Food Talk
 Chop of the block

Pushpesh Pant on the choicest cuts of meat

THOSE who eat meat are usually choosy about the ‘preferred cuts’, if they can help it. Some relish the gole boti culled from the raan hind leg more than the dastii shoulder, others instruct the butcher to give them a nulli cracked to facilitate sucking the marrow or few pieces of seena and puth to make the meal really enjoyable.

Pardanashin adraki chapen

Ingredients
 Mutton chop: 16 pieces
Ginger garlic: paste 1 tbsp
Red chilli: paste 1 tbsp
Ginger juice: 1˝ tbsp
Vinegar: 10 ml
Refined oil:  10 ml
Hung yogurt:  300 ml
Ginger garlic: paste 1 tbsp
Ginger juice:  4 tbsp
Ginger:  (chopped) 60 gm
 Garam masala: 1 tbsp
Yellow chilli powder: 3 tsp
Refined oil:  40 ml
Eggs: (beaten) three
Melted butter: for basting
Raw papaya paste: for tenderising
Salt:  to taste

Method: Clean the chops, mix raw papaya paste, ginger garlic paste, red chilli paste, ginger juice, vinegar and salt to taste and rub on the lamb chops. Rub well and keep aside for two to three hours. Whisk the hung yogurt and add the ginger garlic paste, ginger juice, ginger, salt to taste, garam masala, yellow chilli powder, refined oil. Blend and place the chops in this marinade after squeezing extra moisture. Keep aside for three to four hours.

Pan grill the marinated chops on a low heat, preferably in a shallow pan with thick bottom. Alternatively, cook over a charcoal grill at a moderate temperature for 10-12 minutes. Baste with melted butter and further roast for four to six minutes. Make a thin omelette batter with the eggs and pour it over the chops after arranging these carefully and let it set. The veiled maiden is now ready to debut.

We have even come across a vocal minority that can come to blows defending the pride of the place assigned in their mind to gardan — allegedly, it is most succulent, being the part of the body exercised most by the goat while grazing.

If there is one cut that is popular with all it is the chop or chapen in vernacular. It is meat on the bones, takes little time to cook, can be used in curries but is savoured best in roasted form.

Can you imagine a barra sans a chop? If the butcher can be persuaded to really flatten a single chop like a pasanda after only one of the three bones is allowed to remain in place, you can really create magic with it — serving a main course draped in finger-licking gravy. It was Vinod Dua who introduced us to the delectable adaraki champ that the sardarji dishes out at his Mayapuri outlet in West Delhi.

It reveals its delicate pink interior after a bite, almost blushing. Nothing is allowed to interfere with the natural taste of the succulent meat with the exception bog ginger and limejuice.

Firangi pork or lamb chops can’t hold the proverbial candle to it. Alas, the delicacy requires a top notch professional with a sure touch at the tandoor, and as the reality shows on the small screen caution, not to be attempted by the amateur at home.

Fortunately, there is another old favourite from the classical repertoire of Awadh that despite its deterring title is quite easy to replicate. The "gingery maiden in the veil" we bring to our readers this time is from the menu of the legendary eatery Bismillah in Ameenabad, presided over by Raju Miyan a man proud of his culinary heritage and in love with his city.
Who says that Moghaliya repast lacks eye appeal?

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