RECIPE INSPIRATION
Chef Rinku Dutt cooks us up a feast of sharing dishes, perfect for weekend dining, and tells Sarah Maber how her street food business, Raastawala, began
RECIPES RINKU DUTT
Meet Rinku
Chef and author Rinku Dutt is the co-founder of the Kolkata-inspired street food business Raastawala. She published her first cookbook, Kolkata: Recipes from the Heart of Bengal (Smith Street Books, £26), last year. raastawala.com
the menu I’ve put together really represents our family eating style on a Saturday or Sunday. During the week, my husband, two children (aged seven and one) and I all sit down to eat together – I just make the dish less spicy for my one-year-old.
But at the weekend,we’llhavesomething like this menu, which is great for casual dining. It’s quick to put together and not too intricate or demanding, yet is very tasty – the different dishes allow for lots of flavours to come through.
We’re so lucky. Both sets of parents live nearby and they come over to eat with us. It’s wonderful, with everyone cooking together and sitting round the dining table to enjoy the food. My father is a huge inspiration. He’s retired, but still helps out with the business. He’s a real perfectionist and food is a passion for him. When we were growing up and my parents entertained, you’d find my dad in the kitchen preparing meat dishes and biryanis – the feasting plates. He was from a family of restaurateurs who owned one of the biggest restaurants in Kolkata back in the 60s and 70s. It’s amazing how history repeats itself.
I set Raastawala up with my husband and father after taking a sabbatical from my job in banking and living in Kolkata for three years. The way we cook in India is by eye, rather than with specific instructions. You cook with a feeling… just about this much, or perhaps a pinch of this and that. You get so involved with cooking a dish that it’s instinctive. It’s about an innate feel for the food you’re making.
Raastawala began with us selling street food in little farmers’ markets in small community church halls. The first time I sold anything, it was to the fruit and veg man in the stall opposite. It was only when I moved to London that things really took off, and my book deal came last year. But my heart is in recipe development – making Indian food more accessible to more people in their homes by keeping it as simple as possible. That’s what really inspires me.
Menu sharing feast
Lamb keema Cauliflower and paneer torkari Malai chicken dessert Firni
Only £1.43 PER SERVING
Lamb keema PAGE 56
SERVES 6 as a sharing dish GF DF HANDS-ON TIME 25 mins TOTAL TIME 50 mins
LAMB KEEMA
‘This is definitely a comfort dish for me, as my mum made this a lot when we were
