A spicy mouthful

Chef Simon Tress takes the best of German and Indian cuisines.

Garam masala,” chef Simon Tress stresses, with a wave of his hand, “and curry powder are two things that I love about Indian cooking.” In India for a few days from Germany, he’s laid out an impressive menu for the day — starting with an appetiser that’s quite a mouthful — feta-orange garam masala-lemongrass honey-eggplant caviar-beetroot white radish-old balsamico. The finished dish, we find, is surprisingly basic and simple. The familiar and affable garam masala, however, quite easily overpowers everything else on the plate, but then that’s part of Tress’s agenda.

“I believe in making a well-balanced meal, not just in quality and quantity but also in taste, so adding a bit of spice — in this case, garam masala — is my way of intensifying the otherwise subdued taste of the dish,” he says.

Tress, who grew up in Stuttgart, southern Germany, is taking his visit to India as an opportunity to experiment with Indian and German cuisine. He’s had an exciting few days meeting other chefs from hotels across Delhi and working out preparations suitable to the Indian palate. At a stylish kitchen at the Miele showroom, a premium German domestic appliance brand that has recently launched its operations in India, Tress seems quite at home. Flashing an easy smile every few minutes, he’s patiently laying the base for preparing the main course with his brother, Chef Christian, by his side to assist him.

The main course is quite a mouthful too — “I’m going to make saddle of lamb with shitake and bread on a pea and mint puree, and fried polenta and garlic with tomato on the side,” he says, but hastens to add that a recipe like this can be easily prepared at home, too. “I ensure that most of my cooking is always quick and simple, and well-balanced.”

Tress is only 26 years old, he admits shyly, but cooking is in his blood, with a family business of hotels and restaurants back home in Germany. “I’m glad I could make it to India though, because I have done a lot of cooking with Indian spices there but it’s amazing to use masalas fresh from the market here,” he says. Spiking some of the cold German preparations is an old habit of his, for Tress likes to provoke the palate with spices, “to get a good, intensive flavour so that the food reaches the halfway mark — a taste of both Indian and German cuisine”, he adds. But German cuisine isn’t popular the way French and Italian is in India, I tell him, and he ruefully agrees. “Our food is associated mainly with potatoes and subdued flavours. But from where I come, Stuttgart, we use a lot of cereals, fresh vegetables and meat. In my cooking at my restaurant, I try and create at least three layers in every preparation to make the taste interesting,” he says.

Next up, he plans to open an “organic fast food chain” in Berlin, and hopes to popularise German food all over the world with visits such as this one.

FAVOURITE RECIPE

Saddle of Lamb with Shiitake and bread on Pea and Mint puree, served with Fried Polenta
240 gm saddle of lamb
1 toasted bread
50 gm breast of turkey
80 gm cream
80 gm shiitake mushrooms
Salt, pepper, juniper to taste
For fried polenta:
125 gm polenta (semolina of maize flour)
500 ml milk
2 eggs
Salt, pepper, nutmeg, butter to taste
For pea and mint puree:
400 gm peas
100 gm butter
Mint
Salt, pepper to taste
For tomato preserve:
2 tomatoes
50 gm butter
Salt

Dice breast of turkey, add cream and blend it in a mixer. Add shiitake mushrooms and salt. Cut the bread into thin slices, and arrange it on cling film. Spread turkey paste onto the slices. After adding salt, pepper and juniper onto the saddle of lamb, wrap it carefully into the bread. Then, remove the cling foil. Finally roll the log in foil, seal it thoroughly, and put it into the oven at 150° C. Bake for 15 minutes.

For the polenta, bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan, then stir the semolina thoroughly in the hot milk. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Once lukewarm, add eggs and pour the mash into an oven dish. Seal the oven dish with the foil. Fill a saucepan with sufficient water, place it in the oven, and let the oven dish simmer at 90° C in water for approximately 35 minutes. Let the polenta cool down and cut it into desired shape. Then fry the pieces golden in butter.

For the pea and mint puree, blanch peas in boiling water, then blend in the mixer. Stir butter into the mash and heat it for five minutes at 70° C. Add mint at your own pleasure, and season with pepper and salt.

For tomato preserve, dice the tomatoes, then lightly fry it in butter and salt.

To serve, spread a portion of mint-pea puree in the centre of a plate and place the lamb with shiitake mushrooms and bread on it. Add a dash of tomato preserve and a piece each of fried polenta on either side.