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When Asma Khan moved to the UK in 1991, as the good wife of a Cambridge scholar, she could not even boil an egg. She spent her first two years in the country eating salad and her husband’s chicken curry. In her own words “life was not worth living.” In 1993 Asma travelled back to India to spend time in her ancestral kitchens, and over the course of a few months mastered recipes that have been in her family for four generations. The food comes straight out of the Nawabi/Mughal school of cuisine which is part of her heritage. Since that day, Asma decided to turn her new skill into a life of working 24/7, swapping her brocade kurtas for kitchen whites.
Website: www.darjeeling-express.com
Email: darjeelingexpress@hotmail.co.uk
Facebook: Facebook page
Twitter: @AsmaKhanCooks
30 Apr 13 by Going With My Gut
31 Oct 12 by Going With My Gut
I knew the food and the event would be great, but had not idea it would this amazing. Each dish has such complex and depth in flavours, there was fish, lamb, chicken, vegetables, my tastebuds were set alive and for sure dancing.
The people I met were people who have tasted Asthma's food before, and it is clear why they return again and again because it is some of the best Kolkata for I have tasted. The other guest were lovely, each person was here simply to enjoy great food. I made many new friends and hope to see them again soon at a future Supperclub. Both Iqbal and Vivek hosted and supported Asma and her tea so well, it was a joy to experience such a lovely evening, its shame I had to mad rush after the heavenly dessert to host my now private party. Asma well done you are so gracious and inshallah I hoe we get a chance to combine our love and passion for cooking and create a really special menu. Meanwhile well done you truly have a talent and love to make people feel welcome and happy with your food.
Suban'allah
With love
Saima from The Hampstead Kitchen
The Cinnamon club pop up was Asma's first we heard but if I hadn't known the fact would have thought it was her forte Every thing was flawlessly executed and then there was teh food..Standouts for me included the fish cake canapes, the saffron scented chicken chop, the heavenly moist momos, and the piece de resistance Calcutta Biryani followed by steamed set Calcutta sweet yoghurt. We were enchanted by the Lalani and Co's exquisite fine tea tastings and educated on aged Himalayan rice used in the biryani (Green Saffron a business that stretches from Haryana in India to Co Cork Ireland)..To top it all off there was a goody bag with lovely tamarind chutney and a chilli cookie from Duke of Delhi to take to home-flawless and delightful
If you havent been to one of Asmas experiences do go to the next darjeeling express do Not only will you be fed with love, warmth and a huge level of generosity you will be inspired to meet foodies who care about food, the world at large and best of all are a relaxed happy, welcoming and friendly bunch!
Courses after courses of delicious Indo-Chinese cuisine, and very hospitable hosts who took the time to introduce us to Hakka cuisine and its variants. Really lovely evening, highly recommended..
We had a fab evening with our hosts Asma and Wen introducing us to the nomads of China the Hakka
The food was a revelation starting with thunder tea rice The thunder tea gravy was a green Chinese pesto that was drizzled over a melange of garlic rice tofu pickled vegetables tofu greens peanuts shrimp Just one word for it mmmm
Recovering from that we had the most delicious lemon chicken and umpteen helpings of crispy juicy prawn spring rills w wonderful home made red and green dipping sauces.
The rest followed triumph after triumph Memories of Calcutta were brought alive w chilli beef and super crispy cauliflower Manchurian
The Hakka basin was worthy of the digger ladle layered as it was w daikon chicken seafood vegetables a kind of layered Chinese hotpot.
All in all fantastic cant wait for next one
Best
My sister and I had a brilliant night at the Spice of Life. Asma's home is absolutely beautiful, and she was very friendly, and of course the food was fantastic... and loads of it! Really enjoyed the experience and already planning to head back again, thank you Darjeeling Express!!
A charming setting with a eclectic bunch of people in attendance. I arrived just in time for the food and it just kept on coming. Atmosphere was and I would have still enjoyed it if the music was a little louder. Really great value for money and especially enjoyed the rogan josh, potato curry and the fish curry. The fish curry was like nothing I've ever tasted before... superb!! Then onto the dessert... who would have though carrot and milk would taste be so yummy. A sweet end to a sweet night.
This was my first supperclub experience and I have to say that the evening has set the bar quite high for the future dinner experiences of the sort I will certainly be having in the near future.
Asma's passion for fresh ingredients and subtle mix of aromas were married to perfection in the multi starters and mains offered to us. It cannot have been a small task to prepare all these dishes (none better than the other) for the lucky 24 people there. We were spoiled.
Another good thing about these events is that you get to meet new and interesting people sharing at least one common interest.
Thank you again to Asma and Pooja for this very excellent evening.
A beautiful evening, with every flavourful dish so lovingly prepared. I could have so easily lingered long and slowly into the late hours over this feast, but the venue deemed it had to end at a decent hour (for most people). I have rated this as 9 rather than 10, so that our wonderful hosts get fired up to host many more fine nights such as this - and surpass their own perfection every time.
I highly recommend everyone takes full advantage of any opportunity to sample Asma's delicious food at her events - really delicious stuff :) I attended her Indian Street Food Mela on the 15th October, which was a fundraiser for Action Against Hunger, the organisation I work for. The event raised an amazing £800! To put this into context, this is enough to provide a month's supply of therapeutic nutritional products to nurse over 20 severely malnourished children back to health. A massive well done and thank you Asma for supporting our fight against hunger!
