Indian Kitchens: Treasured Family Recipes from Across the Land.
Attention all fans of Indian food – this great new book has been published this week. It’s a vivid, contemporary portrait of a country through its food and the people who make it. In this joyful new book, Roopa Gulati travels through India and celebrates the wonderfully varied food that makes up a nation, making pitstops at the homes of the people who cook it every day. The result is over 100 delicious, fresh and vibrant recipes that you’ll want to cook from time and again. From dals to masalas, and quick and easy suppers to feasts for a crowd, the easy-to-follow recipes are bursting with authentic flavours using ingredients found in our local supermarkets. Recipes include aubergine pakoras with onion and tamarind relish; potato and paneer tikki, sweetcorn bhajis; Tandoori sea bass; home-style Punjabi chicken curry; phirni with honey, and pistachio and cardamom biscuits. From the monsoon-washed backwaters of Kerala to the crowded markets of Mumbai, and from remote kitchens in Gujarat to the old French quarter of Ponducherry, this celebration of regional cooking will bring the sights, sounds and flavours of India to your table.
Roopa Gulati is all about making the most of Indian spices in your own kitchen. Brought up in Cumbria, she crossed continents and worked as a chef in New Delhi’s kitchens, where she cooked in huge hotels, street bazaars, palace kitchens, TV studios and on stoves across India. Now based in London, Roopa continues to create recipes, write about food and share her skills with fans of regional Indian cooking.
Indian Kitchens: Treasured family recipes from across the land by Roopa Gulati is out 27th March. Recipe photography by Yuki Sugiura (Bloomsbury Publishing, Hardback, £26)
Here are a couple of recipes to tempt you to buy the book.
Goan Chorizo Rolls Serves 6
“Goan food is varied and diverse and many dishes reflect a Portuguese heritage, with adopted recipes being adapted to suit local preferences and homegrown produce. Often made at home, Goan chorizo is fiery and seasoned with Indian spices, which include turmeric, cumin and cinnamon. I’ve used a ready-made hot chorizo here, which keeps this recipe simple. Make this for a weekend brunch – it can be scaled up for a crowd too.”
4 tbsp sunflower oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
450g spicy cooking chorizo, skin removed, broken into 1cm pieces
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 tbsp white wine vinegar 2 tbsp chopped coriander
6 soft white burger rolls, split and buttered
salt and ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium–low heat and cook the sliced onions with salt to season for 15–20 minutes, stirring often, until browned.
Add the chorizo and fry for 5 minutes, until it releases oil and starts to colour. Stir in the garlic, green chillies, tomatoes and vinegar and continue cooking for 2–3 minutes, until the tomatoes begin to soften.
Add the coriander, check the seasoning, and generously fill the mixture into the buttered rolls. Serve straight away.
Pistachio & Cardamom Biscuits makes 18-20
“Even today, street hawkers in the old quarter of many cities will carry or push makeshift charcoal ovens fashioned out of tin drums. Biscuits such as nan khatai are baked on the go in these ovens and sold while still warm in paper bags. I’ve added semolina to this dough for crunch and a little gram flour to provide toasty flavour and crumbly texture.”
25g pistachio nuts
40g self-raising flour, sifted 25g gram flour, sifted
20g fine semolina
½ tsp baking powder pinch of sea salt
6 green cardamom pods, seeds removed
40g icing sugar, sifted
100g unsalted butter, softened
For the Topping
1 tbsp pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp granulated sugar
Put the pistachio nuts in a food processor with the flour, gram flour, semolina, baking powder and salt and process until the nuts are finely ground.
In a mortar, using the pestle, grind the cardamom seeds with 1 teaspoon of the icing sugar to a powder. Leave to one side.
Beat the butter, remaining icing sugar and the ground cardamom until creamy, then stir in the dry ingredients, gently bringing everything together with your hands to a soft dough.
Using your hands, divide and shape the dough into 3cm-diameter balls and arrange them on baking trays lined with baking paper, leaving room for the biscuits to spread as they bake.
Slightly flatten the top of each ball with your fingers and press a few chopped pistachio nuts in the middle, then sprinkle with sugar. Put the trays in the fridge for 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan.
Bake the biscuits for 20–25 minutes, until golden, then leave them on the trays for 5 minutes to firm up before transferring them to a cooling rack. Once they are completely cooled, store in an airtight box.
The Seasoned Gastronome