Flicking through her edition of “The Good Housewife’s Encyclopedia”, I stumbled upon a curry of chicken recipe. Cooked with curry powder (natch), Worcester sauce (odd) and condensed milk (plain weird).

Still, we’ve come a long way since 1963.

Back in the living room, his uncle offered us dinner. I make a great curry, he said. It comes out of a bottle, and then I add grapes and olives to it.

Sounds like a great recipe for my blog, I croaked. So much for progress.

After gran’s, the brothers came back to our place for the real thing. Except I had little other than a few carrots and potatoes, some goat meat and a sack of urad dal to work with.

I decided to make a sabzi. This is the catch all word used to describe both vegetables and vegetable dishes. Making “sabzi” gives you the perfect excuse to cobble together leftover vegetables in an impromptu dish. Also, you can tweak the basic curry with the addition of whole spices or green chillies.

The good housewife’s curry of vegetable. Without the dodgy ingredients.

Feeds 4:

• 4 medium carrots
• 1 medium potato
• 2 large tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cloves garlic and half inch ginger, minced finely
• 1 tsp whole cumin
• 1 tsp coriander power
• Half tsp turmeric powder
• Half tsp chilli powder
• Half tsp garam masala
• 4-5 sprigs of fresh coriander
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• Salt to taste

Slice the onions finely, and dice the carrots and potatoes into equal bite-sized pieces. Chop the tomatoes roughly.
In a pan, bring the oil to heat. When it’s hot, add the cumin. As the cumin sizzles add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry for five minutes until pale golden brown.

Next, add the tomatoes and all the spices apart from the garam masala. Fry for another five minutes until the tomatoes have lost their shape.

Add in the diced potatoes and carrots , half a cup of water, cover and cook on a medium flame unti the whole lot is cooked. This takes about 15 -20 minutes. All you need to do from time to time, is check on the pan and give the veggies a stir to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Finally, mix in the garam masala and salt, sprinkle the fresh coriander and serve piping hot in a bowl.

Bored stiff of doling out mind-bogglingly perfect and precise recipes for years, she decided to reinvent herself as the NBF of the common people, the time poor types. Except no one told her we’d moved on from the Seventies.We are still looking for shortcuts. But we also care about what we put in our bods. And the convenience/health equation is a delicately balanced one.

Of course it can get terribly complicated. Eat oily fish. But not farmed fish. From the Atlantic. Chicken is low fat. Unless battery farmed. Organic can mean just that or not.Tricky, that.She thinks we need “leadership”. In the form of a controversial cookbook that uses ready tinned beef mince and potato mash powder that is flying off our shelves.I think we need to make up our own blooming minds. Tinned beans? Yes. Powdered spud? No way, I say.

Here’s my half way solution. A super healthy, black eyed beans curry that is made from the canned stuff and other healthy and fresh ingredients. I couldn’t resist this recipe from Vimmi, whose blog is aptly named Possibilities.

Feeds 4:

1 can of cooked black eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 small onion

1 large tomato

4 cloves garlic

Half inch ginger

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp coriander powder

Half tsp garam masala powder

2 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

Chop the onion into small pieces. Chop the tomato roughly. Mince the ginger and garlic as small as you can.Now bring the oil to heat over a high flame and when it’s hot, add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle up.As they do toss in the onion, garlic and ginger and stir fry until it turns a pale golden yellow. Then, add all the powders apart from garam masala, and the chopped tomato.Fry this on high for about five minutes, until you see the oil from the masalas being released on the sides of your saucepan.When this happens, stir in the beans and a cup of hot water and leave to cook on a medium flame for about five minutes.Finally stir in the garam masala and salt.

This is delicious as a complete beans and rice meal or in a bowl with some toasted pitta bread for dunking.

They also left behind a considerable amount of food.

After all, I plan party food quantities like every good Indian girl. I count how many people are coming. Double the number, add 10, then another 10. Just in case.

No wonder I eat leftover party food for days after.

Aloo kadhi it was for one whole week. Cubes of new potatoes cooked in a light, spicy yogurt and gram flour curry. A staple back home on Diwali.

At first I enjoyed its light texture, depth of subtle masalas, etc etc etc. Then I ate it for lunch and dinner. With rice. Roti. Even salad. For three days. By the fourth, I was recoiling at the horror of the bottomless buttercup yellow curry.

By God, these were persistent potatoes.

Interestingly, they tasted better as we went along. As I grazed the bottom of the Tupperware container, the yogurt had just the right blend of sweet and sour that I remembered back home.

Which makes this dish not only delicious but also a perfect party choice for overzealous domestic types like me. I might wait the full 360 days until Diwali 2008 to cook it again though…

This recipe feeds 4 and maybe more:

2 cups natural low fat yogurt (about 500 gm)

1 cup cold water

Half cup gram flour

500 gm small new potatoes, quartered

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 sprigs of curry leaves

Half tsp chilli powder

1.5 teaspoon turmeric powder

Quarter tsp asafoetida (hing)

Half tsp fennel seeds

1 whole red chilli

Half tsp white sugar

1 tbsp sunflower oil

Bring the potatoes to boil in a large pan of cold water. When you can insert a fork through them with a little bit of effort, drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the yogurt, water and gram flour together. You want to whisk it well so that there are no little lumps in the gram flour. I find the quickest way to do this is to whisk the mixture for a minute and then run it through a sieve, into the pan containing the potatoes.

Bring the oil to heat in a small frying pan over a high flame. When it is hot add the asafoetida. As it sizzles up add the whole chilli, then mustard seeds, fennel seeds and finally the curry leaves, chilli powder, turmeric powder and sugar.

Take the pan off the flame in two minutes and mix it into the potato and yogurt mixture.

When you are ready to eat, place the potato curry pan over a medium heat and stir slowly until the yogurt is heated through and you can’t taste the raw gram flour. This takes about 10 minutes. If the yogurt starts splitting, take the pan off the flame and lower the heat slightly.

Finish by adding salt to taste and enjoy for days.

My stomach churned merely at the thought. Hordes of hormonal girls wrestling over last-remaining size small jackets and long queues to reach even the clothes display.

I could think of 100 better things to do on a Sunday afternoon. Like eating my shoes or toenails. Cooking chicken tikka masala.

It started the day hubby pointed out that grey suits and shoulder pads had gone out of fashion since the end of Dynasty. Shit. I hadn’t even noticed. But then, I’d barely ventured beyond the Austin Reed basement.

I should have stayed put. The whole thing was about as much fun as being dragged through a hedge, backwards. Virtually everything I bought needs to be returned. My feed still hurt from the walking. The less said about my bank balance the better.

The only saving grace was the saag paneer I’d made earlier - a thick, smooth and spicy spinach puree with little cubes of Indian cheese. I had a whole pan full of this loveliness to come back to as darkness and exhaustion set. And it certainly buoyed me along.

Give me the healing power of saag paneer, a spoonful of plain yogurt and ready made parathas any day. Shame it couldn’t repair the damage to my wallet…

This recipe serves 4-6:

250 gm paneer

500 gm frozen spinach

2 green finger chillies

Juice of half a lemon

2 tsp coriander powder

2 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp chilli powder

Half tsp turmeric powder

Half tsp garam masala

1 medium onion, chopped fine

4 garlic cloves and 1 inch ginger, pureed

Salt to taste

2 tbsp sunflower oil

Cut the paneer into even, two-centimetre by one-centimetre cubes. Marinate them in the turmeric powder, half the chilli powder and half a teaspoon of salt.

In the meantime, microwave cook the frozen spinach for five minutes until thoroughly defrosted. Add in the green chillies and puree it to a smooth paste with a hand blender.

Now heat the oil in a thick bottomed frying pan over a high flame. When it is hot, fry the paneer pieces until pale brown on two opposite sides. Remove from the oil, draining them carefully.

Now add the onion, garlic and ginger into the same oil and fry until they are a pale toffee brown.

Then add all the spice powders, apart from the garam masala. Stir vigorously for about 10 minutes on a high heat until the pungent, individual smell of the masalas changes to a more blended aroma.

Now mix in the pureed spinach evenly, adding salt to taste. Lower the flame to a gentle simmer and let the spices work their magic through the spinach for five minutes.

Finally stir in the garam masala, the paneer cubes and the lemon juice. Let the ingredients simmer together for another five minutes and serve hot. As a final tip, this tastes much better if it’s left sitting in the fridge for a couple of hours before being reheated.

In a bold move likely to transform her life altogether, she has decided to ditch her favoured cabbage soup and salad diet in favour of quick Indian cooking.

When she asked if I might teach her some easy recipes, I nearly choked and passed out. I managed a weak “of course” masking my excitement and unbelievable luck.

(A real-life, live-in case study - there is a GOD)

Sadly, it’s not going to be as easy as I first thought. She has already sliced her thumb, hurt her shoulder and virtually died at the sight of one tablespoon of oil. And I’m only just getting started!!

I’ve decided to “slowly, slowly catchy monkey”. I cooked the masala fish and jeera aloo in front of her and then a very simple spinach bhaji.

Wish me luck! And here’s the spinach bhaji for the beginning of your own kitchen adventure.

This recipe serves 2:

150gm frozen spinach

1 tsp mustard seeds

10 curry leaves

1 tsp lemon juice

1 dry whole red chilli

1 tbsp sunflower oil

Salt to taste

In a small frying pan, bring the oil to heat on a high flame.

When it’s hot, throw in the mustard seeds, red chilli and curry leaves to make a tarka. When they start sizzling and releasing their heady aromas, take the frying pan off the fire.

Put the spinach and the tarka in a microwaveable bowl. Add some salt to taste, cover and microwave on high for four minutes until the spinach is drefosted.

Take the bowl out of the microwave carefully and mix the spinach into the tarka. Then put it back in the microwave and heat for another minute until piping hot.

To finish, stir in the lemon juice and enjoy as a side dish to your meal.

But Indians are no strangers to being hot and flustered. During our long summers we have special recipes that soothe the tummy and free the mind.

Perfect for a sweltering weekend in London, complete with visiting out-of-town friends and a boho village fete.

I thought I would welcome them with a meal that included two traditional summer Bengali dishes - aloo posto and masoorir dal.

Aloo posto is a dish of sauteed potatoes smothered in creamy poppy seeds. And masoorir dal is a light, red lentil soup tempered with panch phoron. Together they are perfect partners for a simple, summer meal.

As I wondered what would keep our friends sane after an Indian lunch on a hot day, the flash of inspiration came from none other than Sandeepa of Bong Mom’s Cookbook.

I love Sandeepa’s blog for her lively stories about growing up in Calcutta, now Kolkata. And the festivities, rituals and food that typical Bengalis enjoyed while I was running around in some half-Punjabi, half-Bengali Anglophile haze.

The masoorir dal recipe is from Sandeepa and the aloo posto from a rushed conversation with mother on Sunday morning. The results were delicious and my friends, non-Indians with open minds, thought the world of them.

Here’s to summer…

These recipes serve six:

Aloo posto

1 kg small new potatoes

1 tsp nigella seeds

1 tsp grated ginger

4 whole green finger chillies

Half cup poppy seeds

1 tbsp sunflower oil

Half cup water

Salt to taste

Soak the poppy seeds in water in your food processor bowl.

While the seeds soften, wash and chop the potatoes into little cubes by halving them and then cutting each half into quarters.

Bring the oil to heat in a large pot over a high flame. When hot, add the nigella seeds. As they start sizzling mix in the grated ginger.

Stir for a few seconds until the ginger starts turning brown and then add in all the potatoes. Fry for about two minutes, coating them all over with the nigella seeds and ginger. You could add salt at this stage.

When the potatoes are translucent lower the flame and blitz the poppy seeds until you get a pale, creamy, semi-solid paste. You should still be able to feel a seedy texture in the paste.

Mix this into the potatoes, coating them well. Now add the whole green chillies, quarter cup of hot water, cover and cook on a medium flame until the potatoes are soft.

If the potatoes are raw and the dish dry, add a bit more water and keep cooking. The end result should be a dry, potato subzi with a creamy, seedy texture and a litle chilli bite at the end.

Serve this warm, not hot. It’s also super moreish straight out of the fridge the next day.

Masoorir dal

1 cup red lentils or masoor dal

1 medium onion

1 medium tomato

1.5 tsp panch phoron

Half tsp turmeric powder

4 green finger chillies

12.5 gm of fresh coriander, chopped

1 tsp lemon juice

Salt to taste

1 tbsp sunflower oil

Wash the lentils thoroughly until the water runs clear. Add the turmeric and bring it to boil with two and a half cups of water in a large pot.

In the meantime, roughly chop the onion and the tomato. Heat the oil in a small pan over a high flame. Add the panch phoron when the oil is hot and as it starts sizzling, fry the onions and the tomatoes until they are soft and shapeless.

By now your dal will have a fibrous texture. Add this masala tempering into it and the green chillies. Keep cooking the dal until the individual lentil bits are cooked but not completely smooth.

To finish, stir in the fresh coriander, the lemon juice and salt. Serve it piping hot with Basmati rice.

We were due to attend my brother-in-law’s best friend’s Gujarati wedding reception. On a Monday. In the depths of commuter countryside - Hertfordshire.

Going out on a Monday night is difficult at the best of times. Wearing a saree, earrings the size of rocks and gold stilettos was pushing it just that little bit too far.

Moan over, we dashed down the motorways to a Jain temple and community centre tucked away at the end of a country lane.

Hubby gasped with surprise as he spotted a sign forbidding “non vegetarian food, alcohol and smoking”. His life was temporarily over.

I, on the other hand, fidgeted nervously and shuffled along like a Geisha attracting glares from a 1000 aunties. I never did work out if it was the painstakingly hand-embroidered chiffon saree draped on my left arm or the bona fide white man on my right.

We queued for food. And boy was it worth it. A platter with little compartments held a host of vegetarian treats - kadhi, dhokla, khandvi - and two achingly glorious sweets.

Gujaratis are mostly vegetarians who avoid eggs, meat and fish. As Jains, they avoid using garlic and onions in their diets. Very strict Jains don’t even have potatoes or other root vegetables.

This wedding featured a delicious spicy potato curry. I ate mine in a jiffy and started attacking hubby’s portion, attracting glares from the uncles this time.

I decided to try and replicate it the following day. From my calculation, it used ginger and heeng, even a bit of sugar. And the result was surprisingly close to what we had eaten, but “not as spicy” according to hubby.

This time he enjoyed it with a pint.

The recipe serves 4:

350 gm small new potatoes, washed and halved

Pinch of asafoetida (heeng)

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

Half tsp turmeric powder

Half tsp chilli powder

Half inch ginger, pureed with 1 tbsp warm water

2 tbsp natural Greek yogurt

Quarter tsp sugar

2 tbsp sunflower oil

Half cup hot water

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pot over a high flame. When the oil is hot, add the heeng and the sugar.

As the sugar caramelises, add the pureed ginger and fry it stirring until its colour changes to a warm golden.

Then add the tomatoe puree and all the powders. Mix them well, frying the masala for five minutes until you can see the oil reappearing on the sides of the pot.

Now add the potatoes and stir vigorously incorporating the masala into them. As the potatoes start going translucent around the edges, spoon in the yogurt. Make sure you use a very thick yogurt or it will split.

Fry for about two minutes, mixing the masalas together. Then add the hot water, reduce the flame to a medium heat and cook covered, stirring regularly, until you can easily insert a fork into the potatoes.

This will take a good 20-30 minutes but the potatoes will taste much better than if you pre-cook them.

Serve them hot, with a vegetable pulao or rotis.

I had the great pleasure of attending her university graduation ceremony yesterday. As she strode up the stage a confident, pint-sized princess in a flowing gown, I couldn’t help wonder what happened to the bald midget that used to eat mangoes in her knickers what seems like only a few years ago.

Now officially homeless and jobseeking, the Bollywood starlet is spending her days looking for meaningful employment. All under the strict tutelage of her older and somewhat wiser sister (that would be me) and a much older and wiser mother.

It’s not just the career direction I’m taking an interest in. Her diet too swings like a crazy pendulum, from a crash course of GM to a bag of gluten free, butter rich biscuits.

I made this paneer butter masala for her - a thick and creamy Indian cheese curry. Normally, this is a fatty North Indian feast awash with cream and butter. I managed to tone it down a little, without losing its essence, using Greek yogurt and a butter substitute.

This one’s great when you want to impress - hungry students and other very important people.

This recipe serves 4:

250 gm paneer, diced into one cm wide and two cm long pieces

2 garlic cloves

1 inch ginger

1 heaped tsp coriander powder

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp tomato puree

4 tbsp natural Greek yogurt

Half tsp garam masala

Half tsp turmeric powder

Half tsp chilli powder

1 tsp kasoori methi, soaked in a tsp of hot water

10 cashewnuts, ground to a fine paste with a tbsp of hot water

1 tbsp of low fat butter substitute (anything that tastes like butter but isn’t as fattening)

Salt to taste

1 tbsp sunflower oil

Mix a quarter teaspoon each of the chilli and turmeric powder into the cubed paneer, along with a little bit of salt.

Puree the ginger and garlic to a fine paste. In a pot, heat the oil on a high flame. When hot, add the masala coated paneer and fry for five minutes until pale brown.

Remove the paneer pieces and in the same oil, add the bay leaf. Within seconds the bay leaf will start sizzling. When this happens, add the ginger and garlic puree and stir gently until it turns translucent.

Now add the chilli, coriander and turmeric powder, and tomatoe puree, stirring vigirously on a high flame until the pungent smell of masalas go (about two minutes).

Then spoon in the yogurt, lower the flame, and simmer for five minutes. You will see the colour of the yogurt change from pale white to a rich red as the masalas blend into it.

Now stir in the paneer pieces, the pureed cashewnuts, and the garam masala. Simmer for five minutes and then add the kasoori methi, along with its water, and salt to taste.

The kasoori methi and garam masala are added to cut the tangy taste of the curry and make it a more balanced creamy one. Give them a good two minutes to do their magic.

To finish, stir in the butter substitute and enjoy piping hot with some aromatic pulao.

As I picked split ends in the back seat, the car dealer talked him though car controls, insurance and bodywork.

Snoresville.

In the house I was back in form, making a last minute meal for my friend who was visiting for lunch. I chose baingan bharta, a roasted aubergine mash with a smokey spicy flavour.

As the aubergines roasted on an open flame - messy but tantalisingly aromatic - my husband dashed into the study to tell me the aubergines were on fire.

Nothing like a bit of comedy relief.

The only tricky part about this recipe is making sure the aubergines are roasted evenly so that the crispy charred skin just falls off when you try to peel it.

I tend to make this when I entertain small groups of people so that I’m not roasting and peeling aubergines all day! Try it with a raita and some pulao for a simply delightful vegetarian meal.

This recipe serves 4:

2 large whole aubergines

6 cloves garlic

2 inches ginger

2 medium tomatoes

2 medium onions

12.5 gm fresh coriander

3 green chillies

Salt to taste

3 tbsp sunflower oil

Turn the flame up on high on two cooker hobs. Place an aubergine on each hob to roast. In the meantime, cut the garlic, ginger, onions and chillies into little pieces, quarter the tomatoes and finely chop the coriander.

Keep turning the aubergines using tongs so that they roast evenly. When the skin chars and splits they are ready to be turned.

When the aubergines are evenly burnt, take them off the flame and leave to cool.

Now bring a large pot with the oil to heat on a high flame. When smoking hot add the onion, ginger and garlic and fry until pale brown. If the mixture starts sticking to the bottom, add a little hot water and stir vigorously to release it.

Then add the chopped tomatoes, coriander and chillies. Fry for five minutes until the tomatoes disintegrate.

Lower the heat to a simmer and peel the aubergines. The skin will just fall off, and where it doesn’t, use a sharp knife to tease it away.

Add the two aubergines to the pot and mash it into the masala mixture. Raise the flame to medium and add salt now to taste. With a wooden spoon, keep stirring to make sure there are no lumps in the aubergine and that the masalas are evenly distributed.

Leave to cook for another 10 minutes until a taste test fires up your senses. This spicy recipe is great served alongside chicken tangri kebabs or some hot rotis.

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).