The word ‘Millet’ can bring up a lot of unhappy memories of bland, boring foods that were meant to be gulped down silently for their nutritional benefits. However, the good folks at Radisson Gurgaon, dared to push to envelope and challenge the narrative on the occasion of ‘International Year of Millets’.
We paid a visit to the ‘Millet Festival’, organised by Radisson Gurgaon (Udyog Vihar) driven by curiosity to find out if popular dishes could actually be enjoyed if the main ingredient happens to be, well, millets!
If you have average-little knowledge of what are the names of different grains that are considered a part of the ‘Millet family’, you would have found this festival to be quite educational. Foxtail millets, Sorghum (jowar), Pearl millet (bajra)- all of these grains happen to be a part of the millet family and they found their way into the lavish spread that was laid out for us at the festival from 9th – 18th June, ’23.
Some of the dishes that hit the ball out of the park has to be Foxtail Millet salad with Alphonso which we had multiple helpings of.
Bits of fresh Alphonso blended with millets and an occasional crisp of mint leaves. The perfect sider in-between courses to refresh your palate.
After a bowl of humble millet chicken soup, we were in for a tempting treat. Mouthwatering kebabs with a drizzle of Barnyard millets and coriander balanced out the salty flavour and made it tangy with a hint of earthiness. So delightful that we honestly forgot to sprinkle chutney!
The sumptuous starters had already satiated our curiosity about the lesser know culinary powers of millets. Little did we know that the chef was simply warming up our tastebuds before the main course.
Throughout my gastronomic ventures across India, I have always given risotto a miss. After tasting the most delightful risotto on the banks of the French Riviera and a home cooked meal in Milan, I failed to find anything even closely relatable to the texture of the grains and the impeccable sauce I had tasted. Surprisingly, this creamy risotto (made of millets!), was a notch above the usual risotto dishes I tasted in and around Delhi.
Sadly, however, I was unable to relish this to its entirety as I was distracted by the aromatic millet chicken biryani which was served minutes later. As a Bengali woman (born & bred) it is absolutely impossible for me to not devour a plate of biryani and a fish preparation marinated with Indian spices (insert chef’s kiss emoji).
It might not have long bones and chunks of tandoori chicken peeking out it, but it tasted as good as any 5-star biryani preparation.
Pro tip: Ghee roasting millet grains with biryani spices and marinated chicken *might* be the next fit food fad. And you read it here first!
While we were still savouring the plethora of flavours and rejoicing the fact that we did eat healthy, desserts arrived!
The gleaming chocolate pudding that I am about to devour is made of millets (as well) which gave it a crackling flavour unlike any other chocolate pudding that I tasted. The Alphonso mango and foxtail pudding that I have already devoured was indeed, a divine treat! Probably the best part of the entire feast was how it was mostly guilt-free and sparked so many ideas for creative ways in which we can use the superfood- Millets!
sociomartini.com 