Finished the first book of the year - Lizzie Collingham’s, Curry - a tale of Cooks and Conquerors. The book is about the origin and development of curries. Curry is a sauce based food where the food you want to curry is braised in a sauce of spices. You marinate meat or fish, then fry onions in oil, add spices, meat and stock, gently simmer to get a thick sauce where you braise the food item. The process can take anywhere between an hour and your food is ready. The point is that, curry is a misnomer. In India they cook different styles of braised meat in the form of qorma (milk and yogurt based sauce), kalia ( Persian, light gravy), food marinated and cooked in steamed pots, and so on. The book is a traverse of the rich history of India from the days of spice trade to modern times, and it has excellent recipes worth trying out. The book is good but I thought the author was a bit unfocused and lost track at times.