“You may be familiar with the recently popularised cuisine of our sister community, the Bohris. But Khoja cuisine is a well guarded secret, little known outside the immediate community”, says Neha Manekia, co-owner of The Curry Brothers. This tiny Bandra restaurant opened in September 2017 with a focus on home-style regional Indian cuisines like Bengali, Keralaite, and Punjabi. This time around, Manekia digs deep into her own Khoja roots to present her family’s recipes in a 13-day-long Khoja Festival.
“My ancestors came from Iran to Gujarat and then settled in Mumbai three generations ago. So our cuisine is heavily influenced by Irani and Gujarati cuisine”, says Manekia. As I sip on my glass of cooling rose milk (with sabja seeds and dried rose petals), she gives me a quick primer on Khoja cuisine, something I’m woefully under-informed about. “Though it is similar in its ‘thought process’ to Bohri cuisine, the execution of Khoja cuisine is completely different”, says Manekia. While Bohri cuisine is mildly spicy, Khoja cuisine has a bit more heat and uses a variety of spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom, apart from chillies. “Khoja cuisine is meat heavy and mutton dishes are quite common. But because we have such a large Gujarati influence, we have a significant vegetarian section as well, for example we always have lal batata (a spicy and sour potato preparation) for every festive occasion”, explains Manekia.
I begin my Khoja culinary discovery with kacche kheeme ka kebab, a dish that I promptly fall in love with. Unlike say a shami kebab that is made with pre-cooked meat, this succulent kebab is made with uncooked mutton, hand-pounded with various spices, and then fried. The kheema gets cooked while frying giving the kebab a meatier texture and bite. The chicken shami kebab is melt-in-the-mouth, as a good shami should be, while the kheema samosa has a spicy kick within its golden fried crispness. Vegetarians have the option of Kandh Samosa, stuffed with purple yam, dill, and spices. An unusual menu item is the bhindi naan sandwich, which is an adaptation of the Khoja staple vegetable, bharela bhindi (stuffed okra roasted in ghee). The meat variation of the naan sandwich is stuffed with slow cooked chicken, bhuna style.
Next come a trio of curries, each different in flavour from the other. The paaya (slow-cooked mutton trotters) is a well-balanced onion and tomato based gravy while the chicken roast is a smoky, spicy curry. My favourite is the daal gosht, a permanent fixture in Khoja wedding feasts and other celebratory meals. It’s a more complex version of the Parsi dhansak with a blend of lentils, tomatoes, spices, and tender mutton pieces, served with rice. The mains are served with a choice of sheermal (saffron-flavoured flatbread) or jeera rice.
The pièce de résistance is the bajra lasan and bharta. “Lasan was a family favourite for Sunday breakfasts in the winter,” says Manekia. A mixture of crushed bajra roti and green garlic is smoked with a piece of coal drizzled with generous amounts of melted ghee. This is served with smoky baingan bharta (roasted aubergine mash) and some yoghurt to cut the heat. There’s also mutton muthiya on the menu, another Khoja specialty of slow-cooked bean stew with winter vegetables and mutton, sort of a meaty version of the Gujarati undhiyu.
I’m too stuffed to try either the Khoja chicken biryani or its vegetarian equivalent, masoor pulao. So I turn my attention to the desserts. The dudhi halwa is a Khoja specialty, a rich, creamy, cardamom-scented pudding made with bottle gourd. Manekia’s favourite dessert, gur papdi is a sweet end to my meal, a dessert bar made with wheat and water chestnut flours, slow roasted with jaggery and gondh (edible gum).
The Khoja Festival is ongoing until February 28 at Curry Brothers, 33 Sherly Rajan Road, Bandra; 65844424
