‘I’m a curry evangelist!’
This Morning chef Nisha Katona on exploring the nation’s love of spice… THIS MORNING ALISON HAMMOND IS THE BALTI QUEEN!
MONDAY-FRIDAY / ITV / 10AM / LIFESTYLE
When chef and restaurateur Nisha Katona rustled up a coconut and pineapple chicken curry for This Morning viewers in January, she had no idea of the excitement it would spark.
The speedy recipe received a record 100,000 views online, with host Phillip Schofield declaring it the best curry he had ever eaten!
‘It was so flattering,’ smiles Nisha, 49, who was a barrister for 20 years before she started a chain of Indian street-food restaurants, Mowgli.
Here, in an exclusive interview, Nisha chats to TV Times about her current miniseries for the ITV daytime show, plus shares her secrets to creating a mouth-watering balti...
What can you tell us about your UK travelogue for This
Morning, Nisha’s Great
British Curry Tour?
I’m a curry evangelist, so I’m beside myself with joy doing it. We deep dive into the history of the curry and explore how they were created when Indians first came to Britain in the 1700s and 1800s. The Indians are humble people and when they started establishing communities, they had a very sweet desire to feed the locals. So they watched what Brits liked – meat off the bone and thick sauces – and adapted their Indian dishes to please them. You’d never go to your mum’s house in India and have a chicken tikka masala or bhuna – we eat mostly vegan! But adapting their dishes helped the Indians integrate with the locals and the British were wonderfully open-minded to our cuisine.
Queen Victoria, no less, was a huge fan of curry… Which I love!
Yet even further back, medieval kitchens were full of spices with cloves being used in puddings. Queen Victoria discovered that spices are utterly addictive – not chilli, but the perfumed, aromatic kind. Then you had Mrs Beeton writing cookbooks about mango chutney and coronation chicken, and then former British Foreign Secretary] Robin Cook called chicken tikka masala ‘a true British national dish’ [in 2001], which meant the world to me.
The series saw you in London last week, and next up is Birmingham... Yes, in particular, the Balti Triangle, home to the best balti restaurants, and the Royal Watan, where
This Morning’s Alison Hammond meets me for a look round the kitchens. Alison, who’s from Birmingham, is the balti queen! We tucked into four when the cameras stopped rolling!
What’s the secret to a good balti?
A steel pan – you don’t want nonstick because you want the crispy bits of the meat to catch. Get it smoky and oily – never use ghee a type of clarified butter ; it’s a misnomer that we cook with it and it gives curry a bad reputation! Throw in onion, ginger and garlic, then chopped peppers, tomatoes, chunks of lamb and your spices: turmeric, chilli and garam masala. Then let it sizzle!
Where’s next after Birmingham? Glasgow, where chicken tikka masala was supposedly invented. The story goes that a bus driver complained his chicken was dry, so a chef poured over a tin of tomato soup and some condensed milk and Britain’s No.1 dish was born! My tip? Buy some kasoori methi [dried fenugreek leaves from an
Asian supermarket and drop them on your onions. It gives that curry hit on your nose that releases endorphins and in 25 minutes you’ll have a killer CTM!
What’s on the menu at your final pit stop in Leicester?
Onion bhajis with a coriander and mint chutney, an iconic Indian taste. I also visit Leicester’s famous Golden Mile, which is packed with delicious vegetarian dishes.
Has food always been a passion? Growing up in Lancashire in 1970s Britain and being the only Indian family was really tough – you just wanted people to like you. And the way my Indian parents did it was to invite our neighbours round and feed them! People would come with their own ham sandwiches and leave happy with curry around their mouths. I call my mum’s korma the Kofi Annan of
Indian food – it brought
people together!