It is official. Our favourite Hong Kong club at Andaz, Hyatt, Aerocity has paved way for ‘Khubani’, a premium fine-dining destination, with a sprawling area, done up tastefully with vintage motifs. Think: Heritage sofas, wooden tables, lamps, and Anatolian rugs. Old, tattered encyclopedias, life-sized sculptures, and customized coasters are a beautiful touch. This is one of the places, you would like to visit twice, once in the afternoon, to soak in the lovely daylight and once in the evening to unwind and let loose. However, the real star of ‘Khubani’ is the food.
‘Khubani’ is the Persian word for apricot, the stone-fruit, much like dates has been one of the crown jewels of Middle-eastern cuisine, which created a sensation when it travelled eastwards towards India and Asia. The menu of Khubani is pretty extensive, from Turkey’s Adana Kababs to Japan’s Edmame truffle dimsums to Old Delhi’s charred chicken, you are in for quite a range at this luxury restaurant, that is determined to fix you a feast fit for kings.
We started with the California roll sushi, wrapped with goodness of crabmeat, avocado, mayonnaise, cucumber, and squid ink fish row. Then we moved on to the Mona-Lisa dumplings, these green-orange hued dumplings were filled with a juicy and umami mix of cilantro and chicken, which were served with a selection of three types of dips.
A rather, interesting offering was that of, fish smoky green banana leaf wrapped. Here, marinated fish was wrapped in banana leaves, on which the word ‘Khubani’ was stamped with edible ink. You unwrap the leaves and bite into perfectly-cooked fish brimming with fresh, juicy, slightly tangy and spicy flavours.
The Adana Kababs, which could be called a meatier cousin of seekh kabab was also teeming with flavours that are every meat-lover's dream come true.
Then we moved on to the mains, where we had the Thai green curry with Jasmine rice, the Signature Roasted Chicken featuring saucy, succulent chicken leg and thigh on the bone served with pumpkin, mashed potatoes and fresh veggies. Another delicious highlight of the feats was the pan seared fish, served with a creamy, tamarind and malai coulis.
We rounded up our meal with a Tiramisu pick-me-up, a piquant dessert in jar, with coffee, mascarpone cheese and a ladyfinger biscuit. The caramel popcorn cheese cake, also impresses with its varied play of textures. Crunchy popcorns on cream cheesecake, is a winning combination, we learned.
For you, we also fetched a recipe of Pan Seared Fish, Tamarind Malai Coulis. See if you can try recreating it at home, do not forget to share the pictures.
Pan-Seared Fish In Tamarind Malai Coulis
Prep Time- 15 minutes
Marination time- 30 minutes
Cooking time- 10 minutes
Servings- 2 persons
Ingredients
- Bombay bhetki fish fillet (square cut) - 450 gms
- Sago (soaked in beetroot juice) - 100 gms
For marination
- Madras curry powder - 1 tbsp
- Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
- Ginger garlic paste- 1 tbsp
- Cumin powder - 1 tsp
- Curry leaves powder – 1 tsp
- Crushed black pepper corn- ½ tsp
- Yellow chili powder - 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
- Salt- 1 tsp
Sauce:
- Coconut Milk- 200 ml
- Tamarind pulp- 2tbsp
- Onion (boiled puree)-100 ml
- Mustard oil- 20 ml
- Madras curry powder- 2tsp
- Clove- 4 nos
- Yellow mustard paste- 1 tsp
- Salt- 1 tsp
Garnish
Microgreens- 5 gms
Chilli oil- 1 tsp
Method
- To marinade fish combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well and apply over fish, cover and keep in refrigeration for 30 minutes to enhance the flavours.
- Heat a saucepan over medium flame add mustard oil, cloves, onion puree and cook for 5 minutes, and pour rest of the ingredients to cook for another 10 minutes.
- Add butter in a hot pan followed by soaked sago, cumin powder, curry powder, salt and tossed for 2-3 minutes.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium flame and place the marinated fish to cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
- Pour the sauce in a bowl and placed tossed sago in between and place pan-seared fish over sago in centre of the plate.
- Garnish with microgreens and a bit of home-made chili oil and serve hot.