An Invitation to Indian Cooking

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Summary: An Invitatiion to Indian cooking
Review: I recommend this book to anybody who would like to try their hand at cooking Indian food.

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Summary: The Best Indian Cookbook Out There
Review: I'm from Delhi myself, and I grew up with excellent North Indian cooking every day of my life. This is the cookbook that I recommend to my friends. Indian cooking is so very different from region to region that not every recipe is how I myself would make it ("kheer," for example, varies tremendously throughout India and though I make it completely differently from Jaffrey, her recipe is still tasty). But they're all good, they're all authentic, and they're all very easy to follow. I totally disagree with the person who said this is Americanized Indian cooking -- this is extremely genuine North Indian cooking. It's not South Indian or West Indian or Punjabi, and you can't expect it to be. (I have tried Julie Sahni's cookbooks, too, and I didn't keep them because I thought they were awful.) The only book is use more is Jaffrey's "World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking" which is probably my favorite cookbook in the world. But I think this book still is truly the best introduction to Indian cooking, and it's an enjoyable read in its own right (don't miss the "foreward").

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Summary: Eat Madhur's tomato chutney and you'll be spoiled forever.
Review: I've been using this book for almost 20 years, and I can't imagine not having it for another 20 years. It's a fantastic introduction to certain kinds of Indian food and is fully usuable by anyone not used to this cuisine. Be forewarned, however: if you cook from this book, you will have a hard time being pleased by many Indian restaurants, few of which can match the splended results even a novice Indian chef can accomplish using this book. I promise that if you make Madhur's tomato chutney, you will never be able to eat anthing purchased in a jar again!

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Summary: A classic!
Review: I've owned an earlier edition of this book for 8 years, and like some of the above reviewers have mentioned, my copy is battered and stained from use. Many of the recipes have become staples of everyday cooking for me, but I also love to cook more elaborate meals, using several dishes from the book, for company. Very clearly written, and the food is delicious!

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Summary: The Best Indian Cookbook and Menu Guide
Review: I've owned my battered hardback copy ... since 1976. We use itconstantly. Virtually every page is marked with notations on lengthof time for preparation and cooking as well as what we've served withit. One of its greatest values is her menu suggestions since Indianfood is best when complementary dishes are eaten together. I've boughtmany of her other cookbooks and with the exception of Quick Cooking(which is an excellent distillation of more complex dishes into oneswith shorter preparation time), a number of them don't include menusuggestions.

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Summary: yummy
Review: If you like Indian Cooking, this book provides Major Yum. However, it is impossible to find a recipe in the book which does NOT have at least one tablespoon of oil or Ghee. It includes recipes for Naan, Paratha, Tandoori Chicken and a number of other regional favorites. As well as background.

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Summary: Attractive Invite to World of Indian Cuisine
Review: Jaffrey is surely one of Indian cuisine's true ambassadors. Finding the need initially in our country to receive Indian food, she had to prepare it herself and thus modified recipes to American appliances, measurements, etc.

Thus, we have a trusted intro into this fascinating, spicy world of major cuisine with a reliable source to guide. There is an excellent source listing by state with many mail and email order sites.

I am enchanted with the spices and yogurt sauces, e.g. Lamb korma with almonds, pecans, and sour cream; lamb chops with whole spices and yogurt; shrimp with brown sauce; sweet rice; yogurt with roasted eggplant.

This is great work to enter and explore this flavorful world. Color photos of finished work would help us that are unfamiliar with this.



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Summary: An Excellent Book for beginners and old timers both
Review: Jaffrey's book is an excellent one volumne primer on Indian cooking. It is written in American measurements, not metric as is the case of the British Indian cook books I purchased in England many years ago. The recipes are straight-forward and easy to follow. I learned how to cook Indian food on my many extended visits to India and Jaffrey's techniques and the finished product are very "Indian" yet American at the same time. Unfortunately, the book focuses primarily on North Indian Cuisine to the exclusion of South Indian cuisine. The book is also a little dated and has not kept up with the latest "nouveau Indian cuisine," the lighter and healthier "Americanized" foods one finds at the upscale restaurants in Bombay. There are other Indian cook books available, and some like Julie Shahni's are very good, yet none are better.

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Summary: Mouth Watering....
Review: Madhur Jaffrey is an international authority on Indian food and the host of several tandoori-driven TV shows. She walks you through each step of the process. Just follow her detailed directions and you will end up with mouth-watering dishes. Recipedelights.com recommends this illustrated book with more than 200 recipes, to non-Indians.

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Summary: The Best Indian Cookbook Available
Review: The recipes in this book are absolutely wonderful. They produce the delicious, complex Indian dishes I tasted in India years ago. The only drawback is that rather than explaining all the techniques up front in the first few chapters, as Sahni does, she explains them in the recipe pages, making each recipe seem longer than it really is. The oil and onions in this book can be cut down (unless you are using small onions), and I believe the recipes assumes you are using freshly ground spices, which are more potent than dried or powdered. (Of course, freshly ground is always best anyways, and not too much more work!) If you want to learn about authentic North Indian cuisine, this is the place to go.