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

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Serve the vegetables and the broth in warmed bowls, topped with chunks of meat and sprinkled with the chopped parsley or celery leaves.

Add a layer of the chilled apple purée to 4 glasses, followed by a layer of the toasted nuts and breadcrumbs. Add another layer each of apple and breadcrumbs/nuts and then top with the whipped cream and the remaining toasted hazelnuts. Whenever I hear the word curry, I'm filled with a longing for spicy hot food with the fragrance of cumin, cloves and cinnamon. I see deep red colours from lots of Kashmiri chillis, tinged with a suggestion of yellow from turmeric. I think of the tandoor oven, and slightly scorched naan shining with ghee and garlic.When Indians talk of their food, they talk about their life. To understand this country, you need to understand curry. A mini food processor makes light work of turning garlic and ginger, with a splash of water, into pastes, which are used throughout the book. However, for smaller quantities, or if you don’t own a mini processor, you can use a microplane grater to finely grate ginger or garlic. Or you can crush the garlic, either by chopping finely with a sharp knife or using a garlic crusher.

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You can look forward to trying some of the dishes from India on our menus – including Pondicherry cod curry, breakfast bhaji, Amritsari fish, pau bhaji, vegetable makhanwala, kachumber salad and more. Choose a restaurant here. Learn to cook the recipes

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. 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. Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together. Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.For those with a sweet tooth, it was time for a dessert dish this week with the inclusion of payasam, a sweet milk pudding with vermicelli. This one is a typical Tamil dessert and is apparently always served at local weddings. With plenty of milk, ghee and sugar this dish, like most Indian desserts, is best enjoyed in small portions! 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. 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! 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?

That said, the recipes are eminently useable by anyone with any experience cooking their own food from scratch. (If you're a member of the microwave readymeal generation, start with any of Anjum Anand's books and work your way up.) These recipes are simple, delicious, and they work if you know which side of a saucepan to put the food in. Someone who I was signing a book for the other day said their slogan was “you can’t hurry curry”and I think that, having experienced how Indians cook, I’ve now become even more aware of taking the time to cook something like a stew when I’m not in a hurry. It always makes such a difference. These are my simple suppers. Recipes that are straightforward and informal - yet effortlessly delicious. The idea of supper appealed to me because it suggests an ordinary meal. When one is not trying too hard; maybe something you're going to cook in your jeans and Polo shirt, a glass of vinho verde on the worktop.Did you discover any essential cookware or kitchen gadgets on your travels? Have you brought any home with you?