Khana Cookery is one of those rarest food businesses in 2021 - one that its custom is spread almost entirely by word of mouth. We were recommended Khana by our plumber; naturally were intrigued, and we can now say that you can totally see why people spread the love.
Khana Cookery, run by Sima, offers authentic Punjabi recipes - most of which are family recipes from her mum and her grandmother. In normal times she also runs cooking courses as well. Authenticity is so often the key to great food (The Cochin are a shining beacon of this), it's great to have that local knowledge imbued in the food having been passed down from generation to generation. It's testament to this that Sima has been doing this for 10 years, and has picked up a lot of regulars along the way.
The price is very reasonable: for £17 a head you get, a starter a meat dish, and a vegetable dish. Extra starters are £4.50 each, any extra meat mains £6.50 each. With that in mind we went for potato & onion bhajia and jungle chicken wings for starters, Punjabi chicken curry and Amritsar prawn curry, with spicy courgette fry and curry leaf cauliflower. Plus a few sundries here and there. Ordering is all done through Sima's main online presence: Facebook
We picked up from Sima's house in Chaulden - the packing was a bit heavy on the plastic, but everything was nice and hot when we got it home.
Sometimes you have a dish which absolutely stops us in our tracks and C and I have to debate who gets to eat the last bit - the Amritsar prawn curry was one of the those. It was amazing. The juicy prawns were in a thick sauce that had such complex flavour notes. It had a lingering sweetness, but not in an overpowering sickly way (I generally hate sweeter curries too). The gravy was also super thick - a lot of curries are often oily and have huge bits of tomato in it - not here. The mustard seed and curry leaves worked beautifully with the generous serving of prawn. This is a personal favourite of Sima's as this recipe was passed down from her grandmother. The rest of the meal was wonderful, don't get us wrong, but these prawns were the clear stand out dish.
The Punjabi chicken curry was similar in that it had a generous serving of chicken (juicy chicken thick portions) and a nice thick gravy. The spice was much more delicate here, with more of an earthy taste. While tasty, I was hoping for a bolder flavour - especially compared to those prawns. But it was mellow, mild, warming and surprisingly creamy despite having no cream in it.
The starters were another highlight. The jungle chicken wings were spiced nicely, a touch on the fiery side, with meat that pulled off the bones nicely. The potato & onion bhajia was a nice change from your usual onion bajhi like starter - much thicker and more dense, and not as greasy. In fact all of the sundries were fantastic.
The veg dishes were pretty fiery and were a good accompaniment to the milder meat mains. They were fresh and went with the meat mains nicely.
What was wonderful was that each dish had a true personality. Sima makes all the spice blends by hand specifically for each dish. There's not a central pot of generic sauce like some eateries. Instead, each dish is spiced and flavoured and made from scratch, making it distinct from the next.
I often think great South Asian food should feel like it's home-cooked. There's something about the cuisine that is almost lost when it's mass produced: the chef's love that goes into the dishes that makes them so famous in the first place isn't there any more (of course there are amazing restaurants who have figured this out). But my point is that, it shouldn't be a surprise that family recipes, cooked by Sima, should be so good. In a crowded market, Khana Cookery has found its own niche of tasty Punjabi dishes that you can almost taste the love of its cook as you eat it.
Service:
Like so many of the great places we have found - it is doesn't cater to impulsive buyers and is a bit tricky to get hold of (especially if you're not on Facebook). But given that it's a family run business, that's understandable.
Quality:
Fantastic quality. The sauces are particularly worth mentioning - they are more thicker and more flavourful than your average curry.
Value & Price:
£17 for three courses is great value for money - with a la carte meat dishes at £6.50. The meat portions are generous too - you'll do well to eat all of this in one sitting.
Overall:
EXCELLENT - This is a really good, authentic, beautifully spiced food. The prawn dish in particular was out of this world. If you're looking for a home cooked twist on a curry, try Khana.