We love an invitation that has the magic words ‘champagne and canapes’ on it, and Oh! Moti Mahal we were not disappointed for the cookery book launch of Food of the Grand Trunk Road by Anirudh Arora and Hardeep Singh Kohli. There was a sea of glittering bubble-filled glasses, jugs of rich red fruit cocktails, never-ending trays of encrusted fish with spiced chips, filo pastry crowns stuffed with glossy lamb’s brains, sweetened by carrot spring rolls in rasberry coulis and ice cream cones in shapes we haven’t seen since Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour.
The real atmosphere was downstairs in Covent Garden’s Moti Mahal restaurant, where Nelly the elephant had unpacked steaming pots of curries and vegetable wraps -all set out as stalls on the Grand Trunk Road. The standout dish was the ‘bhalla papadi chaat’, a dish from the streets of North India featuring crisp-fried oval pastry and chickpeas with a tamarind and mint chutney – we are dubbing it The Oyster of India.
Here’s a tantalising recipe of mash-ki-dal from the book.
The Food of the Grand Trunk Road is a beautifully written and illustrated cook book but also a travelogue and the history of the road since its emergence as India’s first route for traders. The book follows Hardeep Singh Kohli’s travels along this age-old route, starting in Calcutta, linking with Lucknow, Aligargh and Delhi before curling north into the Punjab region of northwest India. Today it is still a major route, the axis of India’s heavily populated north. It’s a fascinating look at the food, culture and traditions that have sprung up along the road, promising recipes that reflect the eating traditions of the real India. The recipes are provided by Anirudh Arora, head chef at Moti Mahal in London, who has devoted his career to researching the long-forgotten recipes of rural India as found along the old Grand Trunk Road. Nostalgic favourites include seductive barbecued flavours of Peshawar and Rawalpindi to the sumptuous secrets of the imperial dastarkhans of Delhi and Agra, to the sublime vegetarian food of Varanasi and the tantalizing sweets of Bengal, this is an eye-opening look at Indian food.
Anirudh Arora is head chef at Moti Mahal, a relaxed Indian restaurant in the heart of London’s West End.
Anirudh Arora and Hardeep Singh Kohli
Alan Greenhalgh and Hardeep Singh Kohli
Hardeep Singh Kohli is a British writer and radio and television presenter. His most recent venture has been his one-man show The Nearly Naked Chef, a mixture of stand-up comedy and cookery, which won critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival.
Moti Mahal with Edd Kimber
Moti Mahal Covent Garden London
Alan Greenhalgh and Moti Mahal Sitar Player
Head Chef Anirudh Arora offers diners more opportunities to share in this culinary journey through cooking lessons, spice-blending classes, tasting dinners and more.
Moti Mahal opened in 2005 in the heart of Theatreland with an enviable Covent Garden location. It was the first Indian restaurant in the UK to use a Thatee Grill, a hallmark of rural Indian cooking. The restaurant’s cocktail bar boasts one of the largest ranges of the Rare Malt Selections’ Limited Edition whiskies (the restaurant is a member of the Scotch Single Malt Society) and a range of cocktails inspired by the spices and scents of India, using exotic ingredients such as toasted cumin, cardamon, pomegranate, mangosteen and even chutney.
Great article.