Poppy seed potatoes and chicken kebabs: Nisha Katona’s recipes for home-style Indian favourites

There’s a common misconception that Indian cooking is time-consuming and usually involves a dizzying number of ingredients, but these two home standbys show you can create magic in mere minutes

My earliest memories are of cooking, sitting on the floor of my grandmother’s kitchen in Varanasi, northern India, dutifully combining water and flour to make dough or grinding spices between stones, both sensory kitchen tasks that became my playtime. The other kitchens of my life – those of my mother and aunt, my own kitchen at home and our restaurant kitchens at Mowgli – are still where I feel most at home, standing over a pot and conjuring aromas that waft through the house. There is a common misconception that Indian cookery is hard, and that for every dish you have to grind and roast and marinade, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: with a single stove ring, 20 or so minutes of fuel, one pot, a board, a knife and a spoon for stirring, you can create magic.