THE Pakistan born owner of a cafe and Punjabi restaurant at West Marton, near Skipton, has brought out a recipe book, to help show people how easy it is to cook delicious Asian food.

Teresa Yousaf, who grew up in rural Pakistan, has been living in Craven for more than 20 years where she has been sharing her knowledge of Asian cookery for several years.

She owns the Kitchen Garden Cafe in West Marton, and 18 months ago launched her Thali Punjabi restaurant, which runs during weekend evenings in the cafe premises, off the A59.

"My primary goal has been to introduce and educate people about the benefits of healthy, traditional, authentic, and easily prepared Punjabi cuisine," she said.

"Preparing traditional Punjabi cuisine has always brought me immense delight, whether it is for my loved ones or close friends. It is this passion that propelled me to write a book and open Thali Punjabi, where I aspire to extend this culinary experience to the entire community."

Teresa added when she first came to England, she noticed people loved eating Asian food, but were not very confident at cooking it.

"Most of my friends thought cooking Asian food was very complicated until they saw me cooking and tried my food. This is when I decided to share my recipes with everyone and show everyone how easy, simple and quick it is.

"I grew up in a very small rural area in Pakistan where we had no access to fancy spices and so I had to use very basic spices picked fresh from my dad’s farm. That’s why all I know is how to cook delicious traditional food with few basic but fresh ingredients.

"I have been living in England for 23 years now and during this time one thing that has struck me is that life is very busy. Most people work 9am until 5pm, which means they don’t always have much time to go home and cook. I can understand this - if you have been busy all day, the last thing you want to do is to start cooking as soon as you get home.

"Keeping that in mind I’ve designed my recipes to be simple and less time consuming, so people can cook when they get home from work, and it won't take up valuable time. In fact, most of my recipes take no more than 15 minutes to cook.

"To cook my recipes, you don’t need to have cupboard full of spices - all you need is chilli powder and ground garam masala in your spice cupboard."

Copies of the book are available at the cafe or restaurant, or by emailing:  info@thekitchengarden.uk