Rick Stein's India: In Search of the Perfect Curry: Recipes from My Indian Odyssey

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Everyone you met in India spoke with such passion and pride of their food. Was there one person who stood out to you most as embodying the spirit of Indian cooking? Heat a frying pan over a high heat without oil, add the chopped hazelnuts and toast them for 1- 2 minutes stirring frequently to ensure they do not burn, tip into a bowl and set aside. Melt the butter in the frying pan and fry the dried breadcrumbs until crisp and golden then add three-quarters of the toasted hazelnuts, and the cinnamon stir well to combine. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 25g of sugar. Veggie suppers: Vegetable bourguignon with dumplings, Spaghetti with courgettes, rosemary and ricotta Read more Details Thankfully, not all Brits will fall for the hype. Some British chefs do an excellent job of documenting their Indian food journey (see Gordon Ramsey's show). If you need someone to make Indian food more accessible for the Western palate, try Madhur Jaffery who does a good job. At least she knows what she is talking about!

Some of us in Britain are probably also a little guilty of finding curries made with goat meat a little off-putting. Whereas Indians much prefer goat to lamb, and use it in what they call mutton curry. The Cochin first-class railway mutton curry that featured tonight is actually made using lamb shanks, but is full of flavour and fragrance from marinating over night and cooking long and slow. Trim the meat and remove any excess fat, then place in a large pan, cover with the water and bring slowly to the boil, skimming away any froth that rises to the surface. Lower the heat and simmer gently, with a lid on the pan, for 35 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dip. Place the crumbled feta in a bowl, add the Greek yoghurt and stir in gently. Add the olive oil, chilli flakes and puréed red pepper and set aside.

Essential kit

There is so much regional variation in Indian food. Are there elements common to all food across the sub-continent, which define it as Indian cooking?

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Long Weekends Episode Guides and Recipes

Did you discover any essential cookware or kitchen gadgets on your travels? Have you brought any home with you? Tonight we also saw another vegetarian treat in the shape of the thoran, a dry vegetable curry from Kerala made from whatever fresh vegetables are available and cooked with mustard seeds, green chillies, ginger and grated coconut. Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special. I saw the BBC series that launched this book. I loved the colourful photography and production of the films, even though I find Mr Stein to be a bit of a pompous, arrogant prat. This, however, is not unusual in TV chefs of a certain age, and I know from my participation on cooking forums that he appeals to a certain sector of the viewing public. However, despite my dislike of his TV persona (it's obvious in a couple of episodes that he is about to explode at his longsuffering team, and treasures a lot of idiotic memes about the India that never was), the recipes looked good enough to want the book. As a person who lives on a fixed pension, I was wise enough to wait until I could find the book secondhand for a fraction of the original price. This is normally done in a dry pan over a medium heat. For perfect results, toast the spices individually, such as for garam masala, but life is short and I find that if I attend to them carefully I can get away with doing them all together. The idea is to lightly roast the spices until they smell toasted, being careful not to let them burn. After this they can be ground in a spice grinder or using a pestle and mortar. You will notice that whole spices which you toast and grind yourself have a much finer aroma than any you can buy ready-made. Note that you never toast nutmegs.