All,

I was in the very fortunate position to eat at the Michelin recommended Zayna restaurant near Marble Arch on Sunday night and sampled a dish called Murgh Taka Tuk or Taka Tak. It was described as chicken leg meat marinaded, slow cooked in the clay oven and then finished off in the pan with onions, tomatos, chillies and corriander.

Has anyone got any ideas or recipes for this beautiful dish?

Many thanks

James.

seems like a made up dish to me, why marinate, slow cook, then pan fry? Three different methods to get different results, was it a bit confusing to eat?

There is a kind of Indian dish called something like taka taka, which is a dish cooked quickly whilst the meat is being chopped, the taka taka is supposed to be the sound of the chopping. Sounds like the Japanese Teppanyaki, or iron table cooking.

If I am translating it correcetly, Taka Tak means looking at something in wonderment, or without being able to take your eyes off it, looking at it non stop. It may be that this is what they mean to say, "you can't take your eyes off our chicken" and it may have something to do with the name.

The first part sounds like a tandoori chicken. Second part is like tikka masala, taking the tandoori chiken and then adding it to onion/capsicum/tomatoes etc., with a few spices. This seems to be quite popular in restaurants these days, but I hadn't heard it being called Taka Tak.

wouldn't have thought one could cook tandoori chicken in a slow oven.

That is true, unless it is cooked in the tandoor when it is dying out, like my GM's generationa used to cook. They put whole lentils/kidney beans/black chick peas or Bengal gram in a pan, with turmeric and salt, leaving it to cook overnight, after the cooking was over and only dying ambers remained in a hot clay cortaption, not unlike a tandoor.

I was looking on the web, Taka Tak or Kat-Kat is sometimes described as the sound of a spatula when meat is being cooked on a Tawa (gridle) in a stir fry fashion. But then this has nothing to do with the clay oven!

Thanks Lapis / Mamta,

From my research it looks like Taka Tak's name derives from the sound of the spatula in the pan. As for the process, I will have a go at slow roasting marinaded chicken leg meat in the oven (using a marinade similar to a pandhi one I use) or I may even braise in the marinade instead, and then stir fry the meat with some chillis, red onion, curry leaves and spices to give off a dryish, caramelised taste/flavour. I will separately make a gravy and see how it goes! Will let you know if it works as the dish I had consisted of beautifully tender, flavoursome, slightly caremalised meat in a wonderful buttery, spicy sauce of chopped tomatos, chilli etc.

Watch this space!

James.

James, when I have cooked marinated chicken in an oven that is not very hot, it tends to dry out. If you cover it, there is too much liquid left. Do let us know how your dish came out.

Mamta

is the name being confused or copied from the sound of chopping with two knives/choppers in some dish or other (think its Chinese) where the two choppers are used almost like someone druming which creates a tap a tap sound.. the dish is called something like tuka tuk ?

Steve

Japanese, as in my first reply. Tepanyaki.

Taka tak means the sound made by the spatula on the tawa. In Mumbai taka tak means the bhaji(pao)which is being cooked on a large tawa.