Founder of Mowgli Street Food restaurants
What do you most look forward to eating in winter?
Things like lamb shanks, oxtail, slow-cooked curries with meat on the bone — no Indian would ever cook a meat curry without meat on the bone. And this is the time of year where you can get those really unctuous, marrow-releasing cuts of meat. That’s what I really have a passion for in the winter: my slow-cooked curries.
You get that wonderful, golden veneer of fat on the top and it’s almost the colour of fire, reminiscent of warm evenings. Because you’re cooking with turmeric and paprika and chilli powder, those fiery colours rise to the top. When it’s grey outside, you want sunshine to emanate from the food you’re eating.
What’s your favourite winter ingredient to cook with?
Every year, I grow cavolo nero — no matter how grim it is outside, you can go and cut a few leaves of cavolo nero and you’re still eating from your own garden. And that’s what we Indians love about British veg — this chlorophyllrich, robust leafage and foliage that stands up to a real hammering in the pan. You’re getting those wonderful, iron-filled, deep flavours that come out with things like mustard seed, a bit of lemon, turmeric, a little bit of garlic.
What’s your biggest winter indulgence?
Persimmon — sharon fruit. I can eat 12 in one sitting. They taste of caramel, but the way I like to eat them best — and this is really messed up but I urge you to try it — is with salmon roe. I use slices of sharon fruit like a cracker, then pop some salmon roe on them and you get this salty, poppy sweetness. I just can’t get enough of it.
What’s your idea of a perfect Christmas dinner?
Christmas dinner is my favourite dinner — how trite! I don’t mess with it. I get a bronze turkey, one of those turkeys that cooks in about half an hour and you eat them pink. It’s a revelation. I yearn for it all year round. Goose — you need about six geese to satiate your appetite because there’s so little meat on them, but goose breast is absolutely wonderful. I do roast potatoes with a little bit of turmeric, brown sugar and garlic; they’re to die for. Christmas Eve is the only time I’ve got to stand and peel five swedes for the swede and carrot mash, which we all absolutely love with a tiny bit of nutmeg, white pepper, butter. Heavenly.
Which restaurants do you most enjoy visiting during the colder months?
In London, The Guinea Grill; it’s like stepping back in time. It’s being Charles Dickens and going into the restaurants he’d have gone into —a low-ceilinged, old pub, with white tablecloths, old dark wood and the smell of fire, but also the most pheno
