Khichri
This is a south Asian specialty of rice and lentils served with an assortment of accompaniments.
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The first few months of the year have been an absolute whirlwind and thanks to you we are going from strength to strength. Just last month we received news that Memsahib’s Lounge is one of the latest restaurants added to the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland! We’re absolutely thrilled and so excited to be part of the guide and listed as one of the Michelin Inspectors’ favourite new restaurants. I can assure you we will be working hard every service to deliver the absolute best Memsahib’s food, drinks and hospitality to you!
To celebrate we are delighted to offer you, our friends and guests at Memsahib’s Lounge 20% off any Masterclass or Biryani Supper Club booking. The offer will run from Thursday 20th April until the end of Sunday 4th June 2023. Simply add the following code ‘spring20’ when booking either your masterclass or supper club on our website. Please find more details below as well as details of the experiences applicable for the offer.
Save 20% off any booking for our Memsahib’s Lounge Gin & Cookery Masterclass or Biryani Supper Club – applicable to any date for the rest of 2023. Use code ‘spring20’. Offer valid from Thursday 20th April 2023 until Sunday 4th June 2023. Please note that should you use the code for our supper club, a 20% reduction will be applied to your deposit ticket of £10 pp and on the night of your supper club we will apply 20% reduction to your supper club ticket of £40 pp. Drinks purchased on the night will not be part of the offer.
Book our Memsahib’s Masterclass to create your very own infused gin and learn how to make a delicious Indian dish from our expert Memsahib chefs. There will be ample sampling opportunities, so you can learn in an interactive way and dig into the delights straight away! Following the infusion and cookery masterclass, you will be invited to enjoy a delicious sweet and savoury Memsahib’s Lounge Afternoon Tea (worth £25 pp), inspired by the style of the memsahibs of the British Raj period.
Join us on the last Thursday of every month for our Biryani Supper Club in Cheltenham. This is your opportunity to devour a Bangladeshi feast (including as much biryani as you like), delight in our delicious drinks and meet our wonderful chefs, hearing about our culinary heritage first-hand. Originally from Persia, and introduced to the Indian Subcontinent by Mughal rulers, Biryani is a delight to eat and a challenge for chefs to prepare!
A light and fragrant soup using seasonal vegetables and potatoes. Perfect for lunch or dinner starter during this hot summer
Season : Spring & Autumn
Course: Soup
Complexity: Easy
Prep time: 10-15 min
Ingredients
12 to 14 cauliflower florets
10 to 12 tenderstem broccoli
3 small jersey royal potato cubed
2 banana shallots chopped
2 Garlic cloves chopped
¼ tsp crushed fennel
½ tsp crushed cumin
1 green chilli (deseeded)
2 bay leaf
2 cloves
Salt to taste
Ingredients
6 Curry leaves
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp asafoetida
1.2 litre of vegetable stock
Garnish
1 tsp freshly crushed black pepper
Red chilli chopped
Spring onion chopped
1 TBSP Tamarind sauce /lime juice
Roasted sunflower seeds
Method
Steps:
Samosa Chaat is made when samosa is broken into bite-sized pieces and served with masala, chutney, and spices. Even though it’s amazing street food, it can also be made at home. It’s the perfect dish to experiment with because there are so many different sauces and spices to try it with!
Deconstructed samosa, mixed with spices and vegetables.
Season : all
Course: Appetiser
Complexity: Easy
Prep time: 20-25 min
Cooking time: 10-15 min Category: Veg/ Meat Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
To prepare samosa:
200g Filo pastry sheets
2 large potatoes
1 can of chickpeas
1 medium sized onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli
1 beaten egg
Salt to taste
Oli to fry
Ingredients
To make chaat:
2 tbsp fresh coriander
¼ of a medium cucumber
1 tomato chopped
2 to 3 spring onions
1 small sized red onion
2 green chillies
1 tbsp chaat masala spice
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp garlic & chilli infused oil
Optional:
Pomegranate
Sav
To make samosa:
To make chatt
Chef’s recommendation : Decore cucumber and tomatoes to prevent chaat from getting soggy.
The ceviche is a technique of curing fish to get the freshest flavour of the sea on the plate. The dish is very popular in the Americas, but during the British Raj era, pickling fish, meat and vegetables with herbs and spices were one of the innovative ways to control food waste. Over a couple of centuries, this necessity became a part of Anglo-Indian cuisine as such today the word chutney and piccalilli is part of our greater sustainable cooking and healthy diet.The ceviche is a technique of curing fish to get the freshest flavour of the sea on the plate. The dish is very popular in the Americas, but during the British Raj era, pickling fish, meat and vegetables with herbs and spices were one of the innovative ways to control food waste. Over a couple of centuries, this necessity became a part of Anglo-Indian cuisine as such today the word chutney and piccalilli is part of our greater sustainable cooking and healthy diet.
Course: Appetiser
Complexity: Intermediate
Preparation Time: 10 – 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 – 15 minutes
Serves: 6 to 8
Ingridients:
Method:
Ingridients:
Method:
Ingridients:
Method:
Our barman Paul has chosen something a little bright for our featured non-alcoholic cocktail with rhubarb as the star of the show. This drink consists of some more very easy to make but very versatile syrups – one using rhubarb and another using mint – both of course can be added to other drinks too!
Make and serve this at home for yourself or ask Paul, our resident Memsahib bartender to create for you. If you try this at home or indeed at Memsahib’s then be sure to tag us in your pics – share with us and tag us on Instagram – @memsahibbar #memsahibathome
Complexity: Easy
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Drink serves 1, however, the syrups can be stored and serve many!
1. Home-Made Rhubarb Syrup (1L)
Ingredients:
Method:
Dice the rhubarb and add to a pan with the sugar. Add the boiling water and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes. Blend the mixture until creamy and then strain. Once cool, store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
2. Home-Made Rhubarb Syrup (1L)
Ingredients:
Method:
In a heat resistant jug, add sugar to boiling water and stir until it has dissolved. Add the mint and mix. Cool the syrup down and store in the fridge for up to 2 months.
3. The Rhubarb Ripple Cocktail
Ingredients:
Method:
Chill your coupe glass. In a cocktail shaker, add your raspberries and smash gently and then add all the other ingredients in the shaker with ice and shake for 10-15 sec. Fine strain into the glass and serve and perhaps garnish with fresh rhubarb, mint or raspberry.
Let us introduce Hyderabadi Haleem, a much loved dish across Indian sub continent and among travelling Memsahibs.
The root of the dish can be traced back as far as 10th Century Persia where this energy filled semi soup, semi stew consistency porridge would be offered to labourers to keep them energised for a long day of work. As it travelled through the Indian subcontinent and all the way to Bengal it had been adapted by various tribes; sometimes eaten for breakfast, sometimes for lunch and a staple for breaking fast in the evening during Ramadan.
We love this mouth salivating, tummy crunching, flatbread dipping mouthful of heaven on a cold wintery evening which not only fills the belly but brings that extra little warmth in our heart too.
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cook: 190 minutes
Serves 8
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
(Red Chilli, Salt, Coriander, Turmeric, Roasted Cumin powder, Black pepper, Mace, Cardamom,, Paprika, Curry leaf, Nigella, Dehydrated onion, Dried papaya powder, Cane Sugar)
Kedgeree may be known as a well-loved and hearty British breakfast dish but its origins are in fact from Indian cooking where it is referred to as khichri (in Hindi). It was during the British Raj period that it was adopted by the British and altered for their tastes in India and then again amended when brought back across to the British Isles.
Originally, the dish consisted of a mixture of rice, lentils, spice and was always topped with shredded fried onions. One of the oldest references to the dish was recorded by the scholar and explorer Ibn Batuta in AD 1340 in which he writes: ‘’The munj {moon or mung bean} is boiled with rice and then buttered and eaten. This is what they call kishri, and on this dish they breakfast every day.’’
As it grew in popularity with the British in the 19th century, additions of smoked fish i.e kippers came about. However, as new iterations were developed in Britain, especially during the Victorian period, less spices were used, opting for more herbs like parsley or marjoram.
Fast forward to the kedgeree we love to eat now and we can see it has returned to its Indian roots using spices like turmeric to colour the rice a pale yellow, slices of green chilli for heat and those deliciously fragrant and sweet fried onions on top – an incredible garnish that finishes off the dish perfectly.
What makes this recipe so versatile is that it really isn’t just limited to being a breakfast dish and it’s not just a dish that needs to be cooked with smoked fish or eggs or even meat for that matter. It’s filling without sitting too heavy, and as intended in the subcontinent, a very humble dish that is perfect to break your fasts with. With Christmas around the corner, we have put together a simple recipe that allows you to use all your leftover protein from Christmas Day and serve up a delicious Boxing Day brunch that not only fills the bellies of your guests but also reduces your carbon footprint, ensuring that the turkey and sausages from your Christmas Day lunch will not go to waste.
Happy cooking!
We would love to see how you have created these dishes at home – please do share with us and tag us on Instagram – @memsahibbar #memsahibathome
Course: Breakfast
Complexity: Intermediate
Preparation Time: 10 – 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 – 45minutes
Serves: 4 to 6
Ingredients:
3 large onions sliced
1 tbsp grated garlic
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp medium curry powder
Dry whole spices (2 cardamoms, 2 cloves, 1 bay leaf and 1 inch of cinnamon)
2 green chillies, cut into halves
Pinch of saffron
1 tbsp salt or to taste
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup red lentils
1 ½ cup basmati rice
2 cups of leftover cooked turkey meat
1 cup of leftover cooked sausages, chopped
2 tbsp raisins and sultanas – soaked and strained
2 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
700ml of homemade stock (recipe below) or chicken stock
Method:
Method:
If a man comes into a victualing house to drink punch, he may demand one quart of good Goa Arak, half a pound of sugar and half a pint of good lime water; and make his own punch. If the bowl is not marked with the clerk of the market seal, then the bowl may be freely broken without paying anything either for the bowl or punch.
Order book of the Bombay Government, August 13, 1694
The Bombay Presidency Punch owes its name to General Sir John Gayer, who penned the recipe in 1694. Gayer was the East India Company’s governor of the “Bombay Presidency” – as the trading company’s possessions in that part of India were called.
The punch was later discovered by sailors and merchants who travelled to the area looking to open up trade routes for gold and nutmeg. They mixed the locally produced spirit with citrus, sugar, and spices to create “punch” (the name might be derived from the Hindi word paantsch, which means “five” – the number of ingredients in a typical punch of that time).
with bay leaf and cinnamon reduction
Course: Beverage
Complexity: Easy but Challenging in parts
Preparation Time 15 to 20 minutes
Cooking Time:30 to 40 minutes
Serves:6 to 10
Ingredients
Method
To Make punch Ingredients:
Ingredients
Method:
Ingredients for garnishing punch cups:
Put all the ingredients in a punch cup or highball glass accordingly and the present it with the punch bowl.
In 2014 when I first went into the kitchen with a hope to cook and serve, I had no idea I would be a chef that would end up presenting a masterclass at the Cheltenham Food and Drink Festival. It was a great pleasure meeting you all, and as promised, the recipes and cooking techniques for the Prawn Kofta and Prawn Kofta Curry are below for you to enjoy cooking the dishes that I presented to you, in your own kitchen, at home.
In 2020, after six years of growing East India Cafe in Cheltenham, we decided to sell and concentrate on Memsahib Gin and Tea Bar as well as other ventures. Rick Stein once said that ‘’cuisine reflects the culture’’ and that it is imperative that we now know what we eat and how we eat. For us, as chefs, the provenance of what we consume is crucial. We believe sustainable cooking means sourcing your ingredients ethically and locally, whilst the preparation of it should be centred around not only creating an incredible dish, but doing so whilst producing food with less waste. With the reopening of hospitality in the UK and learning from a very challenging year throughout the pandemic we decided to revise our menu and our food production with sustainability at the heart of what we do.
At Memsahib Gin and Tea Bar, we serve Anglo-Indian cuisine. It’s an amalgamation of Indian, European and Mughal cuisine, which was developed during the British rule in India. However, the way we like to eat nowadays has changed dramatically over the last decade, and with that in mind, we made the whole menu tapas-style dining and called it ‘Memsahib’s Picnic’.
Below are two recipes; one for a snack style Prawn Kofta and another for a curry style Prawn Kofta using a creamy coconut milk. You won’t find sustainably grown local prawns in the UK, and as a chef, we feel terrible to hold a block of shrimp that has travelled six to eight thousand miles to come to our kitchen. However, we believe we have addressed this issue with our Land Ocean Farm project, where we hope to produce white-legged shrimp in a biosecure environment using recirculating aquaculture technology. In a couple of years, you will be able to find Gloucestershire grown prawns in your local shop and being served in restaurants.
Sustainable food production requires education and learning, awareness and overall continuous practice and improvement. We really believe in this ethos at the Memsahib Gin and Tea Bar and also encourage our guests and followers, through our masterclasses, to practise the reduce, reuse and recycle strategy. This allows us to be fully responsible for the products we consume as well as the waste we create. Globally, around a third of all food produced is lost or wasted, which contributes between 8 – 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, food waste at home is a huge contributor to our emissions and reducing it can be so powerful in the fight against climate change. I also firmly believe that we can be that much closer to eradicating food poverty if we can achieve zero food waste, and especially so from commercial food production kitchens.
There is enough food for us all – we just need to be mindful in our consumption of it.
Happy cooking!
We would love to see how you have created these dishes at home – please do share with us and tag us on Instagram – @memsahibbar #memsahibathome
Course: Appetiser
Complexity: Easy
Preparation Time: 15 – 20 minutes
Frying Time: 2 to 4 minutes
Serves: 6 to 10
Equipment: Food processor and a frying pan
Ingredients:
Method:
Roll the chillies on your chopping board and then slice them in the middle. Shake them to deseed. Add to the food processor, along with the chopped ginger.
Add all the other ingredients, except for oil, coriander and prawns to the food processor and pulse a few times until it is all mixed and has formed a blended masala type mixture.
Now add the prawns and coriander and pulse again to mix and form a very thick and sticky paste.
Transfer to a bowl and keep in the fridge for around 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, heat a pan with oil. Once hot, try shallow frying a tester dumpling-sized kofta. Cook until it develops a golden brown colour. Have a taste and if necessary, adjust the seasoning. Then repeat the process with the rest of the mixture.
Alternatively – grease a roasting tray and place your prawn kofta to cook in the oven. Roast at 180 degrees in a preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes.
Prawn Koftas are always best when served and enjoyed hot! If you decide to roast them, they can be stored in the fridge for two to three days and can be reheated and fried again.
Course: Main
Complexity: Intermediate
Preparation Time: 15 – 20 minutes
Frying Time: 20 to 25 minutes
Serves: 6 to 10
Equipment: Food processor and a medium-sized saucepan
Ingredients:
Method:
Heat the pan and add oil. Fry all of the masala (cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon and clove) for a minute and a half or until your kitchen smells very aromatic.
Now add onions and saute on medium heat until it becomes medium golden brown – around four to five minutes.
Add the garlic and ginger paste and fry for one to two minutes.
On a very low heat, add all the ground masala (turmeric, Kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala) and cook for 30 seconds.
Add 100ml of water and cook until the oil rises slightly to the top (in Bengali, this process is called koshano, and it’s vital for a good thick consistency to the sauce).
Add tomatoes and 50ml of coconut milk and cook again until once again, the oil rises to the top.
Now add those fried or roasted Prawn Kofta and cover with a lid. Cook on a low heat for two minutes.
Now add the rest of the coconut milk and bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
Finish it up by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice and garnish it with a pinch of garam masala on top.
This prawn kofta curry goes well with steamed boiled rice and a little bit of onion and cucumber salad, as well as a hint of chat masala powder to balance all the five flavours together. I’m certainly a believer that curry does in fact taste better the next day so certainly do consider making this Prawn Kofta Curry in a batch and refrigerating or freezing to store. It’s a great way to plan at home and a really efficient way to cook and eat what you need.