Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chicken with spinach (Murgh aur palak)

  • Ro_ on March 08, 2020

    I think this would be nicer cooked on a base of onion, garlic and ginger. A bit bland as it is.

• Butter chicken (Makhani murgh)

  • Ro_ on December 19, 2019

    My partner really enjoyed this, but I felt that even for a mild dish it was lacking in spicing. The sauce was a lovely creamy consistency, but if I made it again I'd add more ground spices and possibly use chicken thigh instead of breast.

• Chicken tikka (Murgh tikka)

  • Ro_ on January 24, 2023

    These were good but I think would have been better with chicken thighs rather than breasts, as they did dry out a little bit. The marinade was very nice (but no reddish colour as you'd expect from Anglicised chicken tikka)

• Black pepper chicken (Murgh kali mirch)

  • Ro_ on March 12, 2021

    A nice, fragrant dish but the water at the end made it a bit too liquidy. Less next time. I liked this and it was handily made from things I had to hand, but I'm not sure it was special enough to repeat.

• Mango chicken (Murgh aur aam)

  • Ro_ on August 06, 2022

    This was a different type of curry to those I usually make, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was worried it would be too sweet, but it was fine actually. This made a nice change, and would make again when mangos are readily available.

• Chicken korma (Murgh korma)

  • Ro_ on December 12, 2019

    This was nice but I'm not sure it's a korma recipe I'd repeat. It needs a lot of seasoning (no guidance is given in the recipe re: salt, I added quite a bit at the end, and a little sugar too). I think there is too much chilli in the recipe for a korma as well, I'd either use the chillis in the onion/ginger/garlic paste OR the half teaspoon of chilli powder, but not both. I also think it could have benefited from the use of some tomato paste maybe, which would also have given the sauce a slightly more pleasing colour. All that said, my partner really liked this, but I found the spicing and flavours a bit underwhelming, even for a korma.

• Lamb rogan josh (Gosht rogan josh)

  • Jojobuch on March 17, 2018

    Very good recipe, though I took a few liberties with the preparation (I only had time to marinade the meat for an hour, and after sautéing the meat, I added the other ingredients and used a pressure cooker at high pressure for 30 minutes). The flavours were great, I will definitely be making this again, and using the pressure cooker reduced the total preparation time as indicated in the recipe. I served it with rice and oven-roasted cauliflower, which added a good contrast to the curry.

  • Ro_ on March 26, 2023

    A delicious, and relatively simple, rogan josh recipe. My lamb didn't really brown during all the first stage because I tipped all the marinade in with it so it just kind of simmered, but for the sake of flavour I'd still do this next time.

• Lamb with spiced potatoes (Aloo gosht)

  • Ro_ on June 14, 2023

    I found that it needed a lot less water than stated in the recipe, and also I don't know how it makes sense that it keeps saying "cover and simmer until the liquid has evaporated" because surely you wouldn't cover it in this case. The flavours were just OK, nothing special. Won't make again.

• Kashmiri lamb in a chilli sauce (Kashmiri matz)

  • Ro_ on August 13, 2023

    I made this with beef mince instead of lamb, since lamb mince is hard to get here. It was a nice curry, but not one I will make again as it's just not my favourite kind of thing. Don't forget to add plenty of salt to the meat mix (I didn't add enough and the recipe doesn't mention it). The sauce was tasty, I should have added the full amount of liquid stated because it reduced more than I expected.

• Lamb with sun-dried tomatoes (Sukhe tamatar walla ka gosht)

  • Ro_ on May 08, 2023

    I was intrigued by the idea of putting sun dried tomatoes in a curry. In the end the combination was kind of as you'd imagine. I didn't mind it but my partner wasn't a fan. Other than that combo, the sauce itself was pretty average and nothing special - needing to simmer a long time to reduce down the water and I wasn't sure that so much water was necessary. I probably won't make this again.

• Goan tuna steaks (Goan tuna macchli)

  • Ro_ on July 03, 2023

    I really enjoyed this dish. The marinade is actually more of a rub, and adds delicious flavours to the tuna without overpowering it at all. The sauce compliments it really nicely. The instructed quantity of sauce is probably a bit too much for the overall amount of tuna though, you could make a bit less.

• Monkfish in coconut milk (Naryal dood ki macchli)

  • Ro_ on June 28, 2023

    I wasn't a huge fan of this one - something was off with the flavours, it needed a lot of salt to bring everything out.

• Roasted new potatoes with sesame seeds (Simsim aloo)

  • Ro_ on August 06, 2023

    These were delicious: different, unusual, tasty and pretty. The only problem is that they're a bit faffy to make, since you have to cook the potatoes ahead of time, let them cool and then marinade for "at least" 2 hours, but I'm not sure if they could be left overnight in the marinade or not. Anyway, the result was delicious and I will make these again. They might be nice cold too.

• Aubergines in tomato sauce (Tamatar baigan)

  • Ro_ on June 06, 2023

    Not a lot of spices/seasonings in this recipe, I was surprised there was no onion or garlic and to be honest I'd have preferred it with. Good if you want something relatively simple though.

• Green beans (Hari rajmah)

  • Ro_ on June 21, 2023

    I made this with frozen beans, and used a little bit more water than stated and gave them longer to cook through. The result was fine, though I did have to drain away a little liquid. The dish was fresh and enjoyable, and really benefits from the coconut at the end to give it another dimension.

• Sautéed mushrooms (Bhuna gucchi)

  • Ro_ on July 10, 2023

    These were delicious - simple but tasty. Go easy on the chilli powder, they don't need much.

• Lightly spiced spinach (Sukha palak)

  • Dcampos on February 09, 2020

    This was good, simple. Might add lemon juice next time.

• Lemon rice (Nimbu chawal)

  • Ro_ on August 21, 2020

    Nice but not spectacular. I used split peas instead of yellow split chickpeas, but there's such a tiny quantity used that I don't think it really changed much. My main issue with this was that it wasn't lemony enough, it was more like a turmeric-cardamom rice than anything else, and I added extra lemon juice at the end too.

• Mushroom rice (Gucchi chawal)

  • Ro_ on October 24, 2021

    A delicious rice. It's lighter on the mushrooms than you might think, but all the spices conspire to give a lovely flavour, and it's pretty too.

• Red kidney beans in a rich sauce (Rajmah)

  • Ro_ on June 30, 2021

    Rich and tasty as promised. I used tinned kidney beans and added yoghurt instead of butter at the end, to make it a little lighter.

• Hot and spicy chickpeas (Cholay)

  • Ro_ on June 21, 2023

    I really enjoyed this: it's among the best chickpea curries I've made. I think it helped that I used chickpeas that I cooked from dry, instead of tinned. I let it simmer for longer than stated, which was fine. The thick, spicy, tomatoey sauce was really great. Nice with a dollop of natural yoghurt on the side too.

• Red split lentil dal (Masoor dal)

  • Ro_ on April 29, 2023

    With dal I often feel like I don't know what I'm aiming for as I don't think I've ever had an authentic Dal in a restaurant or made for me in any context. This recipe turned out very soupy, so I reduced it a bit more than stated but not sure if that was right or not, but still very soupy at the end. The flavours were nice but not stand out, it needed plenty of salt. I served with deep fried roti, which was nice.