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| Lewes Hand Book Chaula’s curries flavour across Sussex Providing an authentic taste of Gujarat, Chaula’s in Station Street is not your average Indian take away, serving a mixture of chilled and frozen dishes taken from authentic recipes as eaten by Gujurati families at home with a few dishes invented by owner Chaula Patel. Chaula’s meals and snacks are mostly vegetarian or vegan (although there are chicken, fish and lamb options), free of artificial additives and gluten, and made using local ingredients whenever possible, all of which makes them a touch more virtuous than an Indian takeaway! Guajarati cuisine relies on a wide variety of herbs and spices to accentuate rather than mask natural flavours. The shop (now with limited seating for diners), like other establishments on Station Street, is quite easy to miss as you puff and pant your way to the High Street at the top of the hill. However, this enterprising business run by Chaula and her husband Janak is probably one of Lewes’ biggest success stories. Chaula, herself a vegetarian, started making her meals and snacks nine years ago from the convenience store she runs with her husband in St Pancras Road. Chaula said: ‘We took over the store n 1994 and built it up to a good business. The idea for the curries came in 1997 and I was surprised at how successful they were. The curries are very different to the general idea people have of Indian cooking. I use traditional recipes and techniques taught to me by my mother and grandmother and I use traditional ingredients.” To begin with, Chaula started with the more familiar recipes from Punjabi restaurant menus and transformed them using the expertise for cooking vegetables for which Gujaratis are famous. The venture was a victim of its own success — Chaula found the queue to collect an average of 250 curries stretched down the road and became unmanageable, so she then decided to branch out in a more practical way. Popular among the vegetable dishes is Bhindi Kadhi — chunky okra pieces in thick yoghurt spiced with turmeric, chilli and curry leaves. There is also the Dudhi Ghana, a mild creamy curry made with gourd, yellow split lentils and spices, stuffed baby aubergine filled with peanuts, sesame seeds, jaggery from sugar cane, garlic, cumin and coriander, and Muthia curry, which blends several flours, millet, rice, gram and wheat with spinach, fenugreek leaves, potatoes and spiced tomatoes. For non vegetarians, Chaula recommends the Pista chicken, invented by her and her husband, which involves spices and pistachio nuts, fish curry made with codfish in coriander, ginger, garlic and spices, and lamb curry with mint and spicy tomatoes. Recent additions include home made kulfi (ice cream) in pistachio, fig, mango, mawa and original flavours. The range of delicious sweets and savoury snacks goes well beyond the usual samosas, Bombay mix and halwa, and is probably the most extensive you’ll see anywhere outside of London and other cities with a sizeable Indian community. In addition to St. Pancras Stores and her shop on Station street —which opened in September 2003 and now has seating for added convenience — Chaula’s curries are also available from around 40 other outlets across Sussex, including Lansdown Healthfoods in Cliffe High Street, Brighton’s farmers’ market and various village shops. Chaula’s is also able to cater for meetings, parties and weddings should you want to give your special! event an extra touch of originality! |
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