Spicy Secrets: Keep calm and curry on

Cookbook not just a bunch of great recipes but tasty history lesson

It's about time the story of Durban's distinctive curry cuisine was told, and who better to tell it than local heroes Erica Platter and Clinton Friedman who celebrated KwaZulu-Natal's produce, recipes, chefs and cooks in their earlier books, East Coast Tables and East Coast Tables: The Inland Edition?

Both books won World Gourmand South Africa awards.

Their new work, written in conjunction with Devi Sankaree Govender (she of Carte Blanche fame) is called Durban Curry: So Much of Flavour. This is not your typical cookbook - rather it's a homage to the KZN Indian community. Every page explodes with lively photographs of produce, dishes and animated cooks, on big blocks of vibrant colour. The history is fascinating, the stories engaging and often very funny, the recipes local and uncomplicated.

Platter, a seasoned ex-journalist, has developed all three books in documentary style - they are story books, she says, about real people. Friedman, a recognised local photographer, photographs the subjects as naturally as possible.

''No artificial lighting," says Platter. ''The food is photographed as it comes off the stove. Nothing happens in a studio. I call Clinton: 'Seize-the-Moment'."

The book was completed within six months. Platter pinpointed the best curry places she knew about and Sankaree Govender would back her choices or add in her own views. But the book is certainly not definitive, adds Platter.

''There's room for so much more - possibly we will have to produce Son of Durban Curry at some point - but I loved doing this book. I learned so much.

''Curry in Durban is a work in progress. The forefathers of these people came out on the boats and the cuisine evolved. People are still tinkering; the traditions may be entrenched but there is always a modern riff - the food is always evolving."

She gives an example of taking a visitor to Durban to the Spice Emporium (an enormous general store that includes a snack bar) for a paneer with coriander chutney toasted sandwich. ''It's very Durban, but it is still a toasted sarmie."

As Platter states in her introduction, there are a multitude of Durban curries. Generally, they are hot, red, don't feature milk products and - unlike in India - the spices and aromatics go in first and the protein and veg follow.

It's a singularly Durban dish, she says. ''There's no such thing as a Johannesburg curry. That's just a Durban curry in exile. It's no surprise that ex-Durbanites buy their spices here."

She recounts an occasion when she watched a man in a vegetable store filling his trolley with ochre. She couldn't resist asking him why. ''I now live in Cape Town," he said forlornly. ''I'm taking it back in my hand luggage."

• 'Durban Curry: So Much of Flavour' by Erica Platter and Clinton Friedman is published by Pawpaw Publishing.

Yorkshire bunnies at Linga Lapa

A New star featured on the menu at the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands pub and butchery Linga Lapa last weekend. The venue, known for featuring the best of Midlands free-range beef and its world-class Yorkshire puds, put on a curry dinner on Saturday night using recipes from 'Durban Curry, So Much of Flavour'. Chef-patron Matt Mackay served the Britannia Hotel's famous mutton bunny curry in Linga Lapa's own, almost-as-famous, Yorkshire puds instead of traditional quarter-loaves of bread. The verdict, from a packed house of curry-loving locals? Light, crisp, delicious - a triumph.

Contact Linga Lapa Restaurant, Butchery and Deli on 033-266-7001.