Inside Neel's kitchen this puja: Roast chicken with wine sauce

Neel Dutt's favourite festival dish is roast chicken with wine sauce, green beans and mashed potatoes.
If the other-worldly smell of roast chicken hits you while crossing Beniapukur on a sultry Puja afternoon, chances are it's coming from the Dutt residence. Puja might be a celebration of all things traditional, but this is one family that loves to go off the beaten path.So, even during the Bengali festive season, global flavours are in vogue within the four walls of the Dutt residence.
���We generally have a Bengali lunch on Ashtami, but beyond that we try out everything from Italian, English and Chinese to Turkish, north Indian and fusion during Puja," says Neel Dutt. The composer, who's as serious about music as good food, has not just picked up cooking from his parents (Anjan and Chanda Dutt), but also learnt while travelling around the world. ���I like fusion food where there's a balance. So, the gondhoraaj lebu mousse doesn't work for me," he tells us. Though roast chicken is very much a British pub lunch, Neel adds an Italian touch to it with loads of mushrooms and a hint of red wine. ���The blend is very important. So, I am not game for a paneer tikka pizza. Pizzas have to have cheese, garlic and tomatoes in them. Roast chicken in wine sauce with green beans and mashed potatoes ��� a huge hit among my friends ��� is a meal by itself. When people at home are in the mood for a feast, I make spaghetti as well," he says.
Neel says all his near and dear ones are into cooking and that's a huge drive. ���My paternal grandfather loved spicy food, while my grandmother would stir up lovely veg delicacies. But I learnt a lot from my maternal grandmom; she taught me that the key to any dish is the perfect salt-sugar balance. My pasta with tomatoes and cheese is authentic Italian, though I have an oriental way of looking at it. And here, the salt-sugar balance plays the most important role," quips Neel.
Every dish, says the musician, is made to perfection by all his family members.���Only recently did all of us try Goalondo chicken curry at home. None of us had tasted the original steamer curry, but we wanted to get as authentic as possible. We all knew it had to have big potato pieces and the jhol was to be made in a certain way, but there was no perfect recipe. So, it was cooked at least nine times at home," he says. With Puja just a handful of days away, the Dutt family is getting more and more busy. New dishes have to be tried, old recipes have to be improvized on, the blend has to be perfected... Puja, after all, comes once a year.
ROAST CHICKEN WITH WINE SAUCE, BEANS & MASHED POTATOES
Preperation for the roast chicken
Add lemon juice, onion juice, garlic paste, two tbsp olive oil and salt to the chicken. Put it in an oven bowl and cover it with aluminium foil. Preheat the oven to 180-200��C and place the bowl in it. After 45 minutes, remove the foil and let the chicken roast for another 15 minutes. This will give it a brownish tinge.
For the wine sauce
Heat rest of the olive oil in a pan. Add mushrooms, chopped garlic and a pinch of chopped parsley and saut�� for a while. Add butter and the wine. You can also stir in a spoon of sugar, depending on your taste. Simmer for a while, check consistency and cool the sauce.
For mashed potatoes and green beans
In a mixer, add boiled potatoes, �� cup milk, a bit of sugar and salt and mash it to a creamy consistency. Blanch the green beans and saut�� in a little olive oil for 15-20 seconds. Add parsley.
To serve
Serve the roast chicken with the mashed potatoes, green beans and wine sauce on the side. This is a full meal in itself, but you can also serve it with bread rolls.