Mrs Singh from Jasmin restaurant reveals why her curries so impressed Marco Pierre White
IN close to 40 years of running the Jasmin Indian restaurant, Anant Singh has cooked for many big names – but none have moved her so much as high-profile Marco Pierre White
- Legendary spice girl has had customers singing her praises for 32 years
- Anant Singh’s Jasmin Indian Restaurant still has ‘it’
IN close to 40 years of running the Jasmin Indian restaurant, Anant Singh has cooked for many big names.
Elton John has eaten there, international cricket teams are regular visitors, and former prime ministers from Gough Whitlam to John Howard have been lured to the basement dining room by the heavenly spice fragrance.
However, when the organisers of the Tasting Australia festival rang one morning last week and asked if their international star Marco Pierre White could come in for lunch, Mrs Singh, as she is best known, was a bundle of nerves.
“I came into the restaurant when they rang up to check that everything was OK,” the 86-year-old recalls. “I was so nervous. He is such an important person. I always watch him on TV.
“He is very strict when teaching people and will be critical when he needs to be.
“He is a perfectionist and I hoped he’d like our food.”
Mrs Singh shouldn’t have worried. The British culinary legend and now host of TV’s Hell’s Kitchen was ecstatic about the cooking and moved by her family story. He held her hand to his heart as he assured her he meant everything he said and wasn’t just being nice.
“He said ‘I wish I could cook like this when I am 86’,” Mrs Singh recalls.
In later interviews, White went as far as calling it “the best Indian meal in my life” and describing Mrs Singh as “the jewel in Adelaide’s crown”.
“It was truly exceptional. I would recommend that every visitor to Adelaide go there,” he said.
When Mrs Singh read these comments she was “as excited as a teenager on a first date”, said her son, Amrik, who manages the restaurant with sister Sheila.
So what is the secret of the curries and other dishes that so impressed the toughest of judges? Mrs Singh, who came to Adelaide from Malaysia with her young family in the 1970s, puts it down to the freshness.
“We grind our spices – cumin, coriander, fennel, garam masala – every morning,” she said. “And we start the curries from scratch every day. We don’t keep any of them. The staff has what is left over.”
Mrs Singh said she doesn’t use any water in her curries, instead cooking the meat slowly with onions, tomatoes and spices. “If you add water it dilutes the flavour,” she said.
And, as the recipe for the bhoona gosht curry ordered by Marco shows, spices are added in different stages so they remain fresh and vibrant.
These are techniques Mrs Singh learnt from her mother in Malaysia before she and her young family moved to Adelaide and opened a tiny eatery in Christies Beach in 1978.
Two years later, at the urging of friends, they shifted to a property in Hindmarsh Square, starting first with a few tables on the ground floor before expanding downstairs into an old record store in the basement, where they have been ever since.
In those days fresh coriander was not available and Mrs Singh’s husband, Jasbeer, travelled to Malaysia to bring back the spices and other ingredients they needed.
While the recipes had been refined, Mrs Singh said most of the curries were still the same.
“I used to think the vindaloo was very hot and tried to tone it down,” she said. “But customers came in and said they wanted it hotter.”
So she introduced a ferociously hot curry, christened the chicken tindaloo.
“I come into the restaurant every Wednesday and at other times when I am needed,” she said.
“I check what the chefs are doing and show them how to cook the new specials.
“I never measure anything. I don’t work from a recipe but I always make George (Bondarenko, the head chef) and others write it down if we introduce something new.”
Mrs Singh still cooks for large family gatherings at home and eats out regularly, with her favourite restaurants including Ruby Red Flamingo, Peel St, Meze Mazi and Gondola Gondola.
The customers who have been coming to Jasmin since it opened are testament to the quality and consistency of her cooking.
“Quite often I go to a doctor and they will say that Jasmin food kept them going when they were studying medicine,” Mrs Singh laughs.
MRS SINGH’S BHOONA GOSHT
A slow-cooked lamb curry, serves 4
INGREDIENTS
3 tbsp of canola oil
1 sprig of curry leaves
4 cardamoms
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp of fenugreek seeds
2 finely chopped onions
1kg of lean lamb (diced into 1in cubes)
1 tbsp of cooking salt
1 tsp of turmeric powder
2 tsp of red chilli powder
1 tsp of fennel powder
1 tsp of cumin powder
1 large onion roughly chopped
3-4 fresh red chillies (to taste)
1 inch piece of ginger, chopped finely
4-5 garlic cloves chopped finely
3 tbsp of white vinegar
3 tbsp of water
1 tbsp of coriander powder
2 tbsp of curry powder
1 tsp of garam masala
6 tbsp coconut milk
2 chopped tomatoes
1 bunch of chopped coriander
METHOD
Heat oil in a heavy pot and fry curry leaves, cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon stick and fenugreek seeds. Add finely chopped onions and stir until onions are golden.
Add lamb, salt, turmeric, 1 tsp red chilli powder, fennel and cumin.
Cover and cook on a slow fire for 40 minutes, stirring often. Blend the roughly-chopped onion with fresh chilli, ginger, garlic, vinegar and water. Add this mixture to the lamb and continue to cook over a slow fire. Check to see if more salt is needed.
Add coriander powder, curry powder, remaining tsp. of chilli powder and garam masala while stirring over a slow fire for approx. 10 minutes.
Add coconut milk and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.
When meat is tender add tomatoes and fresh coriander. Remove from the heat, rest for 10 minutes, then serve.
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