Curry, Curry, Curry

The curry goes international with a vengeance in this wide-ranging collection of recipes, not a few of them originals. Beginning with curried soups (starting, inevitably, with that hoary Raj relic, mulligatawny), Rai goes on to give a good selection of vegetable, meat, fish, chicken, and rice-based curries. A bonus to those who find curry-making too time consuming are three basic sauces: Persian, Mughal and Madras, which can be fridge-stored to make an “instant” curry. Another boon to the harried cook is the clarity with which Rai sets out his recipes—measurements are provided in metric, British and American systems and each curry progresses from “singlefry” (Rai's term for that tricky process of bhunao) masala, through “follow-up” and “during cooking” masalas to “finishing” masala and “garnish” masala... With sections on raitas, accompaniments, this is a tempting medley of curried concoctions, with not only “heart”, but plenty of soul.'