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I've been ill recently and the clear spicy chicken soup proved a godsend when I had little appetite. The flavour is delicate and warming. It's a "serves two" recipe and whilst I'd like to say that I shared it, I'm afraid I didn't!
Would you like to hear about the most marvellous sandwich filling? How about curried eggs? It's marvellous as a hot dish on toast, but to my mind , it's even better when it's been allowed to go cold and is between two slices of the softest white bread. Picnics and packed lunches need never be dull again.
If mashed potatoes bore you, why not try potatoes with dried red chillies? It's very easy to make and Manju recommends serving it with chicken or a meat curry, but we've enjoyed it with smoked haddock and a home-made tomato sauce. It was a substantial and tasty meal that was ready in less than half an hour.
You've guessed that I'm hooked, haven't you? When Manju first told me about Britspice I wondered if it would be my kind of book. It's really aimed at the novice cook and I don't consider myself to be a novice cook. I'd heard about the recipe for baked bean balti and thought this really wouldn't be my sort of thing at all. I was very pleasantly surprised on both counts. There was inspiration in the book and we've branched out to try different foods and different combinations. And, um, baked bean balti is actually rather good!
Photography is by Tara Fisher. Unfortunately , I've been spoilt by the photography in [[India with Passion]] by the fabled Jason Lowe and the pictures here are not as good - but that would be difficult. My daughter (who lived in Nepal for a number of years) commented that it's very difficult to photograph Asian food, because it's usually about taste rather than looks and presentation, but Tara Fisher produces pictures of food that I felt I wanted to cook and eat. The pictures of finished dishes are all captioned along with the page number of the recipe.
In addition to the very good index (I found everything that I wanted on the first try) , there's also a glossary which should answer all your questions.
Manju has succeeded and succeeded well. Some of the food is hot but there were many more delicate flavours than I expected. The range of food isn't limited, with something there from all the major food groups. My curries are much better, with more depth of flavour since I've stopped buying commercial curry powder and whilst there are many curries in the book there are a lot of other things too.
If you'd like to try some of Manju's recipes you'll find some examples on her [http://www.manjumalhi.co.uk/ website].
We also liked [[Citrus and Spice: A Year of Flavour by Sybil Kapoor]].
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|comment=You've really sold this on me, Sue. I don't cook curries often now as Katie used to be really picky about eating anything in casserole format, plus now with the baby , there was no time. But the 'under half an hour' line sounds great.
Everything I cook now is less than half an hour preparation (not necessarily cooking time of course).
I don't consider myslef myself a novice cook either but this seems very interesting indeed. Now, when I - eventually - go buying my dream Indian cookery book, you persuaded me to choose one of hers, which one then?
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