Food and Drink: Daal-icious
Andrew Kay falls for the simple pleasures of Indian home cooking at Curry Leaf Cafe
I first met chef Kanthi Thamma on the Live Food Stage at the Brighton and Hove Food and Drink Festival. He was there assisting his then employer, a much respected local chef and successful restaurateur. When it came to the five minute challenge section of the show, I suggested that Kanthi might do the challenge rather than his boss. They agreed, and he created one of the best dishes of the day. Since then Kanthi has done many jobs, travelled abroad to demostrate his kitchen skills and even worked as a tutor chef for Jamie Oliver – but now we have him back in his own kitchen at last, and he is cooking up a storm, not only in the Curry Leaf Cafe but on a wide range of social network and review sites. And all this within weeks of opening.
I would normally leave it a while before going in to judge for myself, but the word on the street (and the net) was so hot I couldn’t resist an early meal. I was not to be disappointed. Joined by Mr L, we made an early booking on a bank holiday Sunday. We arrived at six and it was already starting to fill up; by seven they were almost full, so the old advice that ‘booking is essential’ may already be neccessary.
Kanthi came out to greet us with his business partner Euan, and I suggested that we leave our menu choices to the chef. Kanthi was delighted to oblige and suggested that he create tasting platters for us to share. Perfect, I thought, lots to taste but not too much to eat. We started with some excellent mini poppadoms and a large spicy one served with a range of excellent pickles – not your standard jarred stuff, but really delighful fresh ones including a peanut sauce that was a very nice surprise.
We moved on to a plate of starters. The tandoori chicken tikka was truly juicy, packed with herb and spice flavours and had none of that scary red colouring that always looks so fake. Fish cakes were equally exciting and were protein-packed rather than starchy; a very good thing when so many fish cakes are almost entirely made of potato. At the same time there were really delicious fried potato balls – batate ambade – that more than satisfied the need for balance.
The minced lamb geelafi kebab was once again a juicy delight, with well judged spicing that allowed the flavours of the lamb to live rather than drown in fire and spice. Finally, karwari jigha (prawns to you and me) in a crust of semolina that was sweet, salty and fiery. These were more than good, they were stunning.
That was just for starters, but in sensible proportions. Our main courses followed the same pattern of a selection of smaller portions that would give us a cross section of dishes from the menu.
One the side came three kinds of rice, each cooked perfectly, piping hot, and I have to say worthy of being differently named. I often find that rice dishes have very little different about them to justify their existence, but here each was worthwhile in its own right. On our platter there were three curries and two side dishes. I started with a dish that I know uses Kanthi’s mother’s own recipe. Nellore chapaal pulusu is a light curry of sea bream fillets in a tamarind infused sauce. I loved it. The spicing, judiciously delicate, allowed the sea bream to stand out and the tamarind gave it a vibrant lift.
In contrast, murgh zafran do pyaza is a rich nutty chicken dish packed with spice and balanced by the creaminess of the nuts and seeds. This required chunks of excellent naan bread to do the essential mopping up.
Hyderabadi gosht was equally delicious and in need of mopping material, too. Tender slow-cooked lamb basked in a rich sauce flavoured with garam masala and dried coconut; I was hard pressed to choose a favourite dish.
Funnily enough, in the end I chose the daal, a distinctly musky stew of soft lentils that really hit the spot. Daal is so often served as a sad bowl of sloppy pulses lacking any distinguishing features, but here they were raised to magnificent. The sambar was pretty good too and wonderfully refreshing but I was, I confess, in love with the daal.
We stayed with our tasting theme for dessert and tried the three icecream flavours that Kanthi has produced with Seb Cole from Boho Gelato. Coconut and lime sorbet was a cool and refreshing delight; mango and pistacchio a fragrant creamy treat, too. Top marks though to an adventurous and experimental beetroot and cardamom icecream that had us purring with delight, the sweet earthy beets matched perfectly by the warming muskiness of the spice. I loved this liaison between two great chefs.
Curry Leaf Cafe is already busy – booking will be essential, I have no doubt. I cannot wait to return and next time I am going to try one of their fine loose leaf teas, too. It may be early days but this place is packed with promise already.
Curry Leaf Cafe, 60 Ship Street, Brighton, BN1 1AE
01273 207070
www.curryleafcafe.com
info@curryleafcafe.com
City centre or out of town dining? andrew@thelatest.co.uk
