As the weather starts to warm up, there’s no better way of giving your wedding beverages a fresh appeal than using a few simple yet effective tricks.

Kathi roll

In Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) in East India, kathi rolls are a staple food. Pancakes or parathas are filled with vegetables, cooked chicken or meat. Watching a kathi roll being made is fascinating.

A ball of dough is picked up and put onto the fat on the hot tawa or griddle. It is flipped over and quickly spread with a beaten egg before being flipped again. Then it is taken off the tawa and the stuffing is added. Then the paratha is folded into a convenient newspaper wrapped roll. This is a barbecue chicken roll.

Although Chinese food is popular throughout India, it is nowhere more evident than in the city of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). There are large Chinese communities situated near the Eastern Metropolitan bypass Road and in the north of the city. This cosmopolitan city has it all, from the street vendors’ kathi rolls to gourmet Indian and Chinese cuisine, but its Chinese food has a flavour all of its own.

Maacher Jhol

A typical Bengali fish curry, maacher jhol is a light fish stew, seasoned with ground spices: ginger, cumin, coriander, chilli and turmeric. The sauce is thin yet packed with flavour. Whole green chillies are usually added at the end of the cooking. Hoki is a succulent, white fish with a meaty texture that is perfect for this dish.

This is a meat substitute product that can be used in making spicy dishes. Dry soya protein absorbs almost 4 times its weight in liquid and has become increasingly popular due to its health benefits.

Mustard seeds are to southern, south-western and eastern India what cumin seeds are to the north. Used to season just about every savoury preparation, they evoke a hot and nutty flavour once they are heated in oil. Make the most of seasonal green beans by trying out this simple dish. If you want the beans to be softer, parboil them for 5-7 minutes first and then use.

For centuries, ginger has been prized as much for its medicinal properties as for its culinary value. This is a thirst-quenching drink that packs a punch with the use of fresh root ginger and lime. If you have no fresh ginger, use 200ml of ginger beer.

If you’re recovering from illness or feeling a bit run down, this tea is delicious and comforting.

A typical Punjabi meal consists of unleavened flatbread or rotis, yogurt, curried vegetables, and a lentil dish. Dals are a speciality of Punjabi cuisine.

Hyderabadi Biryani

The cuisine of Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, ranges from the Hyderabadi style, with its strong Islamic influence, to a pure Andhra hot and spicy style. The cooking of Hyderabad is rich and aromatic and uses many exotic spices, as well as ghee, nuts, dried fruit and lamb. Hyderabad is also famous for its biryanis – rice dishes flavoured with meat or vegetables.

This dish of yogurt-marinated and roasted leg of lamb comes from the border of northern India and Pakistan. It is a common delicacy in North-West Frontier cuisine, where mutton us often used instead of lamb. Its also one way of spicing up the festivities and keeping warm with the spices in the recipe.

Poori is fried bread that can be found in Indian fast food restaurants. It is so versatile that it can be served with practically anything, sweet or savoury.

East Indian Tomato Chutney Chutneys add flavour to every Bengali lunch: they are incredibly versatile. Tamatar chatni is a good dip for savoury snacks such as pakoras or bhajis.

North Indian appetizers or snacks, Pakoras are batter fried vegetables or fish. The batter is usually made of gram flour or besan mixed with water and a few select spices such as coriander and chilli.

Here the okra is shallow fried – a north Indian method – and becomes deliciously crisp.

Manju’s Garam Masala

Garam Masala means quite literally a mixture of hot spices. It's a mixture made from warm spices such as cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. A bit like the spices one would find in a mulled wine. Many northern Indian households prepare their own blend. This one's from my house.

It’s a great spectacle to watch and makes travelling on India’s railway network all the more fun.

Get set for Valentine’s Day with this indulgent creamy recipe.

Mango, the national fruit of India, is also known traditionally as the food of the gods. Its leaves are used as floral decorations during Hindu marriages and religious ceremonies.  Used in all sorts of sweet preparations, mangoes are delicious eaten on their own or with other fruits, such as in this refreshing salad.

I've substituted papaya for the sultanas or raisins. But you could also try dried apricots or even mangoes.

Chettinad is a town in Chennai, formerly known as Madras, where most of the curries are hot but deliciously flavoured with whole and ground spices.

They were introduced to Malaysia by the many South Indians (mostly Tamil) immigrants during the British colonial era. Rumour has it that the word “curry” came from the Indian name for theses leaves which is “kari patta”.

A lot of British Asian families enjoy this as a quick lunchtime snack - it's a store cupboard standby. Adapt the ingredients to suit what you have available

A quick and to easy to prepare dish. Tasty and very nice for lunch or supper. This recipe can be made several hours before you plan to eat it, and is easy to heat up in the microwave.

It’s an essential protein source in many vegetarian diets. Chilli Paneer is the vegetarian version of chilli chicken or barbecued spare ribs.

Dish that takeaway! The first time I made this in ten minutes I did it to win a bet! However, I had all the ingredients and utensils laid out in front of me, which saved a lot of time - and I chopped the chicken into very small pieces. You can use leftover cooked chicken or turkey, which is even quicker.

Kakori kababs are soft versions of seekh kababs, made with finely ground mince and often a combination of over 50 different spices. Legend has it that Kakori, a small hamlet near Lucknow, is the holy site where millions of pilgrims were fed this offering. A more romantic story associates the kabab with the nobility of Avadh, especially the nawab who had “aged” before his time and lost the ability to chew: these kababs were made to melt in the mouth.

A curry sauce is made from frying onions, garlic, chilli and ginger with spices and then often mixed with tomatoes. Homemade curry sauces can be adapted to suit one’s needs by adding more or less spices. The Karahi Curry Sauce is a tangy medium to hot spiced sauce.

Marinated roast leg of lamb (raan) served with seasoned yoghurt (tadka raita)

I once went for a two-hour cooking lesson in a remote village in Bali. It was great fun, and as I was the only student I had one-to-one teaching and managed to follow all the recipes. This was my favourite.

Curry pastes are a mixture of spices blended together to form a fairly smooth mixture. Generally the pastes are used in Thai and Indian cooking. The ingredients used in an Indian curry paste often include cumin, turmeric, chilli, cloves, coriander, garlic and onions. The mixtures are sometimes preserved in oil to last longer.

Here’s an extremely simple recipe for even the most novice of cooks to make. It needs very little preparation and just a bit of stirring – that’s all!

Tomato puree is a concentrated thick paste with a very strong tomato flavour. Tomato sauce is a condiment enhanced with various other ingredients. The piquancy of the tomato puree compliments the prawns and the heat of the chilli powder.

The piquant tomato puree adds a level of flavour to these spicy and succulent prawns.

What better way to start the New Year than with an indulgent breakfast combining spicy and smoky flavours. Indians call scrambled eggs, anda bhurji and often add fresh green coriander leaves to their mixture. I have kept the dish as simple as possible with a bit of chilli and tomato.

Spicy Tuna Fishcakes

This is a simple dish which only requires the chopping of the garlic and the coriander leaves. It might be a nice way to introducing oneself to a couple of culinary techniques which are marinating - the method of soaking food in a seasoned liquid mixture before cooking and chopping or crushing garlic. You can slip off the skin with a knife before serving.

Often sprouts and greens are overlooked and become underrated. But this shouldn’t be the case. This dish makes a great accompaniment to the Roast Turkey Curry.

I love roast potatoes and I could just eat these by themselves. They’re full of flavour and offer an unusual twist to the traditional  table favourite.

This is the definitive left-over roast turkey curry which wont feel like you’re eating food from the day after the night before.

Masala Shepherds Pie

Okra in Hindi is known as bhindi. It’s a vegetable that is prepared throughout India. When cut, okra releases a sticky substance that has thickening properties, but adding yogurt, prevents the okra from sticking together. When selecting okra, opt for small-to-medium pods that are firm, crisp, and bright in colour. The pods should snap cleanly when broken. Cooked okra can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.