Smoked Biryani House ; authentic Hyderabadi biryani?

The mention of authentic Hyderabadi biryani is what lured us to a far flung restaurant in NOIDA (sector 18) and we were very kicked about it when we planned the day after a couple of months of almost constant travel. I crave for home cooked simpler food when I am back from travel but this Smoked Biryani House that claimed to serve Hyderabadi biryani made us plan for a long drive just to eat good Hyderabadi food. It is another story that we ended up being a bit baffled by the end.

We were looking around sector 18 to locate the restaurant when we spotted a few home delivery vehicles with Smoked Biryani House carrier boxes, climbed up the stairs to enter a quite restaurant with comfortable seating, quaint ambiance. It was during Navratras and we were late for a weekend lunch, a good time if you want to avoid the rush hour.

Seeing a constant stream of the delivery boys carrying home delivery packages downstairs and black and white pictures form the old city of Hyderabad on the walls had piqued up our interest as well as appetite as we waited for our orders to arrive. The restaurant manager came to talk to us and kept telling us stories about how the 'smoked biryani' came into being and how the Chefs are flown in from Hyderabad, we felt like eager hungry kids to dig into a cauldron of spicy Hyderabadi biryani.

But we had to order a few starters before that and thank God we did so. The starters were all good.
The best was Apollo fish, a new preparation for us, grilled fish smeared with minced ginger-chilly-coriander greens and bits of cashew, hint of tamarind and nice balancing of flavours, well done fish.

We liked the Chicken 65 too, the Indo-Chinese of the southern variety, we have had a few versions of Chicken 65 and this one did not disappoint. Good amalgamation of textures and flavours that we liked. The Chennai version of Chicken 65 is different but we don't mind eating a hybrid dish changed a bit if it is still tasty.

Veg Mancurian is another Indo Chinese fusion that surprised us, it was well made. We also ordered Shami kababs and Tandoori fish and found both of these good. Shami kabab can be found in many many variations as this is the most common kabab on every menu, this one was done well. Tandoori fish was succulent, well marinated Basa fish grilled perfectly. The red coloured onion rings served with the kababs and tandoori fish are good too.

Note that there is no superlative goodness about these starters but each of these we tried were well done, good food at this price point (ranging from 200-300 Rs).

But the story took a turn when we ordered the main course. The Andhra Mutton curry was a sad concoction that lacked flavours although it looked creamy and rich. We tried the Veg Biryani, the Chicken Biryani and the Mutton Biryani and ended up looking at each other. Biryanis are presented well here, with a smoking piece of charcoal placed over each potful of biryani but the biryani doesn't taste smoked nor it brings the Hyderabad taste to your palate. Why this biryani is named as Hyderabadi biryani?

But to be honest, the biryani is not bad. The rice is long grained, well cooked and not greasy that I like in a biryani, the meat is well done, tastes good but there is no communication between the meat and the rice. I mean the rice grains have no flavour of the meat at all. A well made kachhe gosht ki biryani is much more flavourful.

The veg biryani was good, actually better than we expected.

But then again I was so happy with the Mirchi ka salan that comes with the Biryani and the Baghara Baingan that we had ordered. Both these were well made, true to their roots. I loved these so much I was thinking of ordering only Mirchi ka Salan and Baghara Baingan from this place the other day. Both are my favourite dishes and both were done so well.

Clearly this restaurant is a new establishment that has become popular for home deliveries. But they have not been able to fix a few things although Chef Bilal from Hyderabad supposedly has worked at Paradise (the famous Hydrabad Biryani place). He probably made salan and baghara baingan at Paradise we concluded :-) He definitely needs to fix the biryani and the desserts.

Oh I am yet to tell you about the desserts. DO NOT order desserts here is my humble advise.

The Lauki ki kheer is loaded with nuts but excessively sweet and lacks any flavour. Khubani ka meetha is just too meetha to get any flavour of khubani, even the texture is bad. Double ka meetha is a suspicious piece of dense fudge that is drowned in synthetic colour and loads of sugar like the other counterparts. In fact all three desserts were made using synthetic colours.

I gave my feedback to the chef and the manager and am hoping they will fix the desserts and the rest of the things soon. The staff is humble and courteous I must add. Service is good.

I tasted a few few really good things here and a few of the worst too. The bigger concern I have here is the claim to be a Hyderabadi Biryani place and there is nothing remotely Hyderabadi in anything we tasted, apart from the mirchi ka salan and baghara baingan.

There are better Hyderabadi biryanis in town, one is very close to our place in Old Rajinder Nagar opposite Rapid Flour Mill.

recipe of sepu wadi, a delectable rustic treat from Himachal Pradesh

Sepu wadi is a rustic yet aromatic recipe from Himachal Pradesh, cooked mostly for wedding feasts as it is supposed to have been a recipe from the royal kitchens of Himachal Pradesh. The recipe of Sepu wadi was closely guarded by the royal cooks as I have heard some Himachali folks say but now that this wadi is available in the market even in dry form, it proves how popular it has become with everyone in the region, and with those who get to taste it. Count me in.

I used to cook sepu wadi after I had seen the recipe on one of the TV shows I used to follow long long time ago. And then I lost the recipe and used to crave for the same taste. Then I saw dry sepu wadis at Himachal stalls at trade fair and wondered if those are the same as in the TV show the wadi was made fresh.

I was puzzled about this dual identity of sepu wadi for a long time until I saw it again when it was being cooked at the home stay (Raju's Cottage) at Goshaini. Lata ji, the lady of the house cooks all meals for the guests and is a great cook. I had requested her to cook some of these Himachali dishes and she obliged. That's when I saw her soaking dry sepu wadis to cook them with spinach. The wadis are deep fried and sold in markets for convenience. A genius enterprise of the local cottage industry I must say. I had only seen dehydrated Amritsari wadis or wadis from other regions of India but deep fried sepu wadis are a step ahead regarding convenience of desi foods.

This is what I saw at Raju's cottage.

I loved the wadis cooked in spiced spinach puree and took the recipe too. Thankfully there is loads of spinach growing in the garden and needs to be used a lot.

I prefer freshly made sepu wadi as I find the texture better suited for my taste. Of course I wouldn't trust the quality of oil they use to deep fry the ready to use sepu wadis. So I make my own fresh sepu wadis. Once you have planed your work well and work on it rightly, this recipe wouldn't be so time consuming as it looks.

Recipe of sepu wadi..

ingredients for the wadis...
urad daal (skinned black lentils) 1 cup to be soaked overnight
(this makes a lot of vadis for about 6-8 servings, the leftovers can be frozen for later use)
cumin seeds 2 tsp
peppercorns 2 tsp
ginger grated 1 tbsp
dry red chillies 3-4
mustard oil to deep fry the wadis

ingredients for the spinach gravy (2-4 servings)
spinach cleaned, chopped roughly and steamed 2 cups packed
yogurt 1 cup
mustard oil 2 tsp
cloves 4-5
black cardamoms 2
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
coriander seeds 1 tsp
asafoetida (hing) a pinch
fennel powder 2 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
chilli powder 1/4 tsp or more to taste
dry ginger powder 1/4 tsp
salt to taste

Procedure..

To make the wadis, you can divide the work into 2-3 days. Soak the lentils overnight and grind with the cumin, peppercorns, ginger and dry chillies without adding any water to it. Blend well so the paste gets fluffy. The paste can be left to ferment for a few hours or you can go ahead and make the wadis right away.

The wadis can be made the next day and even after making them they can be refrigerated and used whenever required.

To make the wadis, boil about 2 liters of water in a deep vessel with a little salt. Make smooth balls the size of ping pong balls from the lentil paste and drop them in the boiling water. Let them all boil for about half an hour. Fish them out and let them cool down.

Once cooled, cut them into bite sized pieces and deep fry in hot mustard oil. These deep fried wadis can be refrigerated for a week or frozen for a few months to be used when required.

To make the spinach gravy, blend the spinach along with yogurt and salt and keep aside.

Mix the powder spices with a little water to make a paste and keep aside.

Heat the mustard oil and tip in the whole spices. Let them splutter and get aromatic before pouring in the powdered spices soaked in water. Mix well and let them fry till a bit fragrant.

Pour the spinach yogurt mix, add sufficient water to make the gravy of desired consistency, keeping in mind that the wadis will soak up a lot of water. You can also add water as the curry cooks.

Let the green gravy come to a boil. Add required number of wadis, 4-5 wadis per head should be enough but go by your choice. It will be good to chop the fried wadis further if they are too big or too hard.

Simmer the curry till the wadis soak up the juices and become bigger and spongier. Adjust seasoning and serve hot with plain boiled rice or rotis of your choice.

We loved it with makki ki roti more than rice.

Note how this curry looks almost devoid of any oil in it. Not that it is a low fat recipe but there is not much oil even if the wadis are deep fried. The reason is that the the urad daal wadis don't soak much oil while deep frying and if we use less oil for the gravy, the overall fat percentage will not be too much. Although you can always use more oil for taste and convenience of cooking.

This sepu wadi curry is so flavourful you wont feel like having any other side dish with it. Just a few raw slices of tomatoes and onions will be great, just like the frugal desi meals we love so much.

The flavours of fennel, cloves and black cardamom is so potent in this curry and the tartness of yogurt just balances everything nicely. I like this curry slightly hot with a god chili kick but you can always tone down the heat to your preference.

Apart from the taste and texture of the wadis in this curry, I love the spinach gravy a lot. And since I have loads of spinach in the garden right now, I have been making this same gravy with boiled rajma (kidney beans) as well.

For the same amount of spinach gravy I add a cup of boiled kidney beans and simmer till fragrant. This becomes a filling meal with just a spoon of rice in it. I don't want to dilute the flavours I like it so much.

Cook the spinach curry sometime even if you don't have the patience to boil and deep fry the sepu wadis. You can use chickpeas or mixed lentils for this curry and see how much you like it. This will give you an idea of what flavours sepu wadi packs in.

These are some of the desi flavours that I love and you would be glad to know how healthy these meals are. Out traditional food is mostly gluten free and uses the seasonal produce so efficiently and optimally.

I always feel we don't need to use any produce being transported from faraway places or out of season as we can cook so much variety or flavours with just the few produce we get in every season in every place. I have experimented enough to conclude this.

Sepu wadi will remain a favourite for several reasons. Thanks to Lata ji at Raju's cottage, Goshaini for reviving sepu wadi in my kitchen.