Aloo gobi, paratha and Indian chicken fritters - recipes worth the effort

Text Susan Jung / Photography Jonathan Wong / Styling Nellie Ming Lee

I'm teaching myself to cook Indian food by concentrating on one dish at a time and making it again and again until I am happy with it. Breads have been fairly easy, probably because of my training as a pastry chef and that fact that you can't change the proportions much or it won't work. But savoury dishes are proving a bit more difficult because recipes differ so much between authors. Here are a few of my favourites.

I've tried several recipes for the potato and cauliflower dish usually known as aloo gobi. This version - adapted from Lord Krishna's Cuisine - The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, by Yamuna Devi - is my favourite so far. She calls it gobhi aloo sabji, and although it doesn't contain onions or garlic (because it's Vedic), it's still utterly delicious.

Cut the banana chillies in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Cut the chillies on the diagonal into slivers. Scrape the peel off the ginger then slice it thinly before cutting it into fine julienne.

Peel the potatoes then cut them into spears about 6cm by 1.5cm by 1.5cm. Cut the top of the cauliflower into medium-sized florets and the base into pieces that are slightly smaller. Halve the tomatoes.