If you love Indian and Southeast Asian food, chances are you’ve wished there were an easier way (besides takeout) to get those flavors on a day when you have to work late, shuttle the kids around, and generally deal with your busy life.

Sunil Vijayakar’s “150 Best Indian, Thai, Vietnamese & More Slow Cooker Recipes” (Robert Rose, $24.95) offers lots of options. Sure, it’s a bit more complicated than throwing some meat, potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker and walking away for six hours. And there are some recipes in the book that simply have too many steps for this style of cooking. The chicken and red lentil curry, for example, requires soaking the lentils for an hour and then cooking the chicken, onions and spices in a wok before throwing it all into the slow cooker for five hours. You kind of wonder, what’s the point?

But Vikayakar, a London-based cookbook author and food stylist, includes others, like the Madras Fish Curry, the Chicken Massaman or the Sindhi Beef Curry, that seem slow-cooker easy and sound delicious. There are lots of vegetarian choices as well.

SINDHI BEEF CURRY

Servings: 6

Tips: This simple curry is particularly delicious with a rice pilaf. Add some Indian pickles for a finishing touch.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Medium (approx. 4 quart) slow cooker

2 pounds trimmed stewing beef, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons curry powder

1 tablespoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoom ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

4 large tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 red onions, finely chopped

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 teaspoons garam masala

2 cups water or beef broth

1. In slow cooker stoneware, combine beef, curry powder, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. Mix well.

2. Add tomatoes, onions, tomato paste, garam masala and water. Stir well and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover and cook on low for eight hours or on high for four hours, until meat is meltingly tender.