4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than it appeared at first glance, July 1 2011
I wasn't terribly impressed when I first flipped through this book. A few dishes appeared distinctly unappetizing (the Chicken Tandoori, for instance) and the bulk of the recipes seemed quite a bit removed from those in other Indian cookbooks ... more like fast food restaurant productions rather than the sort of thing you might actually find in India.
In consideration, however, I think my initial assessment was unfair. On looking through this book I note that, though a few recipes have 'curry' in the title, curry powder appears nowhere as an ingredient and in each dish and the spices for each are mixed individually. In using these blends, the author has managed to create dishes that are bright and lively in color, and a pleasant change from the often drab and sometimes downright awful dark browns that typical spice usages impart to may Indian dishes. Moreover, the dishes that are presented appear to have been cooked to preserve freshness. Indian cookery rarely features rare meat or 'al dente' vegetables and westerners may find a lot of dishes to have an 'over-cooked' quality to them. All in all, he recipes in this collection address these features of an otherwise delightful cuisine and the book thus represent something refreshing and interesting.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
whats cooking indian, Jan 26 2004
By A Customer
this is a very helpful book. the step by step pictures are something i could not find in any other indian cookbook. the directions are very simple to follow, and even the toughest recipes seem easy.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Proportions?, Jan 24 2004
By A Customer
As a picture book this cookbook is great, but I have to question the portions of the ingredients, particularly the oil used. Many recipes start off calling for 1 1/4 CUPS of oil. If you take this verbatim, you end with oil soup, nothing like the photos.
Interestingly, if you view the preparation photos sometimes the pan looks almost dry (c.f. Chicken and Onions). Where's the 1 1/4 cups of oil? That certainly wasn't absorbed by 4 onions.
Similarly the amount of water also seems out of proportion. What do 1 1/4 cups oil mixed with 2 1/2 cups water look like with 2 lbs. of lamb cooked covered? Not what's on page 23.
Something is wrong here, but it does look great on the coffee table.
And as far as ingredients go, yes 95% of them are in the grocery store shelves but items like dried mango powder or black cumin seed or masoor dhal are probably not. You may have to do a little on-line shopping but then I would expect to.
I thought the following from the recipe for Chapati was amusing: After kneading the flour, salt and water for 7-10 minutes it says to let the dough "rise" for 15-20 minutes. Anyony see anything wrong with those instructions? There's no leavening. It won't "rise" in 15-20 years. It does taste good though.
Oh, and I would suggest a good oil separator.
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