Devon Avenue boasts of the largest conglomeration of shops featuring Asian Indian grocery, jewelry, clothes, books and of course Indian restaurants.
To complete the look and feel of a bustling Indian market(see picture of Aminabad Market in Lucknow), it also has all the necessary ingredients - crowds (on weekends), trash littering the streets, paan (betel) stains and cars honking horns with impunity.The best part about Devon Avenue is the multitude of Indian/Pakistani restaurants serving delectable and close to authentic Indian fare - Southern Indian food, Mughlai food, Gujju food - you name it. Over time we have tried many of the joints and developed likes and dislikes.
One such joint was J.K.Kabab House. When I first saw it, back in 2003, it was a nondescript small eatery. It had taken quite a bit of persuasion from a fellow foodie to drag me there. But once I tucked into their succulent (and I mean really succulent) lamb boti kabab, I was hooked. The seekh-kabab (shish kebab to the unsophisticated) was excellent too and so was their chilli chicken.
These were served with an oily paratha or tandoori roti (both flat-breads) and rice. Raw onion was also available to munch with the meat.
To say that J.K.K.H. was our favourite meatery would be an understatement. We hogged there till we were full, then we carried out some more to munch on the boring drive back from Chicago. In fact after a couple of fiascos in trying to find good Tandoori fare around New Delhi, I had almost formed the opinion that we now had a joint to match fare with the best in India.
But..... that was then.
We all have learnt the hard way that every good thing comes to an end at some point.
Oh! don't get me wrong. The Kabab House still exists and they have much the same items on their menu that they used to, but it's kitchen - the core of any restaurant, has changed, and this change is definitely not for the good. To be fair, their dishes are still better than the run-of-the-mill fare of shops around them, but the 'wow factor', the 'its-too-good-to-be-true' feel is all gone. We suspect that the original chef has developed amnesia, lost his/her recipe book, or moved to another restaurant altogether. Choose the conspiracy Theory that piques your fancy, but the end result is that it doesnt remain the star it used to be.
So, what's a foodie to do? Until another such gem is discovered, either we stop hankering for the delectable goodies (Not possible!!) or we try and re-create the taste. No points for guessing the option we chose, and here's what we did:
We started out with New Zealand lamb chops. Why New Zealand lamb? Its more tender and juicier than Australian lamb. And frankly, either of these is better than American lamb :-)
Marinade: We threw everything and the kitchen sink into it (to borrow a phrase from the venerable Gawdess of anything-goes-cooking Rachel Ray).
1/4 cup red wine
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2 green chillies crushed (remove seeds to reduce heat)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp crushed black peppers
1/2 tsp garam masala (Dont tell me you dont have any)
salt to taste
1 tsp Olive Oil or any other oil.
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
Mix it all up and putting the chops in a plastic zipper bag add the marinade mix and mix well. Heck! if you wanna get your hands dirty - go for it - adds to the flavour by giving it the personal touch :-)
The chops thus annointed, sat pretty in the fridge for a day or so and then things began to heat up!! Our sleek and pretty grill was turned on high - both burners going for about 5 minutes and then brushing the grill with a piece of paper towel soaked in oil, we put the chops on and let them cook for 6 minutes each side, turning only once. After turning, the heat was reduced a tad.
Served with parathas, a la J.K.K.H. and of course raw onions.
We cannot muster the requisite level of conceit to claim - Mission Accomplished. At the same time, we aren't into self effacing modesty either - so the results, though having fallen short of the original target, were superior to the currently available fare.
And that is a direct challenge to J.K.K.H. to improve their Lamb Kababs (... please!!!!).
