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It’s full of family recipes, stories from both Khan and her mother’s childhoods, and plenty of pictures – something Faizana was shocked Khan managed to collect. Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web, social media, and your restaurant, the Darjeeling Express? About the Author: Asma Khan is owner of Darjeeling Express, London, and one of the UK's most prominent female chefs. The fear that I may not get that chance to tell her what she did for me and how every minute of my life and all the success I’ve had is completely attributed to what she is, what she taught me,” she says.
Khan’s community was shattered, friends lost their parents, her time was filled with grief and worry. Women are not seen as professional or good enough to be working in a professional kitchen, yet for centuries, our food has been cooked by women.
These dishes will bring warmth to your kitchen when you need a meal or dish to share with your family and friends – from quick-and-easy Baghare Aloo and Shahi Paneer, a vegetarian staple all ages love, to Ammu’s Chicken Biriyani the much-requested Darjeeling Express favourite.
Asma Khan: I've always had this book in me and because my mother taught me how to cook, but over the pandemic, this is when I wrote the book. These are things that have got very little gravy in them, so the spices are kind of more muted, but there's great flavor with garlic and onions and lots of herbs, so very familiar things for many people, some unfamiliar herbs and spices as well, but it's a great way to bring kids to love a new cuisine. And that’s the beauty of a cookbook such as this, it can be the starting point of unravelling the mystery of how Mum made it. Divided into chapters devoted to dinners-a-deux, family meals, cooking for friends, and celebratory feasting, the book draws both from Asma’s diverse – and noble – family heritage (Rajput, Bengali and Bihari, with close links to Hyderabad) and her time in cosmopolitan (then) Calcutta; a city of notorious epicures, where good food is universally adored and embraced irrespective of its origin. Just as the sound of raindrops, the lyrics of a song or the feel of a fabric can transport you to another world so with food.The outer cover had this wonderful fabric like texture, the aesthetics inside the book, each picture tells a different story. It is spiced, but it's a great accompaniment to almost any kind of meat or vegetables or salad, and it's the kind of versatility of a dish like this, which is why I put that in the book because we ended up having it even for breakfast sometimes when there wasn't enough bread for everybody. After studying law, she went on to do a PhD in Constitutional Law at King’s College London but the world of Indian food beckoned her and she set off with a supper club in 2012. People don't want to acknowledge the contribution of the foreigners, the outsiders, as they see them, and it's very important. This is more than just a collection of delicious and accessible recipes, it is a celebration of heritage, culture, community and quality.
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