This is Nottingham -- Birmingham is usually considered the curry capital of the Midlands. But this time, the city has been overshadowed by Nottingham as we can proudly boast that we have the best Indian restaurant in the Midlands. The Cumin, which specialises in Punjabi food with a twist, trounced rivals to scoop the prestigious title awarded by the Cobra Good Curry Guide. Executive chef Shelley Anand, who cooked his first curry sauce at the age of 14, says: "I'm over the moon about the award. "It's a fantastic honour it has come to Nottingham rather than cities like Birmingham, Leicester or Derby." A family-run business, Shelley works his magic in the kitchen while his brother and co-owner Sunny is in charge at front of house. Their sister Seema and Sunny's wife Monica also help out in the restaurant. The secret of success, Shelley decrees, is the effort and passion that goes into the business, in both the food and service – something that was instilled at an early age by their father Kharti Lal who opened an Indian restaurant called Passion in Hyson Green in the 1980s. Six years ago, the Anand brothers opened The Cumin, in Maid Marian. It was during the recession and with so many competitors on Nottingham's curry mile there was speculation whether it would survive. Next door was Kashmir, one of the city's longest established....now no longer there. The Cumin is named after one of the most common spices used in Indian cooking. Shelley says: "The trend at the time was to choose a spice name. Fifteen to 20 years ago, it was city names or Indian monuments like the Taj Mahal." And like its moniker, the 80-seater restaurant's two floors are stylish and contemporary. As The Cumin's reputation grew, the awards started to flood in for a menu, where less is definitely more.While some Indian restaurants have page after page of different curries, The Cumin specialises in a limited number of mains. Shelley says this is because kitchens often use one sauce which is 'tweaked' for every dish. He creates different ones for different tastes. There's makhani sauce for chicken tikka masala, which is good for those that don't like onions; the korma sauce is creamy and vegetarian dishes are made with masala sauce, a rich tangy combination of tomato, onion and spices. "If you tried every dish here it will taste different," he says.
Some are family recipes for Punjabi food, from north India, handed down over the years. Others he has devised himself with a Kenyan twist in honour of his African roots. Mouth-watering dishes include tilapia, a fresh water fish from Kenya's Lake Victoria cooked with cumin-flavoured masala sauce; Goan prawn curry, cooked with roasted coconut and Methi Murg, which is chicken, flavoured with fenugreek in a traditional savoury Punjabi sauce. Veggie options do not compromise on taste. Options include bhindi masala (spicy okra) and tava aloo raviya, a dish of baby aubergines and potatoes in a spicy sauce. The Cumin's biryani is a particular favourite with customers. The food is partly cooked and put in an earthenware pot where the lid is sealed with dough paste to retain the moisture during slow-cooking to create a tasty aromatic dish. Even the rice selection offers something different from the usual pilau and steamed basmati with Shelley's own lime variety.
Before opening The Cumin, he honed his skills in restaurants in London, Leicester and Nottingham and hotels, where he picked up tips on how to run a kitchen and front of house. While working in London, he learnt how to cater at wedding banquets for 600-700 guests. Now a similar service is offered to wedding parties in Nottingham, with Shelley and his three-man kitchen team cooking up huge Indian feasts at venues including the Belfry and Crowne Plaza. It's a feat that requires six months of planning to organise catering on a mass scale. Shelley has come a long way since his first attempt at cooking as a 14-year-old. "The first curry base I made was an onion masala and it burnt. My dad tapped me on the shoulder and said 'it's your first one, we'll let you off'."
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THE Cobra Good Curry Guide is considered the definitive handbook of the UK's best Indian restaurants. Established in 1984 by Pat Chapman, every edition is completely re-written and is totally independent. The 2013/14 edition contains information on 1,000 curry houses, selected from 9,000 contenders. The guide's main strength is that it is compiled using the comments from hundreds of customers whose names are listed in full. There's no anonymous reports or descriptions written by the restaurants themselves. In 1992, Mr Chapman pioneered the Curry Awards. This season awards were made to just 20 in restaurants in the UK: two in Scotland, two in Wales and 16 in England – including The Cumin. Reported by This is 22 hours ago.