Atul Kochhar Indian Spice
Atul Kochhar on the secret to great vegetarian curries, his late dad’s lessons, and narrowly avoiding medical school.
The Indian Michelin starred chef is back with a new vegetarian cookbook Kochhar wants us to step away from shop-bought curry paste. “You honestly don’t need the paste in the supermarket – please don’t buy it, even if my name is on it!”
Besides – the trick to cooking a good curry from scratch, he believes, is simplicity. “Don’t go for very complicated recipes,” he says. “Complicated recipes are generally the creation of, sadly, chefs like me who want to look good and put in too many ingredients. Whereas if you ask any Indian mother or mother of the Indian subcontinent, she will tell you: four or five ingredients only.”
It’s why his new cookbook, Curry Everyday, is packed with shorter, easy-to-follow recipes, and with inspiration taken much further than just India – from Cambodia to Kenya, Afghanistan to the Maldives – and they’re all vegetarian.
The 52-year-old only eats meat twice a week, and when it comes to vegetables, his late father’s influence was huge. “I always say I have learned most of the cooking from my father, and a little bit from chef school. His way of spicing things and handling vegetables was quite unique. He was just a magician with flavours,” the dad-of-two says.
“He was an orphan. He lost his parents at a very young age and I think he had to learn cooking very young. I adored his way of cooking and I often try to copy it – most of the time unsuccessfully, but I do try.”
Kochhar was the first Indian chef to ever win a Michelin star, and is often credited with elevating Indian food to a fine dining level. He says it’s “very heart-warming to see” how people have embraced Indian inspired food and made it part of their own culture. “I think more and more people cook and eat curry at home now than ever before.”
And when you cook veg in season, “Mother Nature does 80 per cent of the job, and I only have to do 20 per cent”.
So what does his 86-year-old mum (who still lives in his hometown in India) think of his food now? “She enjoys what I cook, but I often cook dishes she used to cook for me – and it’s a cheeky competition between mother and son. She still verifies dishes, she says, ‘You’re getting there, you’ll learn one day’,” he says, smiling.
His mum originally wanted him to be a doctor. “I always say as a joke, Indian families can be quite persuasive when it comes to the education of their children.” To appease his “strict” mother, he applied for medical school. “Sadly I got the placement, I was really hoping I wouldn’t get the place!” he laughs. Thankfully, his parents agreed he would be happier at cookery school.
Awarded his first Michelin star in 2001 at London restaurant Tamarind, he went on to open his own restaurant, Benares, where he won his second star. But his career hasn’t been without controversy – he had to deny he was Islamophobic in 2018 after sending a tweet to Priyanka Chopra about her TV show Quantico, claiming Islam had “terrorised” Hindus for 2,000 years.
Kochhar apologised the following day and acknowledged his inaccuracy, and Chopra apologised for any offence caused by the storyline depicting a terror plot from Indian Hindu nationalists. But the incident resulted in Kochhar having to part ways with Benares and the JW Marriot Marquis hotel in Dubai.
“I never had any bone like that in me,” he says now, four years on, saying he had been shocked a “small mistake would land you in trouble”, and it was a “very tough” time for him and his family (he has two teenagers).
Kochhar has gone on to open more restaurants since (he currently has eight – the latest, Riwaz, opened in February). “I know who I am and what I’m made of, and I’ll stand again and work again and make it happen,” Kochhar says. “My quest to open more restaurants is an answer [to those] who took away my 18 years of hard work.”
His enduring success is down to expanding our perceptions of Indian food.
“I was brave to break the boundaries, I didn’t see any culinary borders, they were quite blurred for me,” he says.
“I thought if Gordon Ramsay can do it, so can I – maybe I landed a Michelin star because of that. ‑ at helped me to elevate the food to where it is today.”
Mango and Tempeh Curry
“The recipe was given to me by a young Cambodian chef who worked for me at Tamarind, in London’s Mayfair, when I was awarded my first Michelin star. It’s the curry paste that elevates this dish to a higher level, with richness from the candlenuts.”
(SERVES 4)
INGREDIENTS:
◆ 1tbsp sunflower oil
◆ 2 mangoes, halved, stoned and flesh cut away in cubes
◆ 200ml water
◆ 2tbsp palm or light brown sugar
◆ 500g tempeh or seitan, cut into bite-sized cubes
◆ 400ml coconut milk
◆ 8 baby tomatoes, quartered
◆ Sea salt
◆ Spring onions, chopped, to garnish
FOR THE CURRY PASTE:
◆ 4–6 candlenuts or macadamia nuts ◆ 2 fresh red bird’s-eye chillies, coarsely chopped
◆ 3 shallots, chopped
◆ 2 thick lemongrass stalks, outer leaves removed and the stalks bashed and chopped
◆ 1 long, thin green chilli, coarsely chopped
METHOD:
➊ First, make the curry paste. Put all the paste ingredients in a food processor and process until a fine paste forms, scraping down the side of the bowl as necessary. Alternatively, you can use a pestle and mortar.
➋ Heat a large wok over a high heat. Add the oil and swirl it around. Reduce the heat slightly, add the curry paste and stir-fry until it is lightly coloured. It’s important to cook the shallots at this point, and don’t stop stirring, because the paste can quickly burn.
➌ Add the mangoes and stir until all the pieces are coated in the paste. Stir in the water, sugar and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer just until the mangoes begin to soften.
➍ Add the tempeh, coconut milk and tomatoes, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a further five to seven minutes until the tomatoes begin to break down and the flavours blend. Taste and adjust the salt, if necessary. Garnish with spring onions and serve
Persian Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry
This is my vegan version of an Iranian classic,” says Atul Kochhar. He calls it “a rich dish with walnuts, pomegranate flavourings and a hint of cinnamon”.
(SERVES 3-4)
INGREDIENTS:
◆ ½ large pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into bite-sized cubes, about 400g prepared weight
◆ Sunflower oil
◆ Ground cinnamon
◆ 75g walnut halves
◆ 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
◆ 1 onion, chopped
◆ 7cm piece of cinnamon bark
◆ 1tsp ground cumin
◆ 1tsp ground turmeric
◆ 2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
◆ 100ml pomegranate juice
◆ 75g pomegranate molasses
◆ ½tsp salt
◆ ¼tsp ground black pepper
◆ Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste, or a pinch of ground nutmeg
◆ 1 unwaxed orange, zested
◆ About 500ml water, as needed
◆ Maple syrup, optional
◆ 80g pomegranate seeds
◆ Salt and ground black pepper
◆ Chopped flat-leaf parsley or coriander, to garnish
METHOD
➊ Preheat the oven to 220°C/Fan 200°C/ Gas 7. Put the pumpkin cubes on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle with sunflower oil and lightly dust with ground cinnamon, then shake the tray so all the cubes are well coated. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender and the tip of a knife slides through easily.
➋ Meanwhile, heat a frying pan, ideally nonstick, over a medium-high heat. Add the walnuts and toast, stirring often, until lightly browned. Leave to cool, then transfer to a food processor and process until finely ground. Set aside.
➌ Heat two tablespoons of sunflower oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onion and fry, stirring often, until the onions start to soften. Add the cinnamon bark and continue frying, stirring, until the onions are light brown. Stir in the cumin, turmeric and half a teaspoon ground cinnamon, and stir together for 30 seconds. Add the chickpeas, pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses, salt, pepper and a good grating of nutmeg. Increase the heat and bring to the boil, stirring.
➍ Add the pumpkin cubes and ground walnuts and return the mixture to the boil, stirring until the stew thickens. Add the orange zest and stir in just enough water to get the thickness you like. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary, and if you think it’s too sour add maple syrup to taste. Stir in the pomegranate seeds and garnish with parsley before serving.
Chermoula Cauliflower
“Fresh herbs, garlic, lemon juice and warming spices are the ingredients you’d expect to find in a traditional chermoula sauce, popular in Morocco and throughout North Africa,” says Atul Kochhar. “In this recipe, however, I’ve created a honey sweetened version and omitted chilli powder – I like to let the magic of garlic, lemon and honey come through.”
(SERVES 4 AS A SHARING DISH)
INGREDIENTS:
◆ 1 large head of cauliflower, trimmed and le‑ whole
◆ Sea salt
FOR THE CHERMOULA SAUCE:
◆ 3 garlic cloves, crushed
◆ 4tbsp olive oil
◆ 4tbsp runny honey
◆ 1tbsp ground toasted cumin seeds
◆ 1tbsp smoked paprika
◆ ½tsp ground black pepper
◆ Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
◆ 4tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
◆ 30–40g fresh coriander leaves, chopped
◆ Slivered almonds, toasted, to garnish
◆ Lettuce leaves on the side, to garnish
METHOD
➊ Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6 and line a roasting pan with baking paper, making sure the baking comes up the side of the pan.
➋ To make the chermoula sauce, combine the garlic, olive oil, honey, ground cumin seeds, paprika, black pepper, lemon zest and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the lemon juice, then add about three-quarters of the coriander leaves.
➌ Place the cauliflower upside-down in the bowl and spoon over the chermoula sauce. Use your hands to rub the sauce all over the cauliflower, top and bottom, making sure it goes between the florets. Push any le‑ over sauce into the gap between the central core and florets on the bottom – you don’t want to lose any of that flavour.
➍ Transfer the cauliflower, right-side up, to the roasting pan. Pour over any sauce remaining in the bowl and cover with foil, pressing the foil around the cauliflower. Place in the oven and roast for 30 minutes.
➎ Uncover the pan and continue roasting for a further 25 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender and slightly charred. You should be able to slide a knife into the core easily. Sprinkle with the remaining coriander leaves, add the rest of the garnishes and serve.