URVIKA KANOI

THE DAILY KOLKATA

Chef and owner of Kolkata’s favourite café – The Daily, and a gourmet catering company called The Food Studio. Urvika Kanoi is one of the youngest chefs the city has, at 29, she is enthusiastic, creative, focused, hard-working, and extremely passionate about food that she always wanted to transform the culinary map of Kolkata and to a great extent. After completing her schooling, Urvika went to Le Cordon Bleu, London and got the opportunity to do her intern under Grzegorz Olejarka at the Peyton and Byrne. Upon returning back to India, she juggled with working at a bunch of places, some notable names being Hyatt and The Table. She then proceeded to conduct her first pop-up with Ronak Rajani, popularly known as Mumbai Foodie at The Pint Room, which ended up being a huge success. Inspired by this achievement, Urvika returned to Kolkata and launched her own gourmet catering service called ‘The Food Studio’ which received tremendous recognition since its early days. Her next project was another popular spot in Kolkata – Bodega Cantina-Y-Bar. Having learnt from running an all-day dining restaurant and bar, Urvika wanted to introduce a change in the city and returned with a new concept. A café where foodies would love to visit ‘daily’ to get their share of global cuisine with local ingredients and The Daily was born in 2019! Urvika is one of the top 40 young chefs in India by Conde Nast Traveller in their cover story ‘40 under 40: India’s most exciting young chefs’.

SALMON AND BEETROOT

INGREDIENTS Reduction

200ml beetroot juice / 200ml apple juice / 1 tbsp onion, chopped / ½ tbsp sugar / 25ml apple cider vinegar

Purée

Salt and pepper for seasoning / sugar, to taste depending on sweetness of beetroot / 1tbsp balsamic vinegar / 200g beetroot / water, to boil

Fish

½ tbsp lemon / 1tbsp olive oil / 2 fillets salmon, 160-180gm each / salt and pepper for seasoning

Pickle

120ml white vinegar / ½ cucumber, deseeded and sliced into ribbons / 200ml water / ½ tbsp coriander seeds / 1tsp salt / 1tbsp sugar / 5 coriander stems 1 green chili, deseeded

Method

Bring white vinegar, water, coriander stems and seeds, chili, salt, sugar to a boil in a pot. In a clean jar add the cucumber. Cool the brine and add it to cucumber. Cover and leave in a cool place. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add the beetroot and let it boil till it’s completely soft. Let it cool once done. In a mixer add the beetroot without the skin, balsamic, sugar, salt and pepper. Blend, add water if needed. Keep aside. Should be a smooth consistency. In a pan, add apple juice and beetroot juice and simmer on low. Skim the top. Add the onions, sugar and apple cider vinegar, and reduce till thick and coats a spoon. Keep aside. Marinate the salmon for 5 minutes in lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. In a hot pan, add some olive oil, put the salmon skin side down and cook till skin gets crispy, flip and cook the other side. Keep the pan on low to be able to control the cooking.

Plating

Smear the purée on the bottom, place the salmon on top, add a few cucumber ribbons on the side, top with toasted sesame seeds (optional) and serve reduction on the side.

by URVIKA KANOI