Rick Stein's India: In Search of the Perfect Curry: Recipes from My Indian Odyssey

Have both the DVD and the book! Love both. I did not think that Rick Stein being a 'Fish' person would do justice to the meat and vegetarian curries of India, but it is a tribute to this wonderful cuisine that he says "he could go vegetarian with dishes such as these". I am going through the book at present and trying all these absolutely wonderful dishes out. The one vegetable curry I am coming back to again and again is 'Thoran', "Dry curry of cabbage, carrot and coconut" (Pg 72). It is very easy to make and is done in a flash, but the blending of tastes that you get with the fresh coconut is so moreish, that you find yourself eating it greedily, just so you can savour the taste over and over again. It goes with all the meat and fish curries I have made so far. As to Kashmiri Chilli powder, I happened to be in Queenstown for two weeks and came across it at the Mediterrean Food Market there. Bought some and because the hole to hang the bag up with was punched very close to the contents in the bag, some of the chilli powder had spilled out onto our kitchen counter top. I picked some of the powder up and was expecting a very hot taste in my mouth, but was surprised at the slight tingling. But most of all I really liked the smokey, savoury taste of this chilli powder that compliments all these curries so wonderfully well. I love the bright rich red of the colour of this chilli powder. I made the 'Lamb Curry with Sweet Potato in Onion Marsala" (Pg 239), but did not use 250g of butter, maybe only about 20g just for the flavour. I love our Kumera, so chopped this up and roasted it in the oven. I used about 1/2 tsp of white pepper instead of the 1 tsp and added the roasted kumera at the end of the cooking time just to heat through and of course I had Thoran with it and Deliah Smiths Pilau. The Shepherds pie (Pg 250) sings. Who wants ordinary shepherds pie when you have the Madras Clubs version. The "Cochin first class Railway Curry" (Pg 254) is fabulous (also with Thoran) and when you cook it, it goes very thick. I just watered it down to the consistency I was happy with as I don't like very watery sauces anyway. I put in only 1 1/2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder and it was perfect. "British Beef Raj Curry" (Pg 268) was great because it harks back to colonial England, Queen Victoria and the British Raj. I also liked it because it has the very colonial desiccated coconut and sultanas in it. Most early curries in New Zealand were like this. I added the Kachumber salad (Pg 305), sliced banana tossed in desiccated coconut and bought Mango Chutney. "Yesterdays Fish Curry" (Pg 176) is wonderful. Rick is a master at getting all the tastes just right. I used Monkfish instead of Salmon and this worked extremely well. I have a small jar of tamarind paste, so water this down to get the 100ml tamarind liquid required in the recipe. Just for my taste I find that the 500ml of water extra would make the sauce to thin, as there are tomatoes in this dish, so used only around 100ml. Next on the list I think will be the two egg curries (Pg 116 and 104). I would like to try the other vegetable curries, but I can't go past "Thoran". I have bought 2 coconuts and have drained them and smashed them open and prised the white coconut meat out of it. My sliced fingers can attest to this, but I have now got 2 glad wrap bags of grated fresh coconut in the freezer waiting for my favourite vegetable curry. There is also "Amma's Pork Curry" (Pg 224), "Mr Singhs slow cooked curry" (Pg 251), "Lamb Korma" (Pg 246), "Chicken and rosewater biriyani" (Pg 214), "Butter Chicken" (Pg 210), "Rocky's Chicken Korma" (Pg 190) and so on. Then there is "Nimish" (Pg 281), when I think I can handle all that cream. This must be the best cookbook on Indian food around at present. Every curry tastes different. They are authentic and absolutely top notch. Ricks book along with Madhur Jeffreys books are all you need to make really great curries. I love the photography and colour in the book and is very reminiscent of the colour I believe you would see in India and the photos of all the curries makes you want a curry more often than you would have wanted in the past. I just love this book.

If you own and rate Rick Stein's Eastern Odyssey, you will absolutely love his India book. The format and lay out is kept the same, as well as stunning photographs of food and people and activities from India. Rick Stein manages to depict the essence of Indian cooking in his usual eloquent style and every recipe contains a short story about how the author has come across it, and interesting facts about it. Like with Eastern Odyssey, the recipes in India are divided in several sections, namely: - snacks/ starters - vegetable dishes - fish and shellfish dishes - chicken and duck dishes - dark meat curries, kormas, pulaos and biryanis - indian desserts The majority of the recipes are built around core number of ingredients, which once in your cupboard will enable you to cook most recipes with minimal effort. The core ingredients include: turmeric, cumin (ground and seeds), coriander (ground, seeds, fresh), cinnamon sticks, black mustard seeds (available from Asian shops), Kashmiri chillies (available from Asian shops), whole nutmeg, cardamom. It is increasingly evident that big supermarkets chains are catching up on their customers' interest in Asian cuisine. Generally I have found that most supermarkets stock up on more niche Indian ingredients, such as: caraway seeds, mace, ghee, chapatti and gram flour etc, usually located in their World sections. This makes cooking Asian food from scratch an enjoyable hobby that requires a lot less effort than it used to. At the back of the book the author includes a few pages of basic sauces and marinades that are used in the majority of recipes. Those could be made in advance and stored in the fridge, often for up to 1 month. As someone hugely interested in Asian food, what I find most remarkable about this book (as well as other Stein's cookery books), is his amazing ability to write a recipe in a way that makes it easy to replicate at home and most importantly, delivers the 'real' flavours of the region. I have often struggled to find authentic curry recipes in the past. Not anymore, the dishes I have tried from this book have been out of this world tasty.

The only other book I have by RS is his Far Eastern Odyssey, which quickly became my favourite cookbook, evidenced by the splatters and stains on many pages. I think this book will give it a run for it's money, (tho it won't necessitate a morning each month chopping ingredients to make pastes to freeze down). I already use the garam masala recipe from the last book, but was pleased to see an accessible recipe for chaat masala, and the Tibetan chilli sauce is wonderful! In fact the "extras " at the back of the book are almost my favourite bit! I have done a couple of the prawn recipes which were spot on, and will work my way through the many recipes that I have marked with post it notes.The book is better than the tv serieswhich I must admit I did not find as entertaining as the Far Eastern one. Yes you need to do alot of prep, it's not like adding Patak's paste, but the end result is worth it, and to be honest, if you love Indian food, then you won't find it a chore. I have now watched the series repeated on tv over the last week or so, and I have to backtrack massively! I can only suppose my mood was not the greatest when I watched it the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it this time , tho I still prefer the FEO. I have done numerous recipes and all have turned out beautifully.In fact I have never been to an Indian restaurant since I started cooking my own over the past few years (TY Madhur,Anjum and Rick) The only thing I would say, that in a nod to health, I cut down the amount of oil used.I am lucky in that I live 2 miles from an Indian supermarket, and when I go this weekend I will see if I can track down the few things I have been unable to source so far.

I bought this having watched the TV series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The book is well printed with bright, stylish photography, and in terms of paper, layout, etc, is very much in the style of the early River Cottage/Paul Hollywood/etc books - seems to be in vogue at the moment. Nevertheless, this does not detract. I tried a few of the recipes which I downloaded from the BBC website first, which went very well, hence why I ultimately bought the book. I am aware some people have complained about the ingredients being hard to find but every city has at least a few indian/asian stores where you can pick these items up very cheaply (in Glasgow, try Great Western Road or Woodlands Road): you need to learn to step out of your comfort zone and try somewhere other than Asda/Tesco/etc. The recipe instructions are easy to follow and the results have been very good so far. My only complaint would be that, during the series Rick claims that most Indians eat mainly vegetarian food. I am a vegetarian (no meat, no fish) but this book is actually largely meat and fish recipes. I guess that this is to pander to the UK diet and, whilst I enjoyed reading about and looking at the other recipes, ultimately a large part of this book isn't much use to me.

I have long been a fan of Rick Stein's enthusiasm for cooking but only saw 1 episode of the "India" series but it looked so when this book cam out I had to buy it. There are a variety of meat dish recipes along with vegetable dishes, starters and desserts. The list of ingredients needed is quite daunting at first but the book lists a number of specialist online stockists. I'm fortunate enough to have an excellent exotic food supermarket nearby and I managed to get everything I need for about £30 and the amounts mean I won't need to restock for quite a while. The savings to be had by buying in slightly larger size either online or from a specialist shop are significant versus what high street supermarkets charge for a tiny jar of spices. II really was quite shocked. Don't buy this book expecting any of the dishes to be copies of what you are served in the majorirty of Indian restaurants in the UK. This is traditional Indian cuisine (apparently) and not Anglo-Indian cuisine in which most dishes are served using the same base sauce. The results are superb. Most dishes can be prepared in around 30 minutes and the flavour combinations are amazing. Some dishes require soaking/marinating overnight but it's definitely worth making the effort for the butter chicken. I've made 5 or 6 main dishes so far and I would make any one of them again. Even the prawns with coconut and mustard oil (I am not a fan of prawn curries) is 8/10.

Brilliant book. I watched the TV series and it made me want this book so much. It did not disappoint. The recipes are great and the writing is really good too, I actually read the non-recipe parts before the recipes and it was really interesting and engaging. This would make an excellent gift for anyone who likes cooking curry, it's not just all the usual things.

I have cooked many of the recipes in this book. I also have Atul Kochhur's book. I find Rick's book easier to work with, the other book you have to stop and make some additional masalas. This is not a problem but if you are in a hurry or doing more than one recipe it disrupts the flow. Be prepared to grind a lot of spices in order to get the real taste so invest in a coffee grinder. I like the little stories attached to the book which is typical Rick. It is not unknown for me to take receipe books to bed to familiarise myself with what's there, makes choices easier. I would recommend this book to buy. Be patient though and collect all your ingredients on a plate first ideally in the order they appear in the recipe, it makes life easier. Having seen the television programme which accompanies the book I can visualise things better. As awlays Rick is there with his little book so I guess the recipes are authentic. Having never been to India and often being told that the Indian restaurant food here is for the British palate I am pleased to learn how to cook properly.

I have watched few of the Rick Stein's BBC series and downloaded the Kindle version of the book out of curiosity. The book is well-written, pictures are nice (hard copy version would be much better than my e-book), the recipes are unaltered and Rick Stein has kept the authenticity of the dishes. This I can tell you at least about most of the South Indian recipes. This book is not like many of the Indian cookery books which is altered to suit the palate where everything is ground to a smooth paste and almost all recipes cooked with two tablespoon of vegetable oil. Rick Stein's recipes contain whole spices, curry leaves and 50 ml of oil or more in many recipes as it should be. Kerala fish curry he cook in coconut oil, cocum, lots of spices and instruct you to finish it with a dash of coconut oil at the end, I know that he hasn't omitted anything in the recipe. He also acknowledges all the sources, the contributors with their name and the families whom were hosted him. I don't understand why one of the negative reviewer laments about it. So, folks if you like authentic Indian curry, this book is as close as you can get.

Absolutely love this cookbook! The recipes are authentic, full of flavor, and broken down into simple, easy-to-follow steps. It includes a fantastic mix of classic favorites and unique regional dishes. The ingredient lists are straightforward, and the instructions are perfect for both beginners and experienced cooks. Every dish I've made so far has turned out delicious. Highly recommend it to anyone who loves Indian food!

Great book. Worth buying just for the Lamb Rogan Josh recipe, which I usually make with pork. I've tried 5 recipes and they all came out great. The Butter Chicken recipe is fantastic. They're zingy too, not de-spiced as you might expect from a non-Indian chef. All in all a really useful book. Nice interesting, short little anecdotes with each recipe.

I bought also the dvd and absolutely love the journey deep inside the houses of indian people looking for the secrets of local recipes!! Pictures are fantastic! Looking the dvd, reading the book and smelling the flavours from my karahi it brings me to the coloured streets of India!!! Thanks!

For the first time, I found an outsider book that describes various Indian recipes just they are in our daily life. I have also seen the series of the same name and came out absolutely impressed. Kudos to Rick Stein for this brilliant book, which is not only a cookbook but a travelogue in itself.

I love this book. I watched all the BBC shows it is based on, Rick Stein's India. I would certainly recommend watching them if you can as it brings the whole book more alive. The book itself is beautiful. It is well-designed. The large size of the typeface makes the book easy to read while cooking, the color of the text gives it a kind of softness and readability not found with those harsh black typefaces, the way the dishes are arranged for the photographs shows that they lovingly set up all the photoshoots to feature the cooking to its best advantage, the use of color in the book is dramatic and really accents the recipes and brings the reader closer to India. It's a very beautiful book indeed. Although there is not always a photo for every single dish there are many, many photos. You really get a feel for India, its people and food. The recipes are all very authentic since Rick collected them directly from people he met in India: real home cooking and some favorite restaurant dishes. Rick takes great pains to seek out authentic recipes from all over India directly from the source, many home cooks and professional chefs who show him their favorite dishes. The book is fun to use and the directions are clear. I've gotten a lot out of it. And I plan on using this book for years to come. I highly recommend it.