Welcome aboard a voyage of rediscovery. A journey that will take you through the culinary heritage of India. The Food of India, or rather the foods of India, have such a rich past that even centuries later we find both fascinating and intriguing.

In my 16 years of professional association with food, I have only been able to scratch the surface. On occasions where it was possible to dig deep into the past, I have to admit, I never followed it in toto. In my opinion, Indian food can be recreated keeping the needs of the present in mind, while retaining the essence. One should try to incorporate the best of heritage and create for today and tomorrow.

I always try and impress on people that one should not follow other people's path but make a path for others to follow. For a creative beginning it is imperative that one works without any boundaries of what is authentic and what is not. It is better to work with what is relevant rather than with what is not.

In this series, I would like to take you through a culinary tour of India, where we will blend centuries-old flavours with innovation.

We start off with a cuisine that is very close to us and our hearts Maharashtrian Cuisine. I have been associated with Maharashtra since my childhood as Bombay is my father's hometown. At least once in four years we used to come to Mumbai and get a taste of Bombay (it wasn't Mumbai then). From a very early age, my taste buds got accustomed to the food of urban Maharashtra from batata vadas to bhakarwadi, from pav bhaji to poha, from missal to modak. My father being more experimental with food than I, gave us an opportunity to try out a variety of food. Here I have to add, my father, a banker, cooks much better food than I can. On a recent trip to Delhi I complimented him on a delicious mutton preparation he had concocted, he said, "Beta tum chef ho, hum to Chef ke bhi baap hain." (Son, if you are a chef, then I am a chef's father.)

Coming back to Maharashtrian cuisine, much has been written about it by renowned gourmets. The food of Maharashtra has limited itself to the boundaries of this state primarily due to the non-businesslike, yet artistic approach of this region's inhabitants. People from Maharashtra are known to be easily satisfied and this is reflected in their food too. In the recent past we have seen the advent of coastal Maharashtrian food. Malvani and Sindhudurgh cuisine restaurants have cropped up in Mumbai. At Centaur, we have also held two such food festivals in the last 18 months.

Apart from coastal Maharashtrian food, one region that has excelled in the culinary arena, is Kolhapur. I spent a few days in Kolhapur last year to understand the nuances of Kolhapuri dishes. I would like to share a delicious mutton recipe with you this week Sukha Mutton a dry mutton preparation with dry coconut and lots of chillies. This recipe has been perfected with the help of the Nageshkar family of Kolhapur.

More on Kolhapuri food next week! Happy Eating.

Method of preparation:

1 Wash and clean mutton. Cut it into 1.5 inch-sized pieces.

2 Peel the onions and slice half of it, and finely chop the rest.

3 Grate khopra (dry coconut) and dry roast on a hot tawa till it turns golden brown. Stir constantly and ensure it doesn't burn.

4 Wash, clean and finely chop tomatoes.

5 Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry sliced onions till it turns golden brown, too. Remove on a paper towel and cool.

6 Grind fried onion and roasted khopra with a little warm water, till it becomes a paste.

7 Rub salt and turmeric powder on the mutton pieces.

Pressure cook with two and half cups of water or boil with sufficient water till the mutton is almost cooked.

8 Heat 3 tbsp oil in a thick-bottomed pan. Add chopped onions, cook till golden brown.

9 Stir in the ginger and garlic pastes. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add red chilli powder and khopra and the onion paste. Bhunno till the oil leaves the sides of the pan or starts appearing on the edges of the masala.

10 Now add the boiled mutton and salt. Stir constantly and cook further for 10 minutes till the consistency of the gravy is thick and the mutton pieces are nicely coated with the masala.11 Flavour with green cardamom powder and garam masala powder.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.