Cookbook Confidential: Be brave, chilli and spice make all things nice

In the next installment of Cookbook Confidential, Julia Platt Leonard reviews Mr Todiwala's Spice Box and says people often make the mistake of equating spice with spicy, with the result that they are not as adventurous as they could be

Cyrus has whittled his go-to spices down to 10 (recipe below)

Cyrus Todiwala has an actual spice box – a large wooden case that is packed with glass jars and plastic containers of more spices than most of us knew existed. When he talks about a spice he beams like a proud father, clearly besotted with his child. So how did Cyrus – chef, restaurateur and spice expert – manage to choose only a few for his new book Mr Todiwala’s Spice Box: 120 recipes from just 10 spices?

Perhaps the real question is why. Cyrus says he wants to show that you don’t need a cupboard stacked to the rafters with hundreds of different spices in order to create fantastic food. So he’s chosen 10 spices that are versatile and readily available. I think he also sneakily knows that the more spice we use, the more we’ll fall under its spell.

Of course, this begs the question of why we’re not spicing up our cooking already. One reason he says, is that we tend to think of spice and spicy as the same thing. Red chilli is one of his 10 chosen spices but it’s joined by other more aromatic spices such as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and cumin that aren’t hot at all.

The second reason he says is fear – fear that we won’t get the marriage right between different spices, that we’ll use too much (or little) or simply get it wrong. So in Spice Box, he’s distilled years of experience in the kitchen and at the table to guide even the most spice shy.

It helps that the recipes are supremely "doable" with techniques that are well-laid out and explained. And in a dish like his deep-fried squid with coriander, mint and basil dip, he includes optional extras like his chilli seasoning which you can include or leave out as time and inclination permits.

It’s not just traditional savoury dishes that get the Cyrus spice treatment either. There is a stunning spiced pecan pie with the addition of ground cinnamon to the pecan mix as well as cloves to the pastry that is revelatory. When the recipe note says “serves 8 people or 6 greedy people” I put myself squarely in the latter camp.

As you’d expect, there are many recipes with echoes of Cyrus’ native India such as grilled saffron prawns with a carrot and coconut salad or the ultimate one-pot dish, Chicken biryani. But others like Oriental fish parcels or Brined belly of pork with cashew nuts & spinach stray further afield and demonstrate how spice can transform almost any recipe.

Along the way, Cyrus includes stories about the spices, revealing an encyclopaedic knowledge that he is eager to share. For example, I learned that turmeric kills bacteria, is an excellent coagulant, and can even be used as an emergency repair on a ruptured car radiator. Who knew? As I tuck into his shinanio mussels and clams with coconut with its brilliant turmeric-infused broth I can’t help but feel a bit smug and definitely a lot more spice savvy.

Shinanio Ani Tisreo Naarl Ghalun - Shinanio mussels and clams with coconut

Being plentiful and relatively cheap, mussels and clams are very popular around the world, not least in Goa. Here we have cooked them whole, to be scooped out at the table, but you could half-shell them if you wish. In Goa during the mango season, the empty half-shells are dumped under ready-to-pick mango trees, where they attract all the large red bully ants, leaving the pickers to do their work unhampered. The marinade below contains turmeric because it kills bacteria, and is an excellent coagulant, preventing the seafood from releasing too much liquid. In fact, turmeric is miraculous stuff. Serve this dish on its own or with some plain rice and plain curry (by which I mean a simple curry containing no meat or vegetables).

Serves four as a starter

16 large mussels, whole or on the half-shell
32 large clams, whole or on the half-shell
Juice from half a lime
 ½tsp ground turmeric
2tbsps extra virgin rapeseed oil
12-15 curry leaves, preferably fresh, shredded; if using dried, soak in water for 10–12 minutes, and dry thoroughly before shredding
2 dried red chillies broken into small pieces
½tsp cumin seeds
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 onions, finely chopped
Freshly grated coconut from half coconut, or 250g (9oz) frozen, defrosted before use
2tbsps chopped fresh coriander
Salt

Wash and scrub the mussels and clams, pulling away any beards from the mussels. Drain. Tip into a bowl, add the lime juice, turmeric and some salt and toss well. Pour 1 tablespoon of the oil into a frying pan and heat until hazy. Add the curry leaves, red chillies and cumin seeds and stir until their fragrance is released. Add the garlic and fry for one minute, then add the onions and cook until soft and pale.

Stir in the coconut and cook for about five minutes, scraping the pan often, as it sticks easily. Heat the remaining oil in a separate large frying pan. When smoking hot, add the mussels and clams, reserving the juices. Fry briskly for three to four minutes, or until all the shells have opened if using whole shellfish (discard anythat remain closed), stirring or tossing occasionally so that all the shellfish come into contact with the heat, but do not overcook. (For a lovely variation, fry some black mustard seeds in the oil before cooking the seafood.)

Stir the reserved juices into the coconut mixture, then add the cooked shellfish and coriander and stir again. Taste and adjust the salt if necessary. Serve the dish straight away. It’s easiest to eat the shellfish with your fingers, which is messy but quite an experience.

Mr Todiwala’s Spice Box by Cyrus Todiwala, published by Mitchell Beazley, £25