Get curried away
For many of us, Indian food conjures up images of indulgent creamy sauces and calorific trimmings. Of course we love it and eat it regularly, but can it be healthy? Chef Dipna Anand is determined to prove that there are healthy ways to enjoy all your favourites, from tandoori dishes to Bombay potatoes, without sacrificing flavour.
“A lot of people think Indian food is oily and greasy, and it can’t be made without a lot of butter and ghee, but that’s not the case at all,” says the 30-year-old, whose family has run the award-winning Brilliant Restaurant in Southall, West London, UK, since the Seventies.
“You can still make, for example, a fantastic chicken tikka masala without using the butter and oils and fats. As long as you balance the spices, that’s what gives the dish its flavour and taste.”
Anand was inspired to research low-fat Indian cuisine as a schoolgirl when her father, Gulu, had a wake-up call after suffering a heart attack.
“He was eating a lot of oily, greasy food, so I wanted to do something aimed at people who were controlling their weight but still loved Indian food,” she explains.
She has now written her first cookbook, Beyond Brilliant, which features healthy dishes among its more than 40 recipes.
“Some of the recipes in the book date back 65 years, they were passed from my grandfather to my dad and now passed on to me,” says Anand, whose favourite inclusion is the tandoori lamb chops recipe.
The Brilliant Restaurant has welcomed its fair share of famous faces over the years, including the Prince of Wales.
TV chef Gordon Ramsay also featured the popular eatery in his 2010 series Ramsay’s Best Restaurant, and spent a day learning how to cook on the clay oven.
“It’s not the easiest station to work on in the kitchen, he left here with blisters on his arms, but he still did a fantastic job and he grafted,” reveals Anand. “He’s very passionate and very funny as well. When it came to work, he was getting the orders out.”
When she isn’t working in the restaurant or running cookery courses, Anand plays cricket and indulges her other passion: shopping.
“I’m a compulsive shopaholic,” she confesses. “I love shoes, handbags, shirts, earrings, bangles, jewellery, everything!”
Anand’s family is at the heart of what she does, and there are photographs of them throughout her book.
“For the last 10 years my dad’s been saying, ‘Dipna you should write a book’,” she reveals.
“There were tears in his eyes at the book launch – his dream was accomplished. Just to see that smile on his face, there can be nothing more rewarding than that.”
Music to our mouths
While we like to think we know our way around a barbecue, we generally just throw a few burgers and sausages on the grill a few times a year before it gets too hot to step outside. Now Christian Stevenson, aka DJ BBQ, is an American on a mission to keep us barbecuing as much as possible throughout the year.
The 46-year-old father-of-three, who has lived in the UK for 18 years, is a bundle of energy. His background’s in presenting extreme sports, but he also DJs and barbecues (hence the nickname), cooking and mixing tunes for up to 20 hours a time in what he calls ‘catertainment’. He’s now making a big impression on Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube network, with his larger-than-life personality and star-spangled catsuits earning him thousands of hits.
“My favourite Food Tube videos are the brisket, which is an 18-hour cook,” he says.
Stevenson learned to barbecue when he was just eight years old from his dad, who learned from his father before him – and their recipes are among those that feature in his new cookbook, The BBQ Book.
“My grandparents were great cooks, so when my grandfather passed away, my father went to all his siblings and asked for all the recipes, and made a book for everyone in the family of grandma’s and grandpa’s recipes, so there are a couple of them in there as well.”
Listening to him talk, it’s almost impossible not to drool, especially when he describes his favourite dish.
“Whenever I went travelling, my father would have the same recipe waiting for me: two flank or skirt steaks in a big ziplock with a bottle of Italian dressing, something you buy in the grocery store, and you shake it up and throw it in there,” he says. “The vinegar would tenderise the meat and then he’d get the charcoal cooking and throw a bunch of potatoes in there and he’d grill that piece of meat and slice it, and that, to me, is the taste of coming home.
“And it’s something everybody always loves. They can’t believe that Italian dressing can make that piece of meat taste that perfect, but it’s got the oils, the peppers, the vinegars, it’s the perfect marinade and it’s easy.
“And then I always do more potatoes than I need because the next day, I make home fries, [with] onions, peppers, chorizo, [and I] crack an egg on there, so I’ve got breakfast with these smoky potatoes.”
He’s excited to be spreading the barbecue love through his Food Tube channel and learning more techniques. “I’m enjoying this new world,” he says. “I’ve just spent a week in Portugal visiting all my friends in their restaurants and learning a whole bunch of new recipes.”
Meet the cupcake king
Tarek Malouf, the founder of the exceedingly good Hummingbird Bakery, brought cupcakes back into fashion when he opened the first of his six bakeries back in 2004 in London, UK, and is just about to publish his fourth – and very eagerly-awaited – cookbook, Life Is Sweet.
It’s the result of a three-week road trip in October 2013, around his spiritual baking home, America, which took him from New York to Atlanta, New Orleans and Dallas. He stayed with friends and relatives, and demanded one thing: that they show him the best desserts in town.
“Many of the recipes are regional or known in an area in the US, but not known elsewhere in the world,” he says.
They all feature names that defy your mouth not to water; Gooey Butter Cake, Molasses Pecan Crumb Cake, Red Velvet Ice Cream and Alabama Little Layer Cake. Those looking to wow dinner party guests with some amazing desserts would do well to seek inspiration among the book’s brightly coloured pages.
“The rise in home baking is really nice to see,” adds Lebanese-born Malouf, who moved to London when he was two years old.
“People are rediscovering the fun you can have making things yourself, and you get more adulation from friends and family when you bring in cookies or a big cake, rather than savoury food. There’s more of a wow factor, and people are always excited.”
For Malouf, the roots of American baking are steeped in traditional British recipes, but with added ingredients over the years, from the country’s rich melting pot of natives and immigrants. By his own admission, he and his sister grew up in “an American bubble”, both attending an American school in Central London.
“American baking is fascinating to me, I love it,” he says. “We used to visit the US once a year, and I have a couple of aunts and cousins who live there, so we used to stay with them.
“And I have a very sweet tooth, so between school and friends’ houses, and visiting and baking with my relatives, I developed a real taste for American desserts and cakes.”
Malouf has been asked countless times since launching Hummingbird Bakery, whether the cupcake trend is going to last – and 11 years on, he’s still convinced it’s not a fad. “They appeal because they’re smaller, you’re eating it yourself, so you can be picky with the flavour. It’s just a better version of a fairy cake, and hopefully not as dry!”
