Welcome to my recommendations page, being  a collection of products and resources that I, um, recommend?  I'm struggling to fill this out as things keep coming to me, hopefully this will flourish like a magnolia (the flower, not the tin of paint).

 

Websites

 

Spices of India  This is The Daddy as far as I am concerned.   They carry an epic quantity of spices, pastes, sauces, snacks, fresh vegetables and herbs, utensils from all over the globe.  Very good value and really friendly too. 

 

The Curry Guy  Dan Toombs'  website, being a great place for recipes and ideas.

 

Books

 

Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.

Well written, describing the food and lifestyle embraced by the many cultures living in Jerusalem.  Zhoug has changed my life.

100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood.

Some good recipes in here and an excellent starter book for people wanting to learn to bake.  I tend to use a bit less salt and yeast than he recommends though.  Still worth a punt.
 

Rick Stein's India by Rick Stein.

Surprisingly really good.  I thoroughly enjoy watching Rick on his adventures but was worried this book would end up as an anglicised “curry bible”.  Not so... Authentic dishes from all over the subcontinent and vivid photography.
 

Prashad by Kaushy Patel.

A cookbook by the owner of Prashad restaurant.  Kaushy is very down to earth and has a good style.  The trick to this book is the recipes are 100% vegetarian.  We refer to this book a lot :-)
 

Simple Indian by Atul Kochhar. 

Atul is one of my favourite celebrity chefs and this is his take on high end modern Indian cuisine.  I have yet to cook a bad meal from this.

 

Vefas Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou. 

Now this is a big book.  It weighs more than a small child.  However it has every Greek dish you are ever likely to have encountered and a few hundred you have not.  Mmmmm mezzes!

 

Barbecue! Bible by Steven Raichlen. 

I could talk about this book for hours.  Admittedly it looks a bit cheap but...  It is crammed full of techniques and recipes for cooking over coal (or for people with no soul, gas).  This mighty tome will increase your skill-set and your confidence and allow you to cook a myriad of things in the great outdoors.  There are no gimmicks here by the way, Steven seriously knows his stuff!

 

How to Make British Indian Restaurant Style Meals by Dan Toombs (aka The Curry Guy). 

OK so this is a smallish eBook which sets out to teach you how to make our beloved local Indian Restaurant favourites.  Dan explains the methods they employ to get the meals out the door as quickly as they do and how to replicate these at home.  I've used this a couple of times and although the snob in me is cursing the lack of authenticity, the results are exactly what they claim to be.  If you closed your eyes you could be in your favourite curry house, enjoying a Chicken Madras.  Which is no bad thing...

 

Thingies

Lingham's Ginger Garlic Chilli Sauce – Great depth of flavour.  Can be added to your dishes to give them that extra “oomph” or just used as a dip.

 

Pizza Stone by Pampered Chef – My Mother in Law, Yvonne, bought me this and I use it at least once a week to make pizzas, flat breads or just normal loaves on.  It's large, well constructed and if treated with care will outlast you.   Never wash these by the way, just scrape them clean.  They will eventually develop a wonderful dark patina which is your badge of honour!