Nothern delights for the Hill

When the tables were turned and restaurant critics cooked for chefs at the charity event Too Many Critics... 2002, held at The Cinnamon Club in aid of Action Against Hunger, one of my jobs in the kitchen was to make patterns on the plate using squeezy bottles of yoghurt and tamarind sauce.

It brought out the latent Jackson Pollock in me and it was good fun - well, good fun until about the 110th plate was pushed my way - but such activity has come to represent a sort of fauxmodernisation of Indian food.

Squiggles of sauce, flourishes of rocket, lacy potato baskets and tangles of deep-fried root vegetable "hairs" are otiose signals that evolved Indian cooking is taking place.

Chef Ashok Kumar has moved from his position as sous-chef at Tamarind to head chef of OKRA in Primrose Hill. The restaurant, owned by The Red Pepper Group, had until recently an Italian theme and was called The Black Truffle. Changing its identity to Indian is probably a canny move in an area illserved by Indian restaurants, but in some respects the gesture seems lame. The gloomy, dark brown walls remain. The awkward disposal of tables, making almost every one undesirable for one reason or another, hasn't altered.

Some of the former staff of The Black Truffle mingle with Indian staff dressed in pantomime turbans with long flowing trains. Long waits occur and solicitous comments come thick and fast. "How is your food?" we were asked before any dish ordered had arrived and then again at short intervals throughout the evening.

To answer the question, the food was pretty good. Like his mentor Atul Kochhar, Kumar specialises in northern Indian cooking and, once you swat aside the fancy names and bird's nest garnishes, interesting items emerge, such as karara murgh, discs of minced chicken in a coating of puffed rice flavoured with mace, and Multani tikkey, grilled squares of marinated paneer (curd cheese) distinctly flavoured with ginger and fenugreek.

Also from the tandoor was shunehra jhinga, portly prawns marinated in yoghurt and spices before being blastcooked. From the list of curries, gusht kandhar, lamb cooked in a sauce thickened with ground almonds, was nicely rich and concentrated.

We had included in the bread order Kashmiri naan, and its sweetness, due to its date stuffing, was an attractive counterpoint to the sonorous-ness of the gravy.

Desserts include the fashionable tandoor-grilled pineapple, served here with vanilla icecream, but also garjela (carrot sweetmeat), gulab jamun (cheese dumplings in sugar syrup), and mango-and-pistachio kulfi (milk ice). Prices follow house values - higher in Primrose Hill than in Putney. Additional orientalisation of the premises is promised, but getting rid of the dreary brown would be a start.

Okra
40 Chalcot Road, NW1 8LS