This week our book was Dishoom by Shamir Thakrar, Kati Thakrar, and Naved Nasir. For those who don’t live within the vicinity of a Dishoom, it is an incredible group of restaurants that capture the essence of a Bombay brasserie. They are famous for their Bacon Naan, but everything I’ve ever eaten there has been fantastic.

It’s always tricky when the cookbook is the cookbook of a restaurant you love because you are always wondering, will this taste anything like it does when we eat there? In many respects, It can never do so because the dining experience is so much more than just the taste and even the external environment and occasion influences that. There are restaurants that I eat in regularly and often have the same dish (the steak kidney and oyster pudding at Rules in London is one of those). I’m sure the recipe hasn’t changed much over the years, but I’ll never forget the first time I ate it and how it came in a pudding bowl surrounded with a paper fringe in a vain attempt to allow you to pick it up; without burning your fingers! It is a tall order for a cookbook to replicate the restaurant recipes, but I have to say that the Dishoom cookbook is fabulous. The week started with a kind of Bombay Sunday Lunch of Lamb Raan, Gun Powder Potatoes with simple greens. Given the disaster of brisket we had the other week where it dried out; I should have been more careful to make sure this leg of lamb dish didn’t. Suffice it to say it was borderline. That said, the flavours were great, and when combined with the Gun Powder potatoes (a combination suggested in the book), it was fantastic. Desert was the truly awesome Pineapple and Black Pepper Crumble. This recipe sounds like it could have been a disaster (too sweet, too peppery), but it was anything but. The pineapple was not too sweet at all, and the pepper gave just a hint of heat on the back of your throat. The crumble was buttery and combined with a drop of custard; the whole thing was fab.

We had a couple of “toasts” from the book for lunches in the week. Chilli Cheese Toast was an absolute winner – think cheese on toast with green chili and coriander – it was mega! Also on toast was the fantastic Masala Beans on Toast. This has a base of a rather excellent Onion and Tomato Masala, which is cooked slowly until the onions are dark brown – not dissimilar to making French Onion Soup. Then tomatoes were added and cooked right down. This is then used for the base of the beans (a well-known brand was suggested to be used), served on Mrs. B’s Sourdough; it was terrific.

Next up was a Biriyani – Chicken Berry Britannia. The flavours were a knockout, but something in the technique (and I’ll be honest, I didn’t make a pastry seal for the pan) left the rice a little stodgy rather than fluffy. It was delicious, but I think I need to work on the technique.

Finally, Mrs. B cooked Chicken Ruby, Dishoom’s take on the classic Butter Chicken or Chicken Tikka Masala. We thought it was fantastic, but the harshest critics – our children felt that it wasn’t as good as the Cinnamon Club version we cook. We’ll have to do a Butter Chicken off! Next week we are very cheffy indeed with a cookbook from a two Michelin star pub – The Hand and Flowers!