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Utterly butterly tasty
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Nothing beats the taste of desi ghee dishes, says Rahul Verma
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After years of thinking about food, and getting some good practical experiences, I have come to one conclusion — you can’t beat desi ghee. The aroma of cumin seeds spluttering in desi ghee is something that cannot be easily described. It
does something wild to your gastric juices, and you can give an arm and a leg to eat your dal tempered with desi ghee and zeera, with some hot rotis off the tawa. And, of course, desi ghee can do wonders to non-vegetarian food, too.
How to reach
You may remember the two former baddies of Sadar Bazar, who kicked up a mini revolution in the area when they chucked their dubious activities and started cooking and selling meat with desi ghee. Ashok and Ashok are some kind of a legend in food circles, even though the two friends are not there any more. But they have left behind a wonderful legacy — quite a few of their relatives and other fans have opened similar outlets in different parts of Delhi. It was the lure of desi ghee that took me to Ghanta Ghar the other day. A friend had been drooling while waxing eloquent about a tikkawallah who cooked his meat in desi ghee. I went in search of Bablu Kabab shop, though I didn’t know the name then. All that I knew was that their tikkas were stupendous. I had a tedious journey, which involved a car, a train and a rickshaw. But if you are in the University area, take Kolhapur road. When it hits the Clock Tower, or Ghanta Ghar, look out for a very small shop called Bablu. It’s just opposite the Tower, on the Ghanta Ghar roundabout (telephone numbers: 9810165770 and 23856950).
Bablu has two USPs — one, of course, is that he cooks his stuff in desi ghee. And, second, he shallow fries most of his stuff on a tawa, though he also has a tandoor for the usual tandoori, Afghani and haryali chickens. The master chef was standing by his tawa, when I went there, frying onions and tomatoes. Next to him were some huge utensils with semi-prepared meat and chicken. I wanted a plate of mutton tikkas. To the desi ghee and onion-tomato paste, he added a generous fistful of tikkas and sautéed them well, removing the water from the tawa every now and then. He added some masalas and red chillies to the tikkas, and then he presented them to me in a foil-coated plate, after topping the tikkas with rings of onion, chutney, and a wedge of lime. It was simply sublime. The desi ghee had given its aroma and taste to the meat, and the onions and tomatoes turned it into a delicious tikka masala.
A plate of mutton tikka masala is for Rs.85, as is a plate of chicken tikka masala. He makes a similar mutton chaap masala for Rs.90. There are other items on the menu — chicken chaap fry, mutton chaap fry (Rs.80 for two pieces), fish Amritsari tawa (boneless) for Rs.120.
There is also tawa paneer (Rs.70) and some other veggie dishes. I was, it goes without saying, really very happy with my tikkas. You just can’t go wrong with desi ghee and mutton, can you?
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