I always knew you were a senior Corporate Banker in Dubai, UAE and this is so obvious not only from your financial but also general knowledge. Plus so many times we also talked about BCCI, ex-bankers/ colleagues, and other related issues.

On the other hand, I am sorry, if it came out as I didn’t know this, but actually my confusion and misunderstanding came from reading the ‘foot-note’ of your above comment no. 75 and I thought that may be you were doing your ‘Shouqia-Cooking’ in Dubai.

Anyhow, it is now clear that this restaurant was in Canada and not Dubai.

Your family, relatives and friends are lucky that you cook for them and they can enjoy the food.

As I said earlier, I think I will one day have to visit Canada to have the honour and privilege of enabling my taste-buds to be lucky enough to enjoy your love-drenched and passionately cooked gourmet cuisine.

I know, Yeh Thora Ziyada Hee formal Ho Gaya Hai, but Chalta Hai.

Aahhh … How much I wish that I should have met you while you were still in Dubai and I would have eaten free at your restaurant.

But, Lagta Hai Aub Tumhara Khana Khnay Kay Leeye Canada Ki Ticket Khurch Kar Kay Waheen Hee Aanay Paray Ga.

If you even write about food with so much love & passion, I wonder what would be your passion when actually cooking.

One suggestion for you, there is a food-only TV channel in Pakistan called, “Masala TV” and they have so many good Chefs & Cooking-experts, if you can get this channel you will enjoy it. One of the best Chefs are – Chef Zakir and Chef Gulzar, both men and both great cooks.

If you could not get Masala channel in Canada, at least you will be able to check them out on YouTube for sure.

About cooking: Of course I cook with a lot of passion and take pride in my cooking and, I have written on many food blogs and even here at legslip’s Bavarchi Khana that, ‘cooking is one of the sweetest pleasure in life, it releases stress’ and imo it not only gives satisfaction to your appetite but, it also gives satisfaction to your eyes in the sense that before you eat the food, you garnish it and look at it before serving then you feel satisfied by its presentation, if not then you add a touch or two to make it more presentable, just like the artists do after completing their paintings. I do that to every dish:

1. A daal dish is just a daal dish if you serve it plain, but when you garnish it with coriander and give a tarka, not only it looks good but, tastes good. And, every daal has a different kinda tarka and garnishing, example White Mash Daal must have chopped green chillies and chopped green coriander leaves with a tarka of golden brown onions. You can mix a little bit of butter in the oil while frying the onions and it tastes even better. The Hyderabadi Khatti daal needs a tarka of cumin seeds (zeera) green curry leaves and crushed red chillies and a few slices of freshly chopped garlic.

2. A fruit drink is a just a drink but when you mix the fruit juices or real fruit then make sure they blend well not just in the liquidizer but they need to be compatible. For e.g., Guava juice can be blended with a banana. Mango juice goes well with lychee juice or real lychees in the blender. Pine Apple juice with coconut Milk (not coconut cream) and all these drinks when garnished with either a fine thin slice of orange, mint leaves, cherry etc., looks great.

3. Baked, grilled or fried fish is just an ordinary looking dish until and unless you place lettuce leaves under it and decorate it on the sides with sliced tomatoes, sliced avocado, hash browns or, grilled potatoes with a few nice colourful veges such as red, orange, green capsicum etc. If it is not a desi style fish I add fruits to the baked and grilled fish e.g., you can add a couple of slices of Mango or, Papaya. Even apple, pear and cherries but, they need to be steamed, stewed and glazed.

The list could be very long but, without garnishing the dish if you keep it on the dinner table, at least I lose my appetite by 50%. And, you have to be creative and imaginative when you are cooking and garnishing (giving final touches) a dish. The same goes with desserts and cakes. Everyone knows how to garnish a cake but, the desi desserts? Not everyone bothers but, I do. There are lots of ways to garnish our halwas with, nuts, fruits, fresh cream etc., and these are the simplest ways to make our desi desserts look more presentable and mouth watering.

I cook or rather work very fast in the kitchen and you have to be patient when you are cooking especially the culinary recipes. You must have all the ingredients ready before you start cooking because there are times when you have to add certain ingredients at the right time, or else you burn them or the spices remain uncooked and you can tell the “kuccha masala smell” there is a very fine and delicate balance in our cuisine unlike others because, we use more spices than others. So, one needs to know what is the right balance and when is the right time to add certain spices and how much time you need to roast the spices (bhoonoe them) before you add the main ingredients.

Javed Khan … are you ‘passionate’ about your cooking

Read this interesting article.

http://en.news.maktoob.com/20090000775376/New_survey_sheds_light_on_most_passionate_cooks_in_Asia/Article.htm

Javed A. Khan’s culinary blog

Being a Pakistani and a corporate banker by profession and a gourmet chef by hobby and living in Canada, I have been advocating, talking, preaching and publicizing a lot about the Muslim and Moghul cuisine which seems to have been hijacked by the current culture in India and it is being marketed through restaurants all over the world and sold as, “Indian Cuisine.”

The westerners have been sucked into this farcical notion and made to believe that whatever these Indian restaurants offer to them is authentic Moghul cuisine, which is not correct. The irony is these people who claim to be chefs and cooks have never ever tasted the original, authentic dishes, because some of them are either non-Muslims from India who are vegetarians, or are Muslims from Bangladesh who have no idea about the real, authentic, Moghul cuisine – and these are the people who are dominating the Indian restaurant business in the west.

They have created a new stupid dish called, “Butter Chicken” to attract the non-desi population and call it authentic Moghul recipe. One can only laugh at their naivety and ignorance or give them the credit to fool the ignorant people very convincingly and successfully for over a couple of decades.

When I was running my own restaurant only for the sake of pleasure, I used to make the original and authentic Biryani using the spices and ingredients from scratch and not from the ready made spice packets from Shan, National or Tit-bit, whatever.

Its a shame to see that in some of the Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants use food colour for Biryani instead of Saffron and still call it authentic biryani. I can accept that notion if they do that in India because, Saffron is very expensive over there, but for restaurants in the USA, Canada and in the UK it is like a sin to use food colour and say it is authentic Moghul recipe.

The way Shami Kebabs were prepared by my mother and my grandmother were very different from the way these people make it here using mince meat. The real authentic ones are made from meat cubes and not mince meat. Also, there is some stuffing in these kebabs and they are called “shikam-pur kebabs.” The word “shikam” is Persian and it means stomach and “pur” is filled with or stuffed with.

The way they make Seekh Kebabs here which comes out like rubbery sausages instead of soft, tender and succulent like the original Rampuri Seekh Kebabs which would melt in your mouth. And there is so much aroma, flavour and a taste in it that you like to savour and remember it forever.

The way the original “Yakhni Pulao” is made with authentic spices and tender meat selected from the shank or “bong ki boti” and the way it is presented with golden brown fried onions in desi ghee is yet to be seen in any restaurant. They say that the test of a good Yakhni Pulao is when you start eating it and, you don’t ask for any curry, raita, chutney, pickle etc., and you just eat the Pulao. Some traditionalists prefer to mix Pulao with “Zarda” i.e., old traditional rice desert that they mix it with Pulao in their plates and eat it. But that is an acquired taste and I cannot mix my dessert with any salty dish. Preparing a real good Zarda is an art and it tastes best when you eat it with real Malai or the original cream from top of the milk especially when the milk is allowed to simmer on low heat charcoals, the cream that we get in supermarkets in cans and packets is a joke.

The authentic Pasanday, the Koftay and the Hyderabadi Dum ka Keema, the Bagharay Baingan and the traditional Qubaani ka Meetha have never been heard or seen in the restaurants in the west. And when I used to make all this along with the traditional Dilli Nihari, Hyderabadi Haleem, Peshwari Chapli Kebab and Lahori Chargha, I used to get praise and accolades not only from the customers but from the media as well. The French people loved the original recipes and the press applauded the authenticity of the medieval cuisine, not just about the European or the Mediterranean era but the sub-continental Indian Pakistani medieval cuisine. My cooking was shown as a documentary on the French TV networks.

I decided to put a lid on restaurant cooking because it takes a lot of your time and effort, so I decided to rent my place to someone else. I do enjoy cooking at home and I get a lot of pleasure BUT only when I cook for family, relatives and friends and I thoroughly enjoy it. Cooking is not only an art, but it is one of the sweetest pleasures of life, it releases stress and gives you joy when people appreciate your cooking. There is no limit, no boundaries in cooking, one can use his/her imagination and can be as creative as possible and make or create new recipes and new dishes. But, preserving the old and traditional recipes and the way they are prepared is very important. We need to maintain this tradition by preserving the art of cooking Mughlai dishes.

Postscript: Javed Khan specializes in BBQ and enjoys it most. At home, instead of using a gas grill, he uses wood charcoal and a wood smoker. Unlike most people, who keep their gas grills on their terrace or at the poolside patio, he has created an exquisite ambiance by keeping his wood charcoal grills and the wood smoker under a huge maple tree at his humble abode, that is so unique and different and a perfect setting for outdoors cooking especially during the summer. Most amateur people cannot handle wood charcoal cooking as they find it very difficult to handle the fire, whereas it is easier for them to turn off the gas or to reduce the heat by using the gas knob. The best way to handle a wood charcoal fire is by keeping a big bowl of water nearby and keep sprinkling it over the charcoals to reduce the heat. By doing so you don’t put the fire off permanently, the charcoal turns red again and gives better fire and you have to keep repeating this process – which he calls “Fire Management.” There is a big difference in taste, aroma and flavour when you BBQ anything on gas and when you BBQ the same on wood charcoal. The smoke enhances the flavour and the taste. The best time to cook on wood charcoal is when the initial red flame has died off and the charcoals are simmering in silver ash and when the flame is white and low, then it is much safer to cook i.e., to avoid any charcoal burning the food which is not recommended by doctors. However, there are numerous tips on various Internet sites on how to reduce carcinogens in grilled foods and make outdoor cooking safer and healthier.

Javed A. Khan, a Pakistani corporate banker was in Dubai for several years before migrating to Canada. Owing to the nature of his profession he has traveled extensively all over the world. He has a taste for culinary cuisine and enjoys gourmet cooking to the extent that for a couple of years he used to cook for fun at a restaurant in his commercial property that he owns as an investment. Apart from making the traditional sub-continent dishes mainly the Moghul Cuisine, he specialized in the Mediterranean, Arabic and Chinese cuisine as well. He has also created a nouvelle cuisine that, by improvising and blending different types of cuisine, suits the culture and the taste of a wider palate. Mr. Khan has been writing for a few other food blogs from time to time and he can be contacted through his personal email replysoon@hotmail.com

Yes I remember that storey about the king and the baingan, and that term “Thaali Ka Baingan”, and I must say that you have very good memory.

Now coming back to the ‘chhokri ki side’, well it’s obvious isn’t it

I was never a big fan of Baingans earlier and I use to eat them anyway, but now a days I like them and there is a special ‘Kashmiri Baingan’ which my wife is making with a lot of nuts and nut-paste, and it tastes so good.

Munir, mujhay pata thaa kay tum chokri ki side logay. Like she wrote, “there are a gazillion ways to cook,” and prior to that in my comment # 5, I have also written very clearly that “everyone claims to cook Imam Bayaldi” and there are variations in the recipe. But, the one I wrote is purely a vegetarian dish and the two reasons why the Imam fainted have been mentioned in it.

Do you remember the story of the King and his Wazir (Minister) about eggplant? The one which I wrote here on LS some time ago? To which you responded by adding, hence the expression: “Thaali Ka Baingan”? The history of eggplant goes back way long and its name has changed in different countries and the method of cooking is also different and there are many ways to cook it.

Berenjena is reportedly the first name, it is originally Farsi Bazinjan, in Arabic it is almost similar, in Urdu, Hindi it is Baingan. In English it started as Aubergene, Brinjal and now eggplant for whatever reasons. Probably the Americans have named it eggplant to them it looks like an egg but, in different colours. In our part of the world, it is not only a vegetable, a cuisine but it is also referred as a colour…. Baingani Rung.

If the Turks are proud of making Imam Bayaldi, the Punjabis love it as Baingan da Saag and Aloo Baingan, the Hyderabadis love their Bagharay Baingan and the UP wala’s love it as Baingan Ka Bhurta. The Arabs love it as Baba-Ghanoosh or Bazinjan bi Tahine. Even here in Quebec it is famous because, it is a French delicacy i.e., eggplant made with ratatouille reportedly originated in Nice, France and it is called ratatouille niçoise. Once again, like Imam Bayaldi, ratatouille niçoise is cooked in virgin olive oil and it is a purely vegetarian dish and NOT what Janet claims it as eggplant stuffed with meat in it is original Imam Bayaldi?

Like, I have said, there are always variations in cooking not only in different countries but, within the same country and from one house to another. But, the authentic recipe if it is not written and recorded, keeps changing and no one remembers which was original.

For example, the Bagharay Baingan original recipe has tamarind in it to add the sour taste, which some people have replaced it with yogurt. The reason is tamarind was not easily available in many places and when you add yogurt the colour of the dish looks more appealing than the one that is cooked with tamarind in it. Also, for some people the taste of tamarind is too strong for them as it is an acquired taste. But, both recipes taste good and, the fact remains that the original recipe is original recipe, variants are welcome as long as they taste good and look good.

Awas, “I thought Javed was rubbish at cooking and you confirmed my doubts”.

Now I know, Awas was waiting for a long long time to say this, and Janet have provided him with a perfect opportunity to attack the catering abilities of the Cook-Khan

BTW, I too been to Turkey several times and I absolutely loved all their foods. I happen to have tasted the (fainted king) Imam Bayaldi on my very first trip to Istanbul, Turkey at “Haji Baba” restaurant on Istiklal Road, just close to the Taksim Square, and it was simply great. Haji Baba is serving authentic Turkish foods and one of the oldest restaurants around. Although, Turkish cuisine is a tinge milder then most of our Asian (Pakistani & Indian) foods, but majority of the Turkish restaurants give you some roughly crushed red-chilies powder to spice up the foods. They also use red-chilies paste with their foods for that purpose.

Javed, nice history lesson on Urdu and Mullah Do Piazza, enjoyed reading it, but still I guess the lady have some credibility in her version of Imam Bayaldi

To clarify further on Imam Bayaldi, the picture that you see is not looking like stew because, the pulp of the egg plant was taken out from its skin, cooked with tomatoes, onions etc., in virgin olive oil and then placed back into the skin of the eggplant to garnish it. It looks more appealing in this manner and looks sloppy if you simply thump the stew into a bowl. Got it?

Stew is an English name and it is NOT Turkish for sure. The Arabic, Farsi and Urdu name of stew is Do-Piazza and the creator of Do Piazza is Abul Hasan aka Mullah Do Piazza (1540 – 1600) He was not a fictional character.

Abul Hasan came to India from Iran along with the Moghul Emperor Humayun on his return journey and became a favourite courtier of his son Emperor Akbar because of his wit and humour. He was a sucker of good food. He not only loved good food, but used to invite everyone to come to his house and eat. He used to ask people to create new gourmet dishes which people have never tasted before. The food was always in abundance and people were never disappointed.

There was a meat dish which wasn’t named and it was prepared with selected pieces of lamb shank and stock taken out from bones after boiling the the bones all night and then it is cooked in golden brown fried onions with ginger and other spices.

One day the number of people turned out more than the usual and realizing that the food may not be sufficient for all, and not enough meat was available at that time, he ordered to double the quantity of onions in the meat. Since then it was named “Do Piazza” which means double quantity of onions in the meat.

Since then this dish became so popular that he called this dish “Syed ul Twam or the king of the dishes.” And, he became famous as Mulla Do Piaza, because he never used to accept any invitation where Do Piaza was not served.

Also, for your information the Pakistani official language that we speak is Urdu and it is a Turkish word, which means “Lashkar” or Army. When the Moghul Emperors first went to India under Zaheer uddin Babar (the first Moghul King) his army was comprised of Turks, Arabs, Iranians and people from Central Asia which was before, Turkmanistan, Girgistan, Uzbekistan, Waziristan etc.

They used to speak, Turkish, Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and in India the local language was Sanskrit and in the army barracks a new language emerged and it is called language of the Urdu, or language of the Army hence it is Urdu language. It is very rich in poetry and literature because of the beaucoup du mélange des langes.

There is also a misconception about Indian cuisines which are not just Indian cuisines but, Moghul Cuisines and how this cuisine emerged, there is a history behind it. Are you interested in knowing it? May be laters….