REDHOTCURRY REVIEW
Reviewed by Lopa Patel
Rating: (4 flames)

I adore this book. Although it is more suited for advanced cooks - nearly every recipe uses authentic Indian spices - Camellia Panjabi is one of the first to explore the relationships between colour, smell and taste. She looks explains which ingredients are best suited for the type of curry you want to make. She subdivides spices that are used primarily for taste, those used for aroma and the differences in the chilli varities. I particularly loved the unusual recipes like Lamb with Turnips (Shalgam Ghost) a dish from Kashmir, Lamb with Apricots (Jardaloo Boti) a dish from Bombay, Watermelon Curry (Matira Curry) from Rajasthan and Bori Curry (Kaari) from the Bora community of Bombay.

SYNOPSIS

Now that curry is the most commonly eaten meal, here is a book detailing how to cook an authentic curry at home, and opening our eyes to the wide variety of ingredients - from mango to lamb, from crab to aubergine - that can be made into delicious, flavoursome curries; it is needed on every adventurous cook's kitchen shelf. There are 50 recipes to accompany to accompany the curry - from rice and lentils, breads and vegetables and chutneys. And there are enticing and mouth-watering desserts to finish off the perfect meal.

Here are 50 Curries, each accompanied by a full colour photograph showing colour, texture and appearance. Try Bori Curry, meat and potatoes cooked together, with a golden colour, creamy texture and a mild taste which blends the Moghul richness of nuts with the flavours of Bombay - coconut, sesame seeds and curry leaves. It was a dish from the Bori trading community, originally from Gujarat but now living in Bombay. Try White Chicken Curry, a Muslim court dish blending Moghlai and Nawabi cuisines or perhaps the Chicken Pistachio Korma, with its very delicate taste and attractive creamy light green colour. Prawns in Sweet & Hot Curry, with its sweet, hot and sour flavours equally balanced, and with many chillies is offset by the sour tamarind and the sugar. Then there is the Gujarati Mango and Yoghurt Curry, very tasty and a treat for vegetarians, or the Cauliflower and Potato Curry from Mangalore, where the Hindu community makes this rich dish flavoured with fenugreek, mustard seeds, cinnamon, coriander, chillies, cumin, tamarind and turmeric.

ABOUT CAMELLIA PANJABI

Camellia Panjabi was born in Bombay. She read Economics at Cambridge and went on the become the Marketing Director in India's most prestigious hotel group - Taj Hotels - known for spearheading new cuisines and culinary ideas in its Indian, Asian and Western restaurants.

She has had a life-long passion for food and for exploring different cuisines. Over the last twenty years she has travelled the length and breadth of India and has been involved in the setting up several restaurants in these premier hotels, often featuring little know Indian dishes.

In 1982 she set up the Bombay Brasserie in London for the Taj Group, which first introduced regional Indian cooking in the UK. In 1992 the restaurant served its millionth customer.

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