1000 Great Indian Recipes
May 19, 2011 by admin
Filed under Indian food cookbooks
1000 Grеаt Indian Recipes
A cookbook thаt includes recipes thаt range frοm cashewnut tο kashmiri, cardamon tο curry, аnd butter chicken tο bengali.
List Price: $ 33.95
Price: $ 17.84
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Authentic, Way Too Authentic,
The recipes are genuine, native recipes written by Indian master chefs, unfettered by the opinions and prejudices of western, christian, manhattan editors and chefs. If you like Indian food, you have to buy this book. It is an amazing collection of authentic recipes, unsullied by American tastes. No other book has inspired me more to immediately rush to the kitchen and try all of the tasty recipes. If you are willing to work through some difficult recipes, this weighty (4#) tome will supply you a lifetime of recipes. If you have successfully cooked a few Indian meals and more or less understand what is going on, and you want an encyclopedia of Indian food that will supply you with a lifetime of fabulous recipes, this book is for you. If you want to learn about Indian cooking and want a learning resource, avoid this book.
No equivalents are listed for traditional Indian ingredients unavailable in US. It can take a little research and detective work to figure out exactly what some ingredients are. You will probably need another book that just covers cooking techniques and ingredients, or at least an Indian grocery store with patient employees who will explain these things to you. Unless you live near an Indian grocery store or purchase herbs, spices, and other ingredients via the internet, it will be impossible to assemble all of the ingredients for a particular recipe using only standard, American stores and markets. For the recipes I have tried, I have never been able to assemble all of the ingredients (I just leave them out, and it seems to pretty good).
The greatest pity about this book is that the recipes are not identified by region of origin. It could have been a comprehensive guide to regional Indian food. Like Italy, Indian food is very regional. There are absolutely no articles on the different types of regional Indian food, nor are there any explanations about the basics of Indian cooking.
The recipes tend to be difficult to do correctly; a little (sometimes a lot) cooking experience and knowledge is required. The cooking instructions are genuine ones, and have not been adapted to the tools, capabilities, and habits of Americans. Some recipe instructions are much too brief and do not work exactly as described; it takes a little cooking skill to adapt as you go along. Procedures can be hopelessly vague: add just enough water so that when the pan gets dry the meat is properly cooked, or cook till half done (say what?). Many recipes are involved and complicated. It is not unusual for a recipe to have a dozen spices and herbs, 2 dozen total ingredients, and 2 separate cooking steps. Some recipe instructions are hopelessly vague, while others are correct and easily done as stated, but you need some skill to be able to figure out which recipe is which.
Since beef and pork are not eaten in India, there are no recipes for these meats; however, there are many recipes for chicken and lamb. You will need 2 food processors: a smaller one for grinding spice mixtures, and a normal sized one.
FORMAT PROBLEMS
Due to the organization of this book, it is impossible to find a specific recipe. You are more or less obligated to flip through dozens of pages to find any particular recipe unless you are familiar with Hindi. For example, you will find a rice and green pea pulao (pilaf) in the Accompaniment section somewhere and not in the Vegetarian section. Unless you know Hindi, you will have to leaf through the entire 100 page section to find it. TOC is not detailed: lists chapter title only, but each chapter has hundreds of recipes. You are more less obligated to spend several evenings reading through dozens of recipes to find the ones that are easily done.
Titles are in phonetic english of the Hindi name (usually) with english sub-titles. Recipes are categorized in index only by Hindi title. There are dozens of recipes for wonderful vegetable curries and deep-fried dumplings, but you will have a devil of a time trying to find them. Having a Hindi dictionary is useful, as some terms and words are not translated at all, or poorly translated. If you are trying to find a specific recipe, you are out of luck. The TOC lists only the chapter title (some chapters run 150 pages), and the index lists only the Indian name of the recipe, not the descriptive endglish sub-title. There are so many wonderful recipes, but you will never find them unless you flip through the entire book or prepare your own recipe index or TOC.
It has these chapters: Chicken (50 pages), Lamb (64 pages), Fish and Seafood (54 pages), Egg and Pork and Liver (12 pages), Vegetarian (158 pages), Accompaniments (108 pages), Beverages and Soups (14 pages), Desserts and Sweets (47 pages).
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Truly great recipies!,
Best Indian cookbook I own or have ever seen.
I have cooked Indian, my absolute favorite cuisine, for 20+ years, and these recipes are more simply written, with accurate instructions, more authentic, and most importantly, more delicious, than any other Indian cookbook I have used.
It’s no-frills. The chapter arrangement is not as mapped out as in most, there are no pictures, the paper is cheap and seems like heavy newsprint, but it makes up for all of that by being as good as or better than any other cookbook, in any category of cuisine.
These are world-class, but also, thankfully, every-day recipies.
Coriander Chicken (Dhaniya Murg), in particular, is the kind of dish whose leftovers you will repeatedly visit your fridge after dinner for. Yum!!!
This cookbook can be had for cheap (mine was under $7.00), and it is worth every penny and more.
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