Kerala

Waitrose pizzas tonight because we bought a few for a party last night. For those in the UK my recommendation is Waitrose above M&S. Either is good for minimum effort dinner party.

We had a few guests over last night. Lots left over, so I made lunch with a few leftovers. Also thawed out some guanciale. Penne rigate, artichokes, parsley, mascarpone, guanciale, dolcelatte.

Avoid the smooth ones, try the gnarly, is the message I'm taking home. I will keep an eye out next time I'm in Asiana!

Just sittin here clicking "Delicious!" on everything I see. What an outstanding page of food!

Penne rigate with a slow lamb ragu.

Leftover chicken from last night's barbecue, corn, etc. Threw in some cheddar, chopped parsley. Winner winner, chicken dinner! Whole family very appreciative, healthy meal with little effort. I should really just stop trying so hard! But, of course, I'm actually cooking for me.

Which Fuschia Dunlop book are you recommending? Is it an appropriate book for a beginner to the cuisine or is it for someone who knows what they're doing? For any Chinese cooking I'd place myself firmly in the former camp.

l agree, 6/10 are firmly in the UK/Frenchy English tradition. We all live in our own boxes.

My first barbecue of the year. Lovely weather today. Sardines. Broccoli. Chicken. Corn. Octopus, readily available at Morrisons. With fino.

This thread I can only drop into occasionally because of the envy. Still looking fantastic! Mark Wiens is amazing in his ability to express enjoyment of food. He's also inspirational in his fearlessness of street food. He gave me the courage to eat on the street when I visited Thailand, and I'm so glad I did!

Sorry@gfweb My comment was being typed while you posted your first response. It does sound like they haven't treated you fairly. I don't know epicurious. I was really reflecting on my own reluctance to pay for online content.

I was just on The Guardian website looking at Porchetta recipes, and it led me to a questionnaire asking if I would pay to use a Guardian Food app. We're generally happy to pay for cookbooks, so why not for massive online content? I guess we're just used to free online information.

Soup made with leftover chicken. Also potatoes, bacon. Fridge clean out, basically. Went down well with the family.

Hi Alex! Welcome back So many people on long threads haven't visited this site in years. It's nice to have someone come back. Did you have a different username before? Anyway, please put up some posts of your travels!

The second link doesn't work for me. The first link to Minnie Matthew looks authentic from the recipes shown. How good the recipes are, I have no idea!

Oh yes! Jump right in, everyone!

I agree, @heidih I make Rick Stein's Spanish dishes and Marcella Hazan's Italian recipes, and they taste mighty fine to me. Who knows what Spanish and Italian natives would think. I know Marcella goes off-piste, for example garlic in her carbonara. Both writers have brought a great deal of joy to non-Italian/Spanish cooks and their families. I know Madhur Jaffrey opened many eyes to the variety of Indian food. Let's get rid of metaphors, she opened mouths. But, as you say, I'm not her target demographic. ------- Just want to clarify, there is no garlic in my carbonara any more.

Well look who I found lurking between Rick Stein and, uh, Jamie Oliver. I knew I'd seen the name before! Wow this is pretty hardcore. No pretty photography, no stories introducing the recipes, and no substitutions for what you can find in Tesco, because it is intended for the young housewife in Kerala just starting out. To be honest I've always found it a bit intimidating, but I will gather my courage and find something to have a go at!

After reading through this thread, I'm buying Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India and KM Mathew's Flavours of the Spice Coast. Dishoom is indeed a lovely book. It's more than half a travelogue for a Parsi Bombay that is fading away but will never die, and partly a cookbook. The nostalgia is evocative and well written. Very beautiful photography of crumbling bourgeois Parsi grandeur. As a boy who grew up with chipped Formica tables, exposed wiring, raw brass taps and limewashed walls, I can tell you these things are nicer through a tourist or NRI* lens. The recipes work very well. I've made several dishes and each turned out delicious. I aim to make my way through most of this book. I've been toying with buying Madhur Jaffrey's book, so I was excited when she popped up on Masterclass. I made her Goan prawn curry and was underwhelmed. It lacked complexity, intensity and depth. The show is probably not aimed at me. Perhaps her books are better. *NRI is Non-resident Indian.

Here is Jay Rayner's list. It's not exactly what the OP is asking for, but it's a good list. I don't think Madhur Jaffrey's book should be considered a definitive guide to Indian cooking, not that he says it is.

Prue Leith's Cookery Bible is solid for British cooking, largely French influenced. How do I make pate, what's a terrine, cooking times for chicken or venison or anything in between, puddings. This thread reminded me to look at Gary Rhodes' New British Classics. It had a moment in the sun a few months ago-I think Jay Rayner mentioned it on a list of the best cookbooks ever and it came up here on egullet, and probably elsewhere. When I searched on eBay at the time it was being offered for three figures. Just looked now, £3.49 in good condition. Bought!

By the way, for anyone interested, the Dishoom cookbook is absolutely cracking.

The Dishoom recipe looks great. The main variation seems to be the mustard seeds at the very start of cooking and the treatment of the curry leaves. I could go either way with either of these. And, of course, no oven stage in Dishoom. The oven phase is necessary if you are doing big slabs of fish rather than prawns, and it adds a bit of caramelisation at the surface.

Dried curry leaves are not as fragrant,but they are better than making the dish without. Curry leaves are quite a subtle addition, but they really elevate the dish. Jo, I would just add a modest handful of dried curry leaves and go ahead. Too much would be worse than too little, but the acceptable range is quite wide. If you stumble upon fresh curry leaves in some Asian grocer's, they freeze well. Just add them frozen to whatever you're preparing.

I like the look of these. When you say "fried in the electric skillet," could you clarify that, please? Dry skillet/skillet smeared with oil/shallow fried/fried in a good half inch of oil? Something else? This looks like it gets the crispness plus that fried carbohydrate goodness the whole world loves.