Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors
Posted in General on 03/11/2010 01:45 am by adminBarry Forshaw
There has certainly been a seismic change in recent writing on food, as Lizzie Collingham’s Curry: The Biography divertingly proves. The subject here is nothing less than the history of India and its rulers, as told through the history of their signature food. Of course, the national food of India is now (by default) one of the national foods of the United Kingdom, and its all-conquering progress from the gilded palaces of Delhi to the curry houses of Brick Lane and Birmingham makes for highly entertaining reading.
We have had many cookery books before on how to prepare the mouth-watering Indian delights described here, but few have taken such a broad view as Collingham, who (while telling us how to prepare Dhansak or Lamb Korma), also apprises the reader of the individuals who discovered, cooked and presented these dishes originally (along with the lucky recipients, often in the upper echelons of Indian society).
In many ways, the rich host of anecdotes here is the single factor that distinguishes the book from so many similar titles. Collingham is a historian of some reputation, but her love of this food fairly leaps from the page. Be warned, however: you may begin this book in a spirit of historical curiosity, but by the end of it, you’ll either be making your way to the local curry house, or to the nearest supermarket to stock up on turmeric, coriander and mango chutney. –Barry Forshaw
Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors
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Cooking Indian Food at Home – Where to Start?
Posted in General on 03/09/2010 01:43 pm by admin
I then discovered “real” Indian cookery and decided that as I couldn’t afford to eat out that much, I needed to learn how to cook the stuff myself.
My first stop then, was a local bookshop, where the choice of books on Indian cookery was somewhat limited. However, I struck lucky and discovered a book called Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey – what a find. Written in simple language but with lovely descriptive text and recommendations on what to serve with what, it was just what I had been looking for.
There was a stumbling block, however, which was the endless list of spices, seasonings and flavourings I didn’t know where to start – I’d heard of quite a lot of them, having watched a few TV programmes on Indian cooking but, “help” I thought, “buying that many all at once is going to cost a fortune”. If you’re thinking the same, don’t panic. Check in your store cupboard. You probably already have some of the items you will need. For example, look for black peppercorns, bay leaves, chilli powder (if you’re already a fan of chilli con carne), ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon if you bake cakes or apple pies. Maybe you’ll find mustard seeds if you do your own pickling and sesame seeds if you make rolls or cook Chinese food. That only leaves a few basic ingredients which appear in a lot of Indian recipes – cumin, coriander, turmeric and cardamom. Often you need ground cumin and coriander but if you buy the whole spices, you can grind them as necessary (and they keep longer that way too).
The other thing I did was to choose a fairly simple recipe to start with and I just bought the spices I needed for that. The next time I want to cook an Indian meal, I chose another recipe with similar ingredients so I had to just buy a couple more things. Soon enough I built up a whole store cupboard of the things I needed and it didn’t have had such a drastic effect on my wallet.
Then there was no stopping me – I even know some recipes by heart now and you can do the same if you want to.
You don’t need special equipment for Indian cookery, although I wouldn’t be without my electric coffee grinder (to grind spices) and it’s nice (but not necessary) to have the traditional dishes to serve your meal in. Other than that, you need a bit of patience and it’s fun to cook with a friend so that you can share the chopping and grinding or have someone read the recipe out to you step by step so you don’t go wrong in the middle.
The flavours are great, a curry evening is really sociable, so go on, give it a try.
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Recipes for beginners?
Posted in General on 03/08/2010 01:45 pm by adminMy friend can’t cook worth a damn and she’s living on pot noodles and packet pasta, which considering she does the same job as me (groom at Gleneagles) is not really very healthy and certainly doesn’t give her enough energy to do her job! What are some easy recipes I can give her? I’m giving her a cookery lesson tonight (she can’t even work the oven). I was going to write out some recipes for her so she has a choice of things to cook. She’s on a budget (aren’t we all) so nothing expensive and obviously nothing too complex. One pan dishes would be great. I was thinking things like stuffed jacket potatoes, spag bol, shepherd’s pie, curries, lasagne etc. (I can cook all these things) but after that I’m out of ideas. If anyone has simple recipes to cook things like risotto, macaroni cheese etc etc then I’d be grateful. To be cooked from scratch!
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Bored of food, any food/recipe ideas?
Posted in General on 03/08/2010 01:56 am by adminI am so bored of cooking the same old thing…. pasta, spaghetti, curry, shepheds pie etc… can anyone help reignite my passion for cooking. I want to be more creative and cook different things, can someone give me some ideas/websites. It has to be affordable to cook on a weekly basis, live in the UK and am a 25year old married male. I know it’s easy just to buy a cookery book but I am always interested in what the world out there likes to eat.
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The Essential Gluten Free Guide.
Posted in General on 03/08/2010 01:56 am by adminThink Different, Act Different, Eat Different. New Ebook Reveals How To Successfuly Live With A Wheat And Gluten Intolerance.
The Essential Gluten Free Guide.
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Indian cookery advice?
Posted in General on 03/07/2010 01:42 pm by adminI always order form my local indian restuarant Chicken tika masala and Kema pilau rice, i spend a fortune, in order to save money and impress my boyfriend i wwant t cook my own after trying for years to cook rice it goes stick all gloopy and doesnt tasdte to good and curry is plain and boring, how d the takeaway/restuarants get their rice so flaky and tastey and how comes it tastes spicy with a yellow colour, the masala always tastes very sweet witha lovely creamy flavour how do they do this 10 points for the most informative answer ?????
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What is the function of these ingredients in INDIAN cookery?
Posted in General on 03/06/2010 01:42 pm by adminCoriandar powder, cloves, yoghurt
nigella, fennel seeds
in kofta curries, chicken curries or prawn curries
thank you!
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Are the curries recipes we are given on tele magazines or cookery books authentic or are they adapted?
Posted in General on 03/06/2010 01:41 am by adminOK, so I have followed some of the recipes from cook books ect, but am I eating athentic ethnic cuisine or crap?
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Curries: 40 Authentic Curry Recipes from Around the World
Posted in General on 03/05/2010 01:44 pm by adminProduct Description
Delicious curry recipes from around the world to make you hungry!
Curries: 40 Authentic Curry Recipes from Around the World
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