Kochhar - 30 Minute Curries

I dedicate this book to my best friend my son, Arjun. He has an amazing, loving personality, and this little persons selflessness has taught me so much in this life. He always puts his loved ones before himself. And he loves his football and rugby, being a British lad, but adores his cricket (except we are rivals when England is playing India).

His participation in cooking the recipes for this book has been a huge encouragement to me. He was always coming up with little ideas of how I should cook a vegetable that he doesnt usually appreciate so much, and some of his ideas were brilliant.

He loves his food with the exception of vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts however we are working together to turn that around! I am convinced that I will find him behind the stoves in the cooking lines very soon he has the right attitude and passion to be a cook.

He has taken after both of his grandfathers so much, and has strong likes and dislikes, but he can be persuaded with positive conviction so there is never a dead end with him there is always a way!

I love you my son!

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Curry in 30 minutes? You must be joking! It takes forever.

Indian food takes forever to cook, there is too much to prep there are too many ingredients there are too many steps.

You are a trained cook thats why you can do it not a normal person!

AND SO IT GOES ON! This is what people have been telling me for ages. Some of these sentiments I sympathise with and some I think are said out of a lack of knowledge. If I can do it, so can you.

So, I am on a mission to entice you all to cook a curry in under 30 minutes. In this book, I have thrown all the chef processes out of the window and I have taken a practical and easy approach to Indian food. In writing the book the most beautiful thing happened and I have ended up with a rich variety of recipes that I have always wanted to write; the kind of recipes a parent would cook for their children at home. They are healthy, fun and creative, and will encourage you to experiment more. I cooked some of the recipes with my kids, and they absolutely loved it.

I wish every child were a foodie like my princess Amisha! Little Arjun is bit of a challenge for his mum and gran when they cook vegetarian meals at home. To beat his understanding of soggy, soupy vegetable preparations, I kept the vegetables in these recipes crunchy, zingy and sometimes leafy to tickle his palate with textures and win him over with gentle spice flavours. It worked incredibly well on him he is a self-professed fan of my carrot-parsnip preparation, among many other creations.

I havent used any deep-frying at all in this entire book. Thats some challenge for a cook, isnt it? I have used simple cooking utensils, all of which are found in a domestic kitchen, I have cooked on a normal domestic stove (induction and gas), and used a normal household oven. I have really tried my best to keep all the recipes straightforward and simple.

Throughout the book I have used vegetables, meat, fish and other common everyday ingredients that are all available in most supermarkets, so you shouldnt find any ingredient overly challenging to source. As for spices, I have used very few and only the most common ones theyre probably all sitting in your cupboards already, or have been for the last few centuries (its time to change them if they are really old).

I have purposely kept the number of red meat dishes to a minimum partly because some of the cuts are challenging to cook within 30 minutes anyway also because I wanted to take a healthy approach to this book. As such I have used: sunflower oil or rapeseed oil, low-fat yogurt, almost no cream or cheese (other than paneer) and I have included turmeric in many recipes as it is universally seen as a superfood.

I have taken the pain out of cooking by pre-preparing a few things like onion paste, garlic paste and ginger-garlic paste (see the basics chapter at the end of the book), and in many recipes I have used tomato paste in place of fresh tomatoes. This not only helps halve the cooking time, but it also makes cooking these recipes even more fun. I recommend making the pastes in a large enough batch to fit into zip up freezer bags, and freezing them flat in the freezer to maximise space. Alternatively, I suggest you buy an ice cube tray (and use it specifically for the pastes or your ice cubes might taste funny) and freeze the pastes in tablespoon or teaspoon portions. Once frozen, tip the cubes into a freezer bag and store, and when you need a paste, as directed in the recipes, you can just take the amount you need and use it straight from frozen.

I sincerely hope that you will love this book and be encouraged to make your own versions of the recipes I have created. I urge you to use social media and share your method and passion with us all. We learn new things everyday and sharing is caring too!

Atul Kochhar

2017

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