If you read my post, Curry – A Journey, published on the Curry page of this website, you’ll know that my very first experiences of the dish were of the generic range which the British inevitably cooked and consumed when living abroad a couple of years back. You’ll also understand that I then found “real” Indian culinary and chose that as I could not pay for to eat in restaurants that much, I required to find out how to prepare the stuff myself.

My first stop then, was a local bookshop, where the choice of books on Indian culinary was somewhat restricted. However, I struck lucky and discovered a book called Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey – what a find. Composed in basic language however with beautiful descriptive text and recommendations on what to serve with what, it was just what I had actually been looking for.

I didn’t understand where to start – I ‘d heard of quite a lot of them, having enjoyed a few Television programmes on Indian cooking however, “assistance” I believed, “purchasing that many all at as soon as is going to cost a fortune”. That only leaves a couple of standard components which appear in a lot of Indian recipes – cumin, coriander, turmeric and cardamom. Frequently you require ground cumin and coriander however if you buy the entire spices, you can grind them as required (and they keep longer that way too).

The other thing I did was to select a relatively basic dish to begin with and I just bought the spices I required for that. The next time I wish to cook an Indian meal, I picked another dish with similar active ingredients so I needed to just purchase a couple more things. Soon enough I developed an entire shop cabinet of the important things I required and it didn’t have had such an extreme impact on my wallet.

There was no stopping me – I even understand some dishes by heart now and you can do the exact same if you desire to.

You do not require unique equipment for Indian cookery, although I would not be without my electrical coffee mill (to grind spices) and it’s great (but not necessary) to have the traditional dishes to serve your meal in. Aside from that, you require a bit of persistence and it’s enjoyable to prepare with a good friend so that you can share the grinding and slicing or have somebody read the recipe out to you step by action so you don’t fail in the middle.

The flavours are great, a curry night is actually sociable, so go on, offer it a try.

I struck lucky and discovered a book called Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey – what a discover. I didn’t understand where to begin – I ‘d heard of rather a lot of them, having watched a few TV programmes on Indian cooking but, “assistance” I believed, “buying that lots of all at once is going to cost a fortune”. That only leaves a couple of standard active ingredients which appear in a lot of Indian dishes – cumin, coriander, turmeric and cardamom. The next time I desire to prepare an Indian meal, I picked another dish with similar ingredients so I had to just buy a couple more things.