I mean who knew one shot of vodka was 25ml? Everyone has a tequila glass!

And why would anyone who buys a cookbook written by yours truly expect to find a recipe for home made ghee in it? I’d rather spend the time trimming my hair with a nail clipper, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, the summer barbeque season has truly kicked off. I’ve also been drinking copious amounts of Rose wine, while billowing barbeques blow sausage smoke through my carefully crafted locks.

True to form, I’ve been saving time, effort and precious brain cells these days by making the same kebab for every barbeque I’ve attended. The juicy, skewered Chicken Reshmi Tikka has been reeled out on three occasions causing quite a sensation. It’s dead easy to make with readily-available ingredients.

Look out for the meat tenderiser powder that goes into it at supermarkets. It’s totally natural and works a treat to soften even the hardest pieces of meat. Perfect for quick fix marinades when every second counts.

Makes 15 skewers:

• 1.5 kg chicken breasts (about 15)
• 15 cloves garlic
• 5 inches ginger
• 3 tbsp coriander powder
• 3 tbsp chilli powder
• 3 tbsp meat tenderiser
• 200ml double cream (I know, I know… but this feeds 15)
• 250gm natural Greek yogurt
• 15 bamboo or metal skewers
• Salt to taste

Chop finely or puree the ginger and garlic together. Take a large mixing bowl and mix in all the ingredients. Add salt to your taste. Remember, the marinade needs to be fairly salty as the barbeque will burn some of it away.

Now cut the chicken into large bite-sized chunks. The best way to do this is cut off the tail end of each chicken breast first and then halve lengthwise each piece and chop through the width. Add th chicken pieces into the marinade bowl. Mix together well.

Leave this to sit covered for at least an hour and up to three hours. When you’re ready to eat, thread the chicken pieces onto the skewers (5-6 chicken pieces for each). Then cook on a sizzling but not smoky barbeque for 20 minutes turning regularly to ensure even cooking.

If the weather’s pants or you don’t have a barbeque, you could just cook the lot in two batches under a hot grill for the same amount of time. Serve on a bed of fresh sliced onions drizzled with some chilli powder, lemon juice and salt. Many times.

Living with seven million people is so my thing. Sharing a weekend with most of them and tourists on rubbish-strewn West London streets totally isn’t.

We shoved a duvet, an aunt, one brother, chocolate and home-made Tandoori Chicken into the car and drove off to an idyllic Cambridge village to visit another brother.

The BBQ was ready for my glistening red chicken portions. I stood in a cloud of dark smoke, basting them with a mix of lime juice and vegetable oil. While Harry the dog and the relatives took it in turns to pace around the BBQ.

The result was soft, juicy, full of flavour. Worth every smokey moment. And escaping London for.

PS = To enjoy Tandoori Chicken properly I recommend using a tandoor or BBQ. You could grill it, but that wonderful charcoal smoked flavour will be MIA.

Feeds 8:

• 8 Chicken leg portions, 250 gm each
• 16 garlic cloves
• 4 inches ginger
• 4 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp meat tenderiser
• 2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• 250gm plain yogurt
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp red food colouring
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• Salt to taste

Skin the chicken, make two sideways slits – on the thigh and on the leg – and place in a rectangular dish.

Peel the ginger, garlic and whizz into a smooth paste with the whole seeds and half the yogurt in a food processor. Add the rest of the yogurt, the chilli powder, meat tenderiser, fenugreek, colouring and salt to the food processor bowl and mix well.

Check it for salt. You want this marinade to be overpowering in every way – salty, spicy, bitter – because the BBQ will soften the taste.

Now, smother the chicken leg portions with this marinade making sure every one of them is well coated. Then chill until you’re ready for the BBQ. I left it overnight but a few hours will be plenty.

When it’s on the tandoor or BBQ, mix the oil and lime juice together and baste the chicken portions twice during cooking. They will take a good half an hour to be ready, but make sure you open one up and check that the chicken juices run clear (not pink) before feeding people!

Tandoori chicken is perfect just on it’s own. But feel free to serve it with a lemony mixed salad and some hot naan.

So last minute the BBQ, the aptly-named Outback, had to be transported from the communal garden to his three square feet balcony on the second floor of our building.

This threw my party trick into total disarray. Sausages and burgers would work just fine on the billowing monster. But my tandoori chicken was clearly out of the question unless our neighbours fancied masala upholstery.

I took a chance on Lamb Seekh Kebabs. If anything was going to impress the 30 grown men and women, it was this.

But by the time I shaped them, had a shower and slipped on a ra ra miniskirt, the party was in full swing. Mounds of food lay all over the table. The crowd were more interested in the vodka on tap than soft, buttery kebabs of Mughal origin.

I sneaked off later, slyly taking the platter of kebabs back downstairs with me. Turned the grill on. Cooked a few to perfection. And ate them with copious amounts of Dhaniya Pudina Chutney and tomato ketchup.

Even the best-laid plans…

Makes 15:

• 1kg lamb mince
• 12 cloves garlic
• 3 inches ginger
• 25gm fresh coriander
• 25gm fresh mint
• 3 tsp garam masala
• 1.5 tsp chilli powder
• Half tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp salt
• 15 skewers (bamboo or metal)

Peel the ginger, garlic and remove the hard stalk ends on the mint and coriander. Beat the egg in a little bowl.

In a food processor, whizz the ginger, garlic, fresh coriander and mint together with one quarter of the mince and half the egg. You want to grind the meat to a creamy smooth paste. Then remove this into a large mixing bowl and blitz another quarter of the meat with the remaining egg.

Now, add in the remaining meat in the mixing bowl with the spices and salt and go in with your fingers mixing the whole lot. You want the ground meat and the mince to integrate well together so no one notices that you cheated by not grinding half the mince.

Cover this bowl and chill for about an hour or more if you can. I had a quick beauty sleep.

When you’re ready to go, dampen your hand and divide the mixture into 15 even size lumps. A moist hand will prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands. Then take each lump and shape it like a sausage around each skewer. Keep wetting your palm to make this process really easy.

Finally BBQ or grill on a high flame for 20 minutes turning every 5 minutes to ensure even cooking. Enjoy piping hot with a green chutney. Preferably in the company of friends…

Normally, I am the focused, sensible sort. But given a choice between dangling my legs mid air and watching succulent cuts of meat cook outdoors, I knew which way to go.

I fretted all the way to the yoga class. Sulked as the instructor didn’t show on time. Then 20 minutes of waiting, I hurried home via the supermarket praising divine intervention.

In an ideal world I would get more notice for a BBQ. But this is Britain. We don’t notice we’ve had summer until it’s long gone.

Carpe Diem!

I slashed a few chicken drumsticks and smothered them with a roasted cumin marinade. Made a rice pulao to accompany it. Shoved the whole lot with a jar of mango pickle into a large Selfridge’s bag and dashed downstairs before the flames went out.

The mini meal was a big success. I’m waiting for my next invitation. Hopefully, before summer runs out.

PS= They ate the whole lot before I could photograph the food. I had to cook it again and grill the lot. Your BBQ version will be a lot darker (from the charcoal) and drier (ditto). But it will taste delicious anyway.

Jeera murgh kebab

Feeds 3-4:

• 6 chicken drumsticks
• 75gm onion
• 15gm fresh coriander
• 3 tsp whole cumin
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• Half a lemon
• 2 tbsp thick yogurt
• 2 green chillies
• 1 tsp oil
• Salt to taste

Turn the grill on to a high flame (210 Degree C). Skin the drumsticks, make two deep sideways gashes on each of them and place in a mixing bowl.

Now place the whole cumin on a baking tray and dry grill for about 20 seconds until you can smell them. Remove and place in a food processor along with the peeled onion, ginger, garlic and all the other ingredients. Puree until smooth and add salt to make it a really strong marinade.

Add the marinade to the mixing bowl and leave to rest. Grill or BBQ turning at least two times until the meat has lifted away from the bone.

My top tip is to fry up any leftover marinade with a tablespoon of oil to turn it into a chutney for the kebabs. Mix with a bit of yogurt to get the dipping consistency of your choice.

Channa dal pulao

• 40gm channa lentils
• 350gm basmati rice
• 20 curry leaves
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Half tsp turmeric powder
• Sprinkle of asafoetida
• 1 tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

Soak the channa lentils in cold water. Wash the rice thoroughly under the tap until the water runs clean.

In a medium pot, bring the oil to heat over a high flame. When it is hot, add the asafoetida, cumin and mustard seeds. Give them a stir and throw in the curry leaves. As this lots sizzle up and releases its heady aromas, stir in the channa dal and the turmeric.

Stir the channa dal for a few seconds until it contracts. Next mix in the washed rice and stir for about a minute. The rice will turn bright and opaque. When it does, add a pint of boiling water and stir once.

Bring it back to the boil and then lower the flame to a gentle simmer, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed. This takes about 20 minutes.

This rice is delicious hot or cold. We ate it with the chicken kebabs and mango pickle.

Now provocative, champagne-soaked dancing I can handle. Husky rendition of Fever I can enjoy. But was it really necessary to expose dimply bottoms and orange peel thighs in the middle of my dinner?

I focused on the thigh on my plate.

Chicken has been having its own issues lately. Since the revered Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall started his campaign to raise the plight of the ill treated, factory-farmed birds, I have been spurred into action.

Gone are the days of BOGOF packs of chicken thighs and drumsticks. I now stick to the free-range variety at the very least and organic if I haven’t blown my salary on alcohol and cabaret shows.

Thankfully, chicken thighs and drumsticks are cheaper than breast meat and infinitely more tasty in a curry. So give a chicken a chance with this herbed, light and fresh Hariyali Murgh recipe. I used Waitrose organic free range chicken and it rocked.

This is my entry to A Merrier World’s fantastic effort to raise awareness of the chicken we eat.

Feeds 4:

• 6 chicken thighs and drumsticks, skinned
• 2 tbsp of fresh ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 3 salad onions
• 90gm fresh spinach
• 20gm fresh coriander
• 20gm fresh mint
• 1 green finger chilli
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

Chop up the full length of the salad onions. Bring a large pot to heat over a high flame with the oil.

When it starts sizzling, throw in the salad onions and the ginger garlic. Stir it for about a minute until the ginger and garlic goes pale golden brown.

Now add in the chicken pieces and the coriander and cumin powders and brown for about five minutes, turning over from time to time.

In the meantime, wash and cook the spinach covered for about three minutes in a microwave. Take the mint of the hard stalks and cut the thick ends of the stalks off the coriander.

In a blender, puree the cooked spinach with the mint, coriander, lemon juice and green chilli. Pour this fresh green sauce onto the chicken, lower the flame to a medium and cook covered for half an hour until the chicken is cooked.

You may need to add half a cup of water to help the chicken cook. When the chicken separates from the bone and the curry is mist but not watery, serve with some steaming hot Basmati rice and a content smile.

A few glasses, pizzas and hours of heavy screeching later, I arrived back at home to find a husband prostrate with exhaustion from taking courier delivery of my new red coat dress. And a web browser problem interfering with a client’s urgent press release.

Feeling weary, and a little worse for wear, I flung open the fridge door looking for more vino. And they stared right back at me. Two medium large aubergines/eggplants. Leftover from last dinner party. Distinctly changing colour.

Blast. Is it just me or is summer affecting everything?

The next morning, I decided on a Hyderabad-style spicy and sour baingan. I had pretty much all of the long list of ingredients, including the peanuts I ingeniously fished out of a pack of Bombay Mix. But you could just as easily omit some of the ingredients bar the peanuts, tamarind and aubergine of course.

It was a tangy feast in a frying pan. Perfect to nibble ahead another day of champagne in the sun, meetings and greetings. And even better frozen for an imminent quiet night in.

Feeds 4:

• 2 medium aubergines/eggplants
• 1 small onion
• 30 peanuts
• 1 tsp each of fenugreek, cumin and nigella seeds
• Half tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp each of chilli, cumin and coriander powders
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste
• 2 chopped green chillies
• 2 sprigs of fresh coriander
• 1 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

Slice the aubergine into two cm thick discs, cut into eight bite-sized pieces and then soak in salted cold water. This will prevent them from soaking oil up as they cook.

In a large frying pan or pot, bring the oil to heat over a high flame. When hot, add the sugar and whole spices. As they start spluttering and the sugar melts, stir in the onion and ginger/garlic paste and fry for five minutes until they turn golden brown.

Now add the powdered spices and fry for another two minutes, adding water to prevent the spices from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When the pungent smell of the masalas go, stir in half a cup of hot water and cook the onions mashing them so they lose their shape until the water evaporates.

Smash up the peanuts and mix them in too along with the drained, sliced aubergines. Stir it all well and cook covered on a medium flame with about two tablespoons of water at a time until the aubergines are limp.

Now, mix in the tamarind paste, salt to taste, chopped green chillies and fresh coriander. Serve hot as a side dish to rice or simply with yogurt and some pitta bread.

Just as I was getting in touch with my inner Zen zone after the glorious starter, the waiter handed me the beautifully-presented menu, asking: “Would you like some inter-course?”

I hastily turned down the strange request only to realise he was refering to the option of a mini nibble between the starter and main course.

As I tucked into my spicy marinated quail and coconut rice, I thought fondly about the sunny weekend in Cambridge and the other Indian BBQ dish I made.

It was a tandoori paneer shashlik – chunks of Indian cheese marinated in a tandoori masala and threaded onto skewers with peppers and onions. Paneer can at best be described as solid buffalo mozzarella when hot and polystyrene when cold (Not that I eat polystyrene regularly or anything). It is widely available from Indian shops and I have even bought it at the local supermarket recently.

The paneer gets marinated here in tandoori masala. This is just about the only pre-mixed spice powder I use, because a) it’s a drag to make it from scratch and b) it won’t stink your house up because you tend to cook it outside.

A popular vegetarian tandoori dish at home, this was real hit with the British and Peruvian members of our family. Try this dish with some naan for a really lovely summer lunch.

This recipe serves 10 if alongside other BBQ dishes, 5 on its own:

3 x 250 gm paneer

4 heaped tbsp tandoori masala powder

6 cloves garlic

3 inches ginger

300 gm low fat natural yogurt

Juice of 1 lemon

6 peppers

2 onions

3 tbsp sunflower or corn oil

Salt to taste

Chop the paneer into bite-sized cubes, about one square inch each and puree the ginger and garlic.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the cubes of paneer with the yogurt, tandoori masala, ginger, garlic, lemon juice and some salt. You want a bright red, strong marinade.

Now chop the peppers and onions into large, even chunks – halve and then quarter. In another bowl, mix them with the oil and some salt.

Finally thread the ingredients into bamboo skewers – pepper, onion, tandoori paneer, pepper, onion and another cube of paneer. Repeat this with 10 skewers.

When the BBQ is ready, cook the skewers until the peppers and onions get charred on the outside and the paneer softens to a mozzarella -like texture. Eat it straightaway before the paneer goes cold.

P.S. = Happy Independence Day. I tried and failed to write something less frivolous on this historic day, but others have had more success than me…

I threw myself into our Knight Rider piled up high with two brothers in law, the little sister and hubby at the steering wheel with all the essentials for a weekend in the countryside:

• Antihistamine: for any severe allergic reactions to fresh, country air
• Flat shoes: for walking (good heavens…)
• Oversize handbag and sunglasses: You never know who you’ll meet!
• Bag of spices: for an Indian BBQ

As per usual, the whole thing was disorganised. We took longer than planned punting in Cambridge, making friends on the River Cam with every boat stocked with alcohol.

Back in the house, the BBQ miraculously got ready before I could do any real marinating. And my third brother-in-law’s garden occupants turned from the quiet couple next door to an ASBO-worthy extended family, complete with Harry the Hungry Dog.

The obvious choice for the first BBQ dish on this blog was the much maligned chicken tikka – a kebab spiced with masalas, tenderised and grilled on a tandoor. More recently, this lovely, juicy wonder has been the centrepiece of a tasty but totally wrong English Indian curry – the chicken tikka masala.

In a rush, I forgot to use oil and the result was fantastic nonetheless. In India, we ate these with hot naans and some raita and cucumber salad on the side. And fresh air only makes it taste even better!

This recipe serves 10 if served with other BBQ dishes, 5 on its own:

1.5 kg chicken breast, cubed into bite-sized chunks

500 gm low fat natural yogurt

12 cloves garlic

3 inches ginger

4 green finger chillies

5 tsp coriander powder

5 tsp cumin powder

Half tsp ground black pepper

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon meat tenderiser

Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

Finely puree or chop the ginger, garlic and green chillies.

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients with the chicken. You want a strong marinade that forms an even coating on the submerged chicken pieces.

Leave them sitting in their marinade for up to two hours. I gave mine an hour.

Just as the BBQ is ready, skewer five pieces of chicken onto bamboo sticks keeping about half a centimetre space between each piece. Cook the skewers until the middle of the chicken is pale white, but still juicy.

Serve drizzled with fresh lemon and coriander leaves.

Indian food has a bad name for greasy fatty feasts, but summer in an Indian kitchen features many cooling, lightly-cooked meals. The BBQ becomes our very own tandoor as the weather turns, with sizzling tandoori chicken, nilgiri kebabs and shashliks. Curries are cooked with a light gravy and yogurt features in many guises.

One hugely popular yogurt dish is kadhi, a Gujarati specialty, that can best be described as a soup with tempered spices. It is very easy to stomach and is best served with khichdi.

In anticipation of the hot months lying ahead, I requested Coffee for the recipe for kadhi. Both Trupti and hers, combined with some experimenting, gave me the perfect result I enjoyed in India as a child. I ate it with Coffee’s nutty khichdi, which was absolutely delicious too.

These recipes serve 2-3:

Gujarati kadhi

2 cups plain yoghurt

4 tbsp gram flour (besan)

1 heaped tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

4 branches of curry leaves

1.5 tsp turmeric

1.5 tsp sugar

2 whole red chillies

1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

Quarter tsp asafoetida

Half cup water

2 tbsp ghee or oil

Salt to taste

In a large bowl, mix together the yoghurt, water, gram flour, salt and sugar. Whisk it briskly until bubbles appear. This will prevent it from splitting later.

In a small pan, heat the ghee and when hot add the asafoetida. When it dissolves, add the mustard seeds and the jeera. As they start sizzling, add the curry leaves, turmeric, ginger and chillies. The curry leaves change colour to a darker green and when they do, take the tempering off the heat and mix it well into the yogurt.

You can leave this mixture until you are ready to eat. Then heat the yogurt through gently on a low simmer until the raw taste of the gram flour disappears. Be sure to keep stirring so that the curd does not split.

The consistency should be light and runny and the kadhi should be sweet, sour and delicious!

Nutty khichdi

Half cup rice

Half cup toor lentils

4 cloves of garlic

Half inch ginger

2 green chillies

3 tbsp peanuts

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 cloves

1 inch cinnamon

Half tsp turmeric

Half tsp garam masala

2 cups hot water

1 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

Pound the chopped garlic, ginger, chillies and peanuts coarsely. I blitzed them in a blender but you could use a pestle and mortar or simply a plastic bag and rolling pin.

Heat the oil and fry the whole spices (cumin, cloves and cinnamon) until sizzling and then the peanut mixture for five minutes. Add the rice and the lentils, turmeric and garam masala and coat it well in the masalas.

Add the hot water, bring to boil and then simmer, covered, until the rice and lentils are cooked. Alternatively, you could pressure cook the whole thing (10 minutes after the first whistle).