Despite all living on different continents, the three sisters, Sereena, Alexa and Priya Kaul, managed to get together and produce this, their second cookbook. When I received the book, I was immediately taken by the beautiful colours on the striking cover. A vibrant turquoise blue surrounds a rose pink all embossed with gold.

The book starts off with an introduction chapter that tells you how to be quick and easy. It involves a lot of preparation. This is followed by an extensive look at the myriad of spices and equipment used in the recipes within. The recipes themselves are sorted into eight chapters including starters, chicken, lamb, fish, and desserts. There is an alphabetical index at the back sorted by ingredient and then recipe.

At a glance, the title of ‘quick and easy’ may seem a little misleading. As expected, many of the recipes contain a multitude of herbs and spices, synonymous with Indian cooking. If the preparation stages from the introductory chapter are skipped, then you will find the recipes far from quick.

The vast quantity of ingredients in most of the recipes, the main courses particularly, may seem a little daunting to an inexperienced cook, or someone unfamiliar to Indian cooking. However, if the preparation is done, the step by step instructions are clear and the recipe is then becomes more simple.

Some of the ingredients are quite exotic, but if you shop around, you should be able to find them. The quantity of spices is often listed in the recipes as a ‘spice spoon’, which is a small spoon that comes as part of a spice kit that you can purchase from the three sisters, details at the back of the book. However, there is a small note at the front of the book that a spice spoon is equivalent of half teaspoon.

One criticism I would lay against the book is that the recipes would benefit from a heat rating to indicate how spicy they are, instead of having to guess based on the ingredients. Not everyone, myself included, likes things too spicy and I imagine it would be easy to end up with a dish too hot for a delicate palette.

The photos are great representations of the food, but not as vibrant with colour as you would expect. They sometimes appeared a little washed out and over exposed.

The size of the book is unusual, but as a paperback it is easy to work from, and has a lovely clear font. However, the layout of the ingredients seems a little odd, as it is split into fresh ingredients and a separate column for those deemed as being from the ‘spice box’ – another subtle advert for their slightly over-priced but attractively packaged spice box product.

My favourite recipes were the Cashew and Coconut Chicken, Creamy Tomato Prawns, and the Sesame Chicken Bites. If you are a genuine fan of Indian cuisine, with plenty of experience in this area, then you will love this book.

The book is available now from Simon & Schuster.

Sesame Chicken Bites

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Serves	14
From book	The Three Sisters Quick & Easy Indian Cook Book

Ingredients

• 140ml Water
• 2 Chicken Breasts (cut into large bute sized pieces)
• 30g Unsalted Butter
• 1 " Fresh Ginger (roughly chopeed)
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 1 Onion
• 1 Green Chilli (deseeded)
• 1 Egg (beaten)
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 3 tablespoons Fresh Coriander (chopped)
• 7-8 tablespoons Sesame Seeds
• 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
• 2 teaspoons Coriander Seeds
• ¾ teaspoon Chilli Powder
• 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 1 teaspoon Mango Powder

Directions

1.	Dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds in a hot frying pan over low heat for 1 minute until dark brown. Transfer to a pestle and mortar and grind to a fine powder
2.	Boil the water in a saucepan, add the chicken pieces and cook for about 10-15 minutes until tender. Boil to reduce all the water. Add the butter and stir the chicken pieces several times so that they are well coated in the melting butter. Transfer to a bowl and finely shred the chicken pieces.
3.	Put the ginger, garlic, onion and green chilli in a good processor and blitz to a puree. Pour this mixture over the chicken.
4.	Add all the dry roasted ground spices, the egg, salt, pepper and coriander leaves to the chicken. Mix all the ingredients well with the spices and chicken so that the chicken is well coated. Transfer to the fridge for 10 minutes to chill
5.	Take a small amount of the chilled mixture and make a small ball the size of an apricot. Press the ball gently to flatten (tikka)
6.	Spread the sesame seeds out in a shallow dis and add the tikka, one by oe, turing and pressing gently to cover the tikka with sesame seeds all over. Keep the tikka pieces on a plate ready to be fried
7.	Heat some oil in a frying pan or a flat griddle pan over a medium heat. When hot, place all the tikkas in the pan and cook gently for 2 minutes on each side, turning carefully with a spatula, until golden in colour.
8.	Serve as a snack or starter with lime wedges and a chutney of your choice.