Book: I Love Curry

I was recently sent a review copy of the newest book by Anjum Anand, "I Love Curry".  Having already bought two of her previous books (Indian Food Made Easy and Anjum's New Indian) I kind of knew what to expect.  Anjum's books are always well presented, clear and full of interesting sounding recipes. This one was no different.  The recipes in the book range from the ubiquitous Chicken Tikka Masala to the more exotic sounding Green Sindhi Fish Curry. There is literally something for everyone in this book.

If you've never cooked an Indian dish before, I'll admit the list of spices and ingredients you need for these can be daunting, however most are pretty standard like cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder or garam masala and once you have these in your cupboard you'll find you keep coming back to them time and time again.  The book does however contain a few ingredients like kashmiri chillies which may be a little hard to find and not likely the type of thing you'll find in a small supermarket.  I do find that off-putting at times as I don't really have time to visit lots of different shops hunting down ingredients so it's likely I'll never make those recipes.

At the start of the book there is a really helpful section called "the secrets" which is full of really good hints and tips - the basics for curry making if you like and at the back of the book there is a nice section on the different types of spices. These sections make this is a good book for someone who is perhaps not very experienced at cooking Indian food.

There are several recipes I'd like to give a try, amongst them the salmon tikka lettuce wraps, Punjabi yogurt and dumpling kadhi, prawn pathia, chilli chicken balti, tamarind duck curry and the keralan pork curry so I will of course report back when I have tried some of these out!

On the whole, I like this book and it would make a great gift for a curry lover as would any of Anjum's previous books.  The only negative for me is I find the tone of her writing comes across as a little superior at times and as an avid reader of cookery books, that's a bit of a turn-off for me.

Anjum Anand's I Love Curry is published by Quadrille and is out now. RRP £16.99.

love & kisses
Mrs M x