Page 60 - UpperCrust e-Magazine Third Quarter 2024

EATING OUT | BAWRI

what North Indian restaurant cuisine has
Kela Kakori Kebab, Silbatta Chutney
degenerated to, oily and masalafied. This I
attribute to a combination of Punjabi and
what passes for Mughlai cuisine, which
gives restaurateurs the liberty to present
almost industrial style cooking, using poor
ingredients, cheap oils and excessive garam
masala to camouflage the quality of the
ingredients. In the case of Bawri as it was
with Arth, Chef Sandhu is very particular
as to the quality of the ingredients and
the cooking medium. The oils she uses
are either olive oil or avocado oil, but
her default medium of cooking is natural
ghee of a high quality. Her emphasis is on
simplicity and flavour, I experienced that in
a dish which is otherwise taken for granted,
the Lasooni Palak which was extraordinarily
tasty and was paired well with kebabs.
Needless to say, her basics are superlative.
If the Lasooni Palak was delicious, her black
Maa ki Dal is also exceptional, and given
her Punjabi antecedents, to be expected. So
are her breads, such as the stuffed kulchas,
particularly the Green Pea Kulcha was a
wondrous thing.
Bawri is an attempt and, in my view,
a successful one for the chef to transcend
her traditional comfort zone which has
been North Indian Punjabi and Kashmiri
cuisine, and present a number of regional
dishes. She introduces the Awadhi Kakori
and Galouti Kebabs which are as authentic as
I have had, she goes South of the Vindhyas
and introduces the Hyderabadi Pathar ka
Gosht as part of the kebab selection. The
latter is a very difficult dish to do properly.
It involves the flattened pieces of marinated
meat to be cooked on a granite slab heated
on burning coal. The heat makes the granite
slab sweat, releasing its minerals and juices
giving it an unique taste. There are few
restaurants that are able to replicate this
uniquely smoky flavour and Bawri is one
of them. The Lamb Chops which she does
in the Dungar style, smoking it, was for me
a standout dish. For the vegetarians, there
is the Charred Paneer, this dish showcases
the exposure of paneer to intense heat which
leaves a uniquely soft and creamy texture
Flame Grilled Chicken, served with a fennel and dry mango chutney
Picci Tandoori Butter, Pickles Manipuri Black Rice Dosa
as a superb contrast to the gooey richness

58 | UPPERCRUST | JUL-SEP 2024