My earliest memory of cooking is when I was about 10 years old. We had a makeshift worktop, made taller with four red bricks stacked under each leg. It was the perfect height for my mum and dad, but I had to stand on our upside-down steel mop bucket to reach the top.

My dad and I did most of our cooking outdoors, with dad converting our coal bunker into a tandoor. When it was raining, we wedged a large sheet of tarpaulin between our kitchen window and over the neighbour’s fence.

I learned so much from watching my dad, who was a culinary genius. He used to make the food for large Indian weddings of between 300 and 500 people. People used to check his availability before setting their wedding dates!

I want to tell you a little bit about how this book came to be born. It has been a labour of love, taking almost two years from when I wrote the first recipe to the book ultimately being published.

The book has over 90 recipes, with shorter ingredient lists and minimal steps.

I have continually created different flavour combinations and experimented with cooking methods. These have been designed to make Indian food more accessible and less time-consuming, without taking away the delicious aromas and flavours from our cuisine.

I focussed on evolving the concept of Indian food, and tried and tested a huge number of recipes. I was delighted to create new lighter dishes with delicate flavours to consume during the week, when time isn’t always on your side.

I want to promote the idea that it’s OK to create just one dish to enjoy on its own. It is also absolutely fine to serve Indian food with a large bowl of green leafy salad instead of rice or roti. 

I wanted to create something valuable and inspiring for weekday cooking. The book is designed to impart knowledge and help you acquire new skills. The recipes are ones that I hope you will come to love, made using a fresh approach to Indian food.