Indian dishes with a twist

Alas! Tasneem doesn't have a restaurant but her very very popular food can make a party with a phone call. From a hand full of dishes, Tasneem has expanded to 27 over delicacies from India including the rare, filing multi-tasting Dhansak a dish from Bombay about which Camelia. Punjabi in her 50 great curries of India says,"Dhansak is the best known and liked dish in Parsee cuisine. Dhan in Gujrati means wealth, but in Parsee Gujrati Dhaan means rice. Sak means vegetables. Dhansak is a meat, vegetable and lentil curry eaten with caramelised brown pulao rice. Although there are many ingredients, it is quite simple to prepare." The flavour of Tasneem's Dhansak is a lusty one with tamarind, chilli powder, and green chillies adding sharpness while pumpkins aubergines and potatoes cool things down and fenugreek or methi adds a high note. There are 23 ingredients in this chicken cooked with lentil and vegetablle including several kinds of daals or pulses and it is not on Tasneem's menu but those in the know just order it. Says Tasneem "Dear to me is the three layered rice. As it was invented by my mother. It consists of a base layer or rice, on which comes a layer of rice, on which comes a layer of rice, on which comes a later of spiced chicken or mutton mince and topped with a layer of chutneys of hot garlic sauce and green chillies with ground coconut. Incidentally, this was the first dish I choose to cook at a family gathering organized by in-laws after my marriage and they haven't stopped talking about it to date." The three layered rice has so many tastes fro pungent to particullary enjoyed the Tapeli-na kababs which is a dish made of mixed meat, potatoes and peas with each of the three main ingredients interchanging flavours. Says Tasneem," tapeli -na-kebabs is a dish you want find in any recipe book as it is a home grown invention. It consists of mutton mince meatballs stemed cooked with potatoes and peas originally cooked in earthen pans." Specially to me in addition to the brilliant meat and rice Priyan is a forgotten recipe the bhinds curry which is especially flavoured and is an explosion of taste in your mouth.

For dessert order a variety of Tasneem's chocolates which are hot selleres & cool endings for a blissfull evening.