I've got MadhurJaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible but I'm scared of it.

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DH bought me this for Christmas and I have loved reading it (it has lots of anecodotes and history in amongst the recipes). The problem is, I haven't actually made anyhting from it yet as I'm a bit intimidated by all the ingredients required. We don't have any Indian grocers nearby so I might not be able to get all the ingredients requires, but I'm not sure what I can leave out without it altering the taste too much?

Please could anyone who has this book point me towards a few of the easy fail safe recipes?

TIA.

Sorry, I haven't got Madhur Jaffrey's book, but I am passionate about curries and my bible is Camellia Panjabi's Curries of India.

To be honest althouigh it is far cheaper to get your spices from an Indian shop, and they have a lot of obscure stuff (such as mango powder etc) you can get the vast majorty of it from Sainsbury's.

Don't be scared of it! Although the list of ingredients is massively long most of the time, it is not actually difficult. There is also something very lovely about having a load of spices knocking round your cupboards.

I don't often go online as there is a lrage Indian community where I live, so go to the ocal Indian grocers, however have a look at this site spoces online as you will be able to get eveything here.

i adore madhur. her recipies are really easy once you get over the gazillion spices bit.

start off with her dal.

The wonderful thing is that once you have got a job lot of spices in, you have usually got the wherewithal to make a whole variety of other stuff in the book, just add meat, onions, garlic and ginger in most cases.

i don't have madhur, i use online recipes for curries.

but i agree about getting the spices from an Indian shop or online if you're in a rural area.

i love curries and daals and make several a week as it's a brilliant form of cooking if you're doing veggie meals to economise.

just add in chickpeas or soya mince for meat.

Once you have made your own curry anything else you try (such as ready made curry from sainsbos or curry sauce from jars) will taste crap in comparison.

You really can taste all the spices and it is really satisfyig when you have made your first proper curry from scratch. Once you get used to some of the processes it is so easy as well.

I am like expat in that I make curry 2-3 times a week, as it is so easy (I make it in the evening for eating the following day usually).

It is cheap as well, as the long slow cooking means you can use cheaper cuts of meat, also you can bulk out with potatoes, aubergine, chickpeas, lentils etc.

Homemade naan bread is gorg, also.

my madhur checklist
coriader and cumin seeds
turmeric
garam masala (you can make your own)
dried chillies
cayenne
those big seed that are ming when you bit into them
fresh ginger
lemon juice

chickpeas, lentils, onions

and you are away!

To the above list (agree with homemade garam masala, I was so excited when got coffee grinder and made my own ) I would add the following which I have in my cupbaords:

Make sure dried chillis are kashmiri ones.
Bay leaves dried
Cinammon sticks (or cassia is cheaper)
Kalonji/Nigella seeds
Mustard seeds
Cardamon pods (green and black)
Jaggery (palm sugar)
Tamarind paste (the sieved stuff, not the stuff which is a dried brick of seeds which you have to reconstiute with water, that is a PITA, I use a sachet made my Seasoned Prionerrs which I get in Sainsbury's)
Gram flour
Hot paprika
Mace

If your supermarket has a foreign foods aisle check there - our ASDA has quite a selection of spices and stuff.

i curry veg that's about to go off. round out with pulses or meat and there's your meal.

i'd love to know if any of the recipes live up to the takeaway versions - espcially if anyone knows how to give it a slight aniseed taste

i think madhurs are nicer

Ooh thank you all. EleanorBunting you mention her dhal- now i love lentils and made something similar last week- the problem is with her book she dosn't say like 'red lentils' or 'yellow split peas' she gives them their actual indian name so I don't know what to look for in the supermarket?

I think she calls it something like toover dal (please excuse my ignorance)- would this be like yellow split peas or red lentils, or indeed could I substitute these?

Thanks

dunno, the book i have (from the 80's) specifies green/red/yellow lentils. google it

If you're finding it a bit daunting with the long list of ingredients, there are usually plenty of things you can do with out in a recipe.

The key is that if there are just a few spices in a recipe you probably need them all but if it's a long list of different spices, leaving a few out won't make a huge difference to the final flavour. The exception to the rule is if the dish has the name of the spice in its name, you need that spice. For example, jeera chicken (ie cumin chicken) has to have the cumin in it.

My basic list of spices for someone who is starting out is:

chilli powder
tumeric
cumin seeds
ground cumin
ground coriander
garam malasa (making your own isn't top priority for a beginner)
fresh ginger
fresh garlic

Also useful are:

fresh green chillis
dried chillis
black mustard seeds
cardamon
cinnamon sticks (or cassia)
cloves
and lots of the items that others have mentioned

The difficult bit is usually getting all the ingredients together. Once you have them in the house, making each of the dishes tends to be quite straight forward.

My other top tip is buy the fresh ginger, garlic and green chillis in bulk. Peel the ginger and garlic cloves and take the stems of the chillis. Them throw them into a food processor (I do them individually but given that alot of recipes call for all three and often in equal quantities lots of people do them together) and whizz up till finely processed. Then freeze them in ice cube trays. So whenever you need some chopped ginger/garlic/chilli you just need to add an ice cube. Up front hassle but then you always have them in the house.

The toovar dhal is a yellow split pea.

If you are struggling to find a shop locally, I'd suggest Natco online. They are the brand of spices I tend to use most. Have noticed that my Sainsbury's has started to stock a few items from their range lately.

www.natco-online.com

Happy- so do you think i could substitute your average yellow split pea? I can't imagine there being that much difference betwee one type of split pea and another?

Thank you for the links to online shops and the lists of spices- I do have most of those apart from dried chillies and cardamom pods (because i don't like them!) so i think I am well on the way really i just need to pick a recipe and go for it! I think them all looking and sounding delicious is part of the problem as well, I am spoilt for choice!

The toor dhal is different from your standard yellow split pea (I think that channa dhal is closer to the standard yellow split pea) but you may be ok substituting them. I've never tried substituting one type of dhal for another so I can't speak from experience, but it may be worth a go.

What I would say for a first attempt though is pick a recipe that you have the right ingredients for and use that. You're less likely to have a disaster and cooking methods and times aren't going to be an issue. As you get more familiar with the ingredients, you can be a bit more daring and experimental.

OK, decided to look it up and stand corrected. Wiki has explanations of different types of dhal.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal

Thanks happy, you mentionned about sainsburys stocking some indian foods so I will pop in this week and see if they have the real thing.

Also, to add to my list

Cloves
Star Anise
Fennel powder

Can't believe I left those out. They are in my favourite and most cooked recipe - vindaloo.

My DP far prefers my curries to a takeaway to the extent that I have shot myself in the foot - we used to have an Indian takeaway a lot and now I end up cooking!

Would not recommend at the start that you just pick and choose the imgredients you like, as i feel that they are there for a reason, and the whole point of making a curry (the many levels of different and subtle flavour that comes through) will be lost of you leave out a couole of the spices.

I have a Madhur Jaffrey vegetarian book which is fab. I'd start with the dal, or a cauliflower curry.

But HappySmiley's Natco site is good for recipes as well as spices!

GOML We too have home-made curry far more often than takeaway.

I am rural, so stock up if I am ever in the city, getting bulk bags of lentils, spices and breads, then freezing etc.

It's not just Sainsbury's by the way that stocks the Indian brands now. I've seen them in Asda and Tesco as well. But I guess, it's probably only in the cities that you get them readily.

it's a great book. In particular, green coriander chicken is fantastic, dh cooks it alot

and we seem to have dhal once a week

there are some other nice veggie ones I've cooked from there too-potato and pea, a couple of chickpea ones

also one of the prawny ones....maybe goan prawn curry? go easy on the tamarind though...

I have this book and it is wonderful!

Curry is fiddly but making your own is really satisfying and healthier than take away curries.