Introduction

In case you are wondering what this is all about, let me explain. For many years I've been cooking curries at home, eating them in restaurants and generally enjoying the food of the Indian sub continent. In more recent years I've been lucky enough to go to India many times on extended visits with friends or family. I have also been also been fortunate enought to be asked to cater for special occasions.  Over all this time I've developed my own tastes in food and styles of cooking. The recipes that will make up this book reflect that, borrowing from the best, incorporating others ideas into my own or just plain making it up for myself.

So where does the 'Big Boy' come from. We'll before we get any jokes, it simply refers to the fact that most of the grown men I know love their curry, but many (or even most?) don't know how to cook them. So this is for the lads. Of course, Big Girls can also use the recipes if they really insist, but they are really better off getting the wine out. :-)

Most of the recipes here are unlikely to be found in restaurants. Most restaurant curries bear little relationship to the real food as cooked in homes. Primarily this is because most restaurant curries depend on stock sauces (often bought from the same factory in south London) and the combination of these sauces. If the chef gets it right you will have good food, if not it can be very mediocre. Some recipes here do use stock sauces so don't get me wrong, I'm not against them. But try not to have more than one dish that uses such a sauce on the table at the same time. Similarly it is better to have two quite mild dishes plus a single hot one than three medium dishes. Try a mild spinach based dish, a mild chicken and a hot prawn dish together to see what I mean. And don't turn your nose up at a vegetarian style meal to ring the changes. Try a home made Paneer and Peas alongside a Gujurati Potato, Spiced Okra and Nan bread.

Beginners Advice

If I might offer some advice to the beginner cook. Follow the recipes exactly as shown the first time. Don't change them the second time. On your third attempt have a think about what you really liked about it, or didn't like and change it. Most of these recipes are not hard, though some will take some preparation. If you haven't the time, do the quicker meals and leave the more complex ones until you do have the time to understand the processes, the ingredients and the resultant dish. This is not being a 'curry snob'. It's simply good form for all cooking. After a while you'll find you don't need to look at recipes and can simply rely on your own whims and taste buds to create a meal that you, your partner and friends can enjoy. For those of you that haven't cooked Indian before the Beginners Luck page is just for you.  Cooking is about being, not about following some latest fashion.  Whilst I have won awards for my cooking, I also get bored at times too and go off and do other things.  It's perfectly normal.  Don't despair, get a beer!

Using this site

The style of this 'book' is simple and is for a purpose; to get people moving around quickly to find something they like. If you think that some additional graphics or other tricks would help, use the 'website' forum and let me know (although regular readers will know that I've reduced the picture count at the top of pages to cut down on bandwidth requirements which has to be paid for!!). 

Obviously the book is being added to all the time. If you want to know when new recipes or articles are added, use the notification options in appropriate section to have an email sent when new recipes are added

This latest incarnation of the book is more interactive and allows registered users to add their own recipes and articles, make comment on others contributions and take part in the various forums.

A short history of the book

The BBCB started in 1997 as a result of a number of friends telling me I should write down what I had just served up to them.  A long break between contracts (I was an IT contractor at the time) gave me the opportunity to set up the original book and publish it on the web using free hosting sites.

1999 saw the site move to  eggconnect.net (another free site) and in 2001, I've finally gotten around to revamping the appearance a bit and placing it on a paid for host (with it's own domain name) to get additional support for the pages.  In 2004, I discovered Xoops whilst designing my own company site and decided that it would make the perfect vehicle to take the 'book' to its next stage, and open it up to contributions from others.  Over all the time the site has been up and running I have been getting a regular stream of email from like minded people who seem to enjoy it.  So thanks to you, I'll keep at it and see who else likes it too.

Enjoy

Ashley Kitson
March 2004