Ok, so besides the risotto I’ve made twice in the last week to a) hone it into a coherent, workable recipe (or at least the beginning of one), and b) eat it for as many meals (four) as was humanly possible, I’ve been eating a lot of Indian food.  No, not because I’m pining away for the take-your-breath-away spiciness of Brick Lane‘s cuisine (although I am).  No, not because in the last few days, I’ve bought five or six spices I’d never used (or been able to pronounce) before.  And no, not because I’ve renounced my love of gnocchi and red wine.

In fact, it’s all this man’s fault.  Actually, it’s largely this man’s fault as well.  See, for Christmas, Boyfriend really went all out with the cookbooks.  He took every hint I’d been subtly alluding to blatantly bombarding him with for the past several months and bought me the two cookbooks I’d wanted most.  He also gave me my own cookbook, which he created from the content of this very blog.  I guess I’ll have to keep him around, huh?

Anyway, he’s either trying to tell me that he loves me and wants me to be happy in my little food-crazed bubble, or he desperately wants me to learn how to cook Indian food and bake lots of bread.  I’m going with the former, though he has seemed a little distraught that I’ve been cooking things without his being around to taste-test.

So I’ve made a lot of curry in the last few weeks, and honestly, it’s been fantastic.  I was a little wary of the book to begin with, as there are spices listed in these recipes that I’ve never even heard of, let alone tasted.  But the writing is so clear and descriptive that there’s little room for error – and even in my I-want-to-change-recipes-I’ve-never-cooked idiocy, I’ve yet to screw one up.  And trust me, I’ve done some major substitutions so far.

So look forward to seeing some curries up here in the near future (don’t worry, we’ll get to the bread, too) – and start checking your grocery store for curry seeds, paneer, tumeric, saffron, fenugreek, holy basil, jaggery…