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Mumtaz Mahal
One of Muscat's most famous restaurants shares its recipes

Mumtaz Mahal has been serving excellent food ever since 1984. It won the Oman Today Best Restaurant Award for Indian cuisine thrice, and its views over the city are as good as its food. It boasts a main dining room, banquet hall and two lawns that can hold a combined figure of more than 1,500 diners. The restaurant specialises in north Indian Mughlai cuisine, made from recipes it does not usually give out. Try these select six at home and follow this up with a visit to the restaurant – and the Awards ceremony on December 13 to see if it wins, again.

Recipes here include a spiced potato salad garnished with fresh pomegranate and a lamb preparation that men from Punjab love. It is also a classic example of the art of bhunao (a way of stir-frying) in Indian cooking and a signature dish by chefs Nambi and Rawat. Other delicacies include fish with ajwain and chicken breasts stuffed with cumin-flavoured paneer. Your meal is best rounded off with Indian ice cream, a creamy preparation with saffron and pistachio.

Preparation (approximately 40 minutes)
Boil, cool, peel and cut the potatoes into 3/4-inch cubes. Soak the gram overnight in a haandi, drain, replenish with fresh water, add a pinch of soda bicarbonate and salt, and boil until tender. Shell the pomegranate and keep aside half of the fruit for garnish. For the dressing, mix lemon juice, cumin powder and chaat masala with groundnut oil. Adjust to your taste. You may like to add a pinch of red chilli powder.

To garnish, wash some fresh mint leaves, then peel and wash and cut a medium sized onion into rings. Wash and cut fresh tomatoes into rings too – use these over the salad. Mix potatoes, boiled gram and pomegranate in a glass bowl, pour on the dressing and toss gently. Arrange onions and tomatoes on the edges, and sprinkle the leftover pomegranate and mint leaves on top. Serve chilled.‚

Preparation (around fifteen minutes)
Cut the paneer into half-inch cubes. Peel, wash and chop onions. De-seed the bell peppers and cut into strips. Scrape, wash and chop the ginger. Remove stems, wash, slit, de-seed and chop up the green chillies. Wash and chop fresh coriander leaves.
Heat ghee on a large tawa, add ajwain and sauté over medium heat until it begins to crackle. Add onions, ginger, green chillies and bell peppers and sauté for two minutes. Then add red chillies and coriander powder, stir for a minute, add paneer and stir for another minute. Now add the makhani gravy and bhunno until it becomes thick and coats the paneer. Adjust the seasoning. Sprinkle garam masala and fresh coriander and stir . Serve with an Indian bread of your choice.

Preparation (around 45 minutes)
Clean, wash and cut the fish into half-inch thick filets and pat dry. For the first marination, dissolve salt in vinegar and leave the fish in this marinade for at least 25 minutes. Remove, place between two napkins and press gently to remove the excess moisture, which can ruin the second marinade by making it too sour.

For your second marination, mix ginger and garlic pastes, ajwain, red chillies, turmeric, pepper and salt with gram flour, add water (around 100ml) and orange colour, and make a paste of coating consistency. Apply the paste on both sides of the fillet and arrange them on a tray at least an inch apart. Keep aside for 20 minutes. Wash and cut the lemons into wedges. Heat ghee in a kadhai and deep fry the fish over medium heat until crisp. Arrange your fish on a flat dish, sprinkle chaat masala and serve with lemon wedges.

Preparation (around 1:15 hours)
Clean, remove the skin and de-bone the chicken, keeping the winglet bone intact. Make a deep slit along the thick edge of the breast, taking care not to penetrate the opposite side. Open out the flaps thus formed and flatten. To marinate, mix yellow chillies, salt and lemon juice with the ginger and garlic pastes and apply this mixture on the flattened chicken breasts. Keep aside for at least 30 minutes. For your filling, mash the paneer in a bowl. Remove stems, wash, slit, de-seed and finely chop green chillies. Wash and chop coriander. Finely chop the pineapple rings. Roughly chop cashew nuts. Add these chopped ingredients, cumin, yellow chillies and salt to the mashed paneer and mix well.

For your stuffing, place a portion of the filling in the middle of the marinated chicken breasts and fold to make round or oval shape balls. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Make your batter by breaking eggs in a bowl, adding corn flour, flour, salt and water (around 100ml) and whisking all of this. Heat ghee in a kadhai, dip the stuffed chicken breast in the batter and deep fry over medium heat until light golden. Grease a roasting tray with a little ghee, arrange the fried chicken breasts on it and roast in a pre-heated oven (at 275ºF) for ten minutes.

Preparation (around 2 hours)
Clean and cut breast and saddle of the lamb into 1.5-inch chunks and clean chops. Whisk yoghurt in a large bowl, add salt, mix and leave the lamb in this marinade for at least 90 minutes. Peel, wash and chop onions. Wash and chop tomatoes. Scrape, wash and roughly chop ginger. Peel and roughly chop garlic.

Heat ghee in a haandi, add green cardamom, black cardamom and bay leaves, sauté over medium heat for ten seconds, add onions and sauté until light brown. Add the ginger and garlic pastes, stir until the moisture has evaporated, add coriander, red chilli powder and turmeric and stir.

Next, add lamb, along with the marinade, bring to a boil, reduce to low heat, cover and simmer until tender. Keep adding 30ml of water at regular intervals to ensure that the meat does not stick. Now add tomatoes, chopped ginger and chopped garlic, stir and bhunno until the lamb is mixed well with the masala. Add cumin and whole red chillies, stir for a minute. Adjust the seasoning. Remove to a flat dish and serve with tandoori roti.

Preparation (around fifteen minutes)
Blanch and cool the pistachios. Remove the skin and cut them into slivers. Dissolve the saffron in warm milk. Rabri is a thickened form of milk which is cooked for a long time on a slow flame till it gains its consistency. Add sugar, pistachio, saffron and cardamom while it is still warm and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cool. Falooda is a soft noodle-like garnish which compliments the kulfi. Put the rabri in kulfi or ice-cream moulds and freeze for six hours. To serve, remove the rabri from the moulds, slice into vertical halves (if an ice-cream mould has been used, cut into 1-inch thick slices), garnish with falooda and top with rose syrup.