Lucknowi Food Festival at Crowne Plaza Kochi

Dine like the Nawabs in Crowne Plaza Kochi at the Lucknowi food festival in Mosaic restaurant. Lucknowi cuisine, deeply influenced by Mughlai style of cooking will be recreated by our chefs hailing from Lucknow at Crowne Plaza Kochi. All the dishes will be prepared using the slow fire (dum style) cooking method, which was initially invented by Awadhs of Lucknow, along with the exotic use of rich spices in all their dishes. The ten day food festival in Crowne Plaza Kochi starting from January 30 to February 8 2015, will take you back to the 18th century and let you discover the flavour that once enticed the taste buds of Mughals and Nawabs. Our speciality chefs will display heavenly culinary delights across vegetarian and non-vegetarian menus offering delectable starters, main course and mouth-watering desserts which will elevate you with their aroma and sense of taste. The delicious and vastly extensive buffet spread starts with soups, Awadhi Murgh Shorba (a soothing hot bowl of broth from chicken bones, brown onion, coriander root cooked in potli masala); Potli masala is a mixture of all spices tied in muslin cloth and immersed in boiling water, emancipating the flavour into the soup. Nalli Yakhani Shorba, Lassoni Jhingo Shorba and Tarkari Ka Shorba (tomato) are also different varieties of Lucknowi soups presented. Vegetable Haleem, a popular dish amongst the royal menu uses all vegetables, broken wheat, channa dal, saffron, spices along with rose petal powder giving the dish an exotic flavour and aroma cooked for at least five hours in the oven. “The royal chefs during the Mughal Era were particular about giving the food a rich taste and smell, even sandalwood was used in the dish to impart its smell and flavour to the dishes while serving the royal banquet. Similarly, our chefs at Crowne Plaza Kochi, use rose petal powder, almond, cashew, pistachio, rose water, peanut, sweet attar and saffron into the dishes while cooking to imbibe the taste and fragrance while serving the banquet,” says Shibiraj Saha, Executive Sous Chef, Crowne Plaza Kochi. The kebabs and tikka are also marinated overnight to extract the flavours into the meat; the chefs are certain about preparing dishes using meat from specific parts of the animal like kachhe Murgh ke Biryani (leg piece of lamb), Galouti Kebab (thigh portion of lamb), Murgh Angari (boneless leg part of lamb), Badami Mutton Chaps (ribs of lamb) and Nizami Raan (whole leg of lamb). Lucknowi pulao is famous for the colourful presentation it imparts to the guests, like the Noor Mahal Pulao (extracts of carrot, beetroot, palak and turmeric adds the orange, red, green and yellow colour to the paneer, which is fried and then mixed with rice), Amrit Ke Deg (explicitly known as stuffed dates biryani adds an exorbitant flavour of stuffed dates, pomegranate, khoya, chopped mint leaves, saffron boiled in hot milk with rice) and Sarengi Pulao, which is equally colourful and healthy containing green peas, white channa, white kidney beans and corn mixed with rice. Gosht Rizala Biryani is rice cooked in milk and mutton stock while Murgh Kunni is a combination of boneless chicken leg with lentil moong dal. Turesi Paneer is a rich main course where paneer is cooked in peanut paste gravy; Shyam Savera is paneer kofta stuffed with spinach in almond, cashew and white onion paste gravy. Khumb, Mutter and Makhana Ki Subzi is mushroom, green peas and lotus seed simmered in almond-base gravy flavoured with rose petal powder and sweet attar. Kut Mirchi will be a favourite for cheese lovers where chilli is stuffed inside with cheese and coated with breadcrumbs leaving you a soft and chewy feel while biting into the hard crispy outer layer. Murgh Mussalam is whole chicken stuffed with minced chicken and boiled eggs cooked in dum while Zamindo Mussalam is whole fish cooked in dum stuffed with minced fish and a mix of dry nuts. A live counter is also set for Galouti Kebab, Khamkatai kebab (channa dal and raw mango), Chapli Kebab, Murgh Angari, Doodhiya Kebab (paneer sandwich with spicy potato filling and coated with bread crumbs) and Rajma Ki Galouti. A carving counter is also set where Murgh Mussalam, Badami Mutton Chaps (ribs of lamb), Nizami Raan (whole leg of lamb) and Zamindo Mussalam are served according to the interests of the guests in cut slices. Lucknowi cuisines will be incomplete without rotis and hence a live rumali counter will serve hot palak, lassoni and lababdar rotis, which will be green, white and red in colour with the mix of spinach, garlic and tomato. Shahi Tudka, Gelai Firdaus (Rice and pineapple pudding- A favourite among Nizams), Khoya roll, sahi janum, rasmalai are popular Lucknowi desserts and Gosht Ki halwa is Chef’s signature dish which is a sweet dessert but the main ingredient is Mutton; you need to taste it to know it. Finally, the meal is wrapped up with paan and mukhwas adding to a perfect end to the sumptuous royal Lucknowi meal! The Lucknowi buffet is available at Crowne Plaza Kochi in Mosaic restaurant from 7pm to 11 pm from January 30th to February 8th 2015 priced at INR 995 +taxes; Call 0484-2865000 to book your table.