Recipe: Indian Flavours and French Technique Collide in Justin Narayan’s Masala Potatoes

In Justin Narayan’s debut cookbook, Everything Is Indian, the Masterchef 2021 winner unleashes the flavours of not only his Fijian Indian background, but also those of Australia’s many diverse communities. And he applies them to dishes from around the world. His pizza is topped with chicken curry and chutney; spicy prawn pasta has a hit of miso and lamb curry is served with hummus. Similarly, Indian flavours intersect with French technique in this potato dish.

“This is my style of cooking: take something nostalgic like potato curry and apply the Western techniques I learned watching cooking shows growing up,” Narayan writes. “You get French-style fluffy-on-the-inside and crispy-on-the-outside potatoes, but with a flavour that’s very familiar to me. It’s the Hannah Montana philosophy: get the best of both worlds.”

This dish works as a side – including as an alternative to roast potatoes.

Serves 4–6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes

1kg potatoes (Dutch cream are good), peeled if you want (see tip at bottom)
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 bird’s eye chilli, halved lengthways
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground turmeric
140g unsalted butter (the best you can find), cubed (see tip at bottom)
1 tbsp light olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice (from about ½ lemon)
¼ bunch of fresh coriander, leaves and stems finely chopped
Flaky sea salt, to season

Chop the potatoes into quarters, then add to a saucepan of cold, salted water and bring to the boil. Cook until they can easily be pierced by a fork, about 30 minutes. Drain well and allow them to dry, about 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220°C.

While the potatoes are still hot, add to a bowl with the garlic, chilli, mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric, butter and a pinch of salt. As the butter melts, stir to evenly coat the potatoes.

Transfer the spiced potatoes to a roasting tray, and roast, giving them a little mix or toss every 10–15 minutes, until golden brown and crispy, about 30–40 minutes.

To serve, transfer the potatoes to a serving dish, drizzle over the lemon juice, then sprinkle with the coriander and a pinch of flaky sea salt.

If you can’t be bothered to cut and peel the potatoes, just chuck in chat (new) potatoes. I tried roasting potatoes with all different kinds of fat. Duck fat is good, but my favourite is butter. I friggin’ love butter. You’re pushing the butter right to the edge with this heat, but it doesn’t burn. It just gives great caramelisation and helps get the potatoes crispy.

This is a lightly edited extract from Everything is Indian by Justin Narayan with Nicholas Jordan ($39.99). Released March 4, 2025 by Murdoch Books.