Growing up in India you get used to always cooking something vegetarian in addition to everything else, even if you are a strict meat eating family. At our house it was odd. My mother was a strict vegetarian, but cooked meat for the rest of us. She came from a meat eating family, but managed to covnert the entire family to vegetarianism. She was the much awaited eldest child of my bold and eccentric grandfather, and once when she was three years old, she saw an animal being slaughtered for a festival and was hugely upset. From that day on my grandfather imposed a ban on meat in the large household. A habit that was maintained all their lives. My mother learned to cook meat for my father after they moved to London (her landlord used to shop for meat for her), and she brought us up to eat meat. But we grew up learning to be careful with spoons and lids - not mixing up the meat with the vegetarian dishes. So here goes .... some recipes I love.