PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIARagini Dey’s 18-year-old Spice Kitchen is an empire of Indian cuisine. It offers cooking classes, catering, spice mixes for sale, restaurant dining, and a takeaway outlet. You can even take yourself away on Ragini’s culinary tours of India, although she admits returning from her last trip a little disappointed: “I couldn’t find one dish that tasted better than those from my kitchen,” she smiles modestly. At Dhaba, the entry nook of awards and articles pay homage to this celebrity chef who conducts masterclasses for Tasting Australia and has her own brand of spice mix. A “dhaba” is an informal restaurant that takes its food seriously, and Dhaba at the Spice Kitchen offers one of the best seasonal Indian menus in Adelaide. The restaurant is spacious and relaxing; simply decorated with tasteful Indian treasures, and with a terracotta-and-yellow colour scheme that is as warming as the curries.
Ragini understands the personality of each spice intimately, its flavour and effect, and this underpins all her cooking. The Dhaba Foodie Plate offers lamb brain masala, chicken liver do-piazza and oxtail pepper fry. Vindaloo fiends can fire up over the Four Vindaloos of beef and beetroot, pork belly, venison, and sweet potato. Duck lovers delight in the Duck Mulligatawny Platter, while the tandoor oven produces a Tandoori chicken “extravaganza”. Vegetarians are plenty catered for, for instance, the masala dosa is a crisp pancake of fermented rice and lentil batter with mustard and fenugreek seed potatoes, coconut chutney and sambar dal. Adorn yourself with “The Queen’s Necklace” for dessert – baby gulab jamuns reposing in a creamy cardamom saffron sauce.
Roz Taylor