Over the past year or so I've made 39 of the 70 recipes in this book, some of them multiple times, so I feel like I'm in a reasonably good place to review it.
The experience of making recipes from this book was revelatory: having never made a curry from scratch before I found the intensity of the flavours incredible compared to shop bought, takeaway, and even many restaurant curries. Making dishes from this book led me to seeking out other cookbooks, making better and more interesting meals, and therefore improving my quality of life. For that, I will always be thankful to this book, regardless of the fact that it is probably not the best Indian cookbook available: the photography is of inconsistent quality, some of the instructions could be better written, and personally I was not interested in the fusion dishes.
The book serves its purpose well as a gentle introduction to Indian cooking. I imagine those with prior experience will find little of interest here, and will likely consider the recipes very basic, but if you are new to Indian cooking then regardless of your skill level this is a good place to start.
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Some of the author's comments in the book's introduction have dated and now seem a bit bizarre. Apparently, it used to be accepted wisdom that Indian food was unhealthy, an allegation the author hopes to refute. There is also a much wider array of Indian food available now in shops and restaurants compared to the situation Anand describes. Perhaps, we could therefore see the book (first published 2007) as part of an extremely successful cultural shift around Indian food over the past few decades.
Recipes are divided into nine sections: Light Meals & Snacks, Chicken, Meat, Fish & Seafood, Vegetables, Lentils & Beans, Bread & Rice, Raitas & Chutneys, Drinks & Desserts.
The vast majority of the recipes I cooked just for our household of two, but we also had friends over to sample our favourites as part of a larger meal consisting of a chicken or meat curry, a prawn or vegetable dish, a lentil curry, and rice or naan or both, and sometimes a raita. It was easy to adapt the recipes for vegan or vegetarian friends with only simple substitutions of fake chicken and vegan yoghurt.
Light Meals and Snacks (4/10 recipes made)
This section contains recipes which are the gentlest introduction to Indian cooking, and may be more fusion than traditional. Chicken Tikka Wraps, Tandoori Lamb Wraps, Paneer & Mushroom Wraps, Chilli Cheese Toast, Masala Scrambled Eggs. Tortillas are used rather than Indian flatbread in the wraps, and the chicken wrap even contains cheddar cheese - Anand says that the cheese was first introduced to please tourists but has now become standard.
I didn't think these recipes sounded particularly exciting and only made the Cheese on Toast and Scrambled Eggs, which were both fine, but if you are already aware that seasonings can be added to these dishes then they are nothing special. However, I can imagine them being a pleasant introduction to the spices for someone more accustomed to blander food.
Of the more traditional sounding recipes in this section, I made the Semolina Pilaff and the Savoury Semolina Cake (Handvo).
The pilaff was an excellent quick snack which I would happily make and eat again. I made the cake to take to a work fuddle as a bit of gamble, and both myself and my colleagues were initially sceptical of the idea of a savoury mixed vegetable cake, but were quickly converted after the first mouthful. It tasted incredible and was texturally divine: the crispiness, the sponginess, and all the vegetable textures. I absolutely want this to become a regular in my household.
Chicken (8/9 recipes made)
Recommended Chicken Recipes: Goan Coconut Chicken Curry, Oven-Fried Chilli Chicken, My Chicken Korma, Classic Northern Chicken Curry, Mangalorean Chicken. The Northern and Mangalorean dishes I have made on multiple occasions, and all the rest listed here I intend to make again at some point.
The remaining chicken dishes - Chicken in Creamy Yoghurt, Green Coriander Chicken, and Chicken with Peppercorns and Shredded Ginger - were not unpleasant but did not stand out compared to the better dishes.
I had no interest in making the Chicken Burgers fusion dish.
Meat (4/9 recipes made)
This section should really have been called Lamb, because no other meat is used - apart from chicken which gets its own section?
I found the Himalayan Lamb and Yoghurt Curry extremely disappointing, though at some point I do intend to try making it again with better quality lamb. The supermarket lamb I used was probably not good enough to give this simple dish enough flavour. I used lamb from a butchers for the Easy All-In-One Lab Curry, and it was great, so I do think that is what went wrong with my attempt at the Himalayan recipe.
Both the Honey-Roasted Spicy Leg of Lamb and Herby Lamb Chops sounded incredible, and they were certainly pleasant, but I didn't think either was good enough to justify the effort of making it or the cost of the meat.
I would still like to make other recipes in this section - in particular, North Indian Lamb Curry and Dry Coconut Lamb - if I can justify to myself the cost of lamb from a butchers.
This section also contains an overtly fusion dish (Lamb Burgers with Herbed Yoghurt) and something which looks like a fusion pasta dish but is described as traditional (Curried Lamb Meatballs - served with noodles not pasta), neither of which I was interested in making.
Fish & Seafood (6/12 recipes made)
The two prawn curries I made - Mangalorean Prawn Curry and Prawn Balchao - are my two favourite recipes in this book. Gorgeous mixtures of flavours and spices that work incredibly with the both the texture and and taste of good quality prawns.
The Coconut Mackerel Curry was also excellent, while the North Indian Fish Curry and Green Fish Curry were both pleasant but underwhelming. The Coconut and Chilli Pan-Fried Halibut was a definitely superior to plain battered/bread-crumbed fish, but is not something I am likely to cook regularly.
Vegetables (6/14 recipes made)
The Southern Indian Mixed Vegetable Dish (Avial), Fried Spiced Okra (which we nicknamed 'Okra Chips'), and Paneer with Spinach are excellent as part of a feast, providing great textural contrast to other dishes, though I would not recommend them as meals in themselves.
The Spinach with Tomatoes, Stir-Fried Spring Onions, Aubergine Cooked in Yoghurt were underwhelming.
The other recipes I've not tried include two peanut salads, two sweetcorn dishes, two potato dishes, stir-friend cabbage, and stuffed jalapenos. I'm tempted to make the Five-seed Potatoes as well as the Stir-Fried Nigella Cabbage in future.
Lentil and Beans (5/6 recipes made)
I was very happy with the curries in this section, and the toasted spiced chickpeas make a decent side dish. However, the Broad Bean Thoran was extremely bland and is probably the dish I liked least out of the entire book.
On my second time making the Spinach and Lentil Curry, I used tomato puree as a substitute for the 'small tomatoes' and used ready chopped frozen spinach leaves, which made the recipe even simpler and, in my opinion, tastier and more aesthetically pleasing.
The first time I made the Garlic and Chilli Slit Pigeon Pea Curry, I accidentally burnt the garlic which made the dish very bitter. On the second try, the garlic was unburnt and it was great.
I've still to make the Buttery Black Lentils (Makhni Dahl), but I intend to make it in the next month or so.
Bread & Rice (3/9 recipes made)
I've made the Basmati Rice, Spinach Pilaff, and Mushroom Pilaff. The Spinach Pilaff is our favourite so far as the bright greenness of blended fresh spinach makes it stand out on the table. Looking through the rice recipes again while writing this review has made me realise that I should make the other rice recipes: Lemon Rice, Coconut Rice, Creamy Rice & Lentils, Simple Pilaff.
I cannot be bothered to make my own bread.
Raitas & Chutneys (1/5 recipes made)
The Cucumber and Mint Raita is refreshingly cooling, and I might get round to the other recipes in this section in future.
Drinks and Desserts (2/14 recipes made)
The Masala Tea wasn't for me, and the Coconut Sweets were delicious but I didn't cook them for long enough so they didn't set properly. Hopefully I'll get round to making some of the other recipes in this section; friends I've spoken to have said that they've never used the desserts sections of the Indian cookery books they own, and I would like to break that trend.
