A new home-based, home-cooked Punjabi takeaway and supper club Masala Magic has sprung up in Beeston.
Courtesy of the infamous @MrPeshwari and gang (pictured) and now collectively known as @masala_magic, the takeaway is planned to start from Friday 17 February. The supper club is up and running right now. You may have seen the #masalamagic tweets…
A table-full of hungry tweeters were invited to trial the food last Friday….
I got out of my taxi and walked to the semi with some trepidation, some excitement and as usual a little tiredness. After an achingly busy week and fresh from a quick couple of beers with a friend, I had over committed myself that evening – simply because I couldn’t resist the thought of free, home-cooked food in a home environment and the opportunity to meet some new people – I didn’t know who else would be there, and so clutching my bottle of half priced red wine (a bargain down to £5 from a tenner) I geed myself up and rang the bell.
Dressed from top to toe in a glorious light green sari interspersed with gold thread, my host for the evening @MrPeshwari answered the door. With a beaming smile and his natural, perfect, grace and charm, I was ushered into the lounge and dining room where my fellow guests for the evening @philkirby, Rowena from @yelpleeds, @Lulovesglitter and @oli_knight_13 were eating. Standing nearby helping in the kitchen were Harvi’s wife Sukwinder, dressed in a dazzling traditional Hindu outfit, and fellow member’s of the Masala Magic business Preuet Kamal and Manmeet Kaur.
The table of food was instantly impressive. Each guest had a glass square plate with different sections for different foods. The presentation of the food was very enticing – carefully laid out on the plates, very fresh looking and attractive. The wine was plentiful (obviously), everybody looked happy and a little two-year-old boy was sitting on @PhilKirby’s knee.
The food was both meat and vegetarian. The meat dish, a very slow cooked lamb with garlic and green chilli, and the vegetarian, a dish of lentils, red kidney beans and coriander with lots of other interesting spices, and chapattis. Some pictures of the food (not necessarily from that night) are on @masala_magic. The starters I’d missed out on but by the sound of the tweets were really, really good. Especially it seems, the Tikka Paneer – spiced Indian cheese marinaded in masala sauce, served on a skewer of onions and peppers. And there was also lamb and coriander kebabs with green chilli, red onions and masala. For dessert we had a Gulab Jamun, an Indian favourite I think, sweet dumplings, served with vanilla ice cream and sugar syrup. Simple and small but beautifully presented. Just the right way to finish off a meal. Tasty and sweet. They didn’t last long. I definitely want some of those again and soon.
The #masalamagic takeaway! Starts Friday 17 February
So what’s going on and how does the takeaway fit into this? Well the idea is that a takeaway will start from the 17 February, and this will run alongside the supper club. The rules of the supper club are just that you bring yourself along, invite a new guest the following week and then tweet about your experience that evening. The supper club won’t necessarily keep going for a long time but just for long enough to help get the #masalamagic takeaway off the ground. Of course when the takeaway does get going the supper club will have an added dimension – diners can bear witness for themselves how the takeaway is going. Could be interesting!! Let’s hope it all goes smoothly.
The takeaway will run on a Friday and a Saturday night and the supper club is every Friday. Both will serve the same menu of meat and vegetarian dishes. The proprietors of Masala Magic are Sikh and originally from the Punjab, so this is all Punjabi food. Harvi’s kitchen is registered with Leeds City Council and everyone working there has Level 2 Food and Hygiene certificates. Harvi and his wife are no strangers to cooking food for large numbers of people having previously run an Indian restaurant. Harvi has high hopes for this in the long run. A chap with a conscience he is keen to bring authentic curries to his surrounding areas and in the long run to particularly help vulnerable people sample some really delicious authentic Punjabi food.
So all that’s now left to do is ensure you live near enough to the takeaway’s delivery area! It will operate from a five mile radius from its base in Beeston, so broadly covering Leeds City Centre, Hunslet, Holbeck, Beeston and Morley.
Give it a try!
So sorry I might have already mentioned this but website is here www.masalamagic.co.uk; look out for #masalamagic tweets and follow @masla_magic on twitter