Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible is an essential curry cook book for anyone that likes a good curry and thinks they have tried them all.  The book is a informative and an all encompassing  guide to the world of curry – with recipes from many different countries such as Kenya, South Africa and Japan as well as India, Pakistan and Malaysia.

One of our favourites in the Curry Bible is a Kenyan dish – Green Coriander Chicken (Dahania Chicken)  and you can find the recipe here. It is so easy and quick to make plus super light and healthy.

Green Coriander Chicken

The Silken Chicken Tikka Masala involves two recipes; as to make the curry you need to make the kebabs first. So for a mid week meal you can stop at the unbelievably tender kebabs or go a step further and make a stunning, simple curry.

Silken Chicken Tikka Masala Kebabs

Silken Chicken Tikka Masala on wholemeal roti

If you enjoy reading about the origins of curry and how they have been adapted for Western tastes then this cookbook is a interesting read. Now that I have made The Royal Chicken Korma (“a real Indian Korma”) – there is no going back.  According to Jaffrey, in the West, Korma’s are “mild and creamy” and for those that do not like hot food! You will be the King or Queen of Indian banquet dinner parties if you get hold of this book.

Royal Chicken Korma

Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible is available to buy here.

The book reviews I add to the blog are cook books or food related books that I have at home. If I’m writing about them – it’s because I want to share with you their greatness or just give you an idea of what they are like so when you are next searching for a cook book to buy you might be able to narrow down your possibilities – or you can just buy them all anyway… that’s what I usually do…

The Essential New York Times Cook Book is a entertaining collection of recipes and is fantastic for those of you who like a bit of history with your meal. There is 1,400 recipes in this cook book and Amanda Hesser, creator and New York Times food columnist, tested every one of them.

The recipes in the book come from well know chefs, restaurants or from everyday people that would write to The Times over the years. Some of the recipes date back as far as 1850 and if you’re like me you will find trialling these old recipes rather satisfying. The recipes range from old, modern, easy, complex to sometimes bizarre. Reading about the efforts… and years Hesser, her colleagues plus her family went to; testing every recipe after work, narrowing down the recipes and creating the book made me both envious of her job plus in awe of a task so huge.

Most recipes have a story, like the Super Bowl Pork Belly sandwiches or the 1879 Epigram of lamb and I found myself reading the book like it’s a novel – laughing at the stories and amazed at some of the early cooking revelations.

The book contains serving suggestions for most meals and there is also a section of menus for any event or type of cuisine. This section makes planning a Italian dinner party a whole lot easier as, with so many recipes it is easy to get a little lost amongst all the pages.

Here is the Zuppa di Funghi Siciliana (Sicilian Mushroom Soup). The addition of egg at the end made me a little afraid – but it took the soup to a whole new level of scrumptious – I’m very glad I didn’t wuss out!

Baci di Ricotta (French Kisses) – mine were more like sloppy pashes then kisses as I’m hopeless at making anything pretty and I added rounded tablespoons of batter to the pan not teaspoons…whoops… however, they still tasted awesome and were fluffy lumps of happiness and that’s the main thing!

 
Buy The Essential New York Times Cook Book here