Anjum Anand

Anjum Anand

Anjum Anand is passionate about home-made Indian food. She tellsFiona Shield how the right spices can transform a dish to outshine any restaurant, and how an Indian diet can offer children, and adults, a healthy lifestyle You have a degree in European Business, when did you first start cooking? I never thought cooking was something I would do professionally, especially because I’d grown up with my mother and grandmother being in the kitchen, which was natural in Indian culture. So I thought I’d try a career in business, but found that I graduated and hated it. I didn’t like going to an office – it’s just not me – so I started thinking about other careers. I’d always loved cooking and cooked for friends all the time, so one thing morphed into another and I decided to write a cookbook. I was very naïve though, I thought it would be easy to get published, but unless you’re already known and have a restaurant it’s actually very difficult. There were many, many rejections before I got published, and my family wasn’t supportive because they thought I was wasting a good education, but I persevered because I was very passionate about it. Has living in different countries influenced your cooking? I grew up eating Indian food at home, but because we lived in Switzerland we’d also eat Swiss and Italian food, and then I moved to England for university. I see different elements of different cuisines coming up in my food, and often I’ll fuse them together and experiment. You must enjoy being creative in the kitchen? Absolutely, though it’s very random. I’ll use the ingredients that I happen to have in the kitchen and try out new combinations. Other times something will be in season so that gets me thinking. You’ve worked in restaurant kitchens around the world, how was that? I loved it. Restaurant kitchens are amazing because there is so much energy and they’re always full of amazing characters, and when you love food you just want to learn more and more. It’s a hard life though, and because I wanted a family I knew that I couldn’t work until 12 o’clock at night all the time. Sales of organic food drop for the first time in 20 years Fish stocks plummet Champagne sales decline in recession-hit UK African superfruit hits our shelves Is your family supportive now? Totally, once the first book came out it all made sense to them and they were instantly proud of me, they had the book displayed in every room of their house! When I was creating the recipes I remember many times calling my mum and saying, ‘How do you make that again?’ Or, ‘Do you remember that dish we ate somewhere?’ And then at some point it changed, and she started calling me. Do you think it’s important to pass recipes through the generations? Definitely, that’s the biggest problem these days – a lot of the younger generations don’t cook and don’t want to, and the fact their mothers stopped cooking means the knowledge is being lost from every culture. Traditional dishes can be complicated, particularly Indian dishes, but they just need modernising and simplifying otherwise we’ll end up losing the recipes and I find that very sad. Everyone should write their own little personal cookbook they can give to their children or their nieces and nephews. You’re credited with being one of the first cookery writers to make Indian food more healthy and accessible, how do you feel about that? I started cooking for health reasons. I grew up overweight and did every fad diet under the sun in the 80s to try and lose weight but found that I would keep putting it back on even though I was being very disciplined. Then I realised that actually you need to enjoy what you eat when you’re losing weight and that way it becomes a lifestyle. So I took my love of Indian food and thought if I start with that and make it healthy then I’m onto a winning formula, and that’s what I did. Restaurant food is always unhealthier than what you cook at home, what Indian restaurants serve in the UK is not really what Indians would eat. We’ve been eating Indian food the same way for 50 years, but I think it’s changing. I still practice what I preach; I eat healthy Indian food at home regularly. Obviously you wanted to publish a cookbook, but did you want to be in the media? Not at all, I was awful on television to begin with! The first few times I went on a show it was live and I totally seized up while I cooked the dish, I got the words out but there was no happiness on my face, it was just panic. The turning point was when they invited me on when I was eight months pregnant and I don’t know whether it was the pregnancy hormones, or because something so much more important was about to happen to me, but I just didn’t care. I ignored the cameras and I was myself. I love what I do but enjoy the balance of quiet times cooking and writing at home with days of filming. In your BBC series you were trying to reeducate people about Indian, why do you think people automatically assume it isn’t a healthy diet? Because the Indian restaurants in this country that have been here since the 1950’s have always served up very, very heavy dishes. They use lots of oil to fry the onions and cook the gravy, and if you’re having some vegetables in it they might fry the vegetables so they keep their shape, and when they serve it to you they’ll just heat up a bit of ghee and some fresh ginger or garlic and some fresh basil so that the aromas hit you. The British palate is now used to sweet things within Indian food – a lot of the curries are quite sweet, whereas in India generally unless they have coconut in, they’re not. British people have only seen that, so I don’t blame them for thinking it’s quite unhealthy. It’s also become common to order a range of dishes in an Indian restaurant, as well as naan and rice, so that when you leave you’re ridiculously full. When you eat at home it’s simpler, lighter, fresher and you cook it how you like with less salt. There’s not that greed with the mentality that I’m not going to have another curry for another two weeks so I may as well pile it in. Do you think the popularity of Indian restaurants and takeaways in the UK has led to dishes losing their authenticity? It has, a lot of restaurants here have genetic curry house menus that I know just aren’t possible – they’ll use fruit in certain curries that comes from a totally different area of India and would never be used together. Real Indian food is amazing, and that’s why I get so excited to talk about it. The British love Indian food already, now they just need to be shown what’s real about it and be encouraged to make it in their own kitchen. Would you say that Indian food lends itself well to the current frugal economic climate? Absolutely because Indian food is very cheap, lentils are inexpensive, spices are great value, vegetables are vegetables you need in any cuisine and then all you need is rice and yoghurt. The basics are inexpensive and cooking at home makes it cheaper still. I always think of Indian food as budget food. I remember saying to someone that I don’t have to write a budget cookbook because all my cookbooks are budget. I don’t need to use very fancy ingredients because Indian food is grown around the land, it’s the food of farmers, of people who work and can’t afford fancy things. How important is the quality of the ingredients? I think you can create fantastic flavours with Indian food without top quality ingredients. As long as you have some spices to add lots of flavour, and the sweetness of the onions – curries are a balance of those flavours. The meat they used in India used to be stewed for an hour to tenderise it because it wasn’t great quality. Spices are a fundamental part to Indian dishes, how would a beginner approach them? Go out and buy five spices; cumin, coriander – I’d always buy the seeds because then you can grind them – turmeric, which doesn’t have a lot of flavour but has a lot of health benefits and it’s a lovely colour, Garam Masala because that stops you having to buy all the blend your own, and then mustard seeds. If you just buy those five spices you can create fantastic Indian food. Is there a dish someone could attempt as a complete beginner? You should cook something you’re used to, so if you are used to cooking fish why don’t you add some spices or a bit of gravy with Indian spices? Start with what you’re comfortable with and then introduce one new element. If you cook something you’re not used to, plus you’re cooking with spices for the first time, there’s too much jeopardy and people get nervous. I think people are very scared of cooking Indian food, but it’s not scary as long as you don’t burn anything it’ll taste good in the end. And don’t be scared of cooking onions, the flavour of an onion comes when it’s slightly caramelised. What are your thoughts on seasoning Indian food? Do you think you need to use a lot of salt? Indian food tends to be well seasoned, which it needs to balance the sweetness of the onions and spices, and the tartness of tomatoes. But this food has evolved from a place where there wasn’t any processed food so it would be important to have some salt in the dishes. I always want my food to taste good, even if I eat less of it. What would you say are the health benefits of an Indian diet? Indian food is so healthy if you cook it at home because it’s full of vegetables, lentils, wholegrain bread and rice which is quite easy to digest, plus you have onions, ginger and garlic in the dishes. All of the ingredients that form Indian foods are good for you and the spices are called super foods now because people are just finding out exactly how healthful they are. Do you feed your daughter an Indian diet? Definitely, it’s the healthiest thing for her. As soon as you eat Indian food you get lots of vegetables, which you don’t necessarily get with other cuisines. The vegetables are cooked down and blended into a dish so they more subtle than in other cuisines and I can get more into her. When I’m cooking I give her things to do so that she learns the ingredients and grows up understanding the importance of home-cooking. Do you think Indian dishes could be served in schools to help combat childhood obesity? Absolutely, as long as it’s cooked properly. Indian food is so good for you, compare it to any of the other school dinners and you would see it’s equally healthy, if not better. Plus it’s cheap, so there’s definitely a case for a weekly meal at least. I think our children need to eat healthily and to try new flavours. Do you entertain a lot at home? I do, less so than I’d like because life is very full right now, but I love entertaining. I enjoy cooking and having people round and relaxing; it’s always warmer than going to a restaurant. When I started out cooking dinner for lots of people I was overcomplicating things, they expected a lot from me so I’d cook a starter and a huge meal and dessert and I’d put a lot of pressure on myself. But with age I’ve mellowed and now I just focus on good quality food with an emphasis on lightness so that everyone leaves feeling healthy. What would you recommend to drink with your recipes? When I have people round for dinner I always serve a nice red wine, because it can stand up to an Indian curry. I know a lot of people serve sweet wine and they serve white wine, but I don’t think it complements Indian food as much. What’s your favourite comfort food at home? It would have to be a pot of lentils, I know it’s really sad but it’s simple, good food! I had to be so disciplined to lose weight that I can now pass up chocolate, cakes or scones. I might have some, but I don’t need it. What’s been your favourite culinary experience in this country so far? I tend to go to simple restaurants that are local, or I go to the best restaurants so that I can try what’s going on. I went to the Boxwood Café recently and thought that was fantastic and I love Hakkasan and Sumosan, I’m a big fan of Japanese food. It’s very hard to say a favourite; because I’ve had so many good meals in this city, I think you need variety. What do you have next in store for your career? I’m writing my new cookbook based on Ayurveda, India’s oldest medicinal system. The Ayurvedic belief is that you are what you eat and that we are actually different body types and should eat a diet accordingly. If you’re eating the wrong foods for your body then you won’t be able to digest them and you’ll end up putting on weight. I’ve been into it for about seven to eight years, and I’ve always wanted to write a cookbook about it so I’ve done a lot of intensive research. Even though the beliefs are centuries old they are still relevant in today’s society. For example Ayurveda specifically says that if you eat when you’re stressed, which we do all the time nowadays, then you’re not going to digest your food properly so it’s going to end up as waste matter, ferment in your body and create toxins. Then you’re going to put on weight because you’re not nourishing your tissues and are craving more food to replace what you’re lacking. The beliefs are 5000 years old but we haven’t changed as humans, our bodies still need the same things, it’s just our environment around us that’s changed so much, our society is so unhealthy now. Just changing the way you live and eat a little bit can really benefit your health and it’s time to take that responsibility back into our own hands. Sales of organic food drop for the first time in 20 years Fish stocks plummet Champagne sales decline in recession-hit UK African superfruit hits our shelves

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