Flavors of Gujarat - 31 March 2012 SOLD OUT

The theme again this time is Gujarati, bringing the unique sweet and sour flavors of western India, in a selection of  locally sourced veggie and meat dishes

Date : 31st March 2012
Time : 19h45
Edinburgh location

To secure a ticket book online here

Flavors of Gujarat - 25th February 2012 SOLD OUT

The theme this time is Gujarati, bringing the unique sweet and sour flavours of western India, in a selection of veggie and locally sourced meat dishes

Date : 25th February 2012
Time : 19:45
Edinburgh location

To secure a ticket book online here.

Flavors of Kerala menu

Legend has it that Kerala derives its name from kera, a Malayalam word for coconut palm. The coconut tree is an integral part of life in Kerala and nowhere is this more visible than in their cuisine. Malabar is the coastal stretch along the western coast from just below Goa to the southern tip. Malabar cuisine is influenced by the long history of trade with the Arabs,Chinese and more recently Europeans. Kerala boasts vast plantations of cardamom,pepper,nutmeg,tea and coffee and a huge collection of tropical fruits like jackfruit,mango,pineapple and cashew. With all these grown in Gods own country,its no wonder that Keralan cuisine has landed on the worlds' table and is going to be served at chai lounge supperclub.


This is the menu for the flavors of Kerala evening at chai lounge. Dishes may vary depending on availability of ingredients. Please email me if you have any dietary requirements at chailounge77@gmail.com. Our meals are served family style so you'll get to taste as little or as much of every dish. Don't forget to bring along your favourite drink since I don't have a licence. Nikki from Convivium wines have some great spice friendly wines on her WineTubeMap which you might want to try.

welcome drink

starters

malabar stuffed mussels (arikadukka)

urad dal vada served with warm tamarind rasam

mains

malabar fish biryani

pineapple pickle 

carrot raita flavored with cumin

egg curry cooked in a spicy coconut milk 

kala channa sambal tossed with fresh coconut and curry leaves
rice pathiri (keralan flat bread)

dessert

carrot kheer with pistachios

sweet cardamom & cinnamon chai

Naan Khataay

These lovely biscuits have a shortbread texture and I've been told by my colleagues at work that its an Indian shortbread,which describes this lovely melt in the mouth biscuit just perfectly. I remember making these biscuits only once a year during Diwali,my mum would not allow me to make it more often because of the ghee content. I totally agree with her


Naan Khataay 
(makes approx 30)


125ml thick ghee or unsalted butter
100ml castor sugar
3ml ground cardmom
3ml ground nutmeg
5ml baking powder
15ml semolina
almonds cut in half to decorate
250ml plain flour


Method
1. Cream ghee and castor sugar. 
2. Add all the ingredients besides the flour and beat till light and creamy.
3. Add the sifted flour gradually to form a biscuit dough. Make round balls and      press flat until approximately
1cm thick.
4. Make a cross in the centre and press half a almond in the centre.
5. Bake at 180degress for 10minutes. 

Channa Dal with butternut squash

This lovely sweet and nutty dal together with butternut or sweet potato makes a great hearty dal. It can be eaten as a soup or with hot rotis.

Channa Dal with butternut squash

serves 2

Ingredients

100g channa dal

100g chopped butternut squash or sweet potato

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ onion chopped

1 green chilli or more according to taste

1 teaspoon crushed ginger

pinch of asafoetida

½ teaspoon tumeric

½ teaspoon salt or to taste

1 tablespoon lemon

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

Method

1. Wash channa dal a few times until the water runs clear. 
2. Boil dal till soft but still whole. Heat oil in a pan, when hot add mustard    seeds and cumin seeds, wait till they pop. 
3. Add asafoetida, green chillies, ginger and tumeric. Cook this for a minute then add the onions, cook for 5min. 
4. Add butternut squash and cook till soft. If its too dry add a splash of water.
5. Add channa dal, salt and lemon, cook till required consistency. Add more hot water if it needs to be thinned out. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander.

Flavours of Kerala

Our next supperclub event is on 21st January 2012, we can book tickets online. Please email chailounge77@gmail.com if you have any dietary requirements.


Visit the booking and menu link for more details and on how to purchase tickets.

first supper club

After months of planning and even more months of thinking about running a supper club, it finally happened. We had our first supper club last Saturday. I would have not had the courage to start the supper club without guidance and encouragement from Aoife who runs my home supper. I've helped Aoife on two occassions but nothing could prepare me for Saturday's meal. I had sleepless nights building up to the event, constantly waking from my sleep thinking about every element of the supper club. Luckily on the night everything went according to plan.

I'd like to thank Amy for her great front of house hospitality, Naseem for helping me plate up the food and taking photos and Parvez for running around for last minute ingredients and continuously washing up cups, plates and dishes that were brought through to the kitchen. Maybe one day I will get to buy a dishwasher, but first another supper club menu planning. Hopefully a date will be published soon. 

One of my guest, Jessica Adair was kind enough to write a review of the night....Thanks Jessica

Variety is the spice of life at Edinburgh’s first Indian supper club

By Jessica Adair

Is it a dinner party? Is it a restaurant? No it’s a supper club! After months of reading about the latest craze to hit the foodie world Mr A and I finally decided to find out what all the fuss is about. And what better way to start our journey than at a supper club making its own debut on the Edinburgh circuit? Chai Lounge, run by the lovely Meena, opened its doors for the first time on Saturday 29^th October, promising a feast of Gujarati and South African fare. Our taste buds were tingling in anticipation!

By their very nature, supper clubs are slightly unpredictable and no two events are the same, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect when we walked into Meena’s flat on Saturday night. However, we were soon made to feel right at home by front-of-house hostess Amy, who ushered us into Meena’s delightful dining room with the promise of a welcome drink and canapés. The other guests were quick to introduce themselves and it became clear that we all shared a love of food, new experiences and meeting other Edinburghers.

Amy soon reappeared with our welcome drink, ‘Gin Jinn’, a refreshing blend of gin (obviously), lemonade and a magic ingredient, curry leaves! This gave the cocktail a subtle but distinctive spicy kick and made it a perfect partner for Meena’s canapés of pauthudi (beautiful little rolls of gram flour and curd studded with spices) and potato bonda (deep fried spiced potato balls). Taste buds tantalised, we took our seats for dinner.

Meena’s starter dish of chicken muthia, a delicately spiced chicken patty, and vetkoek (a South African take on a puri) was a great introduction to the winning combination of Gujarati and South African flavours. The main meal was served in traditional Indian ‘family style’ (where everyone has a bit of everything), and bowl after bowl of aromatic food soon arrived at our table. The central dish was the classic South African stew, ‘bunny chow’, made with locally sourced lamb, accompanied by a sambhar salad. Meena’s side dishes were tangy daal, cinnamon pumpkin, spiced aloo, cumin rice and a boondi and cucumber raita. Needless to say, we couldn’t wait to get stuck in!

The meal went down an absolute storm, and in between periods of satisfied munching, we all raved about the variety of the food, the fantastic flavours and the sociable nature of family style dining. I particularly enjoyed Meena’s pumpkin and potato dishes; they were subtly flavoured but still packed a punch, and the whole meal delivered a pleasant heat without being ‘hot’. When it comes to spicing and seasoning, Meena clearly has the magic touch.

After a much-needed pause (and the chance to compare our favourite main course dishes!), pudding arrived. Cooling and delicately flavoured with cardamom, the yoghurt-based ‘shrikhand’ was the perfect way to round off the meal. Cups of hot sweet chai followed, along with home-made ‘nankhatai’, a kind of Indian shortbread that was sweet and crumbly and better than anything I’ve ever had from a tartan tin.

At the end of the meal, Meena and her trusty crew came out of the kitchen to say hello, and we all enjoyed the opportunity to linger over our cups of chai a little longer (it was so delicious, I ordered seconds!). Finally, in a flurried exchange of contact details and Twitter IDs, we headed out into the night, full and very happy. Mr A and I chose to sit at separate tables to get the full Chai Lounge experience between us, and we both agreed the night had been a big success. Thanks to Meena’s beautiful food, fantastic hospitality and wonderful guests, we have both been well and truly bitten by the supper club bug!