ASD son, who only seems to like/taste spicy food - can anyone recommend a good simple cook book?

[BumptiousandBustly]

Its that simple really - we are having terrible trouble getting DS(4) to eat - but I have noticed that more and more he only seems to like strong flavors - pickles, marmite, peperoni pizza - he will lick mustard off a knife - etc,

I am a reasonable cook - but don't really know about curries, etc - I need a cook book that will help me do that simply (i.e. buy a paste, add some spices etc).

Any recommendations?

Indian in 6 might be what you are looking for

can you not just put tabasco sauce on everything?

Sommewhereelse - that sounds great - will have a look.

StarlightMcKenzie - might have to do that, or really hot mustard.

Any other suggestions? Any ideas for recipe books with hot food welcome, Indian, Mexican, anything?

Starlight - the issue is to give him different but strong flavours - to keep it interesting, but hot enough for him to taste.

I find the BBC Good Food website good for recipes :) Have made a couple of curries from there although I'm more of a korma

My dd is the same.

For convenience the Nando's marinades are great. You can marinade chicken wings, sausages etc and then grill. I also water it down with stock and add chicken and potatoes for a casserole. Nice and spicy but not really "hot".

I add paprika and turmeric to potato wedges. Add cinammon to roasted carrots. Basically anything that can be rubbed or sprinkled with seasoning goes down well.

edustudent, thanks - I will have a look.

thornrose -interesting - will invest in a couple of marinades - really good suggestions about the potatoes and carrots as well - will try it and report back.

I do understand. When ds was 2 he would only eat things like olives and smoked salmon. Oh how we laughed with pride at our mature ds with refined tastes and his obvious interest in engineering (light switches and doors) and complete lack of clinginess..........

vegetable egg fried rice with soy sauce?

Sprinkle some chicken strips with any seasonings you have knocking around (especially paprika) and oven cook. This can be used to make fajitas with some nice hot salsa. I also add the chicken to noodles with some very thin strips of carrots and add lots of soy sauce and a bit of sweet chilli sauce.

I know you're looking for more cook from scratch recipes but it's good to have a few quick stand-bys.

Starlight - that sounds very familiar! (sad)

Thornrose I am absolutely looking for quick easy fixes, it's just that I don't know where to find them, I just want to make food that he will eat, no desperate desire to cook from scratch!

My daughter is similar, she wont eat mashed potato cos it is to bland, so I add finely diced raw onion or swirl sweet chilli sauce threw it. For rissloes I crumb them in pepper and bread crumbs. something else worth a try is raw broccoli and cauliflower, my daughter devours it but wont touch it when cooked as the flour isnt as strong.

• flavour not flour lol

If you did want to cook from scratch, then I can't recommend enough, Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey, I love it, for spicy, adventurous, flavoursome food, and it's not difficult at all, but can have long list of ingredients.
BBC Good Food is a great website too, I use it all the time, cooked a dish from it last light, and another tonight, both spicy.

this book is fab full of easy flavourful curries.

Thinking further, Gok's Chinese is good, as is Jamie's America if Asian isn't your thing.
We don't always eat spicy, though we love it, but we never eat bland food, so you might want to look at my blog for ideas?
Things like worcester sauce, anchovies, olives, chorizo, to add flavour might work for your DS.

Madhur Jaffrey's Eastern Vegetarian Cooking is fabulous - I could live out of this book! It's not exactly what you asked for (a bit more work than buying a paste!) but well worth it.

If you go to the herb and spices bit in the supermarket you will find something called 'season all', and another called. 'spicy season all' - put the jar on the table and let ds use it like salt and pepper.

I posted a couple of recipes when someone asked for low fat indian food.

Thankyou so much all of you - will def try all the hints about making our ordinary food more flavourful/spicy for him, and will look at all the recipy books you have recommened and get a couple of them.

Am also very grateful for any more tips anyone has about making food spicy.

How spicy does he like?!
Sushi type stuff (rice/veg/chicken) - let him dunk it in soy/wasabi? Or there is various wasabi marinades too. Wasabi peas?

Check out the book people they have a fab selection of cook books.

Also if you're in the South East, highly recommend this shop.

Brighthair - to be hones, I don't know how spicy he likes it, I have really only just realized that this is what he needs However he will lick colemans mustard off a knife, so I have to assume, fairly strong!

maybe try some
Wasabi peas/peanuts are nice

Brighthair tried some today and he liked them!

Yay!! I guess the wasabi peas are veg of a sort at least
And you can buy wasabi paste too, if it's too strong mix it with mayo or soy as a dip