The ‘Indian’ cookbook has, for me, always suffered from the ‘too many ingredients’ and ‘ones you can’t get hold of’ problem so I have never owned one. And I’ve always felt that my efforts were not really as good as the professionals so I didn’t bother. So spiced food in my life has mostly come via Thai, Vietnamese or, more recently, Sichuan cookery books, if not on a moped from down the road. But Made in India has totally changed my relationship to ‘Indian’ or, in this case, Gujarati food.

I got it months ago, have cooked from it several times and think I could probably cook from it every night for weeks without getting bored. I think you’ll love it too, for lots of reasons.

First, it caters for everyone, from the vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-avoidant and meat-eater. Second, the recipes are short and easy. Third, the ingredients are, I would wager, easily available pretty much everywhere. Fourth, it has loads of great pictures, both of dishes but also of the ingredients you might not be used to (so I now know which chilli to buy for a Gujarati curry and, no, it won’t be hard to find) and, finally, it has lots of great tips for making your cooking life easier (such as how to wash coriander efficiently; see below).

Not convinced? Well, try one of these recipes then: a delicious coriander chutney chicken, a spicy coleslaw and some lime-pickled onions and I’ll bet you’ll want to try more. This is the sort of book that will add real depth to your cookery knowledge, and some great, easy dishes to your repertoire. It both educates and enables, which is exactly what I want from a cookbook. And, in the dregs of winter, it will also bring some much needed colour to your life (LOOK at the brightness in that photo). So off you go and buy a copy. You won’t regret it, I promise.

Coriander chutney chicken
(all recipes adapted from Made in India)
You need to make the chutney first but it’s really easy, and you’ll have a tad left over for dipping bread into or, perhaps, serving with some cheese or leftover roast meat. Serve this with the Jaipur slaw, this perfect steamed rice and the lime-pickled onions.

Makes enough for 2

Coriander chutney

Cupboard (or things you may already have)
brown sugar, 4 tsp
ground turmeric, ¼ tsp
salt, 1 tsp

Shopping list
fresh coriander, 100g
lemons, 1-2 (you need 4 tbsp juice)
small, dark green chillies, 3 (you want the ones that are about as long as your thumb, but not as fat, somewhere between the tiny Thai ones and the fatter, paler green ones)
shelled peanuts, unsalted and unroasted (buy them as monkey nuts and shell them if you can’t find them elsewhere), 60g

How to
1. Wash the coriander: fill a large bowl with cold water, submerge the whole bunch in it, swill it around a bit, then remove and shake off the excess water. Any grit will remain in the bowl.
2. Roughly chop the coriander (stems and leaves), juice the lemons and de-seed and roughly chop the chillies.
3. Put the coriander, lemon juice, chillies, sugar, turmeric, salt and shelled peanuts into a blender/mini-chopper and blitz until smooth (so a bit like pesto). You might need a little water to help it blend, or to move the mixture around (when the motor’s NOT running) with a spatula if it sticks at all.
4. Taste and add a little more salt or lemon juice if need be.
5. Keep any leftovers from the recipe below in a clean jar in the fridge and eat within a couple of days.

Coriander chutney chicken

Makes enough for 2

NB The recipe specifies skinless, boneless chicken thigh fillets, but I don’t like paying more for meat that’s been overprocessed. So I bought bone-in thighs, removed the skin myself, snipped the meat off the bone with kitchen scissors then put the bones in with the curry to add extra flavour, taking them out at the end. You could also use 400g of chicken lopped off a whole bird, if that’s preferable/more convenient.

Cupboard (or things you may already have)
garlic, 3 cloves
onion
neutral oil (sunflower or rapeseed)
coriander chutney, 3 tbsp (see above for recipe)
salt

Shopping list
fresh ginger, about 2cm-worth
small, thin, dark green chilli, ½
chicken, 400g (see note above)

How to
1. Peel and roughly chop the garlic, ginger and chilli then whizz in a mini-chopper or bash in a pestle and mortar until you have a paste.
2. Peel and thinly slice the onion. Heat a little oil in a shallow, lidded frying pan, add the sliced onion and cook until just starting to colour. Whilst the onion is cooking chop/snip the chicken into small pieces. Then remove half of the onion to a bowl and leave to one side.
3. Add the garlic paste to the pan, cook for a couple of minutes then add the chicken pieces and sear/seal them on all sides.
4. Add the chutney to the pan, stir in well to coat the chicken all over, cover with a lid, turn the heat down to low and cook until the chicken is cooked all the way through (about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces).
5. Whilst the chicken is cooking, return the reserved onions to another frying pan, adding a little more oil if necessary, and cook them over a medium heat until really soft and dark brown.
6. Season the chicken with a little salt, taste and add a little more if you think it needs it, then serve with the caramelized onions scattered over the top.

Jaipur slaw

Makes enough for 2

Cupboard (or things you may already have)
carrot
red onion, ¼
sugar, 1½ tsp
salt, 1 tsp

Shopping list
red cabbage, ¼
mooli, 100g (a white Asian radish; use the pink ones if you can’t find it, or omit it and add some more carrot instead)
fresh mint, small sprig or 2 (about 5g)
fresh coriander, small handful (about 10g)
lime juice, 3 tbsp
red chilli, ½

How to
1. Peel and trim the carrot, red onion, cabbage and mooli as necessary, remove the hard core from the base of the cabbage then cut them all into slices/pieces (onion/cabbage) or thin matchsticks (carrot/mooli) and put into a bowl.
2. Wash and finely chop the herbs and add those to the vegetables.
3. Juice the lime (zest it too while you’re at it and add that too if you like, or save it for something else) and chop the chilli.
4. Mix the juice, chilli, sugar and salt together until the sugar and salt dissolve. Taste and add a little more juice or sugar or salt if necessary, to get the right balance of sweet, sharp and salty.
5. Just before serving, tip the dressing over the vegetables and herbs and toss gently.

Lime-pickled red onion
(great with the above but also pretty lovely in a sandwich…)

Makes enough for 2

Cupboard (or things you may already have)
red onion
salt, ½ tsp

Shopping list
lime juice, 3 tbsp

How to
1. Peel and finely slice the onion. Put in a plastic tub, add the salt and lime juice, mix together then cover/seal and leave to marinate in the fridge for a few hours.
2. When ready to serve, either strain away all of the juices or lift out as many onions as you need with a slotted spoon. The remaining onion will last a few days in the fridge.