| Magandeep Singh, India's first certified sommelier, does not cook often but when he does, he really sets his mind to it. And all the skills and experience he's gathered working in the kitchens of fine-dining outlets in France. |
| Lamb chops and vegetables (broccoli, chanterelle mushrooms and baby potatoes) it'll be, he's decided, in a Recioto-laced sauce, with more of the same to go with it. (Eventually, it is a glass of California rose "with 24-carat gold flakes added" that accompanies our meal.) |
| But then sourcing decent lamb chops in Delhi isn't easy. Singh has done his best "" searched the nearby Defence Colony market, and managed to get lamb, not goat, and even got the butcher to carve it right. But he's still not satisfied. When I step into his kitchen "" a roomy, well appointed space "" he's busy slicing away pieces of fat from the meat, scraping meat from the bone and arranging it in a perfect triangle. |
| "I had thought I'd get some bread," he keeps up a steady patter all the while, "some baguette perhaps, but then where would you get that? I wanted some parsley and even saw some "" but it smelt of fridge. And he was asking for something like Rs 50 for a bunch!" But not all's lost. Singh's father ("He loves cooking too") has found some Korean soya sauce, and chanterelle mushrooms from a small-time farmer, and the gourmand son has decided these are what he'll use. |
| Over the past few months Singh's been all over Europe, filming a food and wine show that he's anchoring, and which goes on air on NDTV Good Times from November 10. Singh is, of course, a self-confessed Francophile, having taught himself to speak, read, and write the language during his time at the L'Universite du Vin, Suze-La-Rousse, where he picked up his post-graduate diploma in wine-tasting. "In fact, I communicate better in French than I do in Hindi." At any rate, he's picked up the two French obsessions "" food and wine. |
| Favourite Recipe |
| Lamb chops in wine sauce 4 pieces lamb chops Olive oil (sunflower would do better) as needed A few pieces meat bones and trimmings 50-100 gm butter 50-100 gm flour 2 garlic pods 1 onion, chopped 1 small carrot, grated 2 tomatoes, blanched, deseeded and chopped 25-30 ml of Recioto, or any sweet red wine Salt and pepper to taste |
| For the stock, simmer 100 gm of meat bones and trimmings, some vegetable peels and tomato pulp, one bayleaf, 10 gm peppercorn, a pinch of nutmeg and a one-inch piece of cinnamon and water in a covered pan for a couple of hours. |
| First make the brown sauce. Heat olive oil in a pan, drop in the bones, and brown well. Add the onions, carrots and garlic whole. Fry, making sure the onions are not burnt. Add butter and equal quantity of flour and lower the flame, stirring with a whisk. Cook till flour turns brown. Add tomatoes. When done, add the stock. Now add the seasoning. Strain the sauce and thicken. Now add some Recioto, careful not to make it too sweet. |
| Heat olive oil in a pan again and cook the lamb chops evenly, pouring in stock from time to time. (Or sear the chops and stick the pan in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes or so.) In a pan, pour wine and let it simmer over low heat, reducing it to one-fourth or so. Line a plate with the reduced wine, arrange the chops and pour the brown sauce over it. |
| For the vegetables: One medium head of broccoli, chopped 200 gm Chanterelle, shredded large One cup soya sauce Butter to fry |
| Blanch the broccoli. Lightly dip the florets in soya, and wipe to soak excess. Heat butter in a pan, and saute the broccoli, mushrooms with a teaspoon of onions, add seasoning. Drain the water that oozes out from the mushrooms. |
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