Anjula Devi’s early memories of herself in the kitchen are that of helping her father, Gurdas Ram, pound spices in a mortar and pestle. Her father, she says, was always her food inspiration. A fond cook, her father taught her all there is to know about Indian cooking. “We used to spend many hours cooking together, experimenting, laughing and discovering how to create new recipes. He used to know which spices worked best with different vegetables. He used to say that okra loved ajwain and potatoes loved amchur. I still carry all the combinations of spices in my head.
“He taught me how to make an authentic and traditional Indian food item, with as few as three or as many as 30 spices, each with a perfect blend and balance. He told me that “one day this will be like gold dust in your hands.”” And the spices are like gold dust in her hands.
A renowned chef in the United Kingdom (U.K.), Anjula is known for her classes in Indian cooking and her very own brand of masala – Route 207. When we point out her rather strange choice of a brand name for her masala, says Anjula who used the BBC bursary award she received to launch the brand: “Route 207 refers to the bus journeys I would take with my father as a little girl. We used to take the 207 bus across West London to reach Shepherds Bush Market, where we would buy spices, vegetables and fresh fish. I used to be so excited on the journey home, anticipating what I was about to be taught.”
Anjula started holding cooking classes about three years ago when her sons Sunny and Sunil left for university and she found that she had time to launch her own business and follow her ‘food’ dreams. She started pursuing them by holding cookery classes in her kitchen.
“Indian food has grown in popularity in recent years in U.K. with chicken curry becoming U.K.’s favourite meal, replacing the traditional fish and chips. I am on a mission to simplify Indian food and to show people in the U.K. how to balance all of the spices, and help them to understand what each spice contributes to each dish. For example, cumin can give a very bitter flavour when overused. I teach mostly Punjabi dishes, and all of my dishes are authentic Indian recipes. I believe that taking the time to produce traditional and correctly prepared Indian food is time well spent. The end product is definitely worth the wait.”
The classes are tailor-made according to the skills and ability of the client. Her clientele, she says, is geographically dispersed and includes people from U.K. as well as from many European countries and the United States. She has a few clients who were originally born in India but now live in U.K. and simply miss their mothers’ cooking. Although her cooking pride and joy is her range cooker, which she jokingly refers to as her “second husband”, to make “great tasting Indian food, you ultimately need a pestle and mortar, some good pans and a gas cooker.”
For Anjula, Indian food is all about the depth of flavours and layers of spices. “And there are literally thousands of amazing and wonderful Indian recipes to try out,” says Anjula.
Although pakoras that are “light, crunchy and bursting with flavours,” are her speciality and something she holds close to heart as it was one of the first dishes she was taught to prepare by her father, her father’s lamb chop and potato curry is something she enjoys preparing.
“My father’s lamb chop curry was a special treat at the end of the month when he got paid. The family affectionately called it ‘pay day curry’.”
Apart from cookery classes, Anjula keeps herself busy with her masala business. She also caters for events. She is the associate editor of Good Things , a U.K. food and travel magazine and has a regular ‘guru’ slot on the BBC Asian Network radio channel. Passionate about helping children with special educational needs, she loves to teach them through cooking. Active on social media, her current social media campaign is ‘100 ways to cook #potatoes’ which one can follow on Twitter at @anjuladevi
Asked if she has any new projects lined up and she says: “I will be launching a new cook book next year. It will be different from other Indian cook books as it will represent my passion for food and tell my life story through food.”
Kitchen secrets
“With my traditional masala marinades, I use gram flour which I roast and add oil to. It allows the masala to really coat the meat. Also, I use jaggery, which completely changes the flavour of the dish and balances out the acidity of tomatoes. My father wisely said to always bite into a raw chilli to gauge its flavour properly.”
