Published 10th September 2021 by Misty Ricardo's Curry Kitchen.
From the cover of the book:
Curry Compendium is based on the two topselling paperback prequels Indian Restaurant Curry at Home: Volume 1 & 2 which have collectively sold over 50,000 copies in three years. Both books won Gourmand World Cookbook awards for the best UK self-published cookbooks.Richard Sayce has combined all the content from both these books into a quality hardback format, added a splattering of new recipes, and updated many of the photographs and illustrations.
Inside the new book you'll find an abundance of mouth-watering, delightfully easy to follow Indian restaurant recipes. These are all backed up with detailed and comprehensive informational chapters: everything you need to learn the art of curry cooking.
Curry Compendium contains all you need to create your own restaurant quality food at home in your kitchen. Start saving a fortune on takeaways!
- 99 recipes, fully detailed and explained, covering starters, mains, sides, rice, accompaniments, and traditional Indian & streetfood
- Video Tuition throughout. A QR code is included for most recipes which can be scanned with a smartphone to instantly open up the associated YouTube video
- A quick and easy base gravy recipe to cook in 30 minutes
- Scaling Up - a detailed but easy to follow chapter about cooking multiple curry portions at once
- Inside an Indian Restaurant kitchen - a chapter showing the workings of a busy kitchen
- Additional recipe photos crediting social media followers
Based on the top-selling, Gourmand award winning paperbacks Indian Restaurant Curry at Home Volumes 1 & 2 (ISBN: 9781999660802 & 9781999660826)
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Welcome to the Curry Compendium - the definitive guide to recreating British Indian Restaurant (BIR) food in the comfort of your own home!
Although I am an experienced cook and have made a variety of curries from scratch many times before, this book offers a whole new way of approaching the subject of homemade curries, so I was intrigued to discover what Richard Sayce had in store for me with his BIR method.
Let's start with what you get for your money:
Although self-published, this is one of the highest quality hardbacked cookery books I have ever had the pleasure to give shelf room to. It is beautifully bound, with high quality glossy pages, the print is large enough to read comfortably without glasses (a bonus for me) and there are loads of full colour photographs throughout - there is also a photograph to illustrate what each finished dish should look like, which is always helpful, particularly when you are trying something new. There is not a separate dust jacket, which is a bit of a shame as cookery books always get a bit messy in use and I like them to still look smart of the shelf, but this is a very minor thing. Have no fear this is a top quality book and looks and feels every inch worth its cover price of £21.99.
What's inside the cover?
Richard Sayce starts with a few basics about curries and the equipment you will need to get started. This is all stuff well worth reading, even if you consider yourself a competent curry chef. Sayce's tone is engaging and informative throughout, so it is not a case of wading through boring detail either.
He then gives a full introduction to the BIR method and what makes his cooking process so unusual to the home cook. Basically, this is all about preparing ingredients beforehand, like they do in Indian restaurants - and it's fair to say that there is a lot of prep involved before you can sit down to enjoy your tasty final dish. Essentially there are several distinct stages to these curries: making up a base spice mix; making up a base sauce/gravy; precooking your chosen main ingredient (usually meat, but vegie options are available); and then the final cooking process where everything comes together with extra ingredient to make a curry.
Preparation is key and Sayce goes to great lengths to explain how and why before you get going with the recipes. He gives comprehensive details about what is involved here, and you do need to read this section very carefully to understand what comes in the pages that follow, including the ingredients you will require. Incidentally, there were a few ingredients listed here that I had not come across before, and some were called different names to those which I was familiar with so this was very useful information. There are also tips about swaps you can make, and things which are optional too.
The rest of the book is full of delicious sounding recipes for starters, a whole range of different curries, side dishes, rice, breads and sundries. There is also a really interesting chapter on Street Food, a wealth of information about scaling up curry recipes (more of an art than a science it seems), a sneak peek inside an Indian restaurant kitchen, and a couple of handy appendices on shopping lists and suppliers.
I will add a word here about something that makes this book rather special. Many of the recipes and processes covered in these pages are accompanied by tutorials on YouTube. Simply access the relevant video via your smart phone using the QR code printed on the page. If this isn't the future of all cookery books, than I don't know what is, because it gives invaluable support before you attempt your own BIR menus. Brilliant!
How did I get on with BIR cooking?
First of all I tackled the spice mix! There are two options available, and I plumped for the basic Mix Powder, as I had all the ingredients readily available.
This was a gentle start, as basically it is just combining dry spices. You do have to grind some whole spices, which is quite hard work in a pestle and mortar, so I recommend a spice blender if you have one to make this stage easier.
The Base Gravy:
Making up the base gravy is where things start to get a bit more interesting. You can choose the type of gravy you make at this stage, which really depends on how much time you want to spend here. I opted for the 30 Minute Base Gravy, which was the quickest option.
Gather your ingredients, chop your onions and follow the steps provided, leave everything to bubble away for 15 minutes, then blend to a smooth consistency and you get a vibrant base sauce. This makes up a concentrated curry base, which has to be thinned down when making up you final curries.
At this stage, the base gravy can be cooled and stored in the fridge. The 30 Minute Gravy will make about five BIR style curries.
The final curry!
I have made a handful of curries from this book, with a variety of ingredients, so will cover this final stage in general terms.
This is the stage where everything comes together.
There are lots of different options and methods here, but really they all involve using spices, including your basic spice mix, base gravy, and a variety of other ingredients.
If you are making a meat curry, you ideally need to prepare this element first, although at a push you can extend the cooking period to cook everything together at this point - you do get a better flavour from cooking the meat separately though. To be honest, I did cheat a little bit here and cooked the meat in the oven, rather than on the stove-top, because this saved time. Sorry Mr Sayce! I would recommend making sure you meat is ready before embarking on the final stages though, as that is where things get busy!
Now comes what you have been waiting for... the grand finale! Each recipe has very specific instructions about how things come together and the extra ingredients you need. This is where things tend to get hot and sweaty, but although the process seems a bit hectic and messy, it is actually quite quick - this is where all the prep pays dividends.
Once everything is ready you can relax and enjoy a delicious curry!
My thoughts:
This is a whole new way of thinking about Indian cookery and it is quite a lot to take in if you are new to the BIR method, as I was.
I have to be honest here and say that it does seem like there is a lot of work involved in cooking this way, and you do have to invest a big chunk of time in preparing everything you need beforehand. This is not a method for the chef who likes to cook by the seat of their pants! However, it is also the case that making curries with a depth of flavour is not something that happens quickly, and actually making elements of the final product before you plan to eat them can potentially save you time in the long run - especially if you plan to tackle a curry after a long day at work. It is a matter of balance and adjusting your mindset.
There are a lot of interesting and tasty dishes in this book. They are presented well and are easy to follow. If you are not used to cooking curries you will need to invest in quite a few ingredients, and some of the processes are very involved, even if the equipment you need is rather basic. I think this aims it towards the keen cook rather than the beginner in terms of the curries themselves, as this could be a bit overwhelming for a beginner, but many of the starters, side dishes and accompaniments are easily achievable and offer a good way to start to engage with this book.
I can see how it it would be easy to become a devotee to the BIR method, as it is very persuasive, especially if you are a fan of Indian restaurant cooking, and the Misty Ricardo's Curry Kitchen technique is certainly hugely popular. I am not sure I am ready to become a card carrying member of the club just yet, as I am fond of spontaneity in my kitchen, but I enjoyed tackling the recipes, and I can see this would be an attractive option to the lovers of preparing ahead or batch cooking. It's been a long while since I had a cookery book in my kitchen that made me think in a completely different way about preparing something I am familiar with making, which I found quite exciting!
Curry Compendium is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer.
Thank you to Literally PR for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
“I’ve been interested in cooking since an early age, and have always loved Indian food. My passion led me to learn all about how curry is cooked in restaurants and takeaways here in the UK, which was my first experience of Indian food.
Having tried unsuccessfully to reproduce BIR (British Indian Restaurant style) curry many years ago, albeit with limited resources, I resigned myself to thinking the amazing flavour was out of reach for home cooks. How the (mainly Bangladeshi) chefs created their divine-tasting food was seemingly a closely-guarded secret and inaccessible to everyone else.Richard lives in the North West of England and dedicates his ‘foodie’ time to cooking, recipes, social media, catering, and of course eating. A firm love of Indian food in both home and restaurant styles gives plenty of motivation to experiment and try out new recipes and ideas.
In more recent years with a rekindled passion and determination, I endeavoured to finally master the art of creating excellent BIR style curry, and with time and a lot of experimentation, finally gained enough skill and knowledge to be happy with sharing my experiences.”
His two books, Indian Restaurant Curry at Home Volume 1 and 2, have each won the Gourmand World Cookbook award for best UK Self-Published Cookbook, 2019 and 2020 respectively, and have sold many thousands of copies in the UK and abroad. His long-standing YouTube channel has over 30 thousand subscribers and over 5 million views.
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