Dinesh “Dino” Bahrani pushes up his headband and marvels at the three teenage boys slicing onions on a rough table. Outside the “window”, which is just a fence, the evening sun is setting over Juhu Beach and this YMCA shelter, a home for street kids built from a converted toilet block. “They already chop better than many hotel cooks.”
As one of the city’s up-and-coming star chefs, Bahrani would know. Formerly of Mumbai’s legendary Taj Hotel, which he left two years ago to start his own bar, he also runs Bombay Foodies, dedicating to “helping the people of this incredible city know what to eat and where to eat it”.
The shelter boys know a thing or two about food too, though. They’ve been cooking for themselves for years, with the most basic equipment. They’ve got a gas burner, a few pots and a couple of crude but deceptively sharp knives; they use a windowsill as a chopping board.
Bahrani was at the shelter to see if he could help the kids broaden their repertoire beyond the typical yellow daal they make most nights. The older boys do most of the cooking; Bahrani showed them the benefits of preparation (all that chopping), strict hygiene - cleaning utensils, segregating raw meat - and marinating in turmeric. “Good for hand cuts, too,” he said. “Just clean the wound and sprinkle it on. First aid is rare. Turmeric is everywhere.”
The boys get chicken once a week, on Sundays, so Bahrani walked them through a recipe for chicken in what I can now vouch for is most abasingly described as “coconut gravy”; a special black daal; and fried rice, which they craved after a field trip to a Chinese restaurant. When he showed them how much oil he needed for the rice, a couple of tablespoons, their mouths dropped. “They expected to use two cups.”
The Mumbai food scene is exploding, Bahrani says, though it’s becoming harder to make money: lots of restaurants are closing in favour of bars, as you make more money on alcohol. Nevertheless, for the shelter boys, cooking could be a route to a succesful career. I mentioned Jamie Oliver’s 15 project in London and Bahrani nods. “These kids are considered the lowest of the low by many Indians,” he says. “Restaurants will pay them less just because of their birth status. They need all the skills they can get.”
Dinnertime at Juhu Beach: black daal and chicken in coconut @bombayfoodies #guardianmumbai @guardiancities pic.twitter.com/e5Tjw03fDW
— Chris Michael (@chrismichaelgdn) November 27, 2014
Kaali Daal and Chicken in Coconut (serves 4)
For the daal:
150g black lentils (kaali maa ki daal)
4 big tomatoes
10g ginger garlic paste
2g garam masala
Soak the lentils for 3-4 hours. Drain, bring to boil and simmer in twice the volume of water.
Blend the tomatoes in mixer to make a paste. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan; add the tomatoes and cook for 12-15 min. Add ginger garlic paste, cook for a further 5 min, then add chili powder and cook for another 3 min.
Add the mixture to the simmering lentils and cook for up to 10 min, or whenever the lentils are ready. Finish by stirring in garam masala, chili powder, a pinch of salt and a dollop of butter.
For the chicken:
8 chicken leg joints (4 drumsticks and 4 thighs)
3 onions
2 tomatoes
1 green chili
0.5 tbsp red chili powder
1tbsp turmeric
a pinch of cumin
a pinch of garam masala
10g garlic and ginger paste
250 ml coconut milk
a pinch of mustard seeds
5 curry leaves
bunch of coriander
Marinate the chicken with salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder and ginger garlic paste in the fridge for two hours.
In a large pot, briefly sizzle the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add 3 sliced onions and cook over medium heat until translucent. Add 1 green chili, chopped, 2 halved and thinly sliced tomatoes and ginger garlic past. Cook for 10 mins, until the raw tomato taste is gone. Then add turmeric, chili powder and finally the chicken. Cook over low heat, covered, until the chicken is ready.
Turn off the heat, stir in 250ml of coconut milk and garnish with chopped coriander.
Serve with the black daal and steamed rice.
