A 'must-have' for the serious collector
Rating:
5 / 5
With over 100 cookbooks in my collection, I no longer buy books just for a collection of recipes. I want interesting information about culinary traditions, etc. and this book has all of that. It has a great overview of Indian regional cooking, lovely pictures, and good illustrative recipes besides. Serious gourmets will *not* be disappointed.
A fantastic introduction to Indian cooking
Rating:
5 / 5
This is a great book - not only are the recipes superb and quite distinctive, but Madhur Jaffrey writes about the food with such passion and feeling that it just makes you want to cook. When she describes a dish as one "I love with a passion" you can be sure that it will not disappoint. For cooks trying out Indian food for the first time, following her recipes precisely can almost guarantee an Indian meal that will earn rave reviews from friends and family.
Recipes which are not same old ones
Rating:
4 / 5
This is a book that was given to me some years ago when I was in India. It is not just a cook book but it conveys a picture of India. The book is broken into sections based on India's main regions. Each chapter has magnificent photo's of those regions and a text which describes the cuisine.Each region then has a series of recipes that are famous. Most Indian cookery books tend to show how to cook the sorts of things that you get in Indian restaurants. Chicken Tandoori, Rogan Josh and so forth. This book has recipes which I have never come across before and most of them are interesting and delightful. A lot of them use a limited range of spices and depend on the mixture of their ingredients to develop subtle and interesting flavors. One recipe that was a revelation was an eggplant (aubergine) dish which was cooked and served cold with a yogurt sauce. I live with a vegetarian and one of the reasons I enjoy such cook books are the variety of vegetarian foods that they contain. This book is by no means devoted to vegetarian food but it contains many such recipes. The recipes are in text form but they are easy to follow. If something unusual has to be done such as the preparation of tamarind, the author explains how to do it in a clear and simple way. Some cook books are things that you have on the shelf simply to prepare food. This book is a little more and gives you a feel for the county which has provided the recipes.
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