Restaurateur Marut Sikka keeps his focus on Indian cuisine as he cooks for us.
When you spend an afternoon watching restaurateur Marut Sikka cook, you are bound to get welcome free lessons and tips on the subject. Sikka, as he places the lagan — a utensil typical to Uttar Pradesh — on the burner in the kitchen of his restaurant Magique in Delhi’s Garden of Five Senses, advises me by saying, “The garlic should get a nice golden-brown colour when you are cooking it, and for that it needs to be cut evenly.” Sikka is cooking us two dishes, one a quick vegetarian one in deference to the photographer and I, both vegetarians, and one fish dish because, clearly, Sikka at heart is a meat lover.
Sikka says that as far as food is concerned, “the learning process never stops”. He says, “I started with food research and then I realised that the world was moving and many new things had come into play in this business.” This realisation for Sikka is likely, he says, to translate into him taking maybe at some point an advanced course abroad. Sikka adds, “You need to be cutting-edge and radical.”
As we chat, I notice that for the paneer dish, Sikka has used desi ghee as the cooking medium. Isn’t desi ghee an unfashionable medium in these days of health consciousness? Sikka counters by saying, “Desi ghee is part of the tradition.” Sikka, in his kitchen, puts great emphasis on freshness of ingredients, and says that when cooking one needs to be focussed. Says Sikka, “Getting a dish right is all about attention and focus.”
Which could be difficult, given that most restaurant kitchens are like army boot camps, with instructions being belted out and junior kitchen staff working at a feverish pace to keep the master chef well-supplied with all the requisite ingredients at all times. There is no room for slip-ups, as hungry and demanding customers wait impatiently on the other side of the kitchen door. Says Sikka, “The kitchen is a high-energy area,” as he tastes a bit of the base sauce of the paneer, adding, “I like to keep tasting what I am cooking.”
For the fish, the cooking is more collaborative. Sikka enlists his chef to take over and says, “Everyone has a different way of cooking and the sequence of adding ingredients. For instance, in this fish dish I would not add jeera, which the chef has.”
Although Magique doesn’t serve Indian cuisine, that’s where Sikka’s heart lies. He wants Indian cuisine to be treated with respect and admiration, the way some of the other cuisines are right now. He says, “I want to take Indian food to a level and put it on par with any other cuisine. Indian food is the most complete food in the world. Show me any dish from any international cuisine and I will show you an Indian equivalent.” On that note we part, chewing thoughtfully on that piece of information.
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FAVOURITE RECIPE
MEEN MOLEE
4 small sea bass fillets, each about 150 gm
2 tsp coconut oil
2 medium-size onions, finely sliced
400 ml coconut milk
20 curry leaves
3 garlic cloves, sliced into fine strips
6 green chillies, slit lengthwise
1½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
Coriander sprigs, to garnish
Remove any small bones from the fish fillets with tweezers. Mix half a teaspoon of salt with one teaspoon of turmeric and gently rub into the fish fillets.
Heat the coconut oil in a wide pan. Add the onions, chillies and garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Then add the curry leaves and keep cooking until the onion is translucent. Take out half the curry leaves and set aside for garnish.
Add the rest of the turmeric and salt to the pan. Pour in the coconut milk and heat through. Then add the fish fillets and simmer very gently for three to four minutes until just cooked. Serve immediately, garnished with the remaining curry leaves and coriander sprigs.