Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

CHEF'S CORNER

Served, billed, all in a jiffy!

Have barely 20 minutes for lunch and yet dream of a sumptuous spread? Worry not, the solution is on the menu now

PHOTO: MOHAMMED YOUSUF

FAST PACE With hectic schedules lunchtime has now become about dining and dashing

Life for all of us has gone from `busy' to `very busy' over a period of just one decade. A semi-relaxed morning ritual of bath and breakfast has become a hurried shower and `just grab some breakfast'.

The earlier concept of a good eightsuccess! The `very busy' life now has long working hours, expectations of high productivity, and meeting targets, etc. on high priority, leaving little room for anything else. Everything is done at a hurried pace.

So while on the job, you no longer have the luxury of a relaxed cup of coffee with some spicy chit-chat, nor have you time for a relaxed lunch session.

Need of the hour

Most restaurants have faced a shortage of business during the lunch hour for this very reason! But as we all know, invention takes over when necessity calls out. So here too, the concept of creativity has put some life back into the business of lunch hour!

Guess what this new and saleable concept is. Twenty-minute lunch, the new trend! You walk in and you will be through with your lunch within 20 minutes! Of course, a few conditions accompany the claim.

Now, it is not that this concept is totally new. It was born and sold well in the U.S. first. The growth of high pressure jobs has ushered it into our city restaurants.

So, what is this 20-minute lunch? Is it a hurried way of `stuffing' you with some food within 20 minutes? Well, the answer is no. It is a well-balanced meal, which is well planned and well organised, backed with the right kind of kitchen and the chef's skills so that a minimum of time is taken to serve you the meal.

Now, let us look at how it is done.

Menu - The biggest secret of this 20-minute lunch is hidden in the composition of the menu. Your menu cannot be the sumptuous 11-course fare, but it is generally made of two courses. One being the starter and the other, the main course. Or it can be straight to the main course, followed with a dessert. These menus are pre-set, purposely kept to a very small size with minimal choices. Saves a lot of time and unnecessary frills!

Cooking - The golden rule of cooking for this concept is not to have any complicated cooking styles and avoid foods that take long hours to cook. Then, since the menus are small and pre-planned, the major part of the cooking/preparation is done in the pre-lunch period without any compromise on hygiene. Makes perfect sense and is a time-saving exercise.

Service

The food is generally pre-plated and so takes no time in serving. Again, no frills here, and the fancy ways of serving food are strictly out!

Billing - How many times you have satat the table, fuming and waiting for your bill to arrive? Well, not in this 20-minute lunch concept. Your bill is in the `making' while you are actually eating the meal. So no time taken here. And by the time you finish eating, the bill is in front of you.

So the next occasion when you don't have much time but want to have a good meal, try looking for a restaurant that is offering you the 20-minute lunch affair!

Time now for a 20-minute lunch recipe!

Gola kabab

Ingredients

500 gm minced meat
15 gm suet
2 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp ginger, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, chopped
2 seeded red chillies
1 tbsp gram flour, toasted,
1 tbsp poppy seed paste
2 brown cardamoms, powdered
1 tbsp hung curd
3 Spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
1 seeded green chilli, chopped,
3 tsp coriander seeds, pounded,
3 ml oil
1 serving of green salad
1 tsp chaat masala

Method

Grind the suet and the minced meat finely by passing through a mincing machine or a blender. Add vinegar, mix well and set aside for 4 to 5 hours. To the ground meat, add all the remaining ingredients thoroughly.

Grease your palms and make balls of 30 gm each. Tie with a twine and cook on a wire toaster or under the grill. When half done, smear oil on them and cook till done. Untie and serve with mint chutney and green salad.

RAKESH KUMAR

(The author is the executive chef of Crowne Plaza and can be reached at chefrk@crowneplazadelhi. com)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail