Cookbook Project, Book #191
Jul. 7th, 2013 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladysprite"Indian Cooking," Madhur Jaffrey
I love Indian food, and for years now I have wanted to learn how to cook it at home. I've been searching for a decent Indian cookbook, but all the ones I had found were either watered down and Americanized to the point that I couldn't recognize any of the recipes any more, or complex enough that they wouldn't really work for a home kitchen.
This past fall, though,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran managed to ask a handful of Indian coworkers for their opinions and recommendations, and based on their advice picked this book up for me as a Christmas present. And I love it, utterly and absolutely and without question. It is big and hefty and full of incredibly gorgeous pictures; it has an entire chapter at the front dedicated to explaining the spices, seasonings, and flavorings of the cuisine and another on basic techniques, and a section recommending menus pairing up recipes from the book. The recipes are interesting and varied, and the author neither calls for completely absurdly unfindable ingredients, nor tames them and dumbs them down.
The only downside is that a lot of the recipes make enough for 6 or more, so I wound up testing this cookbook on my gaming group. I made Chicken With Cream and Spinach Cooked With Onions, and as far as I could tell, it all went over amazingly well.
The chicken is dry-rubbed with cumin, coriander, salt, turmeric, cayenne, and black pepper before being browned, then braised with aromatics and chopped tomatoes - the cream is stirred in right at the end. It was mild but tasty, and rich without being overwhelming. The spinach was the true winner, though, in spite of being deceptively simple - brown onions in butter or oil, add spinach, a green chili chopped fine, ginger, salt, sugar, and a little water; cover, simmer, then sprinkle with garam masala. I've never before seen a group of gamers demolish a bowl of veggies that quickly, and go back for seconds.
Bottom line? I need to have more dinner parties, so I can use this cookbook more often. I love it, I read it for fun, and I can't wait to make just about everything else in it....
I love Indian food, and for years now I have wanted to learn how to cook it at home. I've been searching for a decent Indian cookbook, but all the ones I had found were either watered down and Americanized to the point that I couldn't recognize any of the recipes any more, or complex enough that they wouldn't really work for a home kitchen.
This past fall, though,
umbran managed to ask a handful of Indian coworkers for their opinions and recommendations, and based on their advice picked this book up for me as a Christmas present. And I love it, utterly and absolutely and without question. It is big and hefty and full of incredibly gorgeous pictures; it has an entire chapter at the front dedicated to explaining the spices, seasonings, and flavorings of the cuisine and another on basic techniques, and a section recommending menus pairing up recipes from the book. The recipes are interesting and varied, and the author neither calls for completely absurdly unfindable ingredients, nor tames them and dumbs them down.The only downside is that a lot of the recipes make enough for 6 or more, so I wound up testing this cookbook on my gaming group. I made Chicken With Cream and Spinach Cooked With Onions, and as far as I could tell, it all went over amazingly well.
The chicken is dry-rubbed with cumin, coriander, salt, turmeric, cayenne, and black pepper before being browned, then braised with aromatics and chopped tomatoes - the cream is stirred in right at the end. It was mild but tasty, and rich without being overwhelming. The spinach was the true winner, though, in spite of being deceptively simple - brown onions in butter or oil, add spinach, a green chili chopped fine, ginger, salt, sugar, and a little water; cover, simmer, then sprinkle with garam masala. I've never before seen a group of gamers demolish a bowl of veggies that quickly, and go back for seconds.
Bottom line? I need to have more dinner parties, so I can use this cookbook more often. I love it, I read it for fun, and I can't wait to make just about everything else in it....
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no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 03:32 pm (UTC)This is not a downside! Well, maybe from your point of view, if you can't put together something small for just you and
no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 06:18 pm (UTC)If you ever manage to exhaust Madhur Jaffrey's book, another excellent cookbook for Indian food is Lord Krishna's Cuisine by Yamuna Devi. It's not only filled with wonderful recipes,it's also got a lot of information about ingredients and food-related traditions. Between the two you'd have just about everything you'd ever need to know about Indian Cuisine.
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642
no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 07:36 pm (UTC)I highly recommend the Gujerati-style green beans. I make them all them time with non-Indian meals. Also the samosas. The filling alone makes a good side dish and if you choose to make the pastries, you can bake them instead of frying them. There are a bunch more I'd recommend if you want.
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Date: 2013-07-14 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-10 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-08 02:10 pm (UTC)