Humble but Incredibly Delicious - the Sag Aloo.

Sag Aloo. This simple spinach and potato curry is delicious and cheap. It makes a great introduction to curry as it shows, better than words ever could, how simple ingredients can be transformed into a delicious meal by the addition of spices. “I hate to admit it but, in the spirit of Nigela Lawson I will, Sag Aloo is even more delicious when eaten cold as a breakfast” Dock Pringle admitted on radio recently. As with all spinach dishes, don't forget to check your teeth after your meal.

Dick's Ultimate Food Delight is a Masala Dosa

Masala Dosa. This is a no-egg pancake that is cooked freshly. A dish that has nothing for those with wheat allergies and gluten intolerance to worry about. A Masala Dosa is the vegetarian dish that the meat eaters will wish they had ordered. The, oh so, light pancake is stuffed with spiced, cooked and crushed potato and rolled up. Two sauces are added before you tuck in. The first is a piquant curry sauce, quite sharp and chilli hot. To this you add a coconut sauce, mild, fresh and creamy. There is nothing to compare to this food experience. The textures, crunchy thin pancake dissolving in one's mouth to reveal scrumptious spuds, the battle of the tangy sauce juxtaposing - a magnificent marriage - with creamy coconut. The aromas, the flavours, the satisfaction and appreciation of the eaters - all for £2.30 a head! If you're ever in Birmingham you can try them from The Milan - Dick's most highly recommended Sweet Centre - they only do take-away and they shut early too. The original Milan is in Stoney Lane, Balsall Heath but there's one in Handsworth too. For optimum satisfaction, you should eat a Masala Dosa immediately - this can cause problems if you're not prepared to eat it in your car. Dick beseeches you to find a restaurant where you can sample one as a matter of urgency. Dick's Tip: Most Gujarati restaurants serve Masala Dosa.

Browse and Buy at an Indian Sweet Centre

Samosas, pakoras, stuffed battered chillies and capsicums, pin wheels of potato spiced with ginger, sweets like you've only dreamt about - spheres of spongy loveliness served swimming in a light syrup - kulfi a much more satisfying alternative to ice cream. You can go to the Milan and other Indian Sweet Centres and point out what you want from their counter. Try everything! Savouries, sweets and snacks. Matar Paneer (paneer is a cheese), Sag Aloo, things with aubergine - either deep fried in batter or in a curry. Once you've tasted their array you'll have several favourites to order when you next visit. Your selection is deep fried while you wait. You can take it home and oven bake or deep fry it yourself if you wish. If you're doing this Dick's tip is to get a bag fried for your journey home - you'll need 2 samosas or the equivalent to drive 12 miles! Microwaving this food is not recommended. Don't forget to buy a few pillows of their chevda too - this alternative to crisp and nuts is probably the most delectable snack ever invented and comes in various shapes, sizes and flavours.

Dick's Meaty Recommendations

Dick Pringle's favourite Indian dishes above are Gujarati and so are all vegetarian. Other Indian food uses meat. Tandori chicken and fish the famous Chicken Tikka Massala Balti has been developed to cater for the western pallet but should be tried because of this rather than ignored. Beyond all doubt this is Birmingham's most eaten curry dish and that's a huge recommendation.

Anglo-Indian fusion food

There's a fish and chip shop in Digbeth, Birmingham that deep-fries fish in a coating of curry spices - it's spiced deep fried deliciousness. It's a marvellous fusion of English Brummy and Indian food. The fish is so unlike the battered cod you get in traditional chippies. Chippy fish has a thick batter that is often too greasy. If you have to try it when you're in England you should try it with curry sauce. Curry sauce was introduced in most fish "n" chip shops as far back as 1982 to Dick's recollection - another sample of fusion food.

Dick Pringle's Fusion Bombay Potato

This, according to the menu Dick Pringle first saw offering it, was “curried roast potatoes” and marked the only occasion, when tasting an Indian dish, that Dick found disappointing. Dick loves, yes loves, roast potatoes - crisp, with crunchy bits - and this is how he envisaged the Bombay Potato to be. In fact the potatoes were more sauted than roasted. To right this wrong Dick developed his own recipe based on a tray of firstly par-boiled, then perfectly butter roasted and basted Maris Piper potatoes. He take the aforementioned tray of heavenly delightful roast potatoes and adds his favourite vegetable curry. Use your favourite blend of herbs and spices that you've perfected over the years, chilli, curry powder, coriander, cumin, and tumeric feature in Dick's. Dick adds them to fried-down, almost caramelised onions and garlic and just before he uses it (this can be prepared in advance and reheated) he adds some double cream - this with the tumeric gives a golden colour. This sauce is tipped, without any palaver, over the roast potatoes. The dish should be eaten immediately when the roast potatoes are still crunchy. For the ultimate fusion sensation serve ice cold coca-cola with it.

The foods Dick has covered above are rather indulgent and should be enjoyed in moderation.

Bhature

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These are like pooris, but made in fine floor and curd. You can savour this mouth watering meal at any road side stall in Delhi. They are generally served with Chole, but you can have them with any curry. You need to make the dough in curd and keep it overnight, for fermentation. The best Bhature that I have ever had are served in Nagpal Hotel in a small town called Rohtak in Haryana. So if you want to have quick look while going from Delhi to Shimla or Kullu Manali, you can drop by at this place and have a tasty meal.

Dosa

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Dosa is served for breakfast in many south Indian homes. Like most south Indian foods, this pancake is also made of rice. But you can also get wheat dosa in restaurants. When we were staying in Banglore, I would invariably have one dosa a day. It is served with sambhar and coconut chutney (which is really tasty).Sometimes tomato chutney is also added.. Shanti sagar chain of restaurants is the best palce to have a cheap and good quality dosa. There are many varieties of dosa. You can get masala dosa, paper Dosa, chilli dosa, egg dosa, onion dosa……rava dosa…....humph, let me catch my breath. You get the gist, right?

Rogan Josh

It is a curry dish made of lamb. India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had a soft spot for Rogan josh. Every foreigner writes in his or her travel diary that Hindus are vegetarians and in particular, Brahmins don't even touch meat. Here is bit of information for these ignorant souls. Kashmiri Pundits savour Rogan josh, though it is made sans garlic and onion. It is a low fat dish, served mainly with nan or rice.

When I visited Kasmir four years back to attend a friend's wedding, I got to know that rogan josh is the main dish in wazwan, which is a festive banquet with 24 courses. Now that's really heavy!

Sarson Ka Saag

This dish is advertised as a Punjabi dish, which is not exactly true. Sarson ka saag is eaten not only in Punjab, but also in Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and parts of Gujrat. Sarson ka saag is made from mustard stalks. The stalks are bolied till they are tender, then a spoonful of curd (mixed with besan) is added. Saag is allowed to simmer for ten to fifteen minutes after all the spices and curry is added to it.

Macher Jhol

This typical Bengali fish curry is the favourite of India's ex prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpai. My husband claims that Delhi's Taj serves the authentic Macher jhol, but I would give my votes to Baniyan Treat in Dumdum for making a totally delicious fish curry. This dish is best made with Mustard oil as it gives a spicy and peppery taste.

There is so much to choose from when it come to Indian dishes. It was a tough decision to select only five dishes. Indian cuisine is among the best round the world and rightly so. Let's sit over a cuppa of kanjee sometime and discuss various Indian dishes.