Health bhi aur taste bhi

FOODIE/ Sudha Kukreja shows that oil-free food need not be boring

Restaurateur Sudha Kukreja has made old-fashioned cooking classes fashionable again. At Saltz, a modest cafe with some seriously good food that is Kukreja's latest venture, she has started zero-oil cooking classes, twice a week: Oriental and Continental food, though plans are afoot to introduce Indian "since everyone wants to do it at home".

We have been witness to Kukreja's skill at turning out no-oil kachoris in the past. But for now, others are lapping up her baked fish in tomato sauce and the like. "It started out essentially as social service," says Kukreja, a little surprised at the huge response to her classes. Right from embassy expats to the west Delhi moneyed to two New York Times reporters are interested "" the latter in a journalistic vein.

But you don't have to open up the NYT to learn from Kukreja. Reading this column may suffice! On a day when she is fasting, she has sportingly decided to cook for us a no-oil chicken steak and Oriental-style veggies. Now, as a dedicated foodie, I am usually suspicious of any effort towards healthy cooking.

A thousand soups and salads later, I remain convinced of the merits of an oily qorma or a cheesy pasta. Kukreja's handiwork though leaves me converted "" the mushroom sauce on the steak is as creamy as it gets though it incorporates just milk.

"Give me any recipe and I can make it without oil," claims Kukreja. I'm inclined to believe her. While she has learnt to do this after her husband's problems with high cholesterol, her passion for food and cooking goes back to her childhood.

Growing up in Rohtak, with a doctor-father who loved to travel, Kukreja was exposed to fine things from the beginning. Not that too many of them were available easily. If you wanted soy sauce, you looked to Calcutta, bread, other than sliced Britannia, came from the Defence Bakery in Delhi, fish from a small shop in Gole Market, tiny strawberries from Kashmir and only in summer, and the family would take freshly-ground coffee back home from the Empire Store in Connaught Place.

Sometimes, they would simply drive down to Delhi to catch a film and dine at the Oberoi coffee shop or York's or the Mandarin Room at Hotel Janpath that "had the best Chinese". Back home, the effort would be to recreate the dishes.

Since even simple ingredients were not available, Kukreja started "analysing" food. "Zucchini could be substituted with tori," or parsley with mint. And in case you don't have HP sauce for the steak, use nutmeg and clove. Happy, healthy cooking then.

---

Favourite Recipes

Chicken steak with mushroom pepper sauce

400 gm chicken fillet, minced
60 gm mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tbsp black pepper, crushed
1 cup zero fat milk
1/2 tsp maida
1 tsp cornflour (mixed with 4 tbsp milk)
1 tsp HP steak sauce
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp thyme

Mix the mince with salt and thyme and make small rounds. In a non-stick pan, put maida and dry roast for two minutes. Add milk and cornflour to this and stir until smooth. Add mushrooms to the sauce and let it simmer for five minutes. Add pepper, parsley and HP sauce. Grill the chicken rounds in another pan till fully cooked. You may have to cover and cook for a few minutes. Top these with the sauce and serve hot.