Our Favourite Curry Cookbook - Complete Indian Cooking
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Curry is a must...
You may not realise it if you don't live in the UK, but curry is now as popular there as other 'national' dishes, such as fish and chips or Yorkshire pudding and roast beef. Ever since we moved to France there's only one thing we've missed (apart from proper English tea) and that's curry. My partner in particular is a great curry fan and we also have local English friends who miss a good Indian takeaway. The thing is the French don't seem to do spices; herbs yes, garlic certainly, but curry? No, not at all really, apart from the odd curry-flavoured tinned mackerel or similar. The only way you might find something remotely relating to 'proper' Indian food is by looking on the specialist and British shelves in the supermarket and they may have just a few token items, which are normally ten times the price that you would find in the UK and probably not very good either. |
We came prepared with spices
Luckily we knew this was going to be a problem well in advance of coming here, so we stocked up on spice storage tins and made sure we had a supply of whole and ground spices ready to go at when the curry urge took us.
Though both of us can cook, making Indian food hadn't really been on the priority list before, so we also needed some recipes to help us out. Thankfully we found a few cookbooks, but this one, Complete Indian Cooking, has turned out to be the favourite.
What we've ended up doing when either the mood takes hold or a celebration comes along, is turn a normal evening meal into our special 'Curry Night'. Depending on who's coming to join in (we have vegetarian, vegan and meat-eating friends), a few recipes are chosen in advance. We then have to make sure we still have all the spices we need and the weekly shopping trip turns into obtaining the extra ingredients needed for the dishes that are to be served on the night.
If you love curry and want to have a go yourself, or if you've never tried it but enjoy spicy food, then you must try this cookbook and the recipes inside. So far we've tried and loved, Aubergine (eggplant) Curry, and Mushroom Curry on pages 328 and 329, which get done nearly every time now. Spinach and Potato Curry, Chicken Saag, Tarka Dhal and Masala Chana, along with several others.
Though both of us can cook, making Indian food hadn't really been on the priority list before, so we also needed some recipes to help us out. Thankfully we found a few cookbooks, but this one, Complete Indian Cooking, has turned out to be the favourite.
What we've ended up doing when either the mood takes hold or a celebration comes along, is turn a normal evening meal into our special 'Curry Night'. Depending on who's coming to join in (we have vegetarian, vegan and meat-eating friends), a few recipes are chosen in advance. We then have to make sure we still have all the spices we need and the weekly shopping trip turns into obtaining the extra ingredients needed for the dishes that are to be served on the night.
If you love curry and want to have a go yourself, or if you've never tried it but enjoy spicy food, then you must try this cookbook and the recipes inside. So far we've tried and loved, Aubergine (eggplant) Curry, and Mushroom Curry on pages 328 and 329, which get done nearly every time now. Spinach and Potato Curry, Chicken Saag, Tarka Dhal and Masala Chana, along with several others.
We have Curry Night fans now!
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Every one of these dishes has had a fan from our curry night guests and there's always people returning for seconds and thirds! The feedback and the sounds of satisfied munching are plentiful. Curry night has been a hit and we've put it down to this book and the cooking skills of my partner, and we've found cooking curry at home is even better than the takeaways we had in the past. And I nearly forgot the best bit! If you do it right and make enough, there's plenty left to go into the freezer for those quiet meals in between 'Curry Nights'.
You really must try some of these recipes, I'm sure you won't regret it. Join in on curry night and give cooking curry at home a go... |
