Mumbai food: Grant Road vegetable bazaar trail with UK Chef Shaun Kenworthy

Armed with kitchen Hindi UK chef Shaun Kenworthy drops by Grant Roads bhaaji market for a crack at blending desi veggies with continental cooking styles Heres what happenedIT has been an early start for chef Shaun Kenworthy He flies in from Kolkata at 330 am dumps his bags at the hotel and meets us at Grant Road station vegetable market Its sveltering but hes excited to find something he has not cooked with beforeChicken and Wild GarlicArun DSouza new executive chef of Doppio is around to guide us The 47yearold UK chef who has been brought on board to consult on a new menu for the Breach Candy restaurant holds up a leafy bunch for DSouza as vendors giggle at the camera Aluvadi he tells him At the same time we butt in Patra Kenworthy has made up his mind that hell use the taro leavesAt Grant Road veggie market PicsFalguni AgrawalKenworthy first came to India 17 years ago as executive chef at Kolkatas Park Hotel where he met his model wife and stayed back My house is close to Lake Garden SuperMarket I love being there at different times of the year In winter the vendor ladies sit with 40 types of saag he shares excitedly Bazaar haltBy now he has picked up enough kitchen Hindi Kenworthy has shopped for a bunch of wild green garlic and purple yam We think of Gujarati undhiyu but he only grins My cooking training is Frenchstyle and I dont like to waste ingredients So if I am using an orange I will use the zest and candy the pit I dont know how many young chefs understand that today says Kenworthy wiping the sweat off his brow but not the enthusiasm in his stride Having grown up in a small town near Manchester he tells us one of the first meals he had at a restaurant was an Indian one It was a small town but it had six to seven Indian restaurants I visited it at the age of eight for my grandparents anniversary I grew up with Indian mates too The mass migration of colonial expats had started in 1971 A lot of Patels were my friendsKenworthys tryst with Indian vegetables keeps going back to his cooking in Kolkata I love the pui shak water spinach for its edible stemmy part It tastes a lot like kale he adds explaining that he prefers using individual masalas over ground mixtures Turmeric only soils the linenThe noisy bustling market with scooters parked in the middle of the road is nestled between two rows of buildings Kenworthy halts at a sprouts vendor People travel across India especially the north and talk about nonvegetarian dishes But Indian cooking to me is about vegetables the individual flavours they bring is so interesting You can do so much more with texture colour and taste While the world is coming to terms with vegetarian cooking it has been engrained in India for centuriesKitchen hopOur shopping bags are full and it is time to head to the kitchen to rustle up a meal using some of our stash Pui shak tendli ivy gourd laal math red spinach mogri radish pods guava sweet potatoes purple yam wild garlic baby aubergines puri channa chor garam patraAt work in the kitchenKenworthy believes in simple cooking methods and fresh ingredients A lot of my style is European Take the Italian chefs for example they are the laziest They hardly use any elaborate ingredients and will give the least possible treatment to their dishes Even Greek cuisine is known for its handful of ingredientsIn the kitchen with his apron on Kenworthy gets into warrior mode chopping frying sauteacuteing and roasting He deep fries the tendli aubergine and mogri cuts the purple yam and sweet potatoes and puts them in the oven for baking He takes a chicken breast with the skin on and grills it in a pan and wraps it in the green garlic and sets it in the oven to roastPrawns andYogurtWe watch him as he pops in ingredients improvising with every step He grills prawns grates guava and slices the water chestnuts All this comes together in two dishes Chicken Baked in Wild Garlic with Purple Yam and Sweet Potato and Prawns Panroasted SouthIndia Style Rustic simply executed dishes we prod him to tell us if theyll make it to the new menu What we cooked today was seasonal and Ill have to ponder over it he grins inviting us to dig into the food that has already enticed us with bold fragrancesRECIPESChicken Baked in Wild Garlic with Purple Yam and Sweet Potato Recipes serve fourIngredients4 220 gm chicken breasts with skin on 2 sweet potatoes2 purple yams200g beetroot30 grams yogurtMethod Pansear the chicken breast and cover in wild green garlic and bake in oven at 200C for 710 minutesWash the sweet potatoes and roast at 200 degrees Celcius for 45 minutes to an hour Cut the purple yam into squares dry roast in oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 45 minutes to an hour and then pan sear for colour Boil the beetroot until tender and add the yogurt with a pinch of salt cumin salt pepper and drizzle olive oil Add water if neededPrawns panroasted with ideas of the south with guavawaterchestnut remouladerecipe serves fourINGREDIENTS20 prawns 100 gram yogurt Laal saag red spinach2 unripe guavas 100 gram water chestnutMETHOD In a hot pan throw in the prawns sear until half cooked and add mustard cinnamon star anise Just before they are done add curry leaves To the yogurt add pinch of roasted cumin salt drop of vinegar acidulate For the remoulade finely shred guava and water chestnuts Squeeze a lemon honey salt and pepper to tasteRECIPES CREATED BY CHEF SHAUN KENWORTHY