Customer Reviews

Curry Easy

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I agree with the previous reviewer. This is not a re-working of Indian recipes, either of Madhur Jafrey's previous books or of the well-known hackneyed staples of restaurants or other Indian cookbooks.

Everything is ligher, fresher and if these words can be applied to food then the book exudes a joy and a vibrancy which is apparent as soon as one turns over the pages. The recipes are Indian but many are from the kitchen of the author's family and friends and are simple, easy to make, and do not require many spices or ingredients.

These are recipes you could use to make a whole Indian-inspired meal or just pick one as an accompaniment to a roast, a steak, a casserole. There are some delightful Anglo-Indian recipes such as Cheese Toast,Chicken Mulligatawny Soup, Sausage Curry of Beef/Lamb Jhal Faraizi (not the restaurant version) but a spicy hash of roast beef and potatoes.

Some standouts are the Salmon in a Tomato-cream Sauce, the variety of regional fish curries, the array of kebabs and lentil dishes, the emphasis on grilling and stir-frying, the perfect-for-a-picnic Chicken with Vindaloo Spices, the Sri Lankan Beef Smore, an interesting take on a pot-roast and the Karhai Broccoli.

This is an Indian cookbook which reflects our desire for tasty, easy-to-prepare food that won't pile on the pounds. Totally enticing it will give you a lifetime of ideas and favourite recipes. If you buy only one book on Indian food this is the one I recommend.

This is a really lovely useful cookbook, not in any way a re-working of her old ideas and recipes. I thought about whether it was worth buying because maybe it couldn't add much more to all she's published before but this book is all new. Everything's so much easier and more relaxed than her recipes sometimes used to be, just uncomplicated and quicker and fresher. It's a really mellow cookbook with lots of wonderful, mostly everyday, recipes together with interesting background conversations and pictures.

As others have said, this is an entirely new book from a great lady, where recipes jump out at you immediately. Importantly for my family, there are lots of vegetable and vegetarian recipes as well as ones for goat curry and minced turkey, more unusually. Good photos and a good index, listed by ingredient. Would obviously stand on its own but with I Love Curry by Anjum Anand, you would cover the area healthily and easily, with lots of quick recipes.

Confession! I picked up this book in my local bookstore because it looked gorgeous! I already have three Madhur Jaffrey cookbooks and did not think that I needed another but the photo of Salmon in a Bengali Mustard Sauce convinced me otherwise. Cooking this later completely justified my purchase!
The title of the book says it all. Madhur Jaffrey is aiming to create Indian dishes in as simple a way as possible, using a smaller palette of spices. There are a few moments when this approach goes too far. Most people will not need to know how to microwave a poppadom although it is helpful to know that Madhur's favourite ones are those made of urad dal and flavoured with peppercorns.
However, the simple approach means that none of the recipes are intimidating and are perfect for after work suppers. Chicken Karhai with Mint is great, so fragrant and full of flavour. Make enough for leftovers which are equally good! Goan Prawn Curry took me less than fifteen minutes, including preparation and was delicious.
I also like the idea of Anglo-Indian sausage curry. Madhur makes her own sausage patties for this but it could easily be adapted to use some quality pork sausage with some extra spices.
The book is extremely comprehensive, covering everything from mains to relishes and accompaniments. The Fresh Green Chutney is completely addictive!
Beautiful and simple - perfect!

I have most of her books, and I really like this book, full of recipies that are easy to do and prepare in advance, also some unusual snacks etc...its more about indian flavours for a modern life style than "authentic" Indian meals..I have tried a few of the recipies and have been pleased with all of them and look forward to trying more...
only downside is that its not always clear, when using chicken, if its off the bone and skinned..she says that it depends on the recipie,but would be nice to know... think it will become one of my favourites.

I have never submitted a review before, but felt I had to feedback on this book. I bought this on an impulse after needing some new inspiration. My husband and I cook a lot but need books from which we can find recipes that are delicious but don't take hours after work. We had been put off other Madhur Jaffrey books as they appeared to need lots of ingredients and require lots of preparation.

We have been using Healthy Indian by Monisha Bharadwaj (which I would also recommend) but needed some new recipes. I can't say how similar or different the recipes are to those in Madhur's other books, but I can say it makes indian cooking simple.

The recipe's a fresh, simpler and generally can be pulled together in 30-40 minutes without any detriment to their flavour.

For those who like cooking indian but don't have time to spend hours preparing, marinating and so on this is a worthwhile purchase.

I'm reviewing this book off the back of one meal. I cooked the green lamb curry with the mushroom and pea curry and the Saalad. It was delicious. The lamb green curry was surely the best curry I have ever had. It was amazing and made me look like a curry genius. The mushroom and pea curry was unlike any curry I have ever eaten and would have been the star but for the lamb. Talk about a delicious way to eat your veges. The salad went beautifully. Thanks Madhur, for dinner.

I have quite a collection of cook books and several by Madhur Jaffrey. I found this another excellent book with lots of inspirational recipes in it. Some old favorites with a different slant on them and a lot of new ones.

I absolutely love this recipe book. I've made a number of the meals in this book including the Kerala-Style Chicken, Bangladeshi White Chicken Korma, South Indian Potato curry, Gujarati Tomato Sweet and Sour curry to name a few. It's the cookbook I use the most in my kitchen (Bill Grainger's Bill's Basics is the second), and if you are intimidated by the idea of making a curry, don't be, it doesn't get any easier than this to make an authentic and healthy curry. The recipes are really easy to follow, but they can go wrong if you don't do enough preparation, as some of the recipes have lots of ingredients. I tend to make enough for four people (as most of the recipes are for this amount of people) then freeze three portions and eat one straight away.

There's some top-notch advice too, on simple things like preparing and cooking rice. I follow Madhur's advice on preparing Basmati rice, and it comes out beautifully every time. The rice just crumbles in your mouth.

What I love so much about this book is that you can make genuinely authentic food, and you feel like a cooking genius when it all goes right and you have an awesome curry to reward your effort. My cupboards are absolutely chock full of spices now due to this book, and it's really fired my enthusiasm for cooking.

Don't bother buying any other curry cookbook, you only need this one. Go on, you won't regret it! Highly, highly recommended.

My other Jaffrey book is an out of print companion to one of her early BBC television series.I have cooked with it for years ( as the spice stains and cracked spine attest) but not that often as a lot of the recipes need forward planning,(hard when one is working) time and multiple ingredients. In line with Jaime,Nigella, Delia and Gordon, Madhur has given us a book with sensible, easy yet delicious recipes that can be made, for the most part, at short notice.The recipes use a manageable number of spices in the ingredient list. I think this is the least intimidating Indian recipe book I have come across and it would make a great gift for anyone anxious to begin cooking Indian dishes at home.