This is another great book from Pat Chapman. As the title suggests, the book describes how to make balti style curries - lots of them. There are over 200 recipes here.

The basis for the recipes in this book is a special mix of spices, and a paste made from this mix. You will need about 15 different spices to make up this mix, but once you have made it the recipes are really very easy. The results make this initial effort more than worthwhile. In addition to this basic Balti Masala mix, there is also a Tandoori Masala mix which is occasionally used in the recipes. You can, of course, buy prepared Balti and Tandoori mixes from many shops, and these work very well - but if you have the time and access to the spices, it is recommended to make you own. The same applies to the Balti Garam Masala spice mix (I used a ready made Garam Masala mix with excellent results).

The recipes are split into sections: Starters, Meat, Poultry, Fish & Shellfish, Vegetables, Specials and Side Orders. The Starters section contains, among others, an Onion Bhaji recipe and several tandoorii and tikka recipes. Next, the meat section contains about 20 recipes from the Basic Balti Meat Curry to Balti Madras, Balti Methi Gosht, Balti Keema, Balti Korma and Balti Rhogan Josh Gosht.

The Poultry section contains about 25 recipes, including Balti Chicken Tikka Masala, Balti Chicken Vindaloo Curry and even a very hot Balti Chicken Phal Curry. In common with the other sections in the book, you will find that several of the Poultry section recipes contain remarkably few ingredients - none more so that the delicious Balti Chicken Garlic Curry, which contains a total of just 7 ingredients. As the author says, "It's remarkable how few ingredients it takes to make such a tasty dish".

The remaining recipe sections contain a similarly wide ranging selection of recipes (one of my favourites being the Balti Bombay Potato in the Vegetables section). Some of the recipes have very nice full page colout pictures, but I would have preferred to see pictures of every recipe, even if they were smaller. The Side Orders section includes a wealth of information about rice, and several naan bread recipes such as Plain Naan and Keema Naan.

Another feature of the book is the illustrated A-Z of Ingredients, describing each one listed in detail.

To sum up, I am a great fan of this book, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a curry and would like to make them at home.

Available worldwide on-line from Amazon.com
Available on-line in the UK from Amazon.co.uk