tamarind – Cook and Drink

Exploring Asma Khan’s Ammu (Part 3)

7 August 2025

We conclude our review of Asma Khan’s cookbook Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by preparing two dishes: Saffron Lamb and Pulao and asking our esteemed panel (André, Joke, Martine and Rutger) for their thoughts. In Part 1 we wrote about her Pumpkin and Coconut soup and in Part 2 about her Pineapple and Chilli Chutney and Eggs in Tamarind Gravy.

Asma Khan is an Indian British chef, cookbook author and restaurant owner. In 2012 her pop-up restaurant started for 12 guests at her home, serving food cooked from traditional family recipes. Today her all-female Darjeeling Express restaurant in London offers Indian Rajput and Bengalihome cooking specialties.

In 2024 she won the Johannes van Dam Prize, a lifetime achievement award for an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the world of gastronomy. Previous winners of the prestigious prize include Yotam Ottolenghi, Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Jeroen Meus and Alain Passard.

The book is called ‘Ammu’ which translates to ‘Mother’. The stories, the recipes, the whole book is a tribute to the food her mother (and the family’s cook) prepared. But we feel it’s more: it’s also a tribute to original flavours, to people taking time to prepare food, to sharing and enjoying, to communities and heritage.

Saffron Lamb

The recipe calls for a whole leg of lamb. For practical reasons we decided to make a stew using neck of lamb. The meat is marinated for at least 4 hours (or overnight) in a combination of yoghurt, garlic, chilli powder and saffron. Using saffron can be challenging. Asma Khan soaks the saffron in tepid water, which makes it much easier to add the right amount of saffron, not only at the beginning but also just before serving. The stew was a well-balanced combination of lamb, spices and saffron. To quote Asma Khan: “This is a good one to serve friends and family to make them feel loved without having to spend a lot of time in the kitchen!”. It was Rutger’s favourite.

Pulao

Doesn’t it look amazing? Basmati rice with cardamon, cinnamon, rose petals, pistachios, apricots, cloves, onion, rose water and bay leaf. The pulao surprised us all with its flavours, aromas and vibrant colours. The rice has a sweet undertone which makes it ideal to serve with spicy dishes. It combined very well with the lamb, the chutney and the eggs.

It was Martine’s favourite. Preparing it is, as you will expect by now!, a bit of work but it’s not difficult.

Should This Book Be On Your Shelf?

Our answer is “Yes, definitely” but our esteemed panel didn’t agree with us. They loved the dishes and the range of (new) flavours, the complexity of the aromas and the beautiful colours. They would be happy to enjoy more food from Asma Khan, but the time and effort required to prepare the food would be a problem.
Which means we will plan another Asma Khan dinner, with dishes such as Stir-Fried Aubergines, Coconut Ladoo and Prawns with Peas and Potatoes. To be continued!

The Book

Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by Asma Khan is available via the usual channels or your local bookstore for 35,00 US$ or 26,00 EUR.
Some of her recipes were published by the BBC, other recipes were published by Great British Chefs and these by the Foodnetwork.

Exploring Asma Khan’s Ammu (Part 2)

17 July 2025

We continue our review of Asma Khan’s cookbook Ammu, Indian Home Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by preparing two dishes: Pineapple and Chilli Chutney and Eggs in Tamarind Gravy and asking our esteemed panel (André, Joke, Martine and Rutger) for their thoughts. . Earlier we wrote about her Pumpkin and Coconut soup.

Wine Pairing

Aska Khan doesn’t include suggestions for drink pairing in the book. As a main we served four dishes: Pineapple and Chilli Chutney, Eggs in Tamarind Gravy, Saffron Lamb and Pulua. We paired this with a red wine called Magenta produced by Domaine de l’Arjolle from the Côtes de Thongue area (west of the French city of Montpellier) made with merlot and cinsault grapes. The wine has a light red colour, and its taste made us think of cherries and red fruit. Excellent light wine that combined very well with the various flavours of Asma Khan’s dishes. In general, we would suggest a light, fruity red wine.
If you would like to enjoy a white wine, we would suggest one with limited acidity, for instance Pinot Gris.

Eggs in Tamarind Gravy

When going through the book, we noticed this delicious looking dish. It made us think of Sambal Goreng Telor, an Indonesian side dishe which combines fried hard-boiled eggs with a sauce made with chillies, lemon grass, shrimp paste and other ingredients.

The recipe for Eggs in Tamarind Gravy is not too difficult, just a bit time consuming. The gravy is made with very thinly sliced onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chilli, tamarind extract and water. Once combined it needs to be reduced by half. We read the recipe again and started to wonder why it was called ‘gravy’. The liquid in our pan resembled a watery soup, not gravy. We left it to reduce, on low heat, and we waited patiently. It started to thicken and after two or three hours we knew Asma Khan was right: gravy it was.
We think that the very thinly sliced onion, cooked through and through, worked as a thickener. Ten minutes before serving we made three shallow slits on the surface of each hard-boiled egg, which helps the eggs to absorb the gravy.
The panel loved the combination of subtle flavours: sweet, tangy, sour and rich. The sauce has the texture of old-fashioned gravy and it coated the eggs perfectly.

Pineapple and Chilli Chutney

We decided to prepare Saffron Lamb because of the intriguing recipe (more in our next review). Asma Khan suggests serving the lamb with Rose, Apricot and Pistachio Pulau and Pineapple and Chilli Chutney, so that’s what we did.

The chutney is made with red chillies (we used Kashmiri red chilies), Indian bay leave (tej patta), ginger, sugar, salt and water. It needs to cook until the chutney thickens and looks glossy. As with the gravy we were slightly worried: after thirty minutes our chutney wasn’t glossy or thick and the pineapple was bright yellow. But after three hours the chutney looked exactly as Asma Khan predicted.
The panel was surprised by the sweetness and gentle spiciness of the chutney. The flavour of the pineapple was clearly present, but in a savoury way. Tasty in its own right, very nice accompaniment with the lamb and the rice.

The Book

Claudia Roden – The Book of Jewish Food, part 1

8 February 2024

The cookbook review project by Bernadette is a great way to explore cookbooks. The book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden was not yet on our bookshelf, so we bought a copy of the 25^th edition for 40 euro. Its subtitle is An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the present day. The book combines more than 800 recipes with the stories and histories that have shaped Jewish cooking over the centuries. The book showcases the diversity of Jewish food.

The first time we saw Claudia Roden was during the 2016 Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food. In 1999 she received the Prince Claus Award in recognition of her exceptional initiatives and achievements in the field of culture. She is author of the classic comprehensive book Food of Italy and member of the jury of the prestigious Johannes van Dam prize, awarded in 2016 to Yotam Ottolenghi. We were far too impressed to actually talk to her. A bit silly, agreed, and we will make up for it in April 2025 during the next Symposium.

The Netherlands

The Dutch Jewish community plays an important role in the Netherlands, and more specifically in Amsterdam. The community was formed in the seventeenth century by people who came from Portugal (Sephardi Jews) and from Germany and Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi Jews). In general the first group was worldly, cultured and well connected to the Dutch upper classes. The second group was poor and unskilled. They worked as market traders, food sellers (for instance pickled vegetables and salted herring with chopped onions, which is still a Dutch treat) and pedlars.

Over the years both groups influenced Dutch cuisine. According to food author and publisher Jonah Freud dishes such as Haringsalade met Bietjes (see here for our version) and Broodje Halfom (a bun with beef liver and salted beef (somewhat similar to pastrami) with white pepper) are typical examples of the Jewish influence on Dutch cuisine. Gemberbolussen (a sweet cake with ginger) and Kugel (a cake with almonds and pears) are still widely available in Amsterdam.

Two Recipes

We decided to make two recipes from the book. Boterkoek is very typical for the Netherlands. A rich combination of lots of butter, sugar, flour and a pinch of salt. Classic and easy to make. We slightly adjusted Claudia Roden’s recipe, inspired by Dutch Pâtissier Cees Holtkamp. Early on during his career he learned how to bake Boterkoek when he worked for a Jewish Bakery.

The second recipe is for Aliyah, stewed chicken with tomatoes, tamarind, cilantro and basil. An intriguing combination and one we simply had to try. The recipe originates from the Georgian town of Kulashi. This small town was once the home of one of the largest Georgian Jewish communities.

Obviously we decided to enjoy a kosher wine with the Aliyah. We bought a bottle of Barkan Classic Merlot-Argaman 2021. The Argaman grape (an Israeli creation) is combined with Merlot. The result is an intensely coloured red wine with dark fruit, supple tannins and depth. In general, we would suggest a medium to full-bodied red wine with sufficient depth and length.

Your Bookshelf

We think this book should be on your bookshelf. It’s about (Jewish) culture, about how food is part of our shared culture, how we are all connected and how food can help us understand history. It took Claudia Roden 16 years to write it. We can only thank her for this impressive and relevant achievement.

The book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden is available via your local bookstore or the usual channels for approximately 50 US$ or 40 euro.

Recipes for Joodse Boterkoek and Aliyah on Bernadette’s website.