Chef Anand George, current holder of the Echo’s Restaurant of the Year award, shares some of the secrets of Keralan cooking with a reporter from the Echo.

Melting roast duck, tender lamb and even beans and carrots get an exotic twist in the hands of kitchen wizard Anand George.  Anand is giving Indian food a whole new meaning by celebrating the flavours of his home state of Kerala.

He and his culinary team have produced a special menu for the first Kerala Cardiff Food Festival which runs at his restaurant Mint & Mustard in Whitchurch Road, Cardiff until August 23.

 “Our food is simple with plenty of stews and braises and spices like peppercorns, cardamom and curry leaves,” said Anand.  “We also have lots of relishes like ginger or apple. An apple, yoghurt and mustard one for instance goes very well with lamb”

“Coconut is important too and is incorporated into many of the dishes either as coconut milk as with lamb or grated in a mixture of green lentils with mustard and red chillies, for instance.   I like to use local seasonal ingredients as well,” he added.

“We don’t have runner beans in India, we use cabbage to mix with carrots, but here there are lots of runner beans at the moment so I wanted to use those instead.”

Anand’s passion for cooking was kindled as a little boy watching his mother preparing his lunch box.  “I was fascinated,” he recalled, “I used to get up at 5.30am to see what she was cooking.”

He took a degree in commerce before deciding to follow his heart and go into the kitchen, working for the upmarket Taj group of hotels in India as well as studying for a diploma in culinary arts.

He loves to experiment as well as to cook his region’s traditional dishes like the duck braise, which chef George describes as a blend of Indian and British.  “It’s cooked with tomatoes, onions and spices,” he said, “and it’s not too difficult to make.”

To recreate some of Anands George’s wonderful tastes of Southern India in your own home then watch this space for some exciting recipes from the Kerala festival menu:

This week’s recipe for Tharavu Varatiyathu (Duck Roast)

Ingredients
- 700g or three duck breasts
- 200g onions
- 125g tomatoes
- 20g garlic
- 30g ginger
- 3 fresh green chillies
- Two sprigs of curry leaves
- Salt to taste
- 15g of Kashmiri chilli powder 20g of coriander powder
- 10g turmeric powder
- 15g Madras curry powder
- 1½ tsp garam masala powder

Method
Remove the skin from the duck breast; heat the pan and add the skin and cook until the fat melts, strain the melted fat, discard the skin and cut the breast into small cubes and leave aside.
Slice onions, garlic and tomatoes, slit green chilli and cut the ginger into very fine strands.
Place the melted fat in a heated pan along with curry leaves and add chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric and curry powder, sauté for a couple of minutes without burning the powdered masala.
Now add the onions, garlic and tomatoes, slit green chilli and ginger, and cook until they are soft and mashed – now add the cubes of duck breast and salt, allow them to cook in their juices stirring frequently, check the seasoning, once the breast is cooked and sprinkle with garam masala and enjoy!