• Eat Your Books

  2004 James Beard Award Winner for International
  2004 IACP Award Nominee for International Category
  

• JuneHawk on September 28, 2013

  This book is the same as "Ultimate Curry Bible" but for the American market.

• vacherin on April 17, 2009

  Tend to be on the hot side - cut the chiles

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Moghlai lamb with spinach

  • Eurydice on May 23, 2010

    Quite tasty, and less than half the suggested cayenne pepper was plenty.

• Meatballs in a curry sauce

  • Breadcrumbs on March 13, 2011

    p. 60 - A really unusual curry dish, at least in my experience. We adored it, lovely lamb meatballs in a wonderful, aromatic and flavour-packed sauce. Delicious!

• Beef, pork, or lamb curry with fresh and dry coriander

  • TrishaCP on January 03, 2017

    This was delicious, and my husband couldn't stop raving. We used lamb stew meat cut into small pieces (maybe smaller than the recipe called for) since I knew the meat would be tough and take a while to tenderize. The lamb and the coconut milk paired really well together. There was lots of delicious sauce, probably too much for the quantity of meat called for, and I wanted some veg, so I threw in some non-traditional edamame. The edamame worked well here, but so would peas (I think).

• Nawab of Dhaka's family korma

  • TrishaCP on June 29, 2013

    A Bengali chicken korma that had amazing flavors, but execution problems, mainly mine. Chicken is browned in a really flavorful paste of browned onions, garlic, ginger and spices, and then yogurt is added in slow spoonfuls to be cooked down. Then, the entire dish is thinned with cow's milk and cooked down. I am sure it is due to me using non-fat dairy yogurt, but the sauce did break on me, which caused both the curdling effect as well as a too thin sauce. Still tasted good, but did not look pretty. Also, while potatoes are cooked separately to be browned, the instructions don't tell you at what point to add them back into the dish. I added them once the milk was added because the recipe calls for quite big pieces of potatoes and I was worried about cooking them through. Well, they still weren't cooked all the way through. Next time I would cut them smaller, brown them until done, and then add them to the dish during serving.

• Singapore-style south-Indian chicken curry

  • schambers on March 15, 2011

    The curry leaves are not very noticeable in the final dish.

• Shrimp curry with roasted spices

  • TrishaCP on June 29, 2013

    This was really delicious and simple once all of the prep work was completed (including roasting and grinding the spices). For me, the combination of flavors, Indian and Southeast Asian, was definitely a best of both worlds situation. I did have to omit the pandanus (no time to hit the Thai grocer, my only local source), and I missed the floral note it would have added. The sauce was quite spicy for me- I would reduce the dried red chiles in the spice blend if heat is an issue.

• Pomfret curry tumis

  • mamacrumbcake on February 07, 2020

    Not bad but did not love it. I can’t put my finger on it, but there was something missing in the flavor. Very, very easy to make.

• Broiled fish in a Sri Lankan tomato-cilantro curry sauce

  • susankay on May 18, 2013

    I am a fan of cilantro, but I like this recipe better without it.

• Fish in red curry sauce

  • Eurydice on June 01, 2010

    So delicious if you use the red curry paste recipe from the same book.

• Stir-fried south-Indian green beans

  • TrishaCP on June 29, 2013

    CSA beans from the freezer were brought back to life in this dish with some oniony, brown mustard seed and spicy goodness.

• Red lentils with five spices

  • TrishaCP on June 29, 2013

    A really lovely and flavorful lentil dish. My first time trying panch phoron, a Bengali whole spice blend, which includes equal parts cumin seeds, nigella seeds, brown mustard seed, fennel, and fenugreek. The spices are added to sizzling oil and then added to the cooked lentils. Will definitely be making this again.

  • lorloff on September 22, 2015

    This is a fantastic recipie. You can buy the panch phoron from Kalustans in NYC. I upped the panch phoron by 1.5. Next time I would double the onions in both the lentil cooking and the flavoring mix. This comes together really well on a weeknight provided you have the 40 mins to cook the lentils.

• Mung dal with green chilies

  • TrishaCP on December 06, 2015

    I've had a lot of success with the dal recipes that I've tried from this book, and this one was great too. The dal is cooked until soft (I needed 60 minutes) with turmeric and then onions, garlic, green chile (I used one serrano) and cilantro are added to the cooked lentils. The flavor was definitely greater than the sum of its parts and I would definitely make this again.

• Mung and toovar dal cooked in a south-Indian manner

  • TrishaCP on June 29, 2013

    This recipe appealed as I was looking to use up toor and mung dal. It is nicely spiced, though I did dial back the cayenne (only used 1/8 tsp) and green chiles (I used 2 instead of 3 serranos). I missed the curry leaves, which I omitted due to lack of time to visit the local Indian grocer, my only source for curry leaves. Also, I accidentally left the dal simmering way too long and didn't get to enjoy the different textures of the dals as everything cooked down too much. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this and would make it again.

• Beef "ribbon" kebab

  • schambers on August 31, 2010

    Marinate up to three days; use charcoal grill.

• Plain basmati rice

  • jdub1371 on July 25, 2022

    This recipe turned out perfectly cooked basmati rice. The cover of the saucepan I used fits well but I wouldn't say *tightly*, but even so I did not need to cover the pan with foil before putting the lid on to make a tighter seal.

• Red curry paste

  • Eurydice on June 01, 2010

    This was surprisingly quick and easy, and I'll never need to grumble again how the premade pastes seem to be mostly salt and/or sugar. I used only a small fraction of the chilli and paprika suggested, so as to let the other beautifully fragrant Thai flavours come into their own. I substituted ginger for the galangal, but there's no real flavour substitute for kaffir - though I used leaves, not rind.

• Cucumber, mint, and tomato "raita"

  • Eurydice on May 23, 2010

    I prefer the yogurt and the tomato to be in two separate side dishes for curry