It’s a few months since we last ate here. It’s one of a handful of South Asian restaurants in the area that has an entirely plant=based menu, so makes a nice change for we two omnivores.
Finger food to start for both of us. There’s half a dozen sev puri. Open wide and it’s just about a single bite puri filled with veg and a tangy chutney, then topped with a sprinkling of crunchy sev. There’s also mixed vegetable pakoras. That’s the North Indian name but I suspect most folk, us included, would better know them as bhajis. Shredded veg, tossed in gram flour and fried till crisp. And there’s a coriander sauce for dunking. Really nice.
Both main courses came from the Punjabi section of the menu. First up was Kadai Paneer – basically a stirfry of cubes of paneer, green pepper, onion and tomato in a clingy sauce. There’s an assertive use of ground coriander and dried Kashmiri chilli. Delish. Sanskruti is the only place we know that serves kaju masala and it’s a dish we’ve ordered before. It’s a delight. One of the tastiest things, from any cuisine, we’ve eaten in many weeks. In essence, a cashew nut curry. Thinnish sauce of tomato, onion and cashews – some of the nuts left whole for texture but others blended into the sauce making it quite creamy. It’s nicely spiced with a restrained, but not wimpy, use of chilli.
We went overboard with the carbs. A portion of fluffy plain basmati rice. And the bread basket – one each of naan, tandoori roti and methi thepla. The latter was new to us – a Gujarati bread incorporating turmeric , ginger and the slight bitterness of fenugreek. Deffo one to order again.
