Customer Reviews

Great Curries of India

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I strongly suspect most reviewers here have read this book rather than cooked from it.
Once you've deciphered what she's talking about and tested out her recipes you can produce excellent dishes. They usually involve lots of work, but that's Indian cooking. The big issue, only mentioned by one other reviewer, is that Panjabi's recipes are chock full of errors. Ingredients listed in the heading never appear in the description, and vice versa. Quantities are all over the place, sometimes wildly inaccurate. You definitely do not want to invite guests over for a meal from this book without going through a dry-run for the family first.
Just one of countless examples, the chick-pea dish near the end:
1)Calls for 1/3 cup, 9 oz of dried chick peas. 1/3 of a cup is about 2 oz, 9 oz is about one cup. Which is it? Neither?
2)Calls for 3 onions. Then in the body of the recipe you're asked to chop 2, puree one, and add the ........... wait a minute, 4th? to the peas you've put in the pressure cooker.
3)Calls for 1/2 oz ginger, peeled, 1/2 oz garlic. 1/2 oz of ginger is hardly worth bothering with after you've peeled it and 1/2 oz garlic is about 5 cloves, pretty overpowering in a veggie dish. I suspect yet another typo. Or two.

And so it goes on. The introductory pages, intended to give you an overview of Indian ingredients, is big on nice pictures and by-the-way stuff, low on what you need to know from a cooking and preparation standpoint.
I've used the book for years, enjoyed many dishes from it, but only after a laborious vetting process that often ends with me tossing it to the back of the shelf on being caught out by yet another error. In fairness, it's a problem that afflicts every Indian cooking book I've ever used. As my son, who travelled the country for a year, says, that's the joy and frustration of India.

I collect Indian cookbooks and this is one of the jewels of my collection. Camellia brings a delicious flair to the recipes in her presentation. Well chosen curries and fairly good ingredient measurements allow novices to fare well, But If you're from an Indian origin or well-versed in the tastes of the curries, You'd do well to experiment with the ingredient measurements.( Some dishes are made all over India with the same curry base, but varying amount of ingredients and regional produce give the dishes different flavours.)

this book has all the main superpowers: beauty, variety, indexing, cultural notes, explanation of ingredients, accessibility of ingredients, deliciousness, serving suggestions, flexibility, practical hints. including a recipe for watermelon curry is regarded as an additional special power.

my only complaint, which hasn't ever ruined a meal, is that many key ingredient amounts are given by weight. i am not a person who considers potatoes or tomatoes in ounces.

Why Camellia Panjabi's book is so far down the list of best selling books in it's category (102 at the moment) is beyond me!

I am the owner of several Indian cookbooks, including some by Madhur Jaffrey's and make it a point to try a new indian dish every weekend. However this book stands out.

I have to say that this book has given me the most inspiration to try new dishes and the most delightful results than any other.

Why? for starters, a full page photograph for every recipe gives the inspiration and urge to try out a new dish - most cooks like myself need something visual to get the mouth watering before we step into the kitchen!
There is also a brief introduction to the recipe detailing what part of the country the recipe came from and usually the direct source from which the recipe was obtained, be it an old lady in a village that Camellia was visiting or a local cook renowned in the region for his speciality.
Secondly, I have to say that the recipe's I have tried have not disappointed. Be it the Lamb Rogan Josh or the Goa Pork vindaloo, these recipes are delicious every time.
There is also a comprehensive guide to spices and ingredients at the beginning of the book going into such detail such as how to prepare fresh coconut.

A word of caution to those new to cooking, this book does not hold your hand throughout, specific cooking times are not always stated, instead the author instructs to "simmer until tender" etc. However the more "mission critical" timings such as adding spices, sauteing onions etc are given, so there is no need to be overly put off by this.

This book deserves to be in more kitchens. 5 stars all the way.

The background information presented on ingredients is invaluable.The author even photographed the most important ingredients as an introduction to the recipe collection. This is very helpful because descriptive terms for spices, peppers and chillis vary so much from region to region. With a photograph you can be sure that you have identified the correct ingredient. The Chicken with Pistachio sauce is divine, worth the price of the book.

I have a correction to report for my 23-Sept-1999 review: I discovered that my copy of the book was indeed a misprint - an entire section was missing from the back of my copy (it contained, among other things, the missing info on Dhals, some excellent vegetarian curries, and the wine matching section whose lack I complained about). I have since replaced my copy with a complete one, and I've upgraded my rating of this book from 4 stars to 5.

Successes: This book really helps novice cooks understand how typical curry recipes are constructed, from the ground up. Too many authors on the subject are lazily content to simply fob off long lists of exotic ingredients on the reader without explaining the purpose, technique, and timing of each component. This author goes to reasonable lengths to help a typical reader understand not only how to use a particular ingredient, but WHY it's used. Also, there are plenty of pictures which not only help the reader 'window shop' for recipes to try, but also help the reader to understand what the dish is supposed to look like when prepared properly.

Minor Nits: (1) The biggest weakness is this - the author only discusses only one classic Masala blend (Garam), yet there are NUMEROUS other Masala blends (ex: Sambar) that can & should have been covered in a book specializing in curry. The reader is left to scavenge other Indian books for recipes that use such masalas. (2) I wish the book were longer - it focuses heavily on lamb, whereas chicken, pork, fish and vegetable/dhal curries are covered in increasingly less detail ... and curried soups are barely covered at all. (3) There are minor errors and omissions scattered throughout (a few examples: the English names {colors} of the various Indian Dhals, and lack of the wine-pairing information hinted at in the acknowledgements), indicating some less-than exemplary editing, but most casual cooks won't notice.

Bottom Line: An excellent book, despite the minor flaws and omissions.

I echo all the preceeding raves about this fantastic cookbook but some of the recipes were sloppily edited. I found several instances where an ingredient is listed and then never mentioned again or the cooking time is wildly off because of a typo (5 mins when it should have been 15 or maybe 50). Also, sometimes she specifies a certain type of chili pepper but never mentions it in the section about chilis. And for some reason she uses the Indian name for cumin powder ("jeera powder") in one recipe with no translation. I hope future editions will be corrected.

I am of Indian descent and it is finally in Ms. Panjabi's book that I have been able to discover the detailed information on spices that usually passes from an Indian mother to her daughter. The recipies are marvellous and you can effortlessly reproduce some of the most popular curries in India. But the best part of the book for me was the explanation of the different flavors and colors that one can achieve from combinations of spices and even from different techniques of preparing the same spice. For someone totally flabbergasted by the different results american spices give in Indian recipies this book is a godsend! Another welcome plus to the book is the list of wines that can go with each curry. If you love Indian food this book is a must!

This is by far the best recipe book I have seen for Indian Cookery. The results are really great - So far I have tried about 20 of the 50 recipes and each one has been successful. The book is much more authentic than many other books, and the additional information is really informative. The photography is also excellent.