A Byculla caterer, who cooks on lava rock is giving the word 'patthar' a delicious twist

Very few people in Nafees Ansari's circle know his real name. "I'm mostly addressed as Haji Bhai Patthar Ke Sanam, and I quite like the title," he says with a laugh, when we meet him at his home in Byculla's milling Badlu Rangari Street. The nickname comes from the fact that Haji Bhai is Mumbai's only chef who cooks on stone.

"The slabs, two-feet-long with a width of 2.5 feet, have been imported from Saudi Arabia, and each weighs close to 50 kg," he says, as he labours to lift one with the help of Mohammed Haroon, his assistant of 20 years. He places it on the customised steel stand, which is then covered with silver foil before cooking. "The foil ensures the heat of the burning coal is intact," he explains.



Haji Bhai cooks on stone

The 50-year-old, originally from Hyderabad, has been practising this technique for the last 26 years, where meat, fish, rice and vegetables are cooked on large slabs of stone on a sigri (stove) with burning coal as fuel. The technique, traditionally associated with nomadic cultures of the Arab Bedouins, dates back to 2,000 years. "I first came across the stones when I went to Saudi Arabia to work as a chef in 1982. There, they mostly make lamb curries and tikkas on it," says Haji bhai, who expanded the concept to include vegetables and rice, when he returned to India eight years later. Now, the caterer has seven stones in all, and each has been designated a type; from chicken, mutton and seafood to even Jain. "I keep the Jain stone separate from the rest," he says.



Haji Bhai with assistant Mohammed Haroon. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Interestingly, all of Haji Bhai's dishes have a prefix; patthar, and are named patthar ka murg, patthar ka pulao and patthar ka korma, among others.

To cater to Mumbaikars' diverse tastes, he prepares not just Mughlai items like chicken tikka masala, dabba gosht, bakra tandoor, but even desi Chinese dishes like fried rice and Jain items like palak paneer and vegetable korma.

He feels the stone, unlike the tawa, does not dilute the flavours of the meat and vegetables, but absorbs it to give a distinct taste. To drive home the point, he offers us a bowl of murgh patthar khandeshi, an Afghan specialty. And, he's right.

As we bite into the tender chunks of chicken blended with garam masala (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin and nutmeg) and curry leaves, it just melts in the mouth. The rich cashew nut gravy, eaten best with pav, is neither too hot nor too spicy, but packs the right punch. "The highlight of this dish is the aromatic flavour of the curry leaves, and of course, the chicken which has been marinated for hours with the spices," he says.

"Cooking on stone is rather simple. All you have to do is heat up the lava rock by placing coal in the stand. Place your meat, fish or vegetables on top and then simply cook to your very own taste. With little or sometimes no oil at all, the health benefits are easy to see and with the purity in taste, you will enjoy each bite," says the chef, who was invited to Juhi Chawla's Breach Candy residence last year to prepare the dishes for an IPL party. "Shah Rukh Khan loved it," says Haji Bhai, who can be invited to people's houses to and prepare the food live. He normally charges R6,000 for 500 diners. "People are curious to see what the food tastes like, so my stall always has the maximum crowd at parties," he says. While cooking meat in a pressure cooker would require at least seven to eight whistles, here the meat gets cooked in less than 5 minutes. The time-consuming aspect is the heating of the stone. "It takes two hours for the stone to heat up. We use 20 kg of coal for this. Once hot, it lasts for over four hours."

The lifespan of each stone is five years. "When I returned from Saudi Arabia, I thought of sourcing stones from Maharashtra to see if I could it pull off. But the stones cracked because of the heat," says the father of three. Once the stone is imported, it goes through a process of cutting, finishing and polishing. Haji Bhai also makes it a point to regularly clean the stones with an iron brush, but the damage happens during catering visits. "To douse the heat from the stone, we splash a lot of water on it, which ends up damaging the stone."

While the cost of the stone is close to Rs 3,000, importing it costs him more than Rs 54,000 for each. "But it's worth the money spent," he smiles.

You can contact him on 9322343280