I've made this several times, and it's definitely a favourite.  The shallots taste amazing, and I like the smoky flavour of the black cardamoms.  I've never understood the point of boiling the lamb before using it.  I tried it once, then tried it without boiling, and preferred the latter.  It was more tender and didn't taste, well... boiled.  I often have a few lamb bones lying around to make a weak stock for the liquid in the recipe, but it doesn't generally need much.  As usual the amount of liquid she calls for is insane.  Do you seriously put almost a litre in when you make it?

I don't know how you do it, but I generally chop up the shallots in a food processor.  It's very therapeutic after spending ages removing the skins

Can you guys tell me which editions/years you ended up with?  I haven't got around to ordering my copy yet.  There are various editions and years available.  I gather the Mills & Boon printing is the original, and the Weathervane/etc. copies are reprints.  Are the reprints any good?  Also, apparently extra recipes were added after 1975, so I guess that sort of limits the choices available...

Amazon UK only has used copies, the same as Amazon and Amazon Canada.  It seems the last edition (HarperCollins) was published in 1981, with the last printing around 1985.  Apparently the 1975 edition added about 50 new recipes, so I guess I will be looking for one at least that new.  I usually buy used books from abebooks.

Could you possibly post a sample recipe from the book, CP?  I will probably order a copy today, it sounds pretty interesting.

I'm interested in ordering one or two more Indian recipe books, and I'd love some suggestions.  I find any given book will have quite a few recipes that are pretty good, but perhaps one or two that I *really* like, so it is nice to grab a new book now and then :

Here are the books I have:

"50 Great Curries of India" by Camellia Panjabi.  This one has a lot of recipes I really enjoy (rogan josh and chicken pistachio korma in particular), but I find she concentrates rather a lot on lamb, which I don't often have the opportunity to cook.

"Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni.  This one has a huge selection of recipes, but I wish there were more meat recipes that didn't include things like cloves and cardamom, which I find often overpower the rest of the dish.  A lot of the vegetable recipes are quite good (the hot Hyderabad tomato chutney is absolutely to die for), and it is definitely a good overall resource for a wide variety of Indian cooking.

"Indian Cooking" by Madhur Jaffrey.  This one is a bit hit or miss, but there are lots of hits.  There are, however, a few recipes that always end up being crap, no matter how I make them.  I also find the selection of stuff a bit random, but again, most of the vegetable recipes are very good ("dry" okra and the black-eyed pea one).  It's too bad so few of the recipes are photographed like "50 Great Curries".  It's annoying when there's a huge photo of some random spice where a photo of the recipe itself could go!

There isn't really anywhere here that carries much in the way of Indian recipe books, so I would have to order online, which means I can't check them out beforehand.  I've been looking at "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking" by Julie Sahni and "Lord Krishna's Cuisine", but these are both vegetarian books.  I would like some suggestions for other authentic Indian books to try out.  I'm especially interested in chicken recipes, since I never have time to cook lamb or seafood

I keep them around for the odd recipe that needs one, but they are not used too often.  I usually put one in a pot of chai, though.