HYDERABAD: Grilled, fried, boiled, steamed, raw and marinated — the hallmarks of native seafood cookery from Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh received a makeover, just in time for Hyderabad’s seafood festival season. Chef de cuisine Kailash Gundupalli of Novotel Hyderabad and Vivek Kolukla of Absolute Barbecues curated a menu of fresh broiled, pan-seared and poached seafood served alongside a myriad of other things spicy and less so.
The delicate nature of seafood requires extra care and attention during cooking, and chef Kailash Gundupalli has realised it. He agrees it is easy to overcook or undercook and ruin the flavours and textures in seafood. “Unlike chicken and meat, seafood requires several days to soften. We have bought live seafood, and we patiently wait until each of them is ready to be cooked,” said the chef and added, “People are getting sophisticated when it comes to food, particularly seafood.”
Innovation, diversity, creativity and pride in local and native procedure are at the heart of their cookery. “Only the cooking style has been experimented with,” said the chef as he presented CE with six exquisite-looking plates of different fish. One was Maharashtrian-style Bombay fish coated with rava and pan-seared. Another was mustard-marinated fish from West Bengal, and another with curry leaves, shallots and garlic. The seafood festival at Novotel has been extended till December.
Meanwhile, Absolute Barbecue has also started a live kitchen dedicated to serving exotic seafood, and there is a range of it. The seafood display here is as delightful to the eye as it is to the taste buds — besides fish (including sharks), there are molluscs, lobsters, shrimps, crustaceans (big and small), oysters and squids. They marinate prawns on skewers before placing them on a barbeque stand.
Squids are deep-fried, stewed and braised. This apart, there is a variety of seafood soups to choose from. “We also offer barbecue chilli garlic basa fish, barbecue prawns, octopus curry noodles, shark stick noodles, Mongolian mixed seafood, Singapore crab curry and seafood-mix fried rice,” says Vivek Kolukla, Absolue Barbeques’ Territory Manager for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Absolute Barbecue will continue the seafood festival till December 4.