Serious money

APPROACH Monisha Bharadwaj's book, The Indian Pantry, with extreme caution, for even a speedy flick through it is likely to have you heading off to the nearest ethnic shop, armed with an enormous shopping list of ingredients which you feel you just must, just must, have in the cupboard. Serious money could be spent. Serious money.

This is a clever book, and another step in the direction of helping us to master the true nature of ethnic cooking, for it takes us back to first principles and explains how and why they are vital.

Ms Bharadwaj analyses the nature of all the essential elements of Indian cookery - the spices, the spice mixtures, the dried herbs, the nuts, pulses and vegetables and fruits - detailing their culinary uses as well as their medicinal and other benefits, and supplements this impressive almanac with 100 recipes that are mightily enticing.

The fact that she doesn't include to the precise minute cooking instructions for the dishes - "In India there is no set way of cooking dishes, and so my methods often don't give a cooking time. I ask all cooks to use their eyes and their own judgment which, after all, is real cooking" - shouldn't deter anyone, for there is lots of advice and guidance throughout the book, which is both intriguing and supremely useful.