A fruit chaat made with apples, watermelon, mint and other ingredients is fragrant and refreshing. (Photo by Anne Ruisi/chinadaily.com.cn)
Some Indian foods have a well-earned reputation for mouth-watering spiciness, but not all will set your taste buds on fire.
Hemant Biradar, guest chef at the Fairmont Beijing, proves cooling foods are just as delicious. Biradar, who with his assistant Dillu Kumar works at the hotel's sister property in Jaipur, India, is presenting an Indian Food Festival at the Beijing hotel's Lunar 8 restaurant through Aug 31. Indian specialties such as curry, biryani, lassi and fruit chaat, or salad, are available on the restaurant's lunch buffet or a la carte at dinner.
While heat levels in spicy foods can be controlled by the cook, the ingredients in fruit chat and mango lassi are cooling to the body and act to balance hotter foods in a meal, Biradar said during a recent cooking demonstration in Lunar 8's kitchen. These cooling foods taste good and feel good as the summer wanes, yet still packs a hot and humid punch.
Fruit chaat
500 g mixed seasonal fruit, cut into cubes
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of table salt
1 tsp black salt
1 tsp chaat masala
50 g fresh mint leaves (more if desired)
½ tsp cumin powder
Mix and toss all the ingredients into a large bowl. Chill and serve.
Mango lassi
500 g fresh mango, julienned or diced
700 g plain yogurt
80 g caster sugar, less or more, according to taste
Pinch of table salt
Crushed ice
Mix all the ingredients except the crushed ice with a whisk or blender.
Add crushed ice, a handful at a time, until the yogurt mixture reaches the liquid consistency desired. Chill and serve.
