Customer Reviews

The Curry Secret: Indian Restaurant Cookery at Home (Right Way S.)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a cookery book which allows you to re-create what you get in an Indian restaurant, rather than attempting to make authentic Indian food as they eat it in India! Most Indian recipe books that I have DO attempt to make authentic Indian dishes, and the result is often disappointing.

The trouble is that we here in the West obviously have only one place where we can experience Indian cooking, and that's in a restaurant. So when you cook at home, you expect to be able to reproduce just that. And at last, this book enables you to do it! I've been making Indian food for years, and, until now, never quite got it right. That was then, but this is now!

So, what's the secret? The secret is a special curry sauce, the making of which is described in detail in the book, and which is used as a base for most of the curry dishes. It's made of onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and oil - the spices come later - but the exact method, which is vital to the sauce, is a matter for you to buy the book for! Apparently all Indian restaurants have a big pot of this stuff on the go at all times. It explians how they're able to make a wide range of curries at a moment's notice.

So, to make a particular curry, you cook your meat and/or vegetables(depending on the dish), add your basic curry sauce, add a teaspoon here and there of various spices (again, depending on the dish), cook it for ten minutes and, hey presto!, there is your genuine Indian Restaurant dish. And it really works! I've tried it out, and the resulting meal was delicious, and exactly what you'd expect if you went out to a good place.

This book goes into all the usual detail in describing utensils, spices, methods, and so on. All the usual restaurant dishes are done, along with some starters, naan breads, desserts, etc. But I've yet to try these out (to be honest, I buy the naans - much less trouble).

For anyone who likes Indian food, and who likes to cook at home, this book is a must, and so reasonably priced too! Forget the big, glossy, hardback cookbooks with lots of pictures that cost a fortune! This book is all you need.

An avid fan of indian cuisine, I have many cookbooks. All of them,including some that claim to be 'restaurant cookbooks', fail. They all tend to give the usual classical recipes with small variations. This book is different. It gives the secrets away and the results are impressive. I found that in a short while I was able to produce authentic restaurant style currys etc in approx 10-15 minutes. Interestingly, this style of cooking can produce curries that have more flavour than the more elaborate styles. The author claims to be a chef in England which I can believe. He demonstrates knowledge, and exposes tips that it took me over 15 years of trial and error to learn. I wish I had this book earlier!

excellent book on curries as they are served in *British* curry houses. I think this is where the confusion with the measurements arise. Someone before mentioned that the measures do not add up: they do add up if you are using British pints (550ml) and read the book carefully (the author mentions at the beginning that a cup is 'approximately a quarter pint or 5 fluid ounces'. If you use these measurements then 3/4pint (412ml), 425ml or 3 cups (3*1/4pint) add up quite well.

I have been using this book for at lest 12 yaers and is the only book that gives you the real recipes that indian cooks use in there restaurants,(not Indian cooking).All the dishes I have made have been true to the restaurant curry that we all would like to make at home. Happy curry making.

Want to cook dishes as served by your favourite Indian restaurant down the road? Ever wondered why your curries didn't match what you bought at the local curry house? Always wondered what their secret was? Then this book is for you.

Kris tells us the secrets behind the most popular indian dishes, as served in commercial indian restaurants. This book does not teach authentic indian home cooking, but rather authentic "western" indian restaurant cooking. (While this has diverged from what is eaten by those in India, it is now regarded as a cuisine in itself). Tips and tricks include making up generic curry sauces and masalas in bulk, freezing them and then using them to prepare a range of different dishes. These tricks are used by commercial restaurants where individual care and attention for each different dish is just not practical.

I liked this book because it delivers exactly what it claims. The curries are indeed like those you will get in many indian restaurants. What I didn't like was the lack of any pictures. Also, if you are in anyway inclined to cook authentic home cooked indian food, this is not the book for you.

4 stars.

Kris Dhillon's book is a fabulous resource for those wanting to replicate the highly Anglicised curries familiar to so many. It's a wonderful guide to making all manner of curries using a basic curry sauce that will always satisfy that Indian takeaway craving. An exceedingly useful addition to any collection of cookbooks, for absolute beginners just getting to grips with curries or for those of us who are fans of both authentic and Anglicised versions. Good organisation, accessibility, and easy instructions make this a smashing little book.

This is the one and only Indian cookbook that has allowed we to repeatedly recreate the curries of my formative years. While I enjoy the genuine flavours of traditional Indian cooking there is something nostalgic about the curries savoured at the Shish Mahal, The Raj, The Royal India, Bombay Palace and many others around the UK.

I would buy this book for ten times the price just for the pilau rice recipe - I never cook basmati any other way now and I repeatedly get asked where to buy the packet I had to have emptied it out of (this could be because it tastes like processed food but I like to think its because it looks and tastes so good)

The sauce is also fantastic as well as the tricks and techniques to get it quickly to the table - although the advance prep times are fairly long.

To summarize - BUY IT. At this price its the steal of the century.

I have tried several books and recipes for curries which usually turned out OK, but they were always more like traditional indian curries than the british restaurant curry I was trying to acheive. With this book I acheived exactly, or as close as possible, the results I was looking for. The curry sauce does take some time to prepare, but if you make a whole bunch of it and freeze it in individual portions, the curries take about 15 minutes to make. Ideal for students as it's cheap and quick. For anyone who wants to make restaurant curries, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It's the best cookbook investment I've ever made. My whole family (who were very skeptical at first) are all hooked on curry now that I've been cooking for them from this book.

This is a cookery book which allows you to re-create what you get in an Indian restaurant, rather than attempting to make authentic Indian food as they eat it in India! Most Indian recipe books that I have DO attempt to make authentic Indian dishes, and the result is often disappointing.

The trouble is that we here in the West obviously have only one place where we can experience Indian cooking, and that's in a restaurant. So when you cook at home, you expect to be able to reproduce just that. And at last, this book enables you to do it! I've been making Indian food for years, and, until now, never quite got it right. That was then, but this is now!

So, what's the secret? The secret is a special curry sauce, the making of which is described in detail in the book, and which is used as a base for most of the curry dishes. It's made of onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and oil - the spices come later - but the exact method, which is vital to the sauce, is a matter for you to buy the book for! Apparently all Indian restaurants have a big pot of this stuff on the go at all times. It explians how they're able to make a wide range of curries at a moment's notice.

So, to make a particular curry, you cook your meat and/or vegetables(depending on the dish), add your basic curry sauce, add a teaspoon here and there of various spices (again, depending on the dish), cook it for ten minutes and, hey presto!, there is your genuine Indian Restaurant dish. And it really works! I've tried it out, and the resulting meal was delicious, and exactly what you'd expect if you went out to a good place.

This book goes into all the usual detail in describing utensils, spices, methods, and so on. All the usual restaurant dishes are done, along with some starters, naan breads, desserts, etc. But I've yet to try these out (to be honest, I buy the naans - much less trouble).

For anyone who likes Indian food, and who likes to cook at home, this book is a must, and so reasonably priced too! Forget the big, glossy, hardback cookbooks with lots of pictures that cost a fortune! This book is all you need.

Kriss Dhillon's The Curry Secret is a small, but effective, book detailing a system for producing numerous Indian curries quickly. Really, the book is about ONE recipe, the base sauce, and all the combinations using that recipe as an ingredient. The book also includes recipes for side dishes, which I haven't tried, having favorite recipes for similar dishes from other cookbooks.

Dhillon's curry system allows cooks to prepare a week's worth of dinners in an hour or so in the weekend. The cook can prepare the sauce, get the meat (for carnivores) ready and freeze, make a large quantity of a delicious rice dish (rice holds beautifully in the refrigerator), and perhaps make another side dish (dals, Mulligitawny soup, and samosas are favorites that store well). With these dishes, the cook can finish off a fresh curry for the day while warming the side dishes. Thus, the cook can have an exquisite meal ready in about fifteen minutes.