0.10gm ginger juliennes
  • 0.10gm curry leaves
  • 500ml thick coconut milk
  • 0.10gm Fennel seeds
  • Salt to taste
  • 0.10gm shallots
Method:

Heat oil in a deep pan. Add onion, ginger, green chilli and curry leaves. Saute till onion becomes soft (keep in mind that onions should not brown in this recipe). When the onion becomes soft, add chicken pieces, salt and mix well. Add medium thick coconut milk and cover and cook. Stir when chicken is half done. Continue cooking until chicken is fully done.

Recipe for Appam


Ingredients:

  • 1kg raw rice
  • 0.5kg boiled rice
  • 250gm Urdall
  • A few Fenugreek seeds
  • 20ml coconut milk
  • 10gm sugar
  • 10gm cooking soda
Method:

Soak raw rice, par boiled rice, fenugreek seeds and urad dal for 10 to 12 hours (I soaked it from 6am to 6pm, then ground it and fermented it overnight).

After 10 hours grind mixture to a fine paste. Add salt, mix well with hands. (I ground it with warm water). The batter should be of thinner consistency than dosa batter. Store it in an airtight container, leave it for another 10 hours or overnight to ferment. In the morning the appam batter will have risen nicely.

Before making appams, add coconut milk, appam soda and mix well. Keep it aside for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes the appam batter can be used to make soft appams.

Traditionally appams are made in an iron skillet called appa chatti. If you do not have and appa chatti or appam pan, you can make it in any other non stick pan with a lid.

First coat the appam pan with oil  using a cloth (add a drop of oil into the pan and wipe it all over with a cloth).

Heat the appam pan, then reduce the heat to low. Now, add a ladle of batter in the centre of the pan (pan should not be too hot).

Holding both the handles of the pan, rotate the pan in such a way that the batter spreads all around in a circle. The remaining batter will come to the centre (that is why the appam is thick in the centre and lacy on the outside). After that close the pan with the lid. The flame should be kept low. Once the appam is cookd and the edges start turning brown, remove the appam from the pan (the appam will come off easily if you lift it with your hands).


How to make Hariali Chicken like Chef Ali Hussain

Executive Chef and Director Ali Hussain



Ali's popular restaurant Cafe Bangla in East Boldon, Tyne & Wear

My first taste of Chef Ali Hussain’s Hariali Chicken was at the Curry Life British Fusion Festival in Dhaka in 2009. It was one of his award-winning dishes which had earned him a place at the festival and was certainly memorable – simple yet full of fresh and zingy flavours. 

Executive chef and director Ali has been busy creating many mouth-watering dishes ever since 2003 when his popular CafĂ© Bangla restaurant opened in East Boldon on Tyneside. He’s renowned for his inspired fusion dishes but Chicken Hariali is still one of his great signature recipes, guaranteed to go down well with customers. Here, chef Ali Hussain shares his famous recipe with us:


 Ali Hussain’s Chicken Hariali



Ingredients


Hariali Paste –

Fresh coriander
Fresh mint
Green pepper
Garlic ginger paste
Green chilli

Blend together to make marinade.

For Hariali Chicken -

4-5 tbsp chopped spinach
Half a tsp of sugar
Fresh coriander
2 heaped tsp garlic paste
Water
Approx 2tbsp cream
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste


To garnish
Carrots
Sliced cucumbers
Curled beetroot

Method

Marinate the chicken fillets in the Hariali paste overnight in the fridge.

Cook marinated chicken in tandoor for about 10 minutes (for those cooking at home use ordinary oven turned to highest temperature).

Add 1tbsp olive oil to pan.
Turn gas on low so it doesn’t burn.            
Add 2 heaped tsp garlic paste and stir.
Add 3-4 tbsp finely chopped onion.
Cook for two minutes until onions brown.
Add some salt to taste and stir.
Add chopped Hariali Chicken and stir
Add a little water and cook for five minutes.
Add around 4-5tbsp Hariali Paste and stir.
Add more water if necessary.
Add 1tsp sugar.
Add chopped spinach and stir.
Cook for a further minute.
Finally add some cream and generous sprinkle of fresh coriander.

Let it cook for three minutes partly covered.

Serve in a nice bowl. Decorate with cucumber, carrots, curled beetroot and tomato rolls (to see how to make the tomato rose check out Ali’s video on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpTpqTlZdo )
Sprinkle with coriander. Serve with warm naan bread.
Cafe Bangla, 2 Station Road, East Boldon, Tyne and Wear NE36 0LD

Chef Ali showcasing  his dishes at the festival in Dhaka


Ali at the British Fusion Festival with Zoe & Peter Renfrew of Curry Life and Chef Abul Monsur of  Taj Cuisine