Indian chef to hold demonstration

By Joey Aguilar

Staff Reporter

A well-known chef from Kerala who wants to bring “unique and authentic Indian food to the world” will be holding a live Malabar Mopila cooking demonstration today from 2pm to 6pm at Grand Qatar Palace Hotel.

Abida Rasheed will teach participants how to cook authentic fish biriyani, koyi chutathu (chicken stuffed and baked), chicken kakathil, Malabar mutton stew, pine jiggery and chakkara chor for dessert.

“I have always had a fascination with food. I have always realised instinctively that our Mopila cuisine was unique yet not very well-known,” stressed the mother of three.

Rasheed has travelled to almost all places in India and various countries in the Middle East like Dubai promoting Malabar Mopila cooking.

“We don’t enhance flavours. We really work on the flavours,” she noted. “My food is aristocratic Mopila cuisine, a lesser-known branch of Mopila cuisine that is characterised by lavish ingredients and painstaking cooking methods.”

Unlike biriyani being cooked in some restaurants in Doha, she uses for the fish biriyani very small grains of rice that grows in the valleys.

Second on her list is the Koyi chutathu cooked in light spring shallots, which is less spicy than the usual roasted chicken. The Chicken Kakathil only needs at least four ingredients and easier to cook.

A Portuguese-Indian dish, she explains that mutton stew is fresh mutton cooked in coconut milk gravy. Then the pine jiggery, she added, tastes sweet and tangy because of the black sugar.

“It’s my passion, it’s not about money-making or profession and I love it as a passion to show the world a new thing. I don’t want to keep it to myself I want to share it,” said Rasheed, who had been cooking since she was eight.

Rasheed has written numerous recipes for magazines. Her professional career as a chef started only five years ago but she had been cooking for about 40 years now.

“My repertoire extends to approximately five hundred dishes, including starters, main courses, breads, pulaos and desserts,” disclosed Rasheed, who had worked on Mopila food festivals in many parts of India including Delhi.

Reiterating her desire to popularise Malabar Mopila cooking, she is hoping that at least two or three dishes to become staples in Indian restaurants in some parts of the country.

“If I can bring awareness of my culinary heritage to your guests, nothing will give me more pleasure,” she added. More information about the demo could be obtained on 70003909.