Crack the Masala Code
In bookshops and on television, I always feel some level of affront at the sheer lack of variety of available cookbooks and chefs willing to work with non-European ingredients. Indeed, this manifests itself at all levels of the food industry, where Indian haute-cuisine is often neglected by the best known chefs with South Asians of similar calibre being quite ignored. Indian food, it seems, despite the leaps and bounds of recent years, is still largely the product of takeaway dining and greasy outlets.
Fortunately, efforts to bring the food of the sub continent are not entirely absent. Two new cookbooks have given fresh colour and verve that is not normally seen amongst Indian cookbooks.
The first of these, 'Curry Lovers', is written by the multi-talented and classically trained chef Roopa Gulati. Though her background and much of her previous work underscore an interest in mixing the best that South Asian ingredients and European tastes have to offer, this book is for the purist who wants something classically flavoured but with none of the hard graft.
Beginning with a glossary of Indian culinary terms the recipes which follow, such as 'Dal Tarka' and 'Lamb Biriyani' are given in such explicit detail that even the more complicated of dishes, like the 'Watermelon Curry with Mint', are portrayed with enough ease to give any chef with even the slightest amount of trepidation some confidence.
Indeed, her panache for writing and detailing her recipes are easily as good as her recipes, which when putting her 'Chickpea Curry' to the test, came out fabulously. I also like her recipe for 'Steamed Seabass with Coconut Chutney' as it backs away from the usual penchant for us South Asians to fry any kind of seafood beyond their subtle, salty flavours.
The photography is well detailed, enlivening the food with the sort of dramatis personae that brings the dishes to life whilst, in a rather odd text-bookish fashion, displaying what the food should come to resemble after such an intense liaison of oil and spices.
Roopa Gulati
Curry Lover's Cookbook (Small Book of Good Taste)
Published by Jacqui Small LLP
ISBN-10: 1903221943
ISBN-13: 978-1903221945
Price: £8.99
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Anjum Anand’s book, 'Indian Food Made Easy', is no less varied in her choice of recipes, describing easy ways to make classic dishes like 'Makhni Dal' and 'Slow-cook Lamb Curry' as well as the more esoteric and less common 'Tandoori Monkfish' or 'Chicken Curry'.
Indeed, her cookbook, unlike Gulati’s, goes for a more adventurous twist, working with dishes and ingredients that are not traditional to the South Asian palate like Mackerel or Honey.
Adventurous enough, too, in describing the art of making paneer from scratch, which I found particularly fascinating, not only because of its relevance to Punjabi cooking, but also because it is yet another food tradition that is dying in favour of speed and convenience. Upon inspection, even my mother gave it her seal of approval, suggesting that she had given the recipe the simplicity that it had come to lack through the onslaught of
necessity for modern conveniences.
In her writing though, I found her descriptions less appealing (though not necessarily less appetizing) and her penchant for infrequently supplying the Indian names for dishes quite dissatisfying. Her recipes however, give a fresh lightness to Indian cookery that is seldom seen at restaurants.
Nevertheless, this book as indeed Gulati’s, sparkles with colour and dazzles with detail though I did find the latter to be more helpful, more useful and even more accurate (even if the name is a little off putting). Gulati’s training as a chef though, in both Indian and European cuisines, gives added finesse to her perspective and arguably, to her recipes too.
With either book though, you are unlikely to disappoint the lucky goldfish upon whom you experiment with your new-found culinary skills with masala.
Anjum Anand
Indian Food Made Easy
Publisher: Quadrille Publishing Ltd
ISBN-10: 1844005712
ISBN-13: 978-1844005710
Price: £14.99
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by Jai Kharbanda
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