& DRINK Tim unlocks the mysteries of the Orient T
(Serves 2-4) 1 onion, cut into small chunks 2 carrots, peeled and cut into wedges 400g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks ½ cauliflower, broken into bite-sized florets 4 portions of cooked rice (300g uncooked) 4tbsp oil 1 large onion, chopped 2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced 1 green chilli, chopped 2 garlic cloves, peeled 2 tomatoes ½ Golden Delicious or similar apple, peeled and chopped ½ banana 30g mild Madras curry powder 2tbsp garam masala 750ml chicken or beef stock 60g butter 6tbsp plain flour 2tbsp ketchup 2tbsp soy sauce Salt Add the stock and bring to the boil.
Melt the butter in a separate saucepan and whisk in the flour. Cook on a low heat for about eight minutes, stirring constantly, until the roux thickens and turns a golden brown colour.
Ladle the curry mixture from the other pan into the roux, a little at a time, whisking constantly. Add the ketchup and soy sauce.
Cook the mixture until it’s quite thick, then transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree until very smooth. Season to taste.
Put onion, carrots and potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, add the cauliflower and reduce to a simmer.
Cook for about 10 minutes, until everything is tender. Drain and return to the pan, and pour in the curry sauce. Bring everything back to a simmer and serve with the rice. HE first time he tried sushi, American chef Tim Anderson, who runs Japanese soul food restaurant Nanban in London’s Brixton, wasn’t keen.
“Sushi is the first Japanese food everybody tries and I’ve never understood why,” he says, when we meet in Nanban’s kitchen, where he’s set to teach me some basics.
“I really didn’t like the nori [seaweed] – the flavour or texture – it was an acquired taste. But I was really into soul food – tempura, fried rice. I loved noodles from the beginning, and the thing that blew my mind when I first tried it was tonkatsu [breaded pork cutlet] ramen.”
Sushi is not on the menu at Nanban – it’s all about the ramen and soul food – but there are recipes for spicy tuna rolls and salmon avocado rolls in his new book, JapanEasy, in which Tim dispels the myth that Japanese cooking is complicated.
We’re chatting while Tim prepares nasu dengaku – miso-glazed aubergines – which involves cutting a crosshatch pattern in the flesh of a halved aubergine, which is then deep-fried, slathered with sweet miso With his new cookbook, JapanEasy, the Nanban chef is on a mission to prove how simple Japanese cooking is. learns more he taught English in Japan for two years, soaking up the food culture, before moving to England in 2008, marrying British wife Laura and finally opening Nanban, after a hunt for the perfect location, in 2015.
At 26, Tim became the youngest ever winner of MasterChef, wowing the judges in the final with his Kyushu-style pork ramen with truffled lobster and gyoza. His gyoza are just as tasty today. Try one of his recipes for yourself. sauce and popped under the grill. It takes minutes to prepare and cook and tastes sweet, salty and delicious.
“It’s a simple thing – and it goes with all types of food,” he says, as we scoop up the gooey lumps with chopsticks. “If you’re having lamb chops, there’s no reason you can’t have that as your side.”
Tim grew up in Wisconsin. It was watching one of the first televised cooking competition shows, Japan’s Iron Chef, (which was dubbed into English and became a cult hit in America) when he was 13, that got him into Japanese food – and he moved to LA to study Japanese history, winning a research grant to study food museums in Japan when he was 20.
After graduating,
JapanEasy: Classic & Modern Japanese Recipes To Cook At Home by Tim Anderson, photos by Laura Edwards is published by Hardie Grant, priced £20.