the takeaway secret

lucy*locket

takeawaysecret wrote: »

Hi everyone

I've been reading this thread with interest for some time now and am sorry that it's taken so long for me to come and join in the conversation!

My name's Kenny McGovern and i'm the author of The Takeaway Secret (and the sequel 'More Takeaway Secrets') - I just wanted to come on and thank you all for supporting the book and for contributing to such an excellent thread - seeing the pictures many of you have posted of the dishes you've cooked has been so exciting for me and I really can't thank you all enough for taking the time to post them.

I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone might have but really I just wanted to thank the Money Saving Expert site, and forum members, for providing me with so much feedback and such an interesting read, it's been great to find out what people think of the recipes and as I said above, seeing the pictures of your food has been brilliant too.

So, in short, thank you!

Hi Kenny, I bought your first book last year and it's my most used cookbook, the recipes are easy to follow and I'm working my way through them. Only this evening I made chicken tikka massala, naan bread (so easy and delicious!)and tarka dal as part of our Saturday Indian feast. Thanks for a brilliant book.

Honeythief

I am new to this site but registered specifically to post about how much I love this book. I have been reading this thread for the last week at least and it has been so informative!

I bought the Kindle edition of the first book about two weeks ago and have already been wowing my friends and family with the end results. Nobody could believe I made my own naan bread and it was far nicer than the packets from the shops. My husband and his mates think they have died and gone to heaven because I have been feeding them so much "fast food" at home and it's all really good.

This weekend I made chicken korma, vegetable curry, raita, and naan for eight people and made egg muffins and egg fried rice for three. Rave reviews all round. I am only used to cooking for one normally so this is a radical change!

Thank you to Kenny for writing the book and to everybody here for posting about it and making me want to try everything.

calisto

AMMat158 wrote: »

I have the second book out from the library just now (very money saving

Hahaha... are you sure? Surely the bus-fare/petrol/car-park or even the energy from a Ginsters pie to get to the library is far more than the pittance needed to buy the book?

Frankly the cost of renting out such a low priced book from a taxpayer funded library is going to be more than the cover price on each instance it is loaned out (to us taxpayers at least)

:rotfl:

calisto

takeawaysecret wrote: »

Hi everyone

I've been reading this thread with interest for some time now and am sorry that it's taken so long for me to come and join in the conversation!

My name's Kenny McGovern and i'm the author of The Takeaway Secret (and the sequel 'More Takeaway Secrets') - I just wanted to come on and thank you all for supporting the book and for contributing to such an excellent thread - seeing the pictures many of you have posted of the dishes you've cooked has been so exciting for me and I really can't thank you all enough for taking the time to post them.

I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone might have but really I just wanted to thank the Money Saving Expert site, and forum members, for providing me with so much feedback and such an interesting read, it's been great to find out what people think of the recipes and as I said above, seeing the pictures of your food has been brilliant too.

So, in short, thank you!

Kenny, now that you are famous, have you overcome your social anxiety disorder? I suffer from this myself from time to time. Also, what do you do with your untold millions like J.K.Rowling?

I would buy a castle with a few hundred acres and build my own kebab, pizzeria and indian takeaway into the west-wing. I would let my 6 dogs roam my lands keeping the riff-raff out too.

Also, I am a mere Sassenach, and we don't have the legendary Munchie-Boxes here - can you offer a Takeaway Secret version of the famous Glasgow Munchie-Box? :T

takeawaysecret

Thanks so much again everyone!

I want to reply to everyone who's been kind enough to reply to me but didn't want to clog the board up with quotes so I hope my replies will make sense this way!

pulliptears - I'm so glad you like the basic curry sauce - the intention was always to make it handy so that creating a final curry was as quick at home as it is in the takeaway - someone once gave me great advice when I was trying to work out how takeaway restaurants do things - they said "if it takes longer than 10 minutes, that's probably not how they do it" - It's some of the best advice I've ever had and I hope that most of the recipes in the books are like that, albeit with some advance preparation at times!

BohemianCoast - My niece has enjoyed making the cookies loads of times recently, I really hope the work experience went well and the cookies were popular with the staff!

sonastin - thanks so much I'm delighted if the recipes are helping you enjoy Indian curry, it's great timing too with National Curry Week coming up next week!

AMMat158 - You're right to say that the portion sizes are large - I've tried to imitate both the recipes and the serving sizes and so when cooking one portion, it's sold as enough to feed one with leftovers, or two to share

camNolliesMUMMY - That's the spirit!

lucy*locket - thanks so much I was really eager to try and ensure recipes were easy to follow and wanted it to be a book which genuinely encouraged people to cook as opposed to some of the more expensive cookbooks which are often full of long instructions and glossy pictures - from experience I find these books interesting to read but often they remain on the shelf and I find that I've actually cooked very few recipes from them, not that I don't love and respect the authors who've written them, of course!

Honeythief - I honestly can't thank you enough for such kind words, thank you so much

calisto - I'm not sure if it's accurate to say that I'm 'famous'! I've certainly enjoyed the reception the books have had though and am learning to overcome my social anxiety, especially with a few appearances on BBC Radio Scotland recently which I hope to do more of

I'm certainly far from rich also I can assure you!

As for a glasgow munchy box, I've been interested in coming up with a recipe for this for a while now - the individual components can all be found in both books but it would be nice to come up with a quick, simple guide with timings etc to ensure everything was cooked and came together 'in the box' at the right time!

---

I apologise if that was a huge rabble and was difficult to read! I certainly don't want to flood the forum with boring responses from myself - I really do appreciate the support and encouragement each and every person on the thread has given though, it means the world to me and I'll be eternally grateful to everyone for it.

I have a blog which I hope you'd all enjoy (and a Twitter account) - I'm not sure if it would be breaking forum rules to post them on here so I won't just in case but I would be delighted to share them with you all.

Thanks again, so, so much to everyone

mellymoo74

I make the cookies regularly, I add cranberries and white chocolate to mine and take the sugar down to 150g of golden castor sugar.

Oh I also make the chilli but I make it as a sauce then add chunks of chicken in the slow cooker and cook it on low for 5 - 6 hours it is lovely with either rice or on tortilla chips with some cheese on top.

Hezzawithkids

Thanks Kenny - and the OP! :beer:

On the strength of the comments on this thread I've just ordered 2 copies from Amazon - one for me and one for my BIL as an xmas pressie, looks like the perfect gift for a foodie who also loves his takeaways!

iwannanicerlife

I'm thinking of doing the lamb kebabs for an informal dinner with friends next weekend. I'd normally just serve with pittas and salad, but wondered what everyone else normally does - any suggestions please? Also for an associated starter and dessert? Thanks

missjennipenni

I'd love a look at your blog Kenny! I already follow you on Twitter

breadlinebetty

Is there a Nandos recipe in the book?:)