Does the book come as one large file?
No, the file would be massive. The manuscript of the book runs to 340 pages and contains 72,000 words!
The book comes as separate sections. Each recipe and each descriptive section comes as an individual PDF file N.B. not in proprietary e-book format; just standard PDF files.
My reckoning was that most people don't read cookery books as a whole but rather dip in and out as particular bits interest them. When you want to make a particular recipe you can just print off that file and use it in the kitchen.
You don't have to worry about the recipes becoming unavailable. If we ever decided, for whatever reason, to close down the Premium Area we have guaranteed in our License Agreement that we would give all registered users at least one month's notice in which to download any files they have missing.
Does the Book include photographs of the finished dishes?
No. The electronic version of the book does not contain photographs of the dishes. As and when I am able to get the book published in printed form I will then commission professional photos to illustrate the book.
There are, however, small illustrative photos in the sections on Kitchen Equipment and Whole Spices to help you identify things that may be unfamiliar to you.
What units of measurement do the recipes use?
The recipes are all written using Metric weights and measures. There are NO equivalents in old British Imperial measures or in American measures although the Book does contain a conversion chart.
Would American users please click here for more information.
To British readers who still mourn the passing of Imperial measures and who will moan at me for not adding Imperial equivalents to the recipes I say "I have seen the future and she is Metric".
Will I be able to reproduce my favourite curry from my local restaurant?
Restaurant recipes are not set in stone and can vary considerably from one restaurant to another or even within a restaurant depending on which chef happens to be on duty. The general style of cooking also varies from one region of the UK to another and, even more so, between Indian restaurants in the UK and in other countries.
As an example, the curry recipes do not follow closely the style of Pakistani run restaurants which are common in some areas of the UK like Bradford, Glasgow or Southall.
The style of the curries in this book is standard Bangladeshi-run curry house fare which is offered in about 80% of "Indian" restaurants across Britain.
Hopefully, once you have got the hang of the recipes, you will able to adapt them to re-create curries from your favourite restaurant especially if the difference is simply a matter of adding, say, extra tomato to a dish or boosting up certain spices that you particularly enjoy.
Will I be making authentic Indian food?
It depends what you mean by authentic.
If you mean authentic to the dishes on the menu of your average Indian restaurant then yes, the recipes (with some exceptions - see below) are as near to their restaurant equivalents as I can make them.
If you mean authentic to traditional dishes made in India or Pakistan or authentic to the home cooking of a British Asian family then the answer is no.
Are the recipes low fat?
The recipes are not wantonly high in fat but hardly any of the recipes could be described as "low fat". That is because the recipes are facsimiles of Indian restaurant curries and, even though I have cut down on the fat compared to many restaurants, the dishes still need a certain amount of oil in order to resemble their restaurant counterparts and to cook the onions, garlic and spices correctly.
Are there any vegetarian curries?
Yes. All of them!
Because you prepare the main ingredient before you make the curry, the main ingredient can be anything you like; meat or vegetarian. The curry is the same whichever main ingredient you use. This follows the example of Indian restaurants where, for instance, the sauce for a chicken bhuna is exactly the same as for a prawn bhuna.
And it's not only the curries. There's a whole section on vegetable dishes and many of the starters are ideal for vegetarians. The only area which is off limits to vegetarians is the kebabs and even they could be adapted if necessary.
Which recipes are least like their restaurant equivalents?
- deep fried dishes e.g. samosas, onion bhajis
None of the recipes in the book require deep frying. Why? Because the results are so variable. I had more failures and disappointments with the dishes that need deep frying than any other type of recipe in this book. Maybe that's because I'm just not very good at deep frying. That's possible but I reckon that if I'm not that good at it, with all my years of experience, then plenty of my readers will have the same problem.
The problem with deep frying is that it is so easy to get the temperature of the oil wrong. Even deep frying machines give variable results. Because they are designed for a home kitchen they are far too small to hold enough oil to keep the temperature steady. As soon as you lower the food into the oil the temperature immediately dips below the proper cooking level. Then what happens is that the food soaks up oil instead of immediately going crisp. And, because everything is still cooking while the oil is getting back up to temperature, the food tends to be cooked through long before it goes crisp. So you end up with greasy, overcooked food and a house which smells of frying oil for ages afterwards.
So how can you possibly cook samosas or onion bhajis without deep frying them? The answer is that I have devised an easy way to make samosas which are then baked in the oven. I have to admit that the results are quite different from restaurant-style samosas but they taste equally as good as their deep fried counterparts. My onion bhajis are shallow fried rather than deep fried but all that means is that they are flat rather than round and are a lot less greasy.
- tandoori dishes and nan bread
There are a number of tandoori style recipes in the Book but I am afraid you cannot hope to make faithful reproductions of tandoori dishes at home. Anyone who tells you different is deceiving you.
The tandoor is a charcoal fired clay oven which produces intense heat in an enclosed environment. Pieces of meat are threaded onto skewers and let down into the tandoor. The meat then rapidly cooks in the high heat and drops fat and juices onto the charcoal as it does so. When the fat and juices hit the charcoal they vaporise into tiny droplets which circulate round the tandoor giving the meat a smoky taste. Nan breads are literally slapped onto the side walls of the tandoor where they stick fast and cook in seconds while absorbing all the smoky droplets given off by the surrounding meat.
The nearest you can get to a tandoor at home is a barbeque. A standard barbeque grill is fairly good but if you want to get as near as possible to the tandoori effect you will need to invest in one of the American style barbeques with a domed lid and adjustable ventilation to control the heat of the charcoal.
So what do you do if you can't be bothered to fire up the barbie or it's cold, dark or raining outside? I have 2 solutions. I have devised recipes to cook tandoori-style chicken, tikkas and kebabs in an ordinary domestic oven and a method for cooking nan bread in a cast iron frying pan. The recipes make everything quite clear.
Why only 16 standard curries - my local restaurant has nearly 50?
The restaurant menu is a lot less extensive than it seems. It may offer nearly 50 standard curries plus a selection of "specials" but, for each one of those standard curries, there will be 3 versions. For example, under "dopiaza" there will be a chicken dopiaza, a lamb dopiaza and a prawn dopiaza all cooked in the same sauce and spices. So even if there were 48 standard curries on the menu there would still only be 16 individual styles.
It is those 16 most popular standard curries that you will find in the Book and they are:
- balti
- biryani
- bhuna
- dhansak
- dopiaza
- jalfrezi
- korai
- korma
- Madras
- Moghlai
- pasanda
- patia
- rogan josh
- saag
- tikka masala
- vindaloo
Why go to the bother of making restaurant-style curries at home when you can go down to your local Indian restaurant and get the real thing?
Well, it could be that you haven't got a local Indian restaurant or, if you have, you don't like the way they cook their curries. Or it could be that you are on a budget or can't get out much because you have young children. Maybe it's just that you fancy a challenge or want to impress some dinner guests. I can put my hand up to having had all those reasons at one time or another in my life.
Although you don't get the enjoyment of going out to a restaurant and although there are some meals, especially tandoori dishes, that you can't successfully replicate in a domestic kitchen cooking restaurant-style meals at home does have two distinct advantages.
Firstly, you can use the best ingredients. You are not trying to make a profit so you don't have to skimp on quality to keep your prices cheap. You can use the choicest cuts of meat and the freshest vegetables and cook them to just the right point where they are cooked through but still fresh tasting.
Secondly, the home cook does not have to use the excessive amounts of oil which can be found in many restaurant curries. Restaurants use a stock sauce as the basis for their curries. The stock sauce is made quite watery and when the chef makes your curry he needs to fry the sauce in plenty of oil to reduce it down. That way, he can have numerous curries on the go at one time and they will not dry out or burn.
My Curry Base is not a scaled down version of the restaurant's stock sauce. I have designed it so it is already partially fried and reduced down before you add it to the curry. Although you may have give your curry a little more attention than the restaurant chef you will not need to use anywhere near as much oil to thoroughly cook your curry.
Can you offer any help if I am having trouble with one of the recipes?
I will do my very best but I cannot make a commitment to respond to requests for help within a fixed time period.
The License fee is primarily intended to pay for access to the Curry House Cookery Book. The Help Forum is provided purely on the basis that I will help as and when I can. For instance, if I am away on holiday or business you may not get any help for a couple of weeks.
So it is no good asking for help on something you are cooking in the next few days. The chances of me being able to help in time are negligible.
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