Sudhir Kumar Sibal

His Favorite Dish    [ Indian Cuisines (Article by him) | About Chef ] 


Uttar Dakshin Murghbandi 

Serves: 4

Ingredients
Breast Of Chicken 8
Flour To dust
Cooking Oil To shallow fry
The Marination
Lemon juice 30ml
Garlic Paste 10gm
Ginger paste 10gm
Coriander powder  1.5gm
Red Chilli powder 1.5gm
Turmeric powder 1.5gm
Salt To taste
The filling
Chicken mince 250 mg
Cooking Oil 45 gm
Asafoetida 1A pinch
Mustard seeds 1.5gm
Curry leaves 16
Madras Onions 30gm
Coconut 30 gm
Cheese 60gm
Salt To taste

Preparation
The Chicken: Clean, remove the skin, debone but retain the winglet bone, trim, wash and pat drry. With a sharp knife, pressing the supreme at the thicker end gently, slit the deboned breasts horizontally to make pockets ensuring that a third of the opposite side is left uncut. The Marination: Mix all the ingredients, evenly smear the Supremes with this marinade and reserve for 30 minutes. The filling: Clean and wash curry leaves, Peel wash and chop onions. Remove the brown skin and grate coconut. Grate cheese.

Heat oil in a frying pan, add asafoetida, stir over medium heat until it swells up, add mustard seeds and curry leaves, stir until the seeds begin to crackle. Then add the onions and fry until translucent and glossy. Now add the chicken mince and salt, stir-fry until the moisture evaporates. Remove, cool, add coconut and cheese, mix well. Divide into 8 equal portions.

The Gravy Peel wash and chop onions, Soak saffron in lukewarm milk.

The Stuffing
Pack a portion of the filling in the pockets of the marinated chicken breasts and then seal each with the tip of the knife ensuring that the meat is not pierced. Dust the Supremes with flour and keep aside.

The garnish
Remove stems, clean wash and pat dry green peppercorns, (Using canned peppercorns, drain the brine and pat dry). Remove eyes, wash tomato, halve, deseed and cut into small dices. Clean and wash coriander. 

Heat oil in a frying pan, add the stuffed Supremes, two at a time and fry over low heat, turning a couple of times, until evenly golden ( approx. 4-5 minutes). Then cover and cook, turning at regular intervals, for 2-3 minutes. To prepare the gravy, heat clarified butter in a heavy bottom pan, add green cardamom cloves, black cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaf, stir over medium heat until onions are translucent and glossy., add the garlic and ginger paste, stir fry until the moisture evaporates. (ensure that the masala does not get colored) , add the supremes and 400 ml of water, bring to a boil, reduce to low heat, simmer until the liquor is reduced by half. Remove the chicken Supremes and keep aside. Pass the liquor through a fine mesh soups, strainer into a separate pan. Return gravy to heat, add coconut milk and simmer until of sauce consistency. Add saffron, stir, remove and adjust the seasoning.

To serve
Arrange 2 Supremes on each of 4 individual plates, pour on equal quantities of sauce, garnish with green peppercorns, tomato dices and coriander.

About Chef      [ Indian Cuisines (Article by him) | His Favorite Dish ]

Meet superchef Sudhir Sibal, the man behind Rajiv Gandhi's sweet tooth, besides being the Indian representative for chefs who cook for world leaders. Urvashi Sibal reports.

When Chef Sudhir Sibal chose the Kitchen as his field of work, he had his school peers gawking at him. But, unfazed, he pursued his career with confidence and passion. Recently, when Mumbai-based Chef and hunk, Aryan Vaid, was crowned Grasim Mr. International, Sibal sneered at these old buddies: "Chefs are cool!" he told them.

Meanwhile, this year, Chef Sibal has been named as one of India's top 12 chefs in the Nestle calendar. Looking back, his career chart seems enough to turn most Indian chefs green - not with vegetarianism, but with envy.

Early days
Starting off his career in Hotel Jammu Ashok, he went on to launch Hotel Karnavati Ashok at Ahmedabad. A three-year stint at Hyderabad House(the state guest house) and brief postings in Hotel Akbar and Hotel Janpath were followed by eleven years at the helm of the kitchen brigade of Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi.

It was during this period that he acquired the distinction of handling over a hundred state banquets where the guests included world leaders like Queen Elizabeth, President Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, Premier Trudo (of Canada) and former Indian Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and P.V. Narsimha Rao.

He remembers fondly how Rajiv Gandhi loved his desserts:"He did have a sweet tooth, but avoided sweets when Sonia was around."

At present, he's the senior executive chef of Area Kanishk (Janpath, Lodhi, Ranjit, Indraprastha and Kanishk hotels) of India Tourism Development Corporation (Ashoka group of hotels).

The Honours
As the Vice President of the Indian Culinary Forum(an association of Indian chefs) he has been actively involved in organising gourmet dinners (proceeds of which go to charity organisations like CRY), culinary contests of junior chefs and their apprentices, cookery workshops and popularising Indian cuisine all over the globe.

And in doing this last job, Chef Sibal has been assisted by his membership of the Club des Chefs des Chefs(CCC), an elite club of the chefs catering to the heads of state/governments. At the annual meets of the CCC, he got to meet world premiers, the American President Bill Clinton at the White House(beat that!!), Canadian Premier Jean Chretien, President Tabone of Malta, Princess of Thailand, to name a few.

In his own words, Chef says, "We have a saying amongst chefs, that is, politics often divides men,food always unites them."

Little known, he may be amongst his own contrymen, Chef Sibal has been featured in top world journals, The Daily Telegraph, Toronto Times, Le Figaro, The Washington Post, and even the notorious German Playboy!

Cooking for the media
From being featured on Good Morning India(on Star Plus) and providing a culinary helpline in the women's monthly mag Grehalaxmi, he's done it all.

He has been in front of the camera, whipping up delights for his viewers on the DD and Zee food shows. Besides, the chef's recipes are regularly featured in Dainik Jagran and Rashtriya Sahara. He has also authored several coffee table books (The Ashok Book of Favourite Indian Recipes, and Royal Indian Recipes) on behalf of the Ashoka Group of Hotels.

And in his free time chef Sibal has judges various culinary contests. In past, he's done it for The Oberoi Group of hotels, The Taj Culinary Olympics, the National Council of Hotel Management, the International Mango festival and the Culinary Art India 2000.

Cooking for the lesser ones
So what does this Pusa Institute of Hotel Management graduate like the most about his profession? "The joy of making someone's day by providing a satisfactory meal." In fact, he has been instrumental in getting the surplus food from the five star hotels to land up in the plates of the have-nots through the Food Bank.

With 25 years of experience in the culinary industry, chef Sibal says he's found "a complete and fulfilling" way of life. What with mouth watering pastries and delectable kebabs to savour as part of your job!

As for his interests, he keeps abreast with the news and current affairs, with a special eye for the hospitality and culinary fields. Besides these he also has a passion for upgrading various aspects of his profession.

Fun in the kitchen
Sure the job of a chef has scope for humour? Sure, says the Sibal, recounting a demonstration of rumaali roti-making in front of a foreign delegation, when a cook goofed up by giving the roti such a violent spin that it headed straight for the roof. And defying gravity, stayed up there, stuck to the ceiling!

Memorable moments
On one of his trips to the offshore destinations for the CCC meets, chef Sibal was awed by the welcome gesture of the Maltese President, when a bevy of black Rolls Royce limousines were rolled out for the chefs.

And then in a shopping mall in Switzerland, the crowd went amok taking autographs from the entourage of world chefs, and the shop soon ran out of aprons and napkins!!  

Indian Cuisines       [ His Favorite Dish | About Chef ]               

Cuisine in India is as varied and diverse as the regions of the country and the people who inhabit them. Each part of the land has an enviable range of culinary delights which promise a veritable gastronomic experience. And the list of dishes is surprisingly endless….. pampering equally those having a penchant for the hot and sour tastes as it does the connoisseurs with a sweet palate. The recipes, you will notice are redolent of the climatic status of a particular region. So, less spicy and oily food would be usually seen in tropical states while the inhabitants of salubrious places normally relish hot and spicy preparations.

On the southern side, where cold weather is rare, light dishes with boiled rice constitutes the staple meal. Coconut is invariably liberally used in all the dishes which have garlic, onion, spices as the basic ingredients. You could try your hand at Chakka Thoran, raw jack fruit preparation or Tapioca Avial. Or else, cook Kozhi Saaru, a mouth-watering Chicken curry. The Pandi curry, made from pork is another specialty as are the South Indian Paranthas.

IN the Northern belt, which experiences all the seasons, people prefer more hot and sour meals. A profusion of spices- be it chilli, cardamom, garam masala or tamrind-is found in more or less each dish…. There is a large variety of lentils and most of the cuisine is onion and tomato based.

Indulge yourself with dahi kabab, a subtly flavored Youghurt kabab; Tandoori Machhi, a spiced tandoori pomfret; Acvhari Winglets, tempting pickled Chicken Winglets; kali-Amba an irresistable mutton dish. Western India, comprising some coastal areas, is the place to enjoy an astonishing range of seafood….. pomfret, crabs, trout.

The eastern region is where dishes prepared in mustard oil are quite common. Again it is a rcie predominated land.. Imagining a meal sans rice is simply impossible! Lightly spiced and subtly flavored food is what the people of this region enjoy. You too can try Ilich mach Bhapa (Steamed Hilsa), a mustard flavored steam fish.; or Crab Masala, a chilli hot curry.

Truly India is a cornucopia of cuisines with exciting flavors and tastes which is why this country has craved a niche in the food-scape of the world.