FEED YOUR SOUL WITH ASMA KHAN’S COLLECTION OF AUTHENTIC INDIAN RECIPES ASMA KHAN STARS IN NETFLIX’S AWARD-WINNING SERIES CHEF’S TABLE
Award-winning restaurant Darjeeling Express began life as a dinner party with friends; Indian food lovingly cooked from family recipes that go back generations. In this book, Asma reveals the secret to her success, telling her immigrant’s story and how food brought her home. The recipes pay homage to her royal Mughlai ancestry and follow the route of the Darjeeling Express train from the busy streets of Bengal, through Calcutta, where she grew up, and along the foothills of the Himalayas to Hyderabad.
Platters of dishes boasting texture and intense flavor encourage you to gather for a traditional dawaat (feast). Starting with simple midweek Feasts for Two, Asma then reveals the way to quick and easy cooking with less spice for Family Feasts. There are Feasts for Friends, for when you want to show off a little, and Celebratory Feasts. Many of the recipes are vegetarian, there are sweet treats and drinks, too, and all feature alongside lesser-known recipes and stories unique to Asma’s family.
This is more than just a collection of delicious and accessible recipes, it is a celebration of heritage, culture, community and quality. This is Asma’s Indian Kitchen.
About the Author
Asma Khan is chef and restaurateur of London’s acclaimed Darjeeling Express, which began as a supper club, then a pop-up, before settling in its permanent location to wide acclaim. Asma’s food is homage to her royal Mughlai ancestry and the busy streets of Calcutta, where she grew up. An all-women team of housewives runs the kitchen at Darjeeling Express, which has been featured in Time Out, Harper’s Bazaar, the Guardian, and numerous others. In 2015, it was named as one of the best restaurants in London by the Evening Standard. In 2017, Eater named it as one of its most impressive restaurant newcomers. Asma stars in Netflix’s award-winning series Chef’s Table.
Praise For…
“There’s no need to book a flight to experience Indian home cooking” – Fay Maschler, Evening Standard
“Asma is a force of nature: bold, funny, talented, philanthropic and unstoppable” – Grace Dent, Grace & Flavour
“This is serious Indian cooking” – Tom Parker Bowles, Daily Mail
'[A] celebration of heritage and culture that makes a feast out of every meal.' --Woman & Home magazine
"Our favorite travel-inspiring cookbooks from 2019 ' Anywhere in the world you can learn the rituals, history, and even geography of a place through a shared mealno words needed. But you don't need to hop on a flight to soak up everything a country's cuisine has to offer. In fact, the inspiration often works the other way around: we're exposed to slices of other cultures back home that move us to go to the source. If you're ambitious, that exposure can even start in your kitchen with the right cookbook. For the armchair traveler, the one prepping for an upcoming trip, or those just looking to reminisce about a recent vacation, these books will do the trick. (They also make no-brainer gifts.) ' If you're a fan of Netflix's €˜Chef's Table,' you might recognize Asma Khan ' In her debut cookbook, Asma traces her personal and family history through Bengal and the Himalayas, to the cities of Calcutta and Hyderabad, sharing the memoriesand recipesthat shaped her ' The stories themselves are transportive, but, for the home chef, the book also provides an accessible introduction to regional Indian cooking. The recipes, all of which are framed as shareable €˜feasts' of varying sizes (for just two, or for a whole party), span mains like curries and vegetable dishes, sides that lean on basmati rice, drinks, and even desserts. And if you flip through and aren't familiar with many of the dishes, that's a good sign. — Conde Nast Traveler, The 11 Best Cookbooks for Eating Your Way Around the World
Brought up in the stifling summer heat of Calcutta, Khan recalls the childhood joy and relief of boarding the Darjeeling Express. The railroad carried her up into the Himalayas' cooling breezes. So when she opened her London restaurant, the first name that came to mind was that of this glorious train. Since then, Darjeeling Express has become Londoners' Soho go-to for great cooking from her team of female chefs. Khan's cuisine reflects that of the Mughal Empire, which used a subtler range of spices than common in later Indian cooking. Khan shares her own formula for spicing foods, and she explains how to make superior garam masala. She also instructs in the judicious preparation of chili peppers to please both the timid palate and the fire-eater. Another shared secret involves properly frying onions. Alongside brilliant color photographs, Khan uses clear directions and measurements; and, thanks to online resources, feasting like a royal Mughal can happen anywhere.
Following the rout of the Darjeeling Express, Asma Khan's highly anticipated debut cookbook takes us on a journey to preserve the historical tradition of Mughlai food.
