Add the garlic and ginger and fry for a minute, then stir in the tomato passata and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Rick Stein’s India - The Happy Foodie 5 curry tips from Rick Stein’s India - The Happy Foodie

When I heard that the Taj Gateway hotel in Madurai had employed a local housewife to cook some of the region’s dishes, I knew they were on to something. Find recipes from Jamie Oliver’s 2023 Channel 4 cookery TV series 5 Ingredient Meals and accompanying cookbook 5 Ingredients Mediterranean.

Whenever I hear the word curry, I’m filled with a longing for spicy hot food with the fragrance of cumin, cloves and cinnamon. Sharing the dishes he most loves to cook for family and friends, Rick takes you inside their home kitchens unlike he’s done in any previous book. For the second marinade, put all the ingredients apart from the chat masala into a mini food processor.

NEW BOOK AND TV – Rick Stein’s India - Rick Stein

These are the fairly mild, large green chillies that vary between about 6cm and 12cm in length, and between a forefinger and thumb in thickness. Driving into Thakur Man Singh’s huge ancestral property just outside Jaipur in Rajasthan, I had the feeling I’d been there before. For the spiced yogurt, mix the yogurt in a bowl with the cinnamon and chilli powder, adding a dash of water to thin it down if needed to give it a smooth and runny consistency. Onions and shallots are used widely across India, where they are a pale pink colour and generally smaller and slightly milder than either the brown or red onions in the UK. Afterwards, in conversation with him, I realized that they’d used his house as the ex-British Raj Club in the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where the character played by Celia Imrie went hunting for rich men.For the sauce, while the chicken is cooking, heat the ghee in heavy-based saucepan or karahi over a medium heat. It’s the lichen off a tree, known as dagarful, kalpasi or stone flower, with a flavour like cinnamon. Secret France sees Rick travel from Dieppe in the very north of the country, winding his way down to Cassis in the south – always on the look out for exciting new recipes and produce to cook with (or drink). Rick divides his time between his businesses and homes with his wife, Sarah between Padstow, London and Australia. For the chicken, heat the oil in a sturdy frying pan or karahi over a medium heat, add the fennel, cinnamon and dagarful and fry for 1 minute.

Koftas in Yogurt with Cinnamon and Chilli - The Happy Foodie Lamb Koftas in Yogurt with Cinnamon and Chilli - The Happy Foodie

Supermarket free-range chickens have a great deal more fat than Indian chickens, and they don’t come close to reproducing the flavour and texture of Indian chicken dishes. The most common one of these is that it was a way Indian restaurants had of refreshing chicken cooked in the tandoor and not sold, i. The Stein business now employs over 650 and extends beyond Cornwall with restaurants in Winchester, Sandbanks, Marlborough and Barnes in London.

As he said at the time “nothing is more exhilarating than fresh fish simply cooked” – an ethos he has both lived and run his restaurants by. In Rick Stein’s India, our favourite itinerant cookbook author journeys across India meeting the chefs, home cooks and street food vendors who hold the secrets to accomplished Indian cookery. He has written over 25 cookery books, a memoir and made over 30 programmes including 12 cookery series. Rick is still at the helm The Rick Stein Group with his ex-wife Jill and their three sons, Edward, Jack and Charlie all involved too.