Dame Meera Syal is starry-eyed for our summery fish, fennel and saffron stew

The latest great Dame to join our party! 

Dame Meera Syal is an award-winning actress, comedian and writer, who sat down with us on the scorching-hot day of the solar eclipse. It’s a busy time for Meera ahead of the release of her life story, Vigilauntie: A Memoir - Innit?, and the opening of her new play, The Children. So, imagine our surprise when she arrived with home-baked goods in hand! What a legend.

Meera is a firm believer in the power of food to get people talking and sharing stories, which is exactly what happens in our time with her around the Dish table. There are loving stories about her proud and supportive parents (including the secret to her mum’s saag paneer), and how Meera’s bakes bring new acting casts together. When discussing her rich and warm memoir (out on 3 September), we take a trip back to the groundbreaking work of Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42, where she played a grandmother to the man who’d become her husband: Sanjeev Bhaskar. 

It’s a feast of an episode, with a cooling mango & passion fruit frozen lassi to start, followed by a summery fish, fennel & saffron stew, a recipe by Eleanor Maidment. This is paired with a bottle of Altos de Torona Albariño by the Waitrose wine experts. We then have double dessert, including hug-worthy tahini, cherry and cardamom meringues and Meera’s own (and very yummy) lemon polenta cake. Don’t worry, we did get the recipe! 

You can watch full episodes of Dish on YouTube and on Spotify. 

All recipes from this podcast can be found at waitrose.com/dishrecipes

The recipe for the summery fish, fennel & saffron stew was created for Waitrose by Eleanor Maidment.

The recipe for the tahini, cherry and cardamom meringues was created for Waitrose by Benjamina Ebuehi. '

A transcript for this episode can be found at waitrose.com/dish

If you want to get in touch with us about anything at all, contact [email protected] 

Dish from Waitrose is made by Cold Glass Productions

00:00 - Coming up on Dish

00:50 - Welcome!

01:20 - Nick Grimshaw is Dish Guy! 

04:45 - Let’s speak about saffron

06:26 - Dame Meera Syal is here! 

08:10 - A Lassi cheers! 

08:45 - Life at the moment for Meera & superstitions 

12:49 - Dame life! 

15:37 - From baking to food growing up 

18:23 - Meera’s food likes 

22:40 - Meera’s food dislikes 

24:11 - Stew is served! 

27:47 - Wine pairing 

28:11 - Meera’s new memoir ‘Vigilauntie’ 

32:45 - The Kumars at No. 42 

34:28 - Queen Elizabeth II approved! 

36:18 - Goodness Gracious Me 

38:39 - Time for dessert!39:21 - Meringues are Meera approved! 

39:47 - From meringue mishaps to chewy tips! 

41:19 - Time for Meera’s lemon polenta cake 

42:43 - Reminiscing on some of Meera’s milestones 

46:16 - Fast food quiz 

47:50 - End of the show question

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