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For centuries the Grand Trunk Road has linked the eastern
and western regions of the Indian subcontinent, running from Bengal,
across north India, into Pakistan and up to Afghanistan. Today it is
still a major route, the axis of India's heavily populated north.
Food of the Grand Trunk Road is a fascinating look at the food,
culture and traditions that have sprung up along the road, promising
recipes that reflect the eating traditions of the real India. The
book follows Hardeep Singh Kohli's travels along this age-old route,
starting in Calcutta, linking with Lucknow, Aligargh and Delhi before
curling north into the Punjab region of northwest India.
The recipes are provided by Anirudh Arora, head chef at Moti Mahal
in London, who has devoted his career to researching the
long-forgotten recipes of rural India as found along the old Grand
Trunk Road. Nostalgic favourites include bhalla papdi chaat, a dish
discovered in the streets of North India featuring crisp-fried pastry
and chickpeas with a tamarind and mint chutney.
Featuring the seductive barbecued flavours of Peshawar and
Rawalpindi to the sumptuous secrets of the imperial dastarkhans of
Delhi and Agra, to the sublime vegetarian food of Varanasi and the
tantalizing sweets of Bengal, this will be an eye-opening look at
Indian food.
Anirudh Arora is head chef at Moti Mahal, a relaxed Indian
restaurant in the heart of London's West End. Hardeep Singh Kohli is
a British writer and radio and television presenter. His most recent
venture has been his one-man show The Nearly Naked Chef, a mixture of
stand-up comedy and cookery, which won critical acclaim at the
Edinburgh Festival. |
