Indish's version of vegetable korma.Posted on 09/04/2009 8:09:03 PM PDT by OldSpice
Indish's version of vegetable korma.I recently watched "Monsoon Wedding," the Bollywood story of a grandiose Punjabi marriage celebration, a film as intricate as the four days of family drama leading to the ceremony. While we don't actually see what must have been a banquet to end all banquets, we can well imagine a feast as complex and elaborate as the convoluted wedding itself.
I mention this affair because Indish, a new Indian restaurant, stakes its claim for uniqueness on a refusal to serve what owner Raj Sharma calls ornate and elegant wedding cooking.
Rather than featuring a commonplace and traditional cuisine of heavy curries, Sharma, an Anglo-Indian former barrister, and the chef, his wife, Laura Brown, offer a lighter style of cooking, more what you'd find in a Punjabi home.
Paneer fillets with sarsson ka saag - a cheese and spinach dish.In fact, the word "curry" is never used in Indian languages, being a British oversimplification for a cuisine far more complex than we in the West realize. In mediocre Indian restaurants, the stuff is simply ladled on; but at Indish, in lieu of such thick sauces, the dishes are seasoned by directly applying ground spices to the ingredients: cardamom, ginger, mint, turmeric, coriander, fenugreek. When sauces do appear, they tend to be delicate, enhancing rather than masking the food. One of the highlights at Indish is that each dish has its own distinctive taste and range of flavors, no two reduced to the same inevitable color or texture.
Indish
Grade: B+
Cuisine and scene: Tasteful, sleek decor with no hint of the cuisine's provenance. Home-cooked, lightish Indian food in lieu of the curries and heavily sauced dishes characteristic of wedding dishes.
Recommended: Samosas; peanut salad; chicken and mushroom kofta korma; chili chutney; aubergine badal jaam; mango coconut cheesecake.
Vegetarian friendly? Given the huge Hindu and Buddhist population, Indian cuisine always offers many good options.
Sound level: Perfect for good conversation.
Beverages: Good Anglo beers, decent wines and a full bar. Sadly, no lassis.
Price range: $3-$12.
Extras: Reservations; credit cards; street parking; disabled access.
Serving: Lunch, happy hour Tues-Fri, dinner Tues-Sun.
Info: 305 N.W. 21st Ave.; 503-546-4900; www.indishrestaurant.com
Indish features Northern Indian cooking, and since Muslims made their way to the North of the country, you might notice similarities to Middle East cuisine: kebabs, ground lamb and eggplant. Recipes from the North tend to be less blazingly hot than those from the South, but at Indish they certainly don't lack complex spicing. For diners who wish a more inflammatory edge to their dishes, the kitchen has developed an intriguingly complicated chili chutney which has the property of heating up a dish without overwhelming its flavors.
There's a dedication to freshness here, and a commitment to making everything from scratch. It's a noble aim, and the only drawback, though I admire the integrity involved, is the absence of a lassi, the great chilled yogurt drink that's the milk shake of India, best done with only a bit of salt and cumin but often served with blended mango. Brown doesn't have the time to make her own yogurt and won't use store-bought varieties, which she rightly claims lack the acidic tartness of the best kinds.
The dinner menu presents an array of small plates, something like Indian tapas, each sufficient for two persons. You should assemble a groaning board and move through dishes in any order you desire.
Among my favorites are the lamb samosas, piping hot fried pastries filled with minced lamb whose spicings will generate the juices for what's to come. While the tangy mint sauce is made for the samosas, another heady kick serves just as well: peanut salad whose chili-and-lemon dressing elevates the humble nut to transcendence.
Each version of lamb at Indish rings a change on that ingredient. Lamb kheema is a homey, even peasant dish, and yet at the same time sophisticated: The ground meat is infused with a full range of herbs and spices, while tiny peas lend color and earthiness to the recipe. Garlicky lamb kebabs arrive smoked with a crisp, slightly crunchy exterior from browning in the tandoor oven; the meat is rich with just the right fatty enticement. It simply blows away the dried-out versions I've experienced elsewhere.
Of course Indian cooking excels with vegetables, given the enormous population of the subcontinent that eschews meat, and not just the sacred cow. You can begin with pakoras, or fritters; here they refer to sliced onions dipped in chick pea batter and fried, then served with a hot tomato chutney; these rings tend to be less crisp than you might expect, but the flavor is terrific.
The best vegetarian item is aubergine badal jaam, breaded and deep-fried disks of eggplant layered with tomato sauce into a loaf suffused with ginger and garlic, crowned with a dollop of yogurt, and pooled in a bath of green and red peppers. This is Indian comfort food, sweet and savory at once, and mouth-filling.
The vegetable samosas, stuffed with pureed potatoes and cauliflower, are almost as good as the lamb version. And if you like chick peas, garbanzos simmered in onions hit the spot as well.
I was less enchanted by the pan-fried cabbage, which is rather bland and mundane, and by the classic paneer, white cheese stir-fried with vegetables, which lacks much punch.
But everything is redeemed by a hearty dish of pork braised with apple, featuring a sauce called balchao, comprising sugar, vinegar and cayenne to give the meat a subtle pickled taste. As my dining partner noted, this dish could make a splendid ragout for pasta, a nice trick of fusion.
Indian desserts tend to be forms of milk-based puddings and silky custards, some served warm. Indish makes a concession in this category to Western inclinations, and the winner is a mango coconut cheesecake, in keeping with the restaurant's ethos more chiffon-like than dense.
He's not on the menu, but no one should leave the place without an order of Raj Sharma himself, a loquacious man of deservedly opinionated advice and a fountain of information about Indian cooking who will charmingly share his culinary wisdom with you. But start that conversation only when you want a break from eating, since his discourse on all aspects of the cuisine will stop you in your tracks with its amiable, articulate expertise.
With its comfortable couches at the front of the room, Indish is a fine place for a drink and a plate or two. But more to the point, it has at once leapt to the front of the line of Portland's Indian restaurants.
-- Roger Porter; porter@reed.edu
This post is making me hungry.
I hope no one posts the food equivalent of Helen Thomas to cool us all off.
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Have any of you ever been to this restaurant?
The word “curry” is actually used in many Indian languages and has its origin in Tamil. It is however used for specific dishes and not generally for all gravies.
Food critics usually like playing spoilsport, always telling us that the things we like aren’t “authentic”. This one isn’t any different putting down ‘mediocre’ restaurants because they ladle on the gravy. That is in fact how a lot of Indians like it. There are others who like it the way the critic does. Doesn’t make either of them wrong or unauthentic. There are about 1.2 billion of us Indians and almost as many different tastes. Some of us like it spicy while others do not(What may not be spicy to Indians may not mean the same to you). The fun is in trying out many versions of the same dish.
Most of us go to a restaurant to enjoy good food, not to get authenticity certificates.
Lol, after reading your comments, I realizied this critic doesn’t realize cheesecake is a custard.
It’s really nit picking, but I though I’d put in my 2 cents.
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