Happy Holi–days with the Curry Life Taste of Britain Festival in Chennai

The Curry Life Taste of Britain Festival got off to a colourful start in Chennai, India this year as chefs and guests celebrated the Indian festival of Holi together.  

Running from 6^th to 14^th March in the Spice Haat and Focaccia restaurants at the 5-star Hyatt Regency, the festival sees Michelin starred chef Mark Poynton of Alimentum in Cambridge join top curry chefs from the UK to create a spicy smörgasbord of British curry dishes.

The team of chefs is headed by the veteran festival performers, Chef Partha Mittra, consultant chef for Curry Life, and Chef Abul Monsur of Taj Cuisine in Chatham Kent, who combine their expertise with Chef Mohammed Awal Miah of Spice Club in Bridgwater, and Chef Syem Uddin of Bengal Spice in Crook, County Durham. The British team is working alongside the chefs at Hyatt Regency headed by Executive Chef Subrata Debnath (see previous post for one of chef Subrata's recipes).

At the launch attended by the British Deputy High Commissioner, Bharat Joshi, festival organisers, Syed Nahas Pasha, Syed Belal Ahmed, and chefs Mark and Subrata Debneth introduced team to members of the press who were also able to sample some of the signature dishes featured on the menu.

Nahas Pasha, Mark Poynton, Bharat Joshi, Subrata Debneth, Belal Ahmed

Afterwards, the chefs were able to let off a bit of steam at the colourful festival of Holi - a Hindu celebration when it's customary to smear your friends with colours.   

Now, all chefs are looking forward to showcasing popular dishes from the UK including Chicken Tikka Masala and (aptly, for the city of Chennai which was formerly known as Madras), Madras curry.

Chef Mark looks set to change the commonly held perceptions of bland British food by serving up some Alimentum delights. His signature dishes, inspired by traditional British and European foods, include cod rolled in onion ash with onion salad; roast sea bass with cauliflower textures and Pedro Ximenez sauce, and roast breast of duck, charred and pureed broccoli peanut and lime with crispy black rice.

In between courses the chefs are looking forward to sampling some of the local culture and cuisine. Chennai is home to beautiful beaches, temples and historical sites. From the gastronomic point of view, Tamil Nadu is known for its spicy vegetarian dishes, sizzling street food and lunchtime buffets or canteens featuring fiery sambars and Keralan-influenced foods.  

Young Holi revellers in Chennai

View from Hyatt Regency Chennai

The chefs plan the menu

The team celebrates Holi

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).