This twist on a roast from Sabrina Gidda is packed with Punjabi flavours and makes a super-smart supper for four
g rowing up in a Punjabi family, you’re constantly cooking and having people over. That’s where my hospitality journey started – at home, in this delicious, nurturing environment. Mum didn’t just cook traditional food – we had roast dinners, Thai, lasagnes… so the food was diverse, and exciting.
I rediscovered how natural it felt to be in a kitchen when I was studying for a degree in fashion PR and marketing, and working as a waitress at the weekend. One day, the chef had an injury, and I stepped in to finish the service. It was an Antipodean brunch café, so not too technical, but the experience ignited a passion in me. I realised this was what I was supposed to be doing!
I’ve now worked as a chef for 15 years and have a cookbook, too. Modern South Asian Kitchen (Quadrille, £27) is dedicated to my mum, who I sadly lost recently to pancreatic cancer. She was magnificent in the kitchen – always with a glass of wine or Champagne in her hand, always cooking something delicious. The book began as a collection of stories about the marvels of south Asian women and what they do in the kitchen, and then evolved into a tribute to my mum and my culinary journey, which has spanned multiple cuisines. If you open my freezer, you’ll find bags of chopped coriander and blocks of ginger and garlic paste… right next to cola-flavoured freeze pops, Birds Eye Waffles, a bag of peas and my beloved fish fingers!
I couldn’t ask my mother for a recipe – because she didn’t know! Instead, you’d have to hover next to her and ‘guesstimate’. Things weren’t measured with a teaspoon; it was a coffee scoop, or Calpol spoon, or some other bizarre receptacle! Today, after working with lots of different cuisines in restaurants, I cherrypick the parts that inspire me, and cook in a really free way.
I hope the menu I’ve put together here will encourage people to use ingredients they normally wouldn’t choose. Instead of chicken, I’ve used guinea fowl; the flavour is excellent. I’ve also used the Indian finger chilli; you can’t cook South Asian food without it! It adds an aroma that you don’t get from other chillies. The marinade is underpinned by lots of coriander, which I’m completely obsessed with. Then there’s the lime and chilli pickle, which gives huge amounts of flavour. A tiny bit can change the landscape of your cooking. It’s an affordable and powerful way to add flavour.
