Topic: Curries Made Simple - by Tasnim K. Hussain

[GulfExpat]

Has anyone read this book?

Is it any good?

80 pages for ?6.50.

Good feedback on Amazon.

[GulfExpat]

There's also an accompanying web site - with a recipe for Lamb Bhuna.

http://www.curriesmadesimple.com/index.html

[chriswg]

Save your money. Did you see the pic of the veg pakora? I don't imagine for one second that book would tell us anything new.

[GulfExpat]

Here's an interview in The Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article4596338.ece

This was interesting:

?Store-bought chappatis are always too dry and tough. The secret of a soft chappati is not to use too much flour when you are rolling out the dough. Before you put it on the griddle shake off as much flour as possible. The reason Asians pass it from hand to hand is it makes the chapatti bigger and gets rid of dried flour.?

Kerching!

[GulfExpat]

Thanks, Chris.

You and Axes Bhajis look AWESOME. 

Great photographs too.

[chriswg]

Thanks GE, I was genuinely surprised at how good they looked too. I was expecting a step forwards, I wasn't ready for the finishing line though!

Another couple of quotes from that book that concern me:

?There?s no such thing as chicken tikka masala in traditional cooking,? she says. ?Literally, it just means a piece of chicken in a masala, which is onion sauce. Vindaloo is completely made up and we do not have this macho custom of trying to compete with each other about eating the hottest curry. A korma to me does not have yoghurt or cream in the sauce.

?And we would never, ever eat poppadums. They are Indian, for a start, not Punjabi"

I've never heard of masala described as onion sauce before.

[Vindaloo-crazy]

The pilau rice looked way off the mark of what we're after too.

[issiemc]

This little book is one I seem to get out every so often and try a different recipe.
It's good to see how different asian people make dishes, so many variants on recipes and it is worth giving them ago. I think we think that all Indian/Pakistani food is the same a asian restaurants, but I often find it isn't. I have eaten with many of my asian friends and find that their food is nothing really like the restaurant or takeaway food. Could it be because in the home the women cook and in the restaurants and takeaways its the MEN who cook?
My favourite in this little book is Lamb Bhuna and Fish pakoras and her samosa, I have always been told by Asian Ladies USE the best quality flour.
Another thing I have found is every starter sauce is different, I wasn't keen on the Onion Sauce in curries made simple.