Roochi: a recipe for success

Forest Row is bustling on a summery(ish) Saturday evening. With a slight stretch of imagination you could be in Italy; people greeting each other out on the streets, promenading past the town’s restaurants and historic pubs of which there are more than a fair share. 

All venues look well patronised but none more so than Roochi, a smart Indian restaurant overlooking the street.  We joined the steady stream of customers to be welcomed by friendly waiter Ali who gives us a grandstand seat from where we can survey the restaurant’s comings and goings.  

The atmosphere is relaxed and jovial; the majority of customers are obviously regulars who know and like the staff; many are greeted by first name. No wonder, as the 31-year-old owner, Mohammed Haque Jay, is an outgoing and charming chap who has built up strong relationships with his diners. But it hasn’t been an easy route into the hearts and stomachs of the good people of Forest Row.  Jay originally hails from the north and he tells us it’s taken him at least five years to be accepted as a local.

So how did a Bradford born-and-bred lad end up in a posh town in East Sussex?

According to Jay, his parents sent him off down south to ‘find himself’ after he went through a bit of a wild patch as a young lad. “They basically said go away and do whatever you want to do,” he says with a cheeky smile. Fortunately, although Jay didn’t come from a catering background (his father worked as a mechanic), he had a cousin in the restaurant trade and decided this was where he wanted to seek his fortune. Working in a restaurant in nearby Hawley he started out at the back of house, but with his sparkling personality, wit and ready repartee, it wasn’t long before he moved to take front stage. The experience taught him a lot about the restaurant profession. “Basically I thought to myself, if this business is successful, run in this way, I’m sure I could do a lot better.”

Fourteen years later Jay has much more successful eateries in Reigate, Lingfield, Hawley and, of course, Forest Row. It seems like quite an achievement for a young man but beneath Jay’s happy go lucky exterior there lies a shrewd business mind and the northern ‘nouse’ to seize and make the most of an opportunity. His success is well (and hard) earned.

“The main thing to start with is the place, location and how you set up the business,”Jay says. “After that it’s building up a reputation. We’ve got to a stage where we know everyone and everyone knows us, but we have to live up to the high standards we have set - here, people don’t give you a second chance.  If the food was very good but the service poor, people would never forgive you.”

Skilfully tending to his customers, in between chatting to us, Jay tells us how he is a firm believer in the concept of “first in, last out”. Working up to 15 to 16 hours a day, he travels to the wholesalers every night to pick up his next day supply of food and vegetables. Other produce is sourced even locally. Fish comes from the excellent fishmongers a few doors down whilst the farm shops nearby provide a trusty and traceable source of meat.  Jay believes that to get the best out of his products, he needs to be in control of them and his hands-on approach extends to the kitchen. “Our food and the preparation all comes from me,” he admits. “I teach staff to do things in a certain way but more skilled tasks, like the spice blending and marinating always comes from me so that the quality, style and consistency of food is always the same.”

Out of all Jay’s restaurants, Roochi is Jay's “baby”. Inside the venue is like an Aladdin’s cave and deceivingly spacious.  Cunningly divided into private and group dining areas with interesting views onto the street, a curved corridor leads around the central bar area which also serves as a stylish reception. Deep burgundy carpets, chocolate and mahogany walls contrast with the pristine white tablecloths. Tropical fish swim happily in tanks with the dual purpose of providing a living room divider and eye catching display.

For starters we have succulent duck kebab and calamari, glistening yellow peppers, crisp lightly dressed salad and freshly-made, zingy chutneys. Our main course choice is easy – seafood is a great speciality in the restaurant (Jay hopes to open a fish restaurant one day), and we have no hesitation in ordering the Seafood Moilee – a bouillabaisse of Kerala prawns, king prawns, mussels mixed in coconut milk to create a silky broth flavoured with turmeric and curry leaves, and gigantic Goan King Prawns with shell, cooked in spring onions, green chillies and strongly flavoured spices. When the dishes arrive our taste buds are instantly rewarded with fresh and salty overtones of sea (fortunately not sand), which is blissfully enhanced, not drowned, by the creamy sauce.

Jay describes the food at Roochi as “authentic with a modern twist.” Besides the fish option, other choices range from a Duck Narangi – spicy duck breast pan fried and simmered in Madeira sauce cooked with juicy oranges and mushrooms, or tender lamb shank, braised and marinated in a blend of spices. These are sophisticated dishes but the ‘traditional’ Kormas, Madras and Vindaloo are also on the menu, incredibly well priced at just %.25 for a simple chicken or lamb curry. The costliest dish on the menu is the King Prawn Shashlik and even that is a modest £11.95.

The wine list is one of the most interesting I’ve seen in any Indian restaurant with vintages and Grand Crus from France, Australia, South Africa, Argentina and India. Jay tells us his supplier carefully monitors and changes the list regularly to accommodate the best sellers.

Owning the place has given Jay the freedom to “do his own thing” and this extends to his policy towards staff. With five front-of-house employees and a further five in the kitchen, Roochi has a close knit team. To ensure perfect service he holds staff meetings every week where he interacts, pinpoints mistakes and gets feedback from colleagues. Recruitment is not a problem he says; he works with the local Job Centre or gets staff online. Employees are trained up and according to where they fit in best are sometimes asked to move around as Jay also provides some accommodation. Motivation is encouraged: “We pick up talented people and maybe give them the opportunity to be chef; then they have an investment in the place and want to maintain the quality,” Jay says.

Roochi is a restaurant that’s on the way up and it’s all down to Jay. The exceptional cuisine goes without saying but our overall impression is of a very professionally run business that has achieved an ideal balance of happy staff and happy customers. Jay has moved on a long way from his Bradford days and will, no doubt, go much further. His parents are now rightly proud of their son’s success. “In fact my dad still can’t believe it,” he says with a smile.

Roochi, 9 Hartfield Road, Forest Row  RH18 5DN Tel: 01342 825 251

Unusual ingredients in curry: Shatkora

The first time I came across shatkora was in India a few years ago. We were leaving for the airport one of the hotel chefs came up to us and proudly presented us with a a bag of green and knobbly looking fruit as a gift. He explained shatkora was hard to find in the UK and much more expensive. We put the bag into our suitcase but, sadly, had to ditch it later as our luggage was too heavy. Since then, shatkora has become much easier to find in the UK and features in many dishes in Indian restaurants. From the outside it certainly is not an object of beauty but, as far as flavours go, the shatkora is a veritable swan of the culinary world. A cross between grapefruit, lime and lemon, it adds a tanginess and exotic taste to curry dishes and lifts them into the sublime.

  

Otherwise known as the citrus macroptera or ‘wild orange’, the fruit is about is 6-7cm in diameter and oval in shape with pointed ends. The variant grown in Bangladesh is called annamensis and is commonly used in the area of Sylhet. It grows on thorny trees which can reach 5m in height. Although it looks and smells more like a lime, its juice is sour and bitter and tastes more like that of a grapefruit. The pith is thick and dry and the outer skin becomes yellow when the fruit is ripe.

Delicious Shatkora curry cooked by Chef Mahbub Rahman
of Dine Bangla  in Beverley.

Preparation of the fruit is tricky and requires some culinary skill. Perhaps the easiest way is to cut the shatkora in half lengthways and then cut each half into three, also along the length. Then the main fruit can be pared away from the peel and outer pith with a sharp knife.

Chefs recommend the skin is pre cooked to soften the texture. In Bangladesh the rind is eaten as a vegetable and the pulp is usually discarded because of its bitter taste. The thick rind is cut into small pieces and cooked in beef mutton, fish curries and stews whilst the fruit is often used in shatkora pickles.

Curries cooked with shatkora are now becoming more and more popular in Bangladeshi and Indian restaurants in the UK.  The fruit can now be bought in many Asian food stores that serve the Indian and Bangladeshi community. It’s also available in frozen form.

Shatkora’s beneficial values don’t stop there – as a citrus fruit, rich in Vitamin C in India and Bangladesh, it has long been known for its medicinal value. It’s very strong in antioxidants and is reputed to be a sure cure for colds and flu when cooked in curry.

Recipe for Aromatic Venison Curry with Shatkora

from The Kennington Tandoori

Haunch of roast venison slow cooked to melting tenderness with tangy citrus shatkora in a deliciously rich, juicy sauce. 

Serves 6

Preparation time: 20-30 minutes

Cooking time: approx 3 hours

Ingredients

• 3 tbs vegetable/olive oil

• Whole spices:
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 piece cinnamon bark (not quills)
• 4 green cardamom pods, bruised
• 1tsp salt

• 1 tbs garlic paste
• 1 tbs ginger paste
• 5 large shallots, very finely diced

• 1 ½ lb venison haunch, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 ½ inch chunks

• Approx 1 ½ pints water (see method)

• Ground powdered spices:
• 1 rounded tsp brown cumin powder
• 1 ½ rounded tsp coriander powder
• 1 rounded tsp chilli powder
• Scant ½ tsp turmeric powder

• 2 slices shatkora, flesh removed and cut into pieces

Method

• Warm the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan or casserole dish.  Add the whole spices and gently heat, swirling in the oil to heat and release their flavours, adding a tsp of salt as you do so. Take care not to let the spices burn as this will make the dish taste bitter.

• Add the garlic and ginger pastes, continuing to stir on a gentle heat. (For small quantities crush garlic bulbs and grind to a paste, fresh ginger root can be grated with a fine microplane; for larger quantities it is easier to use a food processor.) Add the diced shallots, stir and cook on a medium heat until opaque and just starting to colour, but do not brown.

• Add the meat and brown all over in the spices and onion mix (approx 7-10 minutes), whilst enjoying the delicious aroma.

• Add sufficient water to fully cover the meat, stir thoroughly to deglaze the pan and to ensure nothing sticks or burns on the base. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for ½ an hour.

• Add the mixed spice powder and stir in to the curry, using a wooden spoon or spatula (not metal – to avoid cutting the meat). Cover and slow cook on a gentle bubble for 2 hours until the sauce has thickened and the meat is meltingly tender (longer if using a cheaper cut).

• About 15 minutes before the curry is ready, add shatkora and allow it to scent the dish.

The Kennington Tandoori, 313 Kennington Rd, London SE11 4QE