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Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
India-born restaurateur Asma Khan among 195 women features in record-setting song
New Delhi, India-born British restaurateur Asma Khan is among women from 195 countries who have featured in the "195" song which has entered the Guinness World Records for most nationalities to contribute vocals to a musical recording. The song has been produced to raise awareness about gender equality and to ignite a global movement to uplift people through the transformative power of sound healing frequencies. The Frequency School, co-founded by US Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum music producer Maejor, Martina Fuchs, Kingsley M, Brandon Lee and Aaron Dawson, has produced the powerful and universal campaign which premiered during the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, from January 20 to 24. "It has always been my dream to produce the first song in history featuring every country on the planet. Our vision was to unite 195 ordinary women from all walks of life in this pioneering and groundbreaking initiative to advocate for gender equality and the rights of women and girls, and to help people struggling with mental health issues," said Fuchs, who is also the executive producer of "195". "Breaking this record is only the beginning, we are on a global mission to make our world a more peaceful place," she said. Asma Khan, an immigrant to the UK and star of Netflix's Chef's Table, is one of the UK's most prominent female chefs. She is the founder and owner of Darjeeling Express, a well-known London-based Indian restaurant known for its all-female kitchen and homestyle Indian cuisine. The restaurant features dishes from Khan's family recipes and the cooking traditions of her upbringing in Kolkata. In 2024, TIME magazine named her one of the world's 100 most influential people. She is a chef advocate for the UN World Food Programme and holds honorary fellowships from Queen's College, Oxford, and King's College, London, where she earned a PhD in British Constitutional Law.
Irish Examiner
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Darina Allen: Three Indian recipes from the inspiring London-based cook Asma Khan
Darjeeling Express has been on my wish list for several years, but on my last trip to London, I finally managed to get a table there. Its owner, the wonderfully feisty Indian cook, Asma Khan has intrigued and inspired me for several years. Asma has, for some time now, been one of the brightest stars on the London restaurant scene. Despite being proudly Indian, she was the first British chef to be featured on Netflix's Chef's Table. Asma was born in Calcutta, the second daughter of royal parentage. That may not seem significant, but although attitudes are changing somewhat nowadays, in India daughters are often seen as a burden for various reasons, not least because families need to provide a dowry to pay for them to marry. 'A first born girl is sad, a second daughter is a disaster', so from the beginning, girls feel of lesser value with far fewer opportunities open to them than their brothers. It's rare in India for people to marry outside their own region. Asma however, is descended from a warrior tribe, her father was a Muslim Rajput, her mother a Muslim Bengali, so it could be said that she inherited genes from two powerful traditions. So, from childhood, Asma made a habit of rejecting expectations of a 'second daughter'. Most girls were in arranged marriages by the time they were 18. She loved cricket and played in the streets with the boys and her friend from the slums — at that time considered scandalous. Later, she became the first member of her family to attend college, qualified as a lawyer and completed a doctorate in British Constitutional Law. She left home without ever learning to cook. When she moved to Cambridge to join her graduate tutor husband in 1991, she could scarcely make toast. She was in culture shock, frozen cold, incredibly lonely and unable to recreate the food of her country that she craved so badly. She resolved to learn how to cook, so she returned to India for a few months to learn from her mother, mother-in-law and the cooks in her house. When she returned to the UK, she yearned to feed others who were going through the same loneliness and yearning that she experienced. When her husband was away on his travels, she invited other immigrants, housewives and second daughters whom she met at the children's school to dinner in her house. Eventually they became 'supper clubs'. Her home-cooked Mughlai dinners became legendary. Vivek Singh of the Cinnamon Club in Westminster tasted her food and invited Asma to host lunch, the beginning of a new chapter. Asma's rise to the top had many, many challenging twists and turns and there was much racial and gender discrimination before she eventually managed to open her first restaurant, Darjeeling Express. Her female kitchen team was and is still made up of immigrants and 'second daughters' who cook Asma's dishes with love and pride. Asma is a force of nature, a relentless campaigner for social change, unstoppable in her mission to change attitudes to women in all areas of life. If you can get to her restaurant, brilliant, but otherwise seek out her books. She has written two, Asma's Indian Kitchen which won a World Gourmand Award for best Indian cookbook in 2018 or her last cookbook Monsoon: Delicious Indian Recipes for Every Day, and Season, published by DK London (Penguin Random House) which these recipes come from. Asma Khan's Omelette Curry recipe by:Darina Allen In Bengal, eggs are not just a breakfast item — they are served as a main course in a family meal. Servings 4 Preparation Time 10 mins Cooking Time 20 mins Total Time 30 mins Course Main Ingredients For the gravy (sauce) 100ml vegetable oil 2.5cm cassia bark (or cinnamon stick) 2 bay leaves 150g brown onions, thinly sliced 1 tbsp ginger paste 1 tsp garlic paste 250g fresh tomatoes, chopped 1 tsp chilli powder 1 tsp salt ½ tsp sugar (any type) 120ml water 1 tbsp lemon juice For the omelette 6 medium/large eggs 2 tbsp vegetable oil ¼ tsp salt ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper 3 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves Method Start by preparing the gravy. Heat the oil in a deep saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the cassia bark and bay leaves, followed by the sliced onions. Stir the onions until they start to turn dark brown, ensuring they cook evenly. Add the ginger and garlic paste and stir for a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir for a few minutes before adding the chilli powder, salt, and sugar. Add the measured water and bring to the boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. While the gravy is simmering, prepare the omelette. It may be easier to make two omelettes if you have a small or medium frying pan. Whisk the eggs in a bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the salt and pepper to the eggs and whisk again before pouring into the pan. Sprinkle over the green chillies and coriander and cook until the eggs are set. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool. When cool to the touch, cut the omelette into thick strips. Ideally you want to have six thick strips. If you cut the strips too thin, they will break up and disintegrate in the gravy. Remove the lid from the gravy and stir. If there is still a lot of liquid, increase the heat and let it evaporate. The gravy should have the consistency of thick soup. Add the omelette strips and stir to cover all the strips with the gravy. Add the lemon juice, taste for seasoning, and serve warm. Asma Khan's Achari Murgh recipe by:Darina Allen Chicken cooked in pickling spices and yogurt. This dish is a family favourite in my home in India. The use of pickling spices has been linked to the royal family of Bhopal, where some say the dish originated. Servings 6 Preparation Time 10 mins Cooking Time 1 hours 15 mins Total Time 1 hours 25 mins Course Main Ingredients 6 tbsp vegetable oil 1 large onion, halved and sliced into thin half-moons ¼ tsp fennel seeds ¼ tsp black mustard seeds ¼ tsp nigella seeds 1/8 tsp fenugreek seeds ¼ tsp whole cumin seeds 1 tsp garlic paste 1 tbsp ginger paste 1kg skinless chicken thighs on the bone ½ tsp ground turmeric 1 tsp ground coriander ¼ tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder 1kg plain yogurt 1 tsp salt, or to taste 1 fresh green chilli, slit open lengthways; plus extra, chopped, to garnish handful of coriander leaves, chopped, to garnish Method Heat the oil in a deep, heavy-based saucepan that has a lid over a high heat. Take one tip of sliced onion and dip it into the edge of the oil. The oil is hot enough when the onion starts to sizzle immediately. If the onion does not sizzle immediately, wait for a minute and try with another slice of onion. Do not use the previous onion slice for the test, add that slice to the pan with the rest of the sliced onions when the oil is at temperature. Fry the onions until golden brown and caramelised, then remove with a slotted spoon and spread over a plate so they don't become soggy. To the same oil, add all the seed spices at the same time. Wait until you hear the mustard seeds pop, then add the garlic and ginger pastes and stir until fragrant. If the paste is sticking to the pan, add a splash of water to deglaze the pan. Add the chicken thighs and seal the meat all over, then add the ground turmeric, coriander, and chilli powder. Crush the caramelised onions in a pestle and mortar (or in a bowl with the end of a rolling pin) and mix them with the yogurt, then add the mixture to the pan along with the salt and bring to the boil. Cover the pan and reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, add the slit chilli and continue to cook uncovered for a further 30 minutes, stirring the chicken until the sauce clings to the meat. Taste for seasoning and adjust if required. Garnish with chopped green chillies and coriander and serve with rice and salad. Asma Khan's Shadha Bamdhakopi recipe by:Darina Allen The cabbage in this recipe should still have a bit of a crunch in it and the addition of cashew nuts gives the dish a lovely texture. Servings 6 Preparation Time 10 mins Cooking Time 20 mins Total Time 30 mins Course Side Ingredients 4 tbsp vegetable oil 150g raw cashew nuts 2 dried red chillies 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp ground turmeric 400g canned chopped tomatoes (or 3-4 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped) ½ tsp chilli powder 1 ½ tsp salt 750g white cabbage, shredded 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill (or any fresh herbs you have available), to garnish Method Heat the oil in a karai, wok, or deep saucepan over a medium heat until shimmering. Add the cashew nuts and stir to ensure all sides are cooked. As they will continue to cook in the residual heat, do not wait until the nuts turn dark brown – turn the heat off and use a slotted spoon to remove them to a plate. Remove and discard any burnt cashews as they will make your dish bitter. Try to leave as much of the oil behind in the pan. Check there are no cashew pieces left in the oil and set the pan back over a medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the whole dried chillies and cumin seeds, and stir until the chillies darken. Add the turmeric, then immediately add the chopped tomatoes followed by the chilli powder and salt. Reduce the heat and keep stirring at regular intervals until the oil comes to the edges of the spiced tomato mix. With the heat on low, add the shredded cabbage and coat with the tomato mix. Increase the heat to medium-high. If the slices of cabbage are thin, stir-fry for 4-5 minutes. Thicker slices will need 6-8 minutes, covered, and a further 2 minutes of stir-frying uncovered. Taste for seasoning, then return the cashew nuts to the pan and mix through. Garnish with the chopped herbs before serving. This goes with any rice dish or bread. It is also the perfect texture to wrap in a chapati or tortilla accompanied with a raita. Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese Making Helen Finnegan of Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese is offering a one day cheese making course which is designed to show you how to make and mature your own cheese at home. Cheese tasting lunch with wine included. Takes place on the last Saturday of the month located in Stoneyford, Co. Kilkenny. For more information, contact Helen on 086 859 7716 Midleton Farmers' Market 25th anniversary This year marks a major milestone for East Cork's renowned Midleton Farmers' Market. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the day will be marked with a special celebration on Saturday May 31 (9am – 1pm), featuring nature-based activities, face painting, balloon art and music from the Barony Choir and the Midleton Concert Band. Bring all the family. Read More Darina Allen: Three recipes to try at home inspired by the London food scene
Condé Nast Traveler
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Condé Nast Traveler
Where Chefs Eat on Vacation: Asma Khan's Favorite Kolkata Spots
Welcome to Where Chefs Eat on Vacation, a column in which chefs tell us what they ate on a recent trip. 'If someone tapped me on my shoulder and asked me where home was, I'd say Kolkata,' Asma Khan tells me. The beloved London-based chef chef left the city in 1991—and at this point, has lived in the UK longer than in India—but the 'City of Joy' still has a hold on her. 'When I'm in Kolkata, I feel like I'm a teenager again," she says. Like most sprawling Indian cities, Kolkata carries the visual markers of rapid change, but Khan says there's plenty that remains: the old mansions; the trees; the markets where she's still recognized; the chaiwalas 'down the lane' still dishing out tea and snacks. 'When I walk through the city, I feel like the city remembers me, the dust remembers me," she says. Khan grew up in India, but it wasn't until she moved to England in her twenties that she learned how to cook. After running supper clubs in her South Kensington home for a few years, Khan, who is a lawyer by education, opened her first restaurant in Soho in 2017. Darjeeling Express with its all-female staff and focus on home cooking quickly became one of London's hottest reservations, and Khan a celebrity chef—and full-throated advocate of undiluted Indian cooking. Monsoon: Delicious Indian Recipes for Every Day and Season, Khan's latest (and third) cookbook, journeys through the breadth of that culinary landscape. From the narangi (orange) pulao served at her home on festive occasions in the winter to the matira (watermelon) curry that her father's Rajasthani family make to break the stifling heat of the summers, it tackles cooking by season, something that she still pushes for. Deeply personal childhood memories are foregrounded here as well, like those of gathering on still summer nights upon the terrace, when her Abba (father) would unspool his stories or make shadow puppets with his hands. Her penchant for storytelling, she says, comes from him. Last year, when her family home was redeveloped into an apartment complex, Khan traveled to Kolkata to receive the keys to her very own apartment. 'I was the last granddaughter to walk down those old familiar stairs; my mother was born in that house,' she says of its significance. That visit was a sentimental return, a true homecoming. 'Although, in a way, it feels like I never really left,' she adds. For more on her favorite home-cooked recipes, check out Khan 's cookbook, Monsoon. To walk down memory lane with her and bookmark the best of Kolkata's delicious fare, based on Khan's most recent visit, read on. Sourcy Film What is the first thing you eat when you arrive in Kolkata?
Telegraph
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The fail-safe method for cooking rice, according to a top chef
In 2012, having gone back to India to learn to cook and returned to London to complete her legal PhD, Asma Khan started a supper club. She never looked back; constitutional law's loss was British diners' gain. A restaurant, Darjeeling Express, followed in 2017, then two bestselling cookbooks, Asma's Indian Kitchen and Monsoon, and a memorable appearance on Netflix's Chef's Table. With her pitch-perfect riffs on Indian home cooking and her all-female kitchen team, Khan has become an inspirational figure, so much so that last year Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In February, the King and Queen stopped by her restaurant for a biryani ahead of Ramadan. Now, Khan has made a 10-part series, Secrets of the Curry Kitchen, aimed at demystifying her cooking for viewers at home. 'A lot of the confusion about what people think is Indian cooking comes from a misunderstanding,' Khan says, sitting in her restaurant, which moved from Covent Garden back to its original home in Soho's Kingly Court in 2023, on a sunny April morning before service. 'It's very simple, it's very modular. I show the way we build in flavours, step-by-step. How we use whole spices, how we use ginger, garlic, onions. Once you perfect one dish, you can cook anything.' And it all starts with rice. In the series, Khan says that love and time are two of the most important ingredients in her cooking and the same is true with rice. 'I struggled to make rice at the beginning,' she says. 'When I came to this country I didn't know how to cook. My husband made rice and it was like glue. Absolutely terrible. So my first thing was to get the rice perfect. Everyone cooks perfect rice in Bengal, before you do anything else, because you probably stood there watching. Nobody gives step-by-step directions. But I had to learn step by step. I was taught by my old family cook, who took me through it.' She recommends the absorption method of cooking, as it is more forgiving than draining the rice as you do with pasta. A heavy-bottomed pot which distributes heat evenly is important, too; test it by boiling water on its own and seeing where the bubbles rise up. Asma Khan's 10-step method for perfect rice Click here for the full recipe Washing the rice correctly is vital. 'Do not put the rice in a sieve and run it under a tap; it's a disaster. The velocity of the water will break the edges,' she warns. 'The tips are so fragile they will bang against each other and break. That tip of rice will end up in the pot, cook super fast and become the 'glue', causing havoc, making the rice soggy.' Instead, you need to wash the rice 'like you would use a spatula when you are baking a cake, in one direction', she says. 'Put it in a bowl and pour the water in from the side, then swirl it in one direction until it is clear. You might think it is never going to happen, but be patient.' Another benefit of removing the excess starch like this, she adds, is that it makes the rice less calorific. 'Then soak the rice for at least 20 minutes, or up to an hour. Rice is very porous, so the grains absorb the water and change colour, becoming whiter and fatter. Pour the rice onto a tray [lined] with kitchen paper to get rid of the excess liquid. Then add two cups of water for every cup of rice. Again, it's important to be gentle; you don't want the starch to break.' The grains should be loose enough to simmer up in the pot but otherwise be left undisturbed. Then, once all the visible water has gone, put the lid on it. 'Ten minutes would be perfect,' Khan says. 'Then take a fork and fluff it up gently.' With perfect rice, you have the basis for pilau and biryani, two of the most versatile dishes in Indian cooking. It was these that Charles and Camilla enjoyed when they visited the restaurant in February. 'Even the King, who's been served rice in palaces all over the world, told me this was the best rice he had ever had,' she says. 'He had two pilaus and a biryani, then he packed a takeaway. He loved going into the kitchen, he spoke to all the women. What really moved my team was his humility. One of the women in my kitchen is a Gurkha widow. He walked up to her and said 'I am so grateful for the sacrifice of your husband and all the Gurkhas.' All my women were weeping.' 'Every child in India has the rice feeding ceremony when they are weaned,' Khan adds. 'It welcomes the child to the world of food. There is a beauty to rice. It is a blessing. There is a magic to well-made rice. My mother would always tell me my name was written on every grain, so eat it with respect.'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
5 of the best cookbooks for spring
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). The third cookbook from Asma Khan — chef and owner of London restaurant Darjeeling Express — is split into six sections, one for each of the Bengali seasons: the familiar four, plus monsoon and dry season. Cooking this way is intuitive for Khan, who grew up eating seasonally in Kolkata, the capital of India's West Bengal state. Starting with grishsho (summer), light dishes like courgette paratha give way to beef isthu (a mild beef stew) and pumpkin dal, before readers progress into the bôrsha (monsoon) and shôrot (autumn) sections. Monsoon also explores the six ayurvedic flavours — sweet, sour, bitter, tangy (astringent), spicy (pungent) and salty (umami) — and how to combine them during each of the seasons. Suggested menus incorporate an array of dishes: the 'Winter Fuel' selection, for instance, matches spicy, twice-marinated dahi murgh (chicken) kebabs with sour karonda aur khajur ki (cranberry and date) chutney and salty tawa (griddled) naans. Khan encourages readers to create their own seasonal menus, too, and covers techniques such as how to roast spices before grinding them and making ghee from scratch. £26, DK Red Its title meaning 'a bite' in Arabic, this book combines anecdotes from Murad's Bahraini upbringing and her stint in the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen with a variety of Middle Eastern recipes. Vermicelli chicken soup is inspired by Bahraini cuisine, while charred courgettes with saffron, kefir and onions is a play on a classic Iranian dip. £28, Quadrille Sevilla's new cookbook offers insights into Basque culinary traditions and features well-known pintxos, including olive-anchovy-pepper gildas. Dishes like pastelón de morcilla — black pudding pie with pine nuts, sultanas and pears — offer a fresh perspective on the cuisine. £22, Ryland Peters & Small In the former MasterChef Australia contestant's new cookbook, Korean cuisine's big hitters, such as bulgogi and bibimbap, rub shoulders with his takes on street-food staples, including pan-fried tteokbokki (rice cakes). Law also includes sections on kimchi and anju (food eaten with alcohol). £27, Smith Street Books In Caribe, British chef Sakarah draws on her heritage, sharing family recipes such as Uncle Jerry's fish tea: her Montserratian relative's soup with snapper, scotch bonnet and yam. She also explores the stories behind dishes such as Jamaican ackee and saltfish, and Guyanese-Chinese chow mein. £30, Hardie Grant Published in Issue 27 (spring 2025) of Food by National Geographic Traveller (UK).To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
