Points to remember

Always assemble your ingredients before you start cooking, preparing some in advance if necessary. This makes everything go smoothly and saves you time.

In some of the cooking instructions I have referred to a flame-proof casserole, in which ingredients can be fried on top of the stove and then cooked in the oven. If you don’t have one of these, however, you can simply use a frying pan and then transfer the contents to an ordinary casserole.

In several recipes I have specified butter but by far the best thing to use if you can is Sainsbury’s Concentrated Butter for Cooking, which is the equivalent of the Indian ghee or clarified butter. It doesn’t brown or have any sediment, and will add a rich flavour to the dish. It is also extremely economical and you don’t need to use quite as much.