Over the past few months, Chef Niven Patel has been working on building out Ghee Indian Kitchen, a farm-to-table Indian restaurant opening at the end of this month in Downtown Dadeland.
Niven Patel stands in his two-acre backyard farm. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Patel, a former chef at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, has been gearing up to open Ghee for almost a year now. His goal is to grow his own fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs in his backyard and use them to make traditional Indian dishes. While his two-acre backyard farm won’t be able to produce all of the vegetables he needs for the restaurant, he’s hoping to source from other local farms as much as possible.
Patel grows okra in his backyard farm. He hopes to use it in some of the dishes at Ghee. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Patel picks papaya from his tree in his backyard farm. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Patel holds shishito peppers picked from his backyard farm. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Patel grows tarragon, an herb in the sunflower family, in his backyard. The flower is edible. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
He hopes to have at least one dish entirely sourced from his own backyard. Right now, the plan is to make a backyard pakora with the bushy green taro leaves overtaking two of the beds on his farm. A pakora is basically an Indian fritter, and can be made with various different vegetables fried in dough into a golden, crispy, delicious snack.
Patel stands by a bed of taro leaves in his backyard farm/ (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Patel plans to use these taro leaves in a pakora, which is an Indian fritter. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
His plan is to have a seasonal menu, one that rotates based on what ingredients are locally available. In the meantime, Patel is also preserving many of the vegetables growing in his garden and storing them in mason jars piled all around his home until the restaurant opens. He’s already preserved tomatoes and lemons for use later.
Patel is preserving some of the fruits like tomatoes and lemons in mason jars so he can use them in dishes when Ghee opens. Until then they’re stacked in his living room. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Santosh Patel holds two lychees in a carrier. He just plucked these from a tree in Niven Patel’s backyard. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Mangoes are starting to bloom in Niven Patel’s backyard. Sometimes he picks them when they’re still green and pickles them.(Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)
Niven Patel eating with his family. The meal uses some vegetables picked from his backyard farm. His mother-in-law will be helping out in the kitchen at Ghee while his father-in-law will be making sure everything goes well with the backyard farm. (Credit: Roshan Nebhrajani/The New Tropic)