Indian Cooking

[Swagbaggie]

Following on from a recent thread on here can I recommend Asma's Indian Kitchen by the cook and restaurateur Asma Kahn.

Packed full of authentic recipes and very easy to use unlike some others I have bought.

[Baggie_Nick]

Following on from a recent thread on here can I recommend Asma's Indian Kitchen by the cook and restaurateur Asma Kahn.

Packed full of authentic recipes and very easy to use unlike some others I have bought.

I've seen it, it's very authentic in its approach.

Indian cookery tends to be split into two areas: the authentic stuff that Indians would eat at home and the BIR (British Indian Restaurant) food that English people would eat in say a Balti restaurant. The focus on here seems to have been on the latter - not necessarily the best and most authentic but the curry takeaway taste that we all know and love. Authentic curries tend to use tend to use tomatoes for the sauce whereas BIR uses a preprepared onion base gravy. Each to their own I suppose. I've eaten some superb home cooked curries.

[ChamonixBaggie]

Will look it up. I need more cookbooks, I find them better than random recipes you find online and I'm tired of browsing BBC Good Food for inspiration! The Hummingbird Bakery book is the best baking book I've found, the carrot cake is out of this world.

Having said that, I can highly recommend this website: https://pompomcooks.com/ by a British/Indian lady who lives out here in Chamonix. The Kerala Beef is one of the best curries I've ever made. She does popups out of her kitchen window sometimes which are always very well attended.

[SW4Baggie]

Following on from a recent thread on here can I recommend Asma's Indian Kitchen by the cook and restaurateur Asma Kahn.

Packed full of authentic recipes and very easy to use unlike some others I have bought.

I've seen it, it's very authentic in its approach.

Indian cookery tends to be split into two areas: the authentic stuff that Indians would eat at home and the BIR (British Indian Restaurant) food that English people would eat in say a Balti restaurant. The focus on here seems to have been on the latter - not necessarily the best and most authentic but the curry takeaway taste that we all know and love. Authentic curries tend to use tend to use tomatoes for the sauce whereas BIR uses a preprepared onion base gravy. Each to their own I suppose. I've eaten some superb home cooked curries.

Agree with this...  I've spent quite a lot of time in India and the food there compared to here are poles apart. One of my best friends has recently moved back to Goa after several years in the UK and I'm sorely missing her home cooking... no matter how many Zoom calls we've done, it just doesn't taste the same without her prepping it!

I've really struggled to regularly source curry leaves - despite living in Birmingham, none of the Indian stores seem to have them available fresh, and the Taj frozen ones seem to have been delisted from every supermarket. 

Any tips on where I can pick some up as the dried ones are completely pointless.

[Swagbaggie]

Will look it up. I need more cookbooks, I find them better than random recipes you find online and I'm tired of browsing BBC Good Food for inspiration! The Hummingbird Bakery book is the best baking book I've found, the carrot cake is out of this world.

Having said that, I can highly recommend this website: https://pompomcooks.com/ by a British/Indian lady who lives out here in Chamonix. The Kerala Beef is one of the best curries I've ever made. She does popups out of her kitchen window sometimes which are always very well attended.

Another one I got hold of recently is Vefa's Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou. Traditional Greek food. Its like rocking horse shit because it was printed in 2009 I think and is really highly regarded. The food in it is brilliant.

[ChamonixBaggie]

Will look it up. I need more cookbooks, I find them better than random recipes you find online and I'm tired of browsing BBC Good Food for inspiration! The Hummingbird Bakery book is the best baking book I've found, the carrot cake is out of this world.

Having said that, I can highly recommend this website: https://pompomcooks.com/ by a British/Indian lady who lives out here in Chamonix. The Kerala Beef is one of the best curries I've ever made. She does popups out of her kitchen window sometimes which are always very well attended.

Another one I got hold of recently is Vefa's Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou. Traditional Greek food. Its like rocking horse shit because it was printed in 2009 I think and is really highly regarded. The food in it is brilliant.

I love Greek food. I've been to Greece quite a lot and the food is always a huge highlight. 

Looks like that book might've been re-printed under a different title (Greece: A Cookbook)? Which you can still get from Amazon resellers.

[Swagbaggie]

Will look it up. I need more cookbooks, I find them better than random recipes you find online and I'm tired of browsing BBC Good Food for inspiration! The Hummingbird Bakery book is the best baking book I've found, the carrot cake is out of this world.

Having said that, I can highly recommend this website: https://pompomcooks.com/ by a British/Indian lady who lives out here in Chamonix. The Kerala Beef is one of the best curries I've ever made. She does popups out of her kitchen window sometimes which are always very well attended.

Another one I got hold of recently is Vefa's Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou. Traditional Greek food. Its like rocking horse shit because it was printed in 2009 I think and is really highly regarded. The food in it is brilliant.

I love Greek food. I've been to Greece quite a lot and the food is always a huge highlight. 

Looks like that book might've been re-printed under a different title (Greece: A Cookbook)? Which you can still get from Amazon resellers.

That's great news because My sister wants it and can't get one. Cheers
(Looks like it because the cover is nearly the same)

[DemonicBaggie]

Will look it up. I need more cookbooks, I find them better than random recipes you find online and I'm tired of browsing BBC Good Food for inspiration! The Hummingbird Bakery book is the best baking book I've found, the carrot cake is out of this world.

Having said that, I can highly recommend this website: https://pompomcooks.com/ by a British/Indian lady who lives out here in Chamonix. The Kerala Beef is one of the best curries I've ever made. She does popups out of her kitchen window sometimes which are always very well attended.

I bet they are!

[baggiemike]

Will look it up. I need more cookbooks, I find them better than random recipes you find online and I'm tired of browsing BBC Good Food for inspiration! The Hummingbird Bakery book is the best baking book I've found, the carrot cake is out of this world.

Having said that, I can highly recommend this website: https://pompomcooks.com/ by a British/Indian lady who lives out here in Chamonix. The Kerala Beef is one of the best curries I've ever made. She does popups out of her kitchen window sometimes which are always very well attended.

I use "Al's Kitchen" on You Tube. Never had a bad result.

[Swagbaggie]

Following on from a recent thread on here can I recommend Asma's Indian Kitchen by the cook and restaurateur Asma Kahn.

Packed full of authentic recipes and very easy to use unlike some others I have bought.

I've seen it, it's very authentic in its approach.

Indian cookery tends to be split into two areas: the authentic stuff that Indians would eat at home and the BIR (British Indian Restaurant) food that English people would eat in say a Balti restaurant. The focus on here seems to have been on the latter - not necessarily the best and most authentic but the curry takeaway taste that we all know and love. Authentic curries tend to use tend to use tomatoes for the sauce whereas BIR uses a preprepared onion base gravy. Each to their own I suppose. I've eaten some superb home cooked curries.

Agree with this...  I've spent quite a lot of time in India and the food there compared to here are poles apart. One of my best friends has recently moved back to Goa after several years in the UK and I'm sorely missing her home cooking... no matter how many Zoom calls we've done, it just doesn't taste the same without her prepping it!

I've really struggled to regularly source curry leaves - despite living in Birmingham, none of the Indian stores seem to have them available fresh, and the Taj frozen ones seem to have been delisted from every supermarket. 

Any tips on where I can pick some up as the dried ones are completely pointless.

We have a great Indian supermarket in the High Street that does fresh ones but it's only any good if you are ever in Cheltenham.
http://www.orientalfoodstores.co.uk/