Rick Stein’s fabulous Far Eastern Odyssey was recommended to me by the lovely Tina of Cook with Tina as I recall it following a discussion on Thai  Mussaman Curry and I am eternally grateful as this truly is a brilliant book and contains a fantastic recipe for one of my favourite dishes – Chicken Tikka Masala.  I have tried lots of different recipes for this dish over the years without great success – some cheaty quick ones with ready-made pastes and others more detailed and long-winded.  Rick Stein’s recipe doesn’t really contain that many ingredients but is definitely more suited to a day when you have a bit of time on your hands but it is worth it – it is the best I have tried by far and I really think that this particular dish doesn’t benefit at all from shortcuts.  I buy my spices at fairly reasonable prices online from Spices of India and I also bought the cast iron Karahi pictured below for around £15 and it has become much used and valued. [Read more…]