Making bajra roti at home, the way our kitchen does
Warm water, the heel of your palm and a hot tawa: the method behind the millet bread on our Sunday thali.
A season at the kothi: building the autumn menu
Six weeks of testing, forty dishes tried and nine kept.
Each menu at Kothi Zafran lasts one season, and building it takes about six weeks. For autumn we begin in August, when the first bajra harvest comes in from Sikar and the chillies are drying on rooftops in Mathania.
Chef Vikram starts by visiting farms and markets with a notebook. He and the team then cook a long list of ideas, usually about forty. Every Monday, when the restaurant is closed, the whole team tastes and votes. Dishes that survive three Mondays move to the chef’s counter on Fridays, where regular guests try them and tell us honestly what works.
By late September the menu is down to nine courses and the order is fixed: lighter, sour dishes first, smoke and meat in the middle, then a palate cleanser of kokum and two desserts.
The last step is the vegetarian menu. It is not built by removing meat; each course has its own dish made from the same pantry, tested just as long.
