You may have read dozens of Indian cookbooks, but you won’t have read one like Justin Narayan’s first book, Everything is Indian.

The former youth pastor, who won Australian MasterChef in 2021, grew up in Sydney surrounded by passionate Fijian-Indian cooks. Unexpected guests would always find a place at the table, and Indian flavours crept into every dish.

“That’s where the title comes from,” Narayan writes in the book’s introduction. “I know everything isn’t Indian, but it’s my world, it’s the start of everything. It’s why I think about making caramel slice with cardamom and nutmeg, and roast potatoes with turmeric and mustard seeds – that’s my style of food.”

So while you’ll see plenty of traditional Indian dishes among the book’s pages, including the chicken curry that won him a MasterChef apron, Narayan’s heritage touches almost all of his recipes, including his fresh take on Filet-O-Fish, good ol’ sausage rolls redolent of Indian spices, and a curry whose starting point was Sydney charcoal chicken institutions El Jannah and Frango.

Fish sando with curry tartare

This isn’t a family recipe. It’s inspired by the Filet-O-Fish. It’s the worst item at McDonald’s but I wanted to know, could you make a better version of a fish sandwich? Yes. A good fish sandwich is one of the most underrated sandwiches there is. It’s simple: just good, flaky, juicy fish, shredded lettuce and loads of tartare sauce. If you’re feeling lazy, you can use frozen fish fingers. Make the tartare sauce from scratch, though. The home-made version is creamier, lighter and all the herbs and pickles give it texture. It makes the sandwich.

INGREDIENTS

• 75g (½ cup) plain flour
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 45g (¾ cup) panko breadcrumbs
• 2 fillets of your favourite white, flaky fish (hake or snapper work well)
• neutral high smoke point oil, for deep-frying
• flaky sea salt, to season

Tartare sauce

• 60ml (¼ cup) whole egg mayo
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 30g gherkins, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained

• ½ eschalot (French shallot), roughly chopped
• ¼ bunch of fresh dill, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp lemon juice (from about ¼ lemon)
• 1 tsp store-bought chilli paste
• ½ tsp curry powder
• 1 garlic clove, crushed

To serve

• 15g unsalted butter
• 2 brioche buns, halved horizontally
• ¼ iceberg lettuce, shredded or roughly chopped

METHOD

1. To make the tartare sauce, mix together all the sauce ingredients, taste and season with salt.
2. Get three bowls and place the flour, egg and breadcrumbs in their own bowl. Pat dry the fish with paper towel, then season each side of the fillets with a small pinch of salt and pepper. Dip each fillet in the flour, turning over a few times, until lightly and evenly coated. Douse in the egg, again ensuring it’s evenly coated. Finally, place in the breadcrumbs until well covered (this will give you a crunchy texture).
3. Heat the oil in a cast iron frying pan over medium heat or a deep fryer to 170-180C. (If you don’t have a probe, put a wooden spoon in the oil. If small bubbles appear around the spoon, it’s ready.) Line a plate with paper towel.
4. Gently place the crumbed fish in the pan or deep fryer and fry until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes each side. Drain the finished crumbed fish on the paper towel-lined plate. Hit it with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt. Heat the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Toast the cut side of the bun halves until golden brown.
5. To assemble, spread some tartare sauce over the base of each bun, then layer the lettuce and a piece of fish. Add more tartare sauce on top (as much as your heart desires). Close your sandwich, take a bite and try to remember a time when you had a better fish sandwich.

Makes 2

Tip: The tartare sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Sizzler cheese toast

Sizzler was one of the greatest culinary institutions in Australia until it sadly came to an end in 2020. The Sizzler toast is iconic. It’s thick-cut white bread (nothing special), untoasted on one side and salty, garlicky and crispy on the other side. The hack is to have it upside down, so all the flavours hit your tongue rather than the roof of your mouth.

INGREDIENTS

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 40g parmesan, finely grated
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 4 thick-cut slices (1.5-2cm) white bread (buy an unsliced loaf and slice it yourself)

METHOD

1. Place everything, except the bread, in a bowl. Add a few cracks of black pepper and a pinch of salt and mix until smooth and everything is evenly combined. Spread a thick layer of the cheesy butter over each piece of bread.
2. In a cast-iron frying pan over low heat, place the bread, cheesy butter side down, and toast until crisp and golden brown and delicious (GBD), about 2-3 minutes. Then remove from the pan. You’ll have one side perfectly crispy and the other side perfectly steamed. Take a bite and shed a tear as you realise one of the greatest things in this world hasn’t been lost.

Makes 4 pieces

Roast chicken curry

El Jannah and Frango (two Sydney charcoal chicken institutions) inspired this recipe, which probably sounds weird because this is a curry. It’s got that familiar spatchcocked roast chicken technique and appearance, but then it’s got the flavours of a curry. I guess this is a more modern way of plating and eating a curry but honestly, for me, it’s the minimal effort, maximum return way of making chicken curry. Instead of getting a huge pot and stirring a curry for half an hour, you can just bang the chicken in the oven or on the barbecue. It’s best to start this the day before but, I’ll be honest, I’ve done a 30-minute marinade and it was still great.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 whole chicken (1.2-1.5kg)

Marinade

• 1 tbsp lemon juice (from about ½ lemon)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ¼ cup (60ml) light olive oil
• 15-20 fresh curry leaves
• ¼ brown onion, roughly chopped
• 5-6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped, or 3 tsp garlic paste (see note)
• 15g fresh ginger, finely grated, or 1½ tsp ginger paste (see note)
• 1½ tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp chilli powder

To serve

• fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• rice or your favourite sides

METHOD

1. Start by spatchcocking the chicken (see note), or ask the butcher to do it.
2. Blitz all the marinade ingredients in a blender until you have a smooth paste. Pat dry the chicken with paper towel, then smother it with the marinade and massage it in. Allow it to marinate, covered and in the fridge, overnight (or for a minimum of 2 hours or less if you can’t be bothered). Take the chicken out of the fridge and allow it to return to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220C fan-forced (240C conventional). Place the chicken, breast side up, and the marinade in a baking dish or cast-iron frying pan, then in the oven and roast until the chicken is cooked through and slightly charred, about 25-30 minutes. Allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes, then carve up the chicken (see note). Garnish with any resting juices from the dish and fresh coriander. Enjoy with rice or your favourite sides.

Serves 4-6

Tips:

• To spatchcock the chicken, remove the wishbone, which is at the top of the breasts, where the neck would have been. If you follow the line of the breast around the cavity of the chicken, you should be able to feel it. Get a knife in the cavity of the chicken, press the blade against the wishbone and scrape along the bone (you should hear the knife when it hits bone). Repeat on the other side, then you should be able to pull the bone out with your fingers. It’s hard to describe – you can always watch a YouTube video.
• To carve the chicken, cut between the breasts, separating the two halves of the chicken. Cut the thigh off the breast as close to the joint as you can, trying to keep the skin on the breast piece. Remove the drumstick from the thigh, again trying to get as close as you can to the joint. Cut halfway across the breast. I like to go on an angle, so you get the wing on one end and most of the meat on the other end.
• I make my own garlic and ginger paste in bulk. Get a whole heap of garlic and ginger, peel, roughly chop and blend each separately with a pinch of salt and a little oil (to help extend the shelf life), then place each in a clean jar and store in the fridge. For 1 cup (about 150g) chopped garlic or ginger, go with a pinch of salt (2-4g) and 1-2 tablespoons oil. If you can’t be bothered, buy some, but I find the flavour of store-bought to be more subdued, so you may need to add more to the recipe to get the same impact as fresh garlic/ginger or a home-made paste.

Lamb curry sausage rolls

Mum would make this as a little snack when people came over for tea or for us kids when we came home after school. I don’t think she meant for it to taste like curry, but she was always heavy-handed with garlic, onion and spice. So, I just went with it and added more spice to this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tbsp light olive oil
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp Fiji masala powder or garam masala
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• 500g minced lamb (see tip)
• ½ cup (30g) panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 puff pastry sheets, thawed if frozen
• 200g tasty cheese, grated (optional)

Egg wash

• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 egg

Seasoning

• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• ½ tsp flaky sea salt
• ½ tsp cumin seeds

To serve

• your favourite sauce (there are no rules)

METHOD

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat, then add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is lightly browned. Add all the powdered spices and chilli and cook for 30 seconds.
2. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool to room temperature. Add the lamb, breadcrumbs, salt and egg to the bowl and massage with your hands or a spatula until you have a smooth uniform mixture.
3. Cut or shape four even rectangles from the puff pastry (if it’s store-bought, just cut each sheet in half). Spoon a quarter of the lamb mixture along one long side of a pastry rectangle, about 1 cm from the edge. Scatter the cheese over the lamb mixture, if using.
4. Roll up the pastry, starting from the lamb edge, to enclose the filling. Arrange so the seam (where the pastry edges overlap) sits underneath the sausage roll log. Repeat with the remaining pastry and lamb mixture. Preheat the oven to 180C fan-forced (200C conventional). Line a tray with baking paper.
5. Meanwhile, slice each log into six even pieces for party size or in half for a meal size, then place the sausage rolls on the prepared tray. Mix the egg wash ingredients in a small bowl until combined. In a separate bowl, combine the seasoning ingredients. Brush each sausage roll with the egg wash, then sprinkle the seasoning over the top.
6. Bake until the sausage rolls are golden brown and delicious, about 30-35 minutes. Serve with sauce.

Makes up to 24

Tips:

• You can swap out the lamb mince for any other kind of mince.
• If you want to make these in bulk and freeze them, place the tray in the freezer after rolling. Once frozen solid, transfer to a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for up to 2 months. When you’re ready, preheat the oven to 180C fan-forced (200C conventional), egg wash the frozen sausage rolls, season and bake from frozen for 35-40 minutes.

This is an edited extract from Everything is Indian by Justin Narayan, photography by Rob Palmer. Murdoch Books RRP $39.99.