Curry, Curry, Curry

The curry goes international with a vengeance in this wide-ranging collection of recipes, not a few of them originals. Beginning with curried soups (starting, inevitably, with that hoary Raj relic, mulligatawny), Rai goes on to give a good selection of vegetable, meat, fish, chicken, and rice-based curries. A bonus to those who find curry-making too time consuming are three basic sauces: Persian, Mughal and Madras, which can be fridge-stored to make an “instant” curry. Another boon to the harried cook is the clarity with which Rai sets out his recipes-measurements are provided in metric, British and American systems and each curry progresses from “singlefry” (Rai’s term for that tricky process of bhunao) masala, through “follow-up” and “during cooking” masalas to “finishing” masala and “garnish” masala… With sections on raitas, accompaniments, this is a tempting medley of curried concoctions, with not only “heart”, but plenty of soul.’