THERE are a lot of misconceptions around Indian food: that it’s a ‘cheat’ meal from your local takeaway, or can only be made at home if you spend hours slaving over a hot stove.
These kind of stereotypes make Chetna Makan’s eyes roll.
“People think it will take hours or sometimes days where you soak and you ferment – which is all true, but it’s not how we cook every day,” she says with exasperation.
Although it’s seven years since Makan appeared on The Great British Bake Off, she’s still roundly referred to as a ‘Bake Off favourite’ – and now she’s onto her fifth cookbook: Chetna’s 30 Minute Indian: Quick And Easy Everyday Meals. It’s her latest challenge to preconceived ideas around Indian food; in 2019’s Chetna’s Healthy Indian she turned the idea that “Indian means greasy and unhealthy” on its head, she explains.
There was also another huge driving force behind her latest book: the pandemic. Like so many cooks, Makan noticed a shift in our approach to food over the past year or so.
She says her new cookbook was “written in the first lockdown [in 2020], completely at home. There was a big surge of trying all these amazing sourdoughs and breads at home, and what I saw with my friends was it started with a bang – and then after a few weeks, everyone was just like, ‘I don’t want to cook, and I don’t want to spend so much time in the kitchen.'”
This got Makan thinking more deeply about what kind of food people actually want to cook, and she had a lightbulb moment: “Maybe it’s a good idea if I could do something in 30 minutes,” she mused. The idea of whipping a delicious dish up in just 15 minutes makes her belly-laugh, but it would seem like 30 minutes is the sweet spot.
And no, Makan says almost wearily, it’s not just a book of curries. There are some delicious curry meals catering to all different spice levels, but it’s got recipes for “everything – a bit of starters, a bit of snacks, some big meals, some small meals, for all seasons”.
This book was a unique experience, she says, because lockdown meant her children (Sia, 13 and Yuv, 11) could actually see first-hand how it all came together. Luckily for Makan, her kids ended up being a big help. “They would be like, ‘Mum how many recipes have you done? Mum, have you done 10 or not?’, because they knew my deadlines,” she says with a laugh. For Makan, one of the silver linings of lockdown was the opportunity to actually get her children to understand what she does for a living. “I was glad because they actually saw how much hard work goes into writing a book,” she says. “It’s not just like, ‘Oh, I’m writing a cookbook’.”
They also ended up being her best and worst critics. “They definitely have 100 per cent honest opinions,” she says with a playful groan. “You know whether it’s good, whether it’s really good, not that great, or ‘I really don’t want to eat it’. They’ve got all these levels of opinions.”
Sia and Yuv must have eaten like royalty during lockdown, as many of the dishes in the book look truly sumptuous – there’s generous plates of spicy paneer and crispy spinach koftas swimming in creamy curry sauce. Readers might be surprised these dishes only take half an hour; Makan says her inspiration was “literally the clock”, and she worked backwards from there.
“I was trying to think, ‘OK, what can we make today in 30 minutes? It was what can I do in that time but also keeping a variety: some people might like it spicy, some people like lots of gravy.”
Makan gets excited when talking about her recipes, but she’s refreshingly honest: like so many people, she’s become sick of eating every single meal at home. We spoke at the beginning of lockdown restrictions easing in England, and Makan’s latest project was researching bakeries to visit – so she could try someone else’s cakes for a change.
Visiting restaurants is top of her to-do list: “Just to change your scenery and have nice food,” she says longingly. “I’m so looking forward to it. I cook good food, but it just doesn’t taste as good as if someone else is cooking it.”
And for those nights you aren’t at a restaurant, and need something delicious, fast and packed full of flavour? It might be time to try some of Makan’s new recipes.
Chetna’s 30 Minute Indian by Chetna Makan, photography by Nassima Rothacker, is published by Mitchell Beazley, priced £20. Below are three recipes for you to try at home...
Spinach kofta with creamy almond-onion curry
(Serves 4)
2tbsp sunflower oil
250ml water
100ml natural yogurt
¾tsp salt
1tsp chilli powder
1tsp sugar
Red chilli flakes, to garnish
For the paste:
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 green chilli, roughly chopped
40g white poppy seeds
40g blanched almonds
2.5cm fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
100ml water
For the koftas:
1 potato, peeled and cut into 1cm pieces
100g spinach leaves, finely chopped
½tsp salt
60g cornflour
Sunflower oil, for shallow-frying
Method:
1. Blitz all the paste ingredients in a blender (preferably) or a food processor until smooth. Heat the oil in a pan and add the paste with 50ml of the measured water. Cover and cook over a low to medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through.
2. Meanwhile, make the koftas. Put the potato pieces in a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil, then cook for five minutes until cooked through. Drain the potato, put it into a bowl and mash with a potato masher. Add the spinach, salt and cornflour and mix well. Divide the mixture into 10–12 portions and form each into a ball about the size of a lime, then flatten them slightly.
3. Heat enough oil for shallow-frying in a frying pan. Line a plate with kitchen paper. Add the koftas to the hot oil and cook over a medium to high heat for one to two minutes until golden and crispy. Transfer to the paper-lined plate to absorb the excess oil.
4. Whisk the yogurt with the remaining 200ml water in a small bowl. Gradually add to the paste and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, for a minute. Then stir in the salt, chilli powder and sugar and cook for two minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl, place the koftas on top and serve, garnished with red chilli flakes.
Gram flour sweets recipe
(Serves 8-10)
100g ghee, plus extra for greasing
170g gram flour (besan/chickpea flour)
60g icing sugar
20g ground almonds
¼tspn ground cardamom
10g toasted flaked almonds
Method:
1. Heat the ghee in a pan. Once it has melted, add the gram flour and cook over a low heat for eight minutes, stirring often, until it starts to change colour and smell toasted. The mixture will start off clumpy but will gradually bubble and become smooth and creamy.
2. Take the pan off the heat and let the mixture cool for five minutes.
3. Meanwhile, grease a 20cm square cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper.
4. Mix the icing sugar, ground almonds and cardamom together in a bowl, then add the toasted gram flour mixture and stir to combine.
5. Transfer the mixture to the lined tin, then spread it out and level the surface with a spatula. Sprinkle the toasted flaked almonds on top and let it cool in the refrigerator for five to 10 minutes until firm.
6. Cut it into small squares and serve. These sweets will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour before serving.
Coconut paneer tikka recipe
(Serves 4)
For the paneer:
200ml natural yogurt
1tbsp tandoori masala
½tsp salt
450g paneer, cut into 2.5cm cubes
2tbsp sunflower oil
For the masala:
2tbsp sunflower oil
1tsp black mustard seeds
1tbsp urad dal
10 fresh curry leaves
2–4 dried red chillies
3 onions, thinly sliced
60g fresh coconut, grated
½tsp ground turmeric
½tsp chilli powder
¼tsp salt
Method:
1. For the paneer, mix the yogurt, tandoori masala and salt together in a bowl. Add the paneer cubes and gently turn in the marinade until well coated. Set aside while you start to prepare the masala.
2. Heat the oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds and urad dal and cook over a low heat for a minute. Then add the curry leaves and chillies and cook for a few seconds.
3. Add the onions and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes until lightly golden. Then stir in the coconut and cook for five minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oil for the paneer in another pan, add the marinated paneer with all the excess marinade and cook over a high heat for five minutes, turning halfway through, until lovely and golden all over.
5. Add the cooked paneer to the onions and coconut with the turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Mix well and cook over a medium heat for five minutes, then serve.
