Book review: 30 Minute Mowgli by Nisha Katona

Though she had a long and successful career as a barrister before launching Mowgli, Nisha Katona’s enduring passion is cooking. Even while she was working the long hours required in legal work, Katona found what she describes as “much needed solitude and reflection as I stir into a pot or gaze into the oven” while attempting to satisfy “a household of hungry, expectant faces”.

In this follow up to Mowgli Street Food, published in 2018, she compiles everyday dishes that can be cooked speedily from kitchen staples. As the name suggests, 30 Minute Mowgli features recipes designed for time-poor cooks. But the recipes aren’t just quick, they’re designed as a reference for using up ingredients that might be lurking in the fridge that will otherwise go to waste.

Though you won’t find inspiration for Mowgli’s slow-cooked curries or dahl’s here, there remains the same commitment to bold, vibrant flavours that form the basis of Katona’s cooking but with more of a focus on speed and simplicity.

The chapters are themed around ingredients such as poultry, meat and vegetables, though there is a mischievous back section entitled ‘Ma Look Away!’ which features super-quick dishes such as Korean noodles and lemon chicken pasta.

Elsewhere there is inspiration for chefs in the fast flavour combinations Katona achieves with the likes of mango and coriander salmon, ginger beer pork and chicken, and papaya and green bean keema. This will be a well thumbed reference book in any family kitchen and will also find a place in the professional setting for those times when a quick improvised dish is called for, either for staff meals or in the spirit of avoiding waste and still delivering a flavour-packed plate of food.

30 Minute Mowgli by Nisha Katona (Nourish Books, £25)