Kerala

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.

The most proper accompaniment is appam, a fluffy rice pancake, but that's a whole 'nother thing. Bread is very commonly used in Kerala with fish molly.

You're right @heidih, salmon is red, but it works fine. A more country style preparation omits tomatoes and red chilli powder so that it is a much paler, almost white dish. The heat is provided by more green chilli and more pepper. However, the red fish molly preparation is also common. The initial sear of the fish is just to remove the skin. That's what my sister does. You could skin it without this step.

The last 2 pictures are out of sequence, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Fish molly.

Fish molly, molee, moilee.. Meen molly. A white fish dish with gentle spice heat prepared with coconut milk and tomatoes, it is a family favourite. It's perfectly good made mild, but can be made quite hot, too. This is how my younger sister prepares this. I'm not posting a recipe, but recording a process. No measurements in grams or cups, although I'm sure this is available elsewhere. I hope this will help guide you through the process if you wish to attempt it. Where we start. Green chillies, ginger and garlic. Red onions. Next, tomatoes. Salmon, because that's what we have. Taliapa might be a better choice, but salmon is readily available here in the UK. Add a bit of red chilli powder and turmeric, and rub into the flesh side of the fillet. Fry on a hot pan, skin side down just for a few minutes to allow you to peel off the skin. Set aside the fish. Fry the onions. My sister used a neutral vegetable oil. Add a little salt at this point. Add the chillies, garlic and ginger, then when they're golden add and fry in some garam masala, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes. Continue gentle frying. Add a handful of curry leaves. Stir in the coconut milk. Continue gentle cooking. Now we can add the sauce to the fish. Make sure to get some of the the sauce underneath the fish fillets too. Now it's ready to bung in the oven, say 180C for 30 minutes. Serve it with sliced bread. Ciabatta tonight, close to the tough bread I had as a child. Mild spice warmth, rich with coconut, a forward tomato note, underscored with turmeric. If you don't want to try cooking it yourself, do try it if you ever get to Kerala.

Crisp fried tempeh with a garlic and ginger glaze on stir fried noodles. My daughter cooked from something on TikTok, and I just chopped and stirred as I was told.