Murgh Mussallam
Chicken Mughlai
This Puja, drive over to AD Block for a taste of both Delhi and history. Karim’s, the famous restaurant from Delhi’s Jama Masjid neighbourhood, is opening an outlet in Salt Lake.
The restaurant had a soft launch on Mahalaya and will be open to all from Sunday. The neighbourhood is abuzz. “Work has been on for months but it’s after we put up the Karim’s board outside that neighbours have been dropping in to ask if this is the Delhi Karim’s,” smiles Souvik Mukherjee, who has taken a franchise of the outlet. “We have been inviting them over for food tastings ever since.”
The 68-seater restaurant is following the methods and ingredients of their head office in every detail. “Even our meat is being kept — not in fridges but — in metallic ice boxes like it used to be 108 years ago. That’s the way to ensure one gets the exact taste,” says Mukherjee.
It all began with Mohammed Aziz, who was a chef in the kitchen of Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. After the ruler was exiled, Aziz passed on the royal recipes to his son, Haji Karimuddin, who then started a humble restaurant selling just two dishes. “The recipes are still closely — and even legally — guarded by the family, which is why they never branched out. But now the fifth generation of the family is expanding and that’s how I could bring it to Salt Lake,” says Mukherjee, a banker-turned-restauranter who is shifting to AE Block soon.
The chefs at the new outlet are from Delhi too. And while they are presumably tight-lipped about their cooking process, they are excited about offering their signature dishes to Calcutta. “There’s Mutton Nihari (Rs 557) that has a curd-based creamy gravy, Jahangiri Chicken (Rs 515) that has a tomato-based sour-tinged gravy and Mutton Korma (Rs 490) that is a rich tangy must-have dish,” says Barik, one of the chefs who have flown down from the capital.
Team the above dishes with Khameri Roti. “This is essentially Tandori Roti but cooked in a way that makes it extremely soft,” Mukherjee — not just says but also — shows by rolling the large fluffy roti into a fist. All the chefs would say about it is that it is made of a rawa ata and flour mixture. Their naan looks much darker than usual and tastes distinct too. “For this we add milk and eggs,” said Barik.
So stringent is the brand about quality control, that besides meat, vegetables and dairy products all ingredients are sent from the head office. “Even seemingly innocuous items like rose water and keora jol are supplied to us,” says Mukherjee.
They are introducing Karim’s take on some local favourites like Calcutta biriyani and Chicken Chaap. “We may even introduce Tandori Fish, since Bengalis seek fish,” Mukherjee says.
“Karim’s already had another branch on CIT Road when we decided to step in. We had the whole city to choose from but narrowed down to Salt Lake because of the demography. People here have either eaten at Karim’s Delhi and love it or haven’t been there but know of it and are curious,” he says. “We believe the Pujas are a great time to kick off as this area attracts lots of pandal-hoppers. As for Covid, most people around will be double vaccinated by December and should be more confident about eating out.”