Chef Ruchira Hoon Philip is on a sabbatical from her restaurant kitchen but that just means she gets more time to dish out all those delightful meals from home through her brand The Ruchira Kitchen. Her South Indian roots show up in her weekend menus ever so often and among all the home chef’s I have tried, her Chettinad and Kerala food is the stuff of legends. Apart from regular Zoom classes where she teaches everything from Party Foods to Eggless Desserts and Enormous Mediterranean Spreads, it is her weekend delivery menu that people wait for.
The menus always have meals for two with the requisite bread and staples in place, for instance, the Malabar Ghee Roast Chicken comes with four homemade Malabar Parottas and Thayir Pachadi and then there is a vegetarian counterpart so everyone is happy, in this case, the menu had Kerala Style Potato Roast. The other memorable meal was the Tamil Nadu Chicken Brinji, a delicately spiced biryani with soft pieces of chicken on the bone along with the best ever Karnataka-styleVangibath that I actually froze for the week after. Each week’s menu has a dessert from a staple she has mastered, The Tres Leches, but it changes up every week, so you’ll see versions like Passionfruit, Lime & Coconut or Rum & Mocha or even White Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cheese, a perfect way to end any meal.
One Menu I am hoping she repeats has got to be the Bahwalpuri Mutton Stew with Khameeri Roti (homemade!) with a vegetarian option, Mughlai Qabooli Biryani made with split green gram and aromatic spices and served with Raita and Shirazi Kachumbur, her take on a Salad Shirazi.