What's Cooking Indian (What's Cooking)

Rating:
Summary: Proportions?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: whats cooking indian
Review: I own several cookbooks in the "What's Cooking" series and I love them. The Indian cookbook was the first in the series that I purchased and it is still the one that I used the most. We eat a lot of Indian and Pakistani food in my house and I love to try new recipes. But sometimes I don't have the time or energy to do lots of fancy involved steps. Most of the recipes in the "What's Cooking Indian" cookbook are simple and easy with ingredients that you can probably find in your local supermarket. The "What's Cooking" cookbooks are a well-done series of books. They are oversized with simple and clear step-by-step instructions and they also frequently include pictures for some of the preparation steps as well as the finished product. Each recipe has a beautiful full-page color picture of the finished dish on the page facing the recipe. One thing that I wish they had done in the book was to include the Indian names for the recipes. Most of the names have been translated into English. So, if you eat out in Indian restaurants frequently and are familiar with the Indian names of the dishes you won't be able to simply flip to the index and look up something like "Aloo Chat". Instead they call the `chat' dish something like "Potato and chickpea snack" (which by the way is delicious!). The book is divided into several sections such as appetizers, vegetables, meat & poultry, seafood, pulses, rice & breads, snacks & desserts. Overall there are over 100 recipes. My husband & I have several favorite recipes from the book including the rice pudding, the `aloo chat', several of the rice dishes, and the lamb chops. This is a great cookbook and one that I use frequently. I recommend this book to anyone who loves Indian cooking and would like to try to make some at home. This is a great book for beginners!

Rating:
Summary: Indian made easy!
Review: I own several cookbooks in the "What's Cooking" series and I love them. The Indian cookbook was the first in the series that I purchased and it is still the one that I used the most. We eat a lot of Indian and Pakistani food in my house and I love to try new recipes. But sometimes I don't have the time or energy to do lots of fancy involved steps. Most of the recipes in the "What's Cooking Indian" cookbook are simple and easy with ingredients that you can probably find in your local supermarket. The "What's Cooking" cookbooks are a well-done series of books. They are oversized with simple and clear step-by-step instructions and they also frequently include pictures for some of the preparation steps as well as the finished product. Each recipe has a beautiful full-page color picture of the finished dish on the page facing the recipe. One thing that I wish they had done in the book was to include the Indian names for the recipes. Most of the names have been translated into English. So, if you eat out in Indian restaurants frequently and are familiar with the Indian names of the dishes you won't be able to simply flip to the index and look up something like "Aloo Chat". Instead they call the 'chat' dish something like "Potato and chickpea snack" (which by the way is delicious!). The book is divided into several sections such as appetizers, vegetables, meat & poultry, seafood, pulses, rice & breads, snacks & desserts. Overall there are over 100 recipes. My husband & I have several favorite recipes from the book including the rice pudding, the 'aloo chat', several of the rice dishes, and the lamb chops. This is a great cookbook and one that I use frequently. I recommend this book to anyone who loves Indian cooking and would like to try to make some at home. This is a great book for beginners!

Rating:
Summary: Cooking East Indian Food has never been easier!
Review: Just purchased this book (along with the others in the series) and found it so much fun to look at! Wonderful color pictures on one side, easy recipe listed on the other. Step by step pictures showing preparation makes cooking so much easier! Recipes are very simple and written in easy terms (if you have ever read any other Indian cook book you will ask..."What in the world is dahl?"). Even though the "Cook's Tips" for each recipe defines some of the Indian ingredients, it would be nice if the book included a glossary of terms; however, this book makes Indian cooking easy to understand for the average American cook, has great pictures (makes me hungry), easy step-by-step instructions, cook's tips (like how do you make "panir"?) and has an easy ingredients list.

Rating:
Summary: Very helpful! Demystifies Indian Cooking
Review: This book has been very enjoyable. This book has a wide variety of recipes, and they are made with ingredients that are easy to find. I was amazed at how many recipes can be made with ingredients that we have on hand. This book is well organized, and best of all it offers a picture of every single recipe. So you know what it is going to look like. The recipes that I have tried have been very good, and enjoyable. This book gets very high ratings since the recipes are written clearly, even for the begining cook. My only minor complaint with this book is that all recipes are not given in their actual name but generic names. Still if you are looking for a book for the beginner, or if you are just starting to get interested in Indian cooking, this is a great book to start with.

Rating:
Summary: Recipes taste just like what I eat in the restaurants
Review: This book is GREAT! I love Indian food and this book has several recipes that taste exactly the same as the best dishes I have had in restaurants. The pictures with each recipe are great because they act as a guide when you are cooking. Directions are generally simple which adds to the pleasure of using this book.

Rating:
Summary: Very Cool
Review: This book was very cool! The pictures show recipes step by step, which is very helpful, especially if this is your ist time cooking this cusine. It was easy to find the ingredients needes for most of the recipes. A+++

Rating:
Summary: whats cooking indian
Review: 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.