Michelin-starred chef Vineet Bhatia tours the Old Spice Souq in Deira

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Michelin-starred chef Vineet Bhatia takes gntv on a nostalgic journey through the Old Spice Souq in Deira and uncovers a world of flavours. SEe more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00It was a cool afternoon when chef Vineet Bhatia of Indigo restaurant at Digravana House took

00:11a stroll through the lanes of the Old Spice Souk.

00:14Being a Michelin-starred chef, he guided us through the aromas and colours of the sacks

00:19full of dried flowers, limes and spices, explaining how and why each is used.

00:26This is not really cinnamon.

00:27A lot of people think it's cinnamon but it's actually called cassia which is like the bark

00:31of a tree.

00:32It's similar to cinnamon but a different variety altogether.

00:36Cinnamon is much lighter in colour, light brown and has a very nice soft feel to it.

00:41Actually that is cinnamon.

00:43This is, no, it's cassia.

00:44No, it's cinnamon.

00:45Cassia.

00:46No, I'm sure that is cinnamon.

00:47You put any money I bet you.

00:49That is cinnamon.

00:50Don't show me that.

00:51Now ten years I sell that one.

00:52Is that cinnamon?

00:53Now ten years I sell that one.

00:55Is that cinnamon?

00:56I am cooking for the past thirty-two years my friend.

01:01This is cinnamon what you call.

01:04And this is cassia.

01:05You see the difference?

01:07It's a lot more different.

01:08A lot more different smell, a much gentler smell, much lighter perfume.

01:13But what you get here is a lot of choices of things to use and if you look at it, there's

01:18so much of explosion of flavours and perfumes.

01:20you walk in a spice market you get a lot of things around you and here you have

01:24look at that this is mixed spice I mean these are all

01:29Arabic spices used in Arabic cuisines and these are so much similar to what we

01:33have in India I mean except that the lemon other than that all these spices

01:37right from green cardamom to star anise to cumin to fennel to pepper to clove

01:42turmeric red chili ginger all these are used in our food. Spices are used in different

01:48forms they are various stages of adding spice into your food. Whole spices have

01:52got a lot more flavor but as you smell them and you taste them they don't get

01:56much flavor. Spices have to go into oil and when you use oil always try and use

02:01oil which is preheated or warm oil never too hot and never cold because they have

02:05oils in them and enzymes so when you actually cook into hot oil when you add

02:10the whole spice they infuse flavors off. That is the very first stage of adding

02:14flavor into oil or flavoring a dish. The second stage is when you add spice

02:18powders which there are only four. There is red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander

02:23powder and cumin powder. These form the base of the masala or the so-called

02:27gravy or the sauce and at the very end you add the spice powders in terms of

02:31the aromatics which is the garam masala powder only for smell. Ah look at that

02:36this in Hindi is known as fit curry also known as alam. I have made a great dish

02:44years back using fit curry and I actually made a dessert out of fish and I used fit

02:49curry and what I did was I actually put this into water I put the fish pieces in

02:53them and I brought it to a boil and what this does is this cleanses off

02:58everything into the dish takes away all the smells and cleans it and makes it very

03:02pure and when you cook the fish eventually it all flaked off we can like

03:06a paste had no flavor to it. It looked more like paneer than actually like fish

03:09and tasted of almost nothing. Also in the olden days back in India when you

03:15were shaving at home if you ever cut yourself you apply a little fit curry it

03:19seals it off. My cameraman says it's still being done. These small little balls you

03:25see here are actually nutmeg. These are great to have very warm. If you open that

03:32up that's what you have inside. You have the beautiful aromatic nutmeg. The

03:40flowering for the nutmeg is called as a mace which has got a nice rich orange

03:45color. Look at that. I mean that the smell is absolutely divine goes great with lamb

03:52absolutely fantastic. When you use them into the hot summer months be very very

03:57careful it's very warming is very hot it makes your body very hot so use very

04:02sparingly. It is also a great tenderizer used a lot with hard meats or anything

04:07on the bone or any kebab which needs to be marinated for a little long you put

04:12that in a small pinch it makes the meat very soft a great great tenderizer. The

04:17covering outside which is the mace is very good for pulaos. Again used a lot

04:23also in garam masala especially in North India has a very nice purslane to it

04:27very gentle but very very nice. These dried limes here I mean although they are very dry

04:33they have a very nice perfume a nice aroma and they used a lot to cook with

04:38the fish with lamb but can also have a very nice flavor to incorporate into

04:43vegetables or even rice. You soak them into water or you cook them into a gravy

04:47and they impart the nice flavor. Slight bitter but absolutely divine. You can cook

04:52with them remove them from the dish and leave it out or let it be and you can

04:56bite into them and suck. They are quite juicy and soft when cooked. Star anise is again

05:01used plenty for flavoring goes great with fish used a lot in South India

05:07used a lot also in Chettinad cuisine it works extremely well very aromatic and

05:12these I love baby rose petal buds not just for cooking you can also make great

05:19tea with that so you have a pot of hot water you take in a few maybe seven

05:24eight of these buds put them in the hot water and let them seep in the water

05:28gives a very nice flavor and these swell up and they look very very nice if you

05:32take out the buds the single buds as you can see these are also used for

05:36pulaos also used for a very nice marinade to do a chicken tikka or a

05:41piece of hamur lightly light simple marinade with oil a bit of yogurt and

05:46add lots of leaves for color and for flavor very gentle so you have to use

05:50quite a few of these. When you use these spices here do not add too many spices

05:54together add a few so you can blend them well and they become very aromatic and

05:58very fragrant. On our way back to his kitchen Bhatia picked up a few spices to

06:04cook an exclusive prawn dish for the weekend tabloid

06:14you're going to make a potli out of spices and it's potli because the whole

06:17spices they come in your mouth and they give a very odd flavor sometimes people

06:21are used to having whole spices so tie it into a bag and I'm going to put it

06:24into the water and when you boil the water all the spices will impart the

06:27flavors into the water and that will also enhance the flavor of the rice so

06:32although you don't get to see it but you get to taste all the spices plus we're

06:36going to add a small pinch of turmeric powder and that will give a very nice

06:40yellow color and that was the only spice powder we actually saw in the markets

06:43so I'm going to use that for you so need to add a generous amount of salt

06:49and we're going to wait till the water comes to a boil

06:54and if you remember we've got a beautiful lemon the dried lemons which

06:59we saw there I'm going to use these lemons to actually add flavor into the

07:04prawn dish

07:07I've got some hot oil in the hot oil I'm going to add a little bit of cumin and a

07:12little bit of fennel seeds just a small amount some onions

07:22with the onions I'm going to add a little bit of ginger garlic paste and in this you're

07:29going to add a good amount of curry leaves curry leaves are again a very aromatic

07:34herb gives a very nice flavor especially with lemon and with seafood I'm going to add

07:38that in now

07:41because this water goes into the spices it prevents the spice from actually

07:45getting burnt when you put it with your masala

07:53in that goes

07:57and we're going to further add in that a small amount of tomato paste just one

08:03tablespoon of tomato paste a little bit of salt

08:11just gonna half a dried lemon look at that oh the smell is fantastic it smells

08:17like lime pickle achar because the lime is cooking up with the onions the

08:24tomatoes and the ginger garlic paste it gives a very nice flavor it adds more

08:28flavor to the sauce and at this stage once the masala is nice and thick I'm

08:34going to add some water

08:40stir it together in the water and in that I'm going to add some prawns which

08:44have been deveined and de-shelled you can go for a smaller size but I think this

08:48is just about right

08:53in the good old days back in India and even houses back in India people still

08:57make coconut milk by taking the brown coconut grating it putting into a cloth

09:01and then squeezing out the extract but fortunately if you go out to supermarkets

09:04and your shops you get a very nice quality thick coconut milk a generous

09:09amount I'm going to add

09:12I'm going to now add rice which I've soaked for a good half an hour

09:19we always try to add at least three times of water three or four times

09:24so all the flavor in the potli if you press it down it'll actually fall into

09:29the rice so when you're boiling the potli along with the rice on the water

09:32all that flavor all the goodness of the swad of all the spices all remains

09:37intact inside here here is the potli

09:41so what you get is very nice light fluffy rice absolutely no fat but full

09:51of flavor and a very nice color. Plate

10:03here we are

10:06something Indian something Arabic in fact a blend of both the both the

10:11countries and both the cultures and cuisines are so overlapping but we've

10:15taken things from the local market here and given our own little twist

10:21so keep it simple use them sparingly carefully and tastefully

10:26Manjiri Saxena The Weekend Tabloid

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