Madhur Jaffrey is legendary. Not only did she win the best actress award at the Berlin film festival in 1965 for her role in Merchant Ivory’ s Shakespeare Wallah, but wrote what remains my ‘go to’ book on Indian cookery. A new edition has been published with the addition of a few new recipes of which this is one.

Good advice is to have all the chopping and cutting done before you start to cook.

190g basmati rice
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 green cardamon, crushed, seeds removed
3 cloves
½ tsp black mustard seeds
15 fresh curry leaves
2 onions, peeled and chopped
5cm piece ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
¼ tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
¼-½ tsp chilli powder
1-2 bird’s eye chillies, finely sliced
200g tomatoes, finely chopped (skinned and cores removed if you like)
1 tsp salt

Oven at 150 C

Wash the rice and then leave in a bowl, covered with cold water for 30 minutes. Drain and leave in the sieve for 20-30 minutes.

Put the oil into a non stick frying pan with a lid (or else use a medium-sized casserole dish). Set the pan on a medium heat and, when hot, put in the cardamon seeds, cloves and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop, add the curry leaves, followed by the chopped onion. Reduce the heat to medium. Sautė the onion until it starts to turn brown. Add grated ginger and garlic and stir for a minute. Add the coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and bird’s eye chillies. Stir before adding the tomatoes.

Stir and cook for about eight minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and, as Madhur Jaffrey keenly observes, ‘the oil can be seen on the edges and starts beading on top’.

Add the drained rice and stir using a wooden spoon. Add the salt and 350ml cold water. Stir gently and bring to the boil.

Cover tightly with aluminium foil and then the lid. Put into the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Remove the lid and foil. Puff up the rise and cover again. It is now ready to serve.