What if a restaurant doesn't serve rice in any form? And they don't give you cutlery? OK, if you notice that there are no knives and forks, you could ask, and they will politely tell you that their food is best enjoyed with hands. Of course, if you insist, you will have your way. Not the best way to eat food, but your way. More often than not, your way may not be the best way like some of us from our party of 5 found out!

Get reservations. We were on for a Friday dinner and the place was packed! We were told during entry that there is no rice served and that it is not really kid friendly. We had packed some stuff for the kids, so they were fine. So were we!

Small menu on a large menu! Yes. Just a handful of stuff, printed on a super large wooden block. Actually, two menus. One, the usual. Two, the unusual. A 10-11 course meal on one side and I think a 13 course meal on the other, priced at Rs. 3150 and Rs.3500 respectively! Nope! No way. We need to have starved a few days to make that worthwhile! My friends from Germany weren't looking to roll all the way to Germany. They simply wanted a great Indian dinner! So we asked the waiters to serve us one veg and one non veg starter!

Some Paneer in triangles arrived! One bite each and the table was in silence. You could clearly hear the kids! The adults were quiet. Then slowly, the praise for the paneer started pouring out. Soft. Juicy. Stuffed with potatoes and cooked in the tandoor. Oh, everything here is cooked only in the tandoor. So, no rice, biriyani or anything that cannot be cooked in the tandoor, on the menu! This was followed by a succulent, flavourful, definitely super fattening, Murgh Malai Tikka. The tikka was fabulous to say the least and so so so soft. Clearly, no knives were needed and the one person who tried eating with the fork, put it down quietly and started using his hands. Yours truly!

While pricy, the portions were hearty. There were 8 pieces of paneer and 6 pieces of chicken and they were large hearty pieces. We wanted to try the Naan Bukhara, called the family naan and we were warned that it was for about eight people and will be too much for the five of us. We ignored the warning.  We got the Dhal Bukhara for company and went with the waiter's choice of semi-gravy chicken.

The Naan was huge. For Rs. 1500, it certainly could feed about 8 people. We had to pack almost half of it home, but be warned. Even if you have a big appetite, order the naan bukhara ONLY if there are about 8 people because, because of the way it is cooked, it dries out super fast and then becomes leathery after about 10 minutes, if not less. So it goes from juicy to stretchy very quickly, so all of us who took the third helping after a few minutes, found it hard to tear. At home, same problem. 2 minutes out of the microwave and you had to reheat it to make it soft. But during those first few minutes, this naan with this dhal is heaven! The semi gravy chicken that was served was licked off the plate in no time. We had ordered a wonderful romali roti (for the kids) which was super soft all the way through! No space for dessert, so we split one Kulfi, just to end on a sweet note!

This is a real treat and the cuisine is very specific which is great! If you've been to Bukhara, please refrain from comparing! We know and we've heard that the original is better, but in Chennai, this is it!

Our bill was Rs. 6750 after a 20% discount! And they give you a tiny copper cup as a souvenir! So cool!

Peshawri is open for dinner and is at the lobby level at ITC Grand Chola!

So, recipe time, now! I love bread bowls. OK, I love bread in any form, but I have a special place for bread bowls filled with soup, but baking those bread bowls seemed like a hassle until I came across the autolysing technique in the CFG forum and life has changed for the better. For this particular recipe, I kept some of the dough in the fridge for about 4 days and then baked the bread bowl to host the beetroot apple soup and the result was a super hit at home! For a vegetarian dish to be super hit at home, it had to be reasonably good and I hope you are able to recreate this at your home too!

The Bread Bowl:

If you have heard about the autolysing technique, then, great, if not, you will be amazed at how easy it is to bake bread - you don't have to knead the bread! Yes, you, read it correctly and your eyes are not deceiving you. I baked four bowls, three of which I baked on the first day and reserved one portion of the dough to sour in the fridge, so the proportions are for 4 bread bowls.

4 cups of flour
11/2 - 2 cups of water
2 teaspoons of sugar
2/12 teaspoons yeast (I used active yeast)
A pinch of salt


Take the water and warm it (if it is too hot, the yeast will die, if it is too cold, yeast will not work). Mix the yeast till it dissolves completely and add the sugar and salt and mix. Slowly add the flour and keep stirring and when you finish, just leave it aside. I had to try twice to get the technique and the proportions right - the liquid quantity is slightly less than half the quantity of the flour. Leave it covered for about 2 hours and when you open it, it should have risen. You don't have to beat it down, just puff it out with a spoon, roll it into nice balls, place on a buttered oven plate and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 225ºC for about 20-25 minutes and your bread bowl will be ready. Slice the top, scoop out some bread and pour the soup.


The Beetroot-Apple Soup

1 cups of boiled beetroots (boil without salt)
1 apple - cut and cored.
1/2 onion chopped.
1/4 cup old-bread in pieces (I used the ones I baked with the above recipe and left in the fridge for four days)
1 teaspoon oil
25 g butter
100 ml chicken stock (you can replace it with veg stock)
Salt to taste

This is a very simple recipe, just add the oil to a hot pan and the butter to it -this prevents the butter from burning. Once the butter is hot, add the chopped onions and cook till it becomes translucent. Add the apples and cook till they become soft, typically it takes about 5-7 minutes. Once the apples are soft, add the nicely pieced bread till it coats the apples and keep stirring so that they don't stick to the pan. Add the cooked beetroots, cook for a minute and pour all of the stock. Simmer till the stock reduces, about 20 minutes or so. Once cooked, take the whole thing and using a food processor, blitz it and it will become a nice thick soup. I used salted butter and my chicken stock was salty, so I did not need to add salt, but taste it and add salt if required to balance it.

I served it in the bread bowl with chopped almonds on top and corn tortillas, but of course, you can go crazy with the garnish. A dollop of thick curd will also go great with this soup. This soup is best taken with the sour dough bread, because the flavours complement each other extremely well.