Mother India at Home Recipes Pictures Stories

 

Mother India at Westminster Terrace in Glasgow, has been an institution since 1996 and specializes in dishes such as ginger and green chilli fish pakora, seasoned Scottish haddock with Puy lentils, and Delhi-style Scottish lamb, all cooked fresh to order, reflecting Mother India owner Monir Mohammed’s commitment to cooking quality Indian food without pandering to the British taste for inauthentic korma or masala. The strategy has been hugely popular, allowing expansion to five outlets, including tapas, take- aways and a Mother India Cafe in Edinburgh. Mother India is regularly ranked in Herald restaurant critic Ron MacKenna’s top 10 Scottish restaurants. The book will incorporate a first person account of Monir’s personal culinary journey, with a photo essay of the life of one of the world's great Indian restaurants as an integral cog in the cultural melting pot of a modern British city. Alongside this will be a collection of recipes, some of which are signature Mother India dishes, and others designed specifically for home cooking. Each recipe will draw upon Monir's story: his beginnings as a boy from a British Asian family who started working in restaurants at 14 and his pivotal stay in the Punjab in his late teens where he learned the ancient principles of Indian home cooking from scratch. The book will tell the story of the risks he took to build a personal, authentic style of Indian cooking. There are human stories running through the recipes as well: Hajra Bibi's Salmon was inspired by a dish his mother (Hajra Bibi) used to make them as children.

When it comes to awards Monir Mohammed, chef-patron of the Mother India and Wee Curry Shop group of restaurants, has almost as many accolades as he has recipes. The restaurants are consistently named amongst the best in the UK and recent additions to the trophy cabinet have included Mother India being named the city’s Best Restaurant. Monir counts amongst a host of fans: Tom Shields (much loved columnist on Scotland's biggest selling broadsheet The Herald), Hardeep Kholi, Alex Kapranos (frontman of Franz Ferdinand, who worked for Monir whilst still a struggling musician,), actor Brian Cox, Steven Spielberg, Billy Connelly and Liz Lochhead (Scottish ‘Makar’ (Poet Laureate)) who cites it as her favorite restaurant in the world. Martin Gray is an internationally celebrated photographer whose work is exhibited around the world. Martin collaborated with Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers on their ground-breaking River Cafe Easy. Includes metric measures.