Get on the right snack
Rukmini Iyer, author of the Roasting Tin series, chats to LAUREN TAYLOR about Indian train journeys and cooking as a new mum
WHEN Rukmini Iyer wrote the hugely successful Roasting Tin series, she never imagined just how crucial her simple, one-tray recipes would actually be – until she became a mum.
“What I said about the Roasting Tin books, ‘Oh, it’s great if you don’t have much time’ – I didn’t know what not having much time was until I had a baby!” she says, laughing.
“I really appreciate having written books where I can just put things in a tray.”
Her daughter Alba is seven months old and at the “hilarious” weaning stage. “It’s mad when your life’s completely turned around,” says the 37-year-old, “so I’m very, very glad to be able to do minimal prep, hands-free cooking.”
Recipes in her seventh book, Indian Express, have been a lifesaver too, with ‘one pan’ and ‘one tin’ chapters. “Those are the ones I’m relying on right now – and the more adventurous ones when I hand [Alba] over to her dad!”
Her latest offering focuses not just on Indian flavours, but specifically the food of a 1,000-mile train route from Tamil Nadu, South India (where her dad is from) to Kolkata, Bengal (where her mum is from) – and all the regions in between.
It’s a route her father would travel back and forth when he studied at the University of Kolkata Medical School, where he later met her mum – a journey that took 36 hours at the time.
Four years ago, Rukmini took the same journey with both of her parents to really discover the food of those regions – and everywhere in between.
She writes that her father’s face still lights up when he talks about the journey he first took with her mother, “Because, by then a new service had started, the Coromandel Express, a brand new train taking just 24 hours.
“It was also a rather unusual trip, given that it was unconventional for a couple in India to travel together unmarried in the 1970s.”
Rukmini says she finds the story “romantic”, and when she recreated the journey, “We took the overnight train journey with a train picnic, listening to my parents’ stories about all the amazing food.”
Rukmini wanted to showcase these distinct regions, while staying true to the ethos of all of her cookbooks.
“What I wanted to do was think about what makes the Roasting Tin accessible and popular, and then bring a spin on it –which was the food that I grew up with, Indian-inspired foods, [and] still have something you could make on Wednesday night,” she says.
So you’ll find simple, one-tin dishes like crisp-topped marinated sea bass with green chilli, lime and coriander, from Bengal, and South Indian-inspired beetroot, curry leaf and ginger buns.
Crucially, what really makes a long journey in India is elaborate train snacks. “The really cool thing is you have snack vendors on the train, it’s much more exciting than a snack trolley [here]! You’re in your own compartment, like the old fashion train carriages, and you’ve got vendors going up and down the train,” Rukmini says.
“There’s hot samosas, potato cakes, hot chai... But as the regions change, you get local things.”
Cooking and packing your own train snacks is very traditional too, and her recipes honour that – from sticky spiced popcorn with dates, caramel and sea salt, to cauliflower, onion and bread pakoras.
Rukmini’s dad would always be well-equipped for his long train journeys, sent off with an array of snacks cooked by his mum.
“The train snacks my grandma would have packed for my dad were really hardcore – she probably would have spent at least a day cooking,” Rukmini says. Thankfully, her own recipes are generally much less time-intensive.
“Culturally, it’s really different. If you were a stay-at-home mum back then and you’re raising a family, your job was basically cooking,” she explains.
“Now you want things that are obviously tasty, but unless I’ve made a conscious decision that today I feel like spending the afternoon cooking, I don’t want to be tied to the stove.
“So a lot of the book is how can I bring some of these lovely flavours into the food without making someone have to stay in the kitchen? Can they pack it in in 30 minutes? And the answer is yes, a lot of it you can.”
And we can’t talk about these regions of India without mentioning rice – which in true Rukmini style is quick and easy. It may sound like sacrilege, but her family secret to cooking the perfect rice?
“The microwave! Because it’s impossible to get it wrong” – all you need is 200 grams of good quality basmati rice in a heatproof bowl, cover with three-quarters of a pint of boiling water, put a plate on top. “Put it in the microwave on a medium setting, cook for 11 minutes and let it stand for 10.
“Then your rice is absolutely perfect.”
India Express: Fresh And Delicious Recipes For Every Day by Rukmini Iyer is published by Square Peg, priced £22. Photography by David Loftus.
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