Charmaine Solomon's The Complete Asian Cookbook

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THE DRUNK ARAB

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One of the best cookbooks you can own is Charmaine Solomon's The Complete Asian Cookbook.
I have made many recipes from the book and have not been dissapointed once.
The following is an absolute cracker of a recipe for Tomato Oil Pickle and for people growing their own chillis and tomatoes it is very cheap to make (even if you don't grow them it is still worthwhile :) )

Tomato Oil Pickle (Tamatar Kasaundi)

2 tablespoons black mustard seeds
500 ml/1 pint/2 cups malt vinegar
250 g/8 oz fresh ginger
20 large cloves garlic, peeled
30 fresh chillies, red or green
2.5 kg/5 lb firm ripe tomatoes
500 ml/1 pint/2 cups vegetable oil
2 tablespoons ground turmeric
6 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons chilli powder or to taste
375 g/12 oz/1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons salt or to taste


Soak mustard seeds overnight in the vinegar. Grind to a pure using an electric blender. Add roughly chopped ginger and garlic and blend until smooth. Halve chillies lengthways. Remove seeds if liked. Blanch tomatoes briefly in boiling water, peel, halve and gently squeeze out most of the seeds. Dice the flesh of the tomatoes.

In a large, non-aluminium pan heat the oil until smoking. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly so dry spices will cook without burning. Stir in ground turmeric, cumin and chilli powder. Add tomatoes, chillies, blended mixture, sugar and salt. Simmer until tomatoes are reduced to a pulp and oil starts to float on top. Taste and add more salt if required. Put into clean, dry bottles heated in the oven to sterilise. Cover with non-metallic lids and allow to mature for a week before using. Keeps well.

C&B
TDA
 
That looks the goods Sahib Arab. :super:

Not on the menu at Ameer? :lol:

Might have me a little hunt for the book too.

Warren -
 
A classic cookbook and is a tome. It was first published in 1976 and been through lots of reprints.
 
A classic cookbook and is a tome. It was first published in 1976 and been through lots of reprints.

I agree, it's a great book. I bought it about 10 years ago through one of those discount book outlets for $20 and it gets used all the time. Some very good recipes in there.
 
Yeah she's good I've got quite a few of here asian cook books, there's an excellent recipe for butter chicken in the indian one.
 
I don't have The Complete Asian Cookbook but have no doubts it is a ripper. I have a couple of Charmaine Solomon's other books, Complete Vegetarian Cookbook and Indian cookbook and find them to be extremely handy and most often quite healthy without tasting too healthy! The complete vego book is one of my preferred reference books for eastern, western and fusion recipes. I'll keep my eyes out for the Complete Asian book.

Thanks for the heads up TDA n others.
 
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