Kamini Pather, celebrated food personality and television presenter, is back with her highly anticipated cookbook, All Dahl’d Up, published by Penguin Random House . This collection of vibrant, rooted-in-family recipes is a testament to Kamini’s culinary journey, one that blends tradition with innovation, creating what she calls “good-mood food”.
Since her rise to fame, Kamini has never been defined solely by her heritage, but she has always remained connected to it. As she puts it, All Dahl’d Up is “a collection of ancestrally-derived recipes that have been updated through ingredients and techniques – the old world has been given some fancy.” This cookbook showcases Kamini’s signature style of Indian-inspired cuisine fused with global influences, offering something that feels familiar yet refreshingly new. All Dahl’d Up is now available for purchase. For more information, please visit www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za and follow @KaminiPather on Instagram.
Try her Sour Fish Curry with Baby Brinjals recipe
My paternal grandmother, partee (in Tamil), would make this dish, and it’s rumoured to be the first bit of spicy food I ever ate as a child. It seems I have never looked back. My love for sour-spice appears to run deep and this curry is no different. While this recipe calls for a couscous salad (so nice we have to say it twice) it would also be fantastic with slap chips or regular wholewheat bread to soak up the spice-laden, tamarind-y sauce of the fish curry.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 baby brinjals
- 4 Tbsp coconut oil
- 2–4 tsp salt
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 fresh green chillies, sliced from flat end to just before the point (do not slit right through), and stalk removed
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 Tbsp masala
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- 2–3 Tbsp brown tamarind paste
- ½ cup warm water
- 500g white fish, divided into 4 portions
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander or a sprinkle of micro greens
Method
1. Remove the stalks from the baby brinjals and quarter the brinjals. Heat a large pan and melt 2 tablespoons of the coconut oil. Sprinkle 1–½ teaspoons of salt over the brinjals and fry them until cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Add 1–2 tablespoons of the oil to the pan, depending on how much oil the brinjals absorbed. Add the onion, 2 teaspoons of salt, the chillies, garlic and masala. Sauté until the onion has softened (±15 minutes), stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes and cook until they break down and form a thick ‘gravy’.
3. Combine the tamarind paste (with the pips) and the warm water. Use your fingertips to break the flesh away from the seeds, then discard the seeds. Add the tamarind water to the tomato gravy. Taste for salt and adjust.
4. Lower the fish portions into the tomato gravy and cook until they turn opaque. Add the brinjals and garnish with the coriander or micro greens.
5. Serve immediately with a couscous salad.
Couscous Salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
- ½ cup wholewheat couscous
- 1 tsp fine salt
- ¾ cup hot water
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp finely grated lemon zest
- 1–2 Tbsp freshly squeezed
- lemon juice
- ½ medium English cucumber, diced
- ½ large tomato, diced
- ¼ cup roughly chopped
- fresh coriander
Method
1. Pour the couscous into a bowl. Stir the salt into the hot water, then pour the water over the couscous. Seal with clingfilm. Allow to steam until the liquid has absorbed.
2. Mix in the remaining ingredients and taste for seasoning.
