When it comes to Indian food, there’s a whole world out there beyond British favourites like the creamy korma or the classic tikka masala. Many of our go-to takeaway choices are a far cry from the food you’d find on the streets of Delhi or Kolkata, adapted for the British palate with creamy sauces and a greasy mouthfeel.
But renowned Indian-born British restaurateur Asma Khan, proprietor of critically-acclaimed Darjeeling Express in London’s Soho, says that while she loves to showcase Indian meals that are refreshing, nourishing and packed with layer upon layer of flavour, our British favourites are our favourites for a very good reason.
“I think there’s no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” says Kolkata-born Khan, 55, when we discuss what Brits see as “Indian food”.
“Your favourites, things that are nostalgic and you’re emotional about, even if it is not authentic, I think it’s still a very big thing for us. Because the status of Indian food in this country, it changed the palate of a nation. It’s the first exotic, spice, chilli experience for a lot of people, and even those in their 60s today, their first memory of going to an exotic meal was the local takeaway with this kind of wallpaper and chintzy furniture.
“But there was a familiarity and a kind of sense of connection, for which I think all of us who cook Indian food should be grateful.”
On the other hand, she says, “I think the world is big enough for us to bring in this regionality and introduce people to the more authentic varieties and regionalities of Indian cooking” – and that’s exactly what she does with Darjeeling Express, her various cookbooks, and now her new Food Network series, Secrets of the Curry Kitchen.
Khan doesn’t gatekeep her pride and joy just for restaurant diners – she’s keen to share the secrets behind the nourishing, layered flavours of Indian food for people to recreate at home.
As Secrets of the Curry Kitchen comes to the screens of foodies across the country, here are Khan’s top tips for mastering Indian cooking for yourself – and it’s nowhere near as hard as you might think.
Don’t fall for the misconceptions
Despite commonly-held beliefs that Indian food requires hours spent over a hot stove, “most Indian food is very, very quick to make because it’s a hot country”, Khan says. “You cannot cook for hours in that heat. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Our food is very vibrant, it’s full of flavour, it’s very quick, and the ingredients are deeply seasonal… We don’t have a lot of spices,” she adds.
“We have so much sunshine, spices are destroyed by sunshine. We don’t keep stacks of spices for the sunshine to ruin it. In India, it’s very hard to hide from the sunshine, so spices are used in a very small amount.”
Keep it simple
“Do not over complicate it. Indian food is very modular,” Khan says.
“If you look at recipes, there are whole spices, the garam masalas, as we call them, but they’re whole, not powdered. You know, the cinnamon stick, the cassia bark or cardamom goes in, then the onions and the ginger and the garlic, you’re building it up. Then you’ve got to cook everything through. Add the meat or vegetables. Then, you know, do you add tomatoes? Do you add coconut milk? We don’t really cook with cream. And water, and you’re cooking it down. And then the last layering… you’ve got chopped herbs going on the top, a little bit of lemon.
“So the top tip is to build the flavours up. Do not, ever, ever – please – do not use a jar. Do not dump a lot of spices in there. Spices need to come to life… It’s about building flavours up one layer at a time.
“So then you have this very complex, beautiful taste and you will see it’s not complicated. It’s just complex. There’s a difference between the two.”
Embrace seasonal ingredients that are kind to your wallet
Indian cooking relies heavily on seasonal ingredients and affordable additions. After all, Khan says, “We didn’t have refrigeration. When you did have a fridge, like [when] I was growing up in India in the 80s, half the time there was no electricity, we had long power cuts”, so using whatever’s fresh and ready for cooking is a pillar of the cuisine.
“The most important thing, especially at this time of the economy being where it is, [is] inexpensive ingredients,” says the chef, who was on Time’s list of the year’s 100 most influential people in 2024.
“Things with cabbage and cauliflower and potatoes, eggs, nothing expensive, and cheaper cuts of meat.”
Focus on flavour and nutrition, the Indian way
Forget greasy curries packed full of heavy creams and oil. True Indian food, Khan says, focuses on nutrition, packed full of life-boosting spices and vitamin-rich ingredients.
“I [want] to talk about all the nourishing, healing benefits of our food, because in our culture, food was medicine first… So there’s a lot of very healthy, nourishing things about our food.
“The problem is that people probably think we have a bath in ghee and oil and cream when they look at what is given in British Indian restaurants. This was adapted for the British palate, for the British climate, not for us back home.”
Do it your way
Indian cooking comes from the heart. The cuisine is derived from home cooking, from the women making delicious, healthy meals for their families – women who made recipes their own way.
So, Khan says, it’s actually respectful to the cuisine to change things as you see fit, adapt ingredients, put your own stamp on the dish.
“This is very personal,” she says.
“People will look around and say: ‘Oh, I don’t make the dal that way’. Yeah, sure. This is my mum’s recipe!
“Because the variety is huge, how people cook the same thing [with] exactly the same ingredients, but there’s a twist…
“It’s not a lot of spices. If you have a few spices, you can really transform your cooking. And even if you don’t have everything… you can tweak it a little bit. It’s still going to taste great.
“Don’t ever think: I can’t make this because of this,” she insists, adding that the Indian cuisine is “very forgiving. It allows you to swap”.
“Please, people should feel free to tweak around and personalise the recipes.”
‘Secrets of The Curry Kitchen’ airs weekly on Food Network from 9pm on Thursday 8 May, and is available to stream on discovery+.
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