This was a delicious meal, with lots of varied dishes from across the country. Nothing especially challenging in terms of spice, just lots of complex flavours. We missed Julie, but we’re really pleased everything went well.

Starters

Karen – Onion bhaji with raita from BBC Good Food

This was Karen’s second attempt, after the first one in which the bhajis were fried was less than successful….. In this version the bhajis were made with previously cooked onions and gram flour, and were baked as opposed to fried. The recipe had suggested that no salt was needed, but Karen added some anyway, and they were very tasty.

Philip – Mango salad from Great British Chefs – Alfred Prasad

This was a mixture of mango, carrot, walnuts, cress and coconut, with a dressing of honey, olive oil and lime. It was easier to use a relatively unripe mango. It was a very refreshing and unexpected starter.

Mains

Justine – Chicken ruby from Dishoom

A home made makhani sauce in which the chicken marinated overnight was a big hit. The dish took two hours to cook, and then was reheated on the night.

Jane – Goan coconut curry from Indian Food made Easy by Anjum Anand

This was very easy to make, using 3 types of coconut – desiccated, milk and cream. It looked unnervingly separated during the cooking process, but came together really well with the addition of the coconut cream and tamarind paste at the end.

Sides

Janet – Black Dahl from BBC Good Food

Made with turtle beans as opposed to lentils that were soaked overnight and then cooked with the usual spices the next day. Really tasty, a great complement to the rest of the meal.

Sue – Sag Aloo from BBC Good Food

Great to have an Indian classic as part of the feast, real comfort food.

Bread and Chutneys

Andrew – Naan bread, green chutney, mango chutney and raita, all from Rick Stein India

Andrew played a blinder of a wild card with these fantastic dishes that complemented the rest of the meal brilliantly. The green chutney was especially popular, and the Indian food aficionados were particularly impressed with the homemade mango chutney, quite different to the normal Sharwoods!

Puddings

Tracey – Kheer Rice

This recipe could be served hot or cold – Tracey chose cold. It used basmati, sugar, whole milk, cardamom, almonds and cashews. Plus ghee, that involved more effort to find. Rice pudding is clearly a marmite dish, at my end of the table there were some who obviously still struggle with childhood memories of school dinners, and others who loved it! Having the cardamom made it taste quite different, and for me, delicious.

Debrah – Caramelised apples with pistachio cream from Madhur Jaffrey Quick and Easy

Another dish involving cardamom and pistachio, and a pudding that was pleasantly unexpected in the same way that the mango salad was. A good accompaniment for the rice pudding.