“There is no fusion in Punjabi food,” declares chef Harjinder Singh better known as Sweety Singh. The maestro of Punjabi Cuisine has his roots in Amritsar. He was in Bengaluru for the Pinds of Punjab festival at The Oberoi. Pointing to the array of choices, he says, “My dishes travel back to a time when cooking was all about love and patience. There are no short cuts in my world,” he says as he unveils his latest, pineapple tandoori, with his family’s trademark masala and anaardana.
Brought up in a modest family that connected only with simple dishes that his mother and grandmother prepared in Amritsar, his father, Gyani Santokh SinghBaluja, took to cooking as a profession early on and moved to Delhi to establish business.
“I have a legacy of cooking passed on from my family. Where I can make a difference is by mirroring its purest form,” says Sweety. “It is disturbing to see people showcasing Punjabi food dripping in ghee, cashew paste and loaded with masala. That is not authentic. Asli (original) Punjabi food is mother’s recipe with a straightforward tomato-onion-ginger-garlic paste. A dash of homemade ghee, spice masala stirred at low heat, and bingo you are done.”
While the chef has nearly 400 dishes tracing their origins from every region of Punjab, Sweety also invents his own recipes. The tangri kebab done in his signature style drew appreciation from Sachin Tendulkar who even clicked pictures with the soft spoken chef.
Chef’s signature dishes include palak paneer, matar paneer, meat masala, dahiwala kukkad (chicken) masala, khadi pakode, khumb masala, aloo vadi, Amritsari makki makhni dal, sarson ka saag, bharwan mirch, baingan bharta. There are also distinctive dishes such as “Meat ka halwa, garlic halwa and chukandar (beetroot) halwa. I have brought back panjeeri made from sooji, dry fruit, goondh, ginger powder and sugar. The age old dish was a home-made supplement for women to gain iron after delivery.”
The genial chef insists garlic works in a dessert. “The aroma of garlic in the halwa is to be savoured, as the pungency disappears when roasted in ghee and boiled in milk.”
The chef has taken up the responsibility of creating awareness of the forgotten dishes of Punjab. “Ghia vadi, khatta meetha sita phal, malai tinde, ma chole ki dal, shalgham preparations, ghia aur chene ki daal are all forgotten to pasta, pizza and burgers,” he rues.
“I am a 12th pass from Delhi and I never imagined that I would be connected with five-star hotels. It is all my father’s blessing, I observed and learnt from him,” he says . As a growing boy, Sweety noticed people queuing up for his father’s food. “My father had a thriving food-cart business on Asaf Ali Road in Delhi way back in the 1950s. My father would tell people not to use a spoon as Punjabi cooking was meant to be cooked and relished with hands,” recalls Sweety who took over the business before he was 20.
For Sweety the call from ITC was a turning point in his 20s. “The rest as they say is history with food taking me to places and people in the last three decades.”
