Indian Books - Page 3

Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking

Betty Crocker Editors

Amazon Price: $18.45 List Price: $27.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Betty Crocker Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $4.09

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A great book for beginners to experts. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book a year ago because I enjoy eating Indian food and wanted to learn the recipes. This book has taught me more than I expected about spices and new foods. I highly recommend this book but be warned, you must like to cook because the dishes often take one to three hours from start to clean up. The reason is Indian dishes require lots of vegetable chopping, spice grinding and measuring, simmering and you will use lots of cookware. It is a workout but I have enjoyed the result of each of my recipes. The one thing I like most about this book and the recipes is how much I have learned about spices, their names and their flavors. It is fascinating how many flavors there are. One last and very important note, make sure you get most of the spices listed in the beginning of the book before you start because they rarely have them in normal grocery stores. I get all of my spices at a store in Seattle named WORLDSPICE.COM. They do ship spices anywhere and it will save you a big headache if you just buy from them online. Have a good time cooking!!!

Editorial Review:

This unique cookbook takes you on a culinary journey of India -- the land of fragrant spices and savory dishes. Working in collaboration with Raghavan Iyer, a noted Indian culinary expert, Betty Crocker takes the mystery out of Indian cooking while keeping every dish authentic and truly satisfying.

The book includes delicious regional recipes from every area of India -- from hearty breads to spicy sauces, succulent main courses to sumptuous desserts -- all served up in Betty Crocker's signature style. It clearly explains the staples of the Indian kitchen, and offers buying tips as well as substitutions for hard-to-find ingredients.

But this is more than just a cookbook. Fascinating photos and information about Indian traditions, as well as Chef Iyer's own memories of life in India, immerse you in the richness of India's land and culture -- and make this a book to savor.

Six Spices: A Simple Concept of Indian Cooking

Neeta Saluja

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Jones Books Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $15.65

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Six is better than 5 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Six Spices is a fine introduction to making tasty and healthful food in the aromatic style of India. You will have no problem finding any of the six spices: coriander, cumin, chile (dried and fresh), ginger, mustard seed and tumeric (fresh or powdered).

It looks a trifle suspicious when a successful book, to wit, "5 Spices 50 Dishes" is getting a perfect score here on Amazon, that another one rolls by, smelling quite close. Do we need this book?

To be sure, Kahate has a nice book in "5 & 50". It has good purpose and scope, namely to introduce the fundamentals of Indian cuisine. Indian food is the most complex in its preparation and execution that I have ever encountered, on average. It is not the most difficult in technique, but there are, again on average, more steps than any other cuisine I know. "5 Spices..." solves this barrier by introducing a simple approach to fundamentals.

So why Six? Maybe not if you already have 5. But here are my reasons to choose this one:

- Chilies are the sixth spice. Saluja includes just enough for those of us that love Indian hot
- Hardbound for close to the same price. This book is well made for decades of use. It lays flat on your
counter!
- Better organized. I like a section to tell me how to make food by seasoning in hot oil, and then the next
for clarified butter, a.k.a. ghee. Then powdered spice, then curry paste. Finally, a chapter looking to
more complete meals.
- More than "50" recipes, but thoughtfully so.

I have some minor aesthetic reasons as well. I like their publisher, Jones Books, in Madison, WI. I like not needing a named food photographer. I like the use of "Six" rather than "5 and 50" because numbers suggest or suppose other purposes, such as serial numbers and the like. All this is my small beer.

Buy both if you can. But get cooking with them.

Editorial Review:

Selected for the cookbook section of The New York Times Book Review Summer Reading issue



Featuring authentic recipes and introducing the use of fundamental spices, this recipe collection guides cooks of all levels of expertise in the preparation of healthy, delicious Indian meals. The recipes selected use no more than six spices to create tasty, satisfying, and authentic dishes and introduce a simpler way to prepare Indian food. Each chapter focuses on a different cooking technique, offering insight into foods that at times can seem daunting for the novice cook. This recipe collection has been tasted and tested through more than 20 years of the author's teaching experience and Indian cooking expertise.

Flavors of India: Vegetarian Indian Cuisine

Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Book Publishing Company (TN) Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $6.80

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Simple and delicious 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Indian cuisine is really the only cuisine I know anything about. Growing up in London and being vegetarian have something to do with it. This is my favorite Indian cook book. It is also the one I give to friends interested in starting to cook Indian food.

What makes this book outstanding is the simplicity of most of the receipes, and the way the author elucidates the reasons for putting this spice in before that one, or using this ingredient rather than that one. The layout is excellent, and the drawings add a touch of elegance. A superb book!

This book will change the smell of your house. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

It turns out that even an average American mom like me can make great Indian food. In the two months since my sister gave it to me as a birthday gift, I have made many recipes from this book. While I cook, the house smells like an Indian restaurant. My three young kids have willingly eaten most of the meals--they're that good.

This is not some sort of foo-foo picture book written by a well-known chef. It's a rubber-meets-the-road sort of book by a real mom. The book is a sensible size for setting on the counter while cooking, and the binding stays open fairly well. The author includes a shopping list ("The Healthful Indian Pantry"), which is very helpful. Each chapter has an interesting introduction that provides a cultural background for the food. Most of the recipes are actually vegan, and when they are not, the author includes adaptations to make the recipe vegan. For anyone who lives nowhere near an Indian market, at the end of the book there is a list of addresses for mail order. And, of course, there is an index and glossary--also helpful!

Too bad the publishing company has such a generic name that it's difficult to run a search for all their other books. If they're all as good as this one, I want to buy more.

Editorial Review:

Along with recipes for beverages, snacks, chutneys, dairy products, vegetable dishes, rice, dal (lentils, peas, and other legumes), breads, and sweets, you will find helpful information on the spices and other ingredients that are essential to authentic Indian cooking. Includes nutritional information on the healthful benefits of Indian vegetarian cuisine.

Cooking at Home with Pedatha (Best Vegetarian Book in the World - Gourmand Winner)

Jigyasa Giri, Pratibha Jain

Amazon Price: $25.05 List Price: $25.05 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Pritya Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $21.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Vegetables & Vegetarian -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Adjudged as BEST VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK IN THE WORLD 2006 by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, this book features traditional Andhra recipes as taught by an illustrious Indian Grandmother. She is Mrs. Subhadra Rau Parigi, fondly known as Pedatha, the eldest offspring of India's former President Bharat Ratna Dr. V.V.Giri. A passionate cook, Pedatha s recipes are much sought after by friends and relatives. Her cooking has remained unchanged in the face of changing times, still retaining the traditional flavours and an old world charm. Intrigued by her passion which has not diminished with age, the authors Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain take the initiative to record this culinary legacy for posterity. They say that after indulging in another soul-satisfying meal at Pedatha s home, we re-crowned her the world s best cook. She smiled indulgently and simply said that anyone can cook these dishes, they are so easy to make. On an impulse, the authors switched on their laptop, and keyed in the recipes. This book is more than a record of some of these traditional, time-tested recipes. Rendered in stunning aesthetics, the book also gives a peek into the simple presentation of traditional Andhra vegetarian food, as well as the affection and joy which was shared in bridging the gap between the spoken and the written word. The authors conclude that their heartfelt desire was to show Pedatha how a seemingly ordinary skill of hers is in truth a rare genius...and thus came about this book at the greatest speed possible. SALIENT FEATURES OF THIS BOOK: 1) 96 pages, hardbound with dust jacket, 170 GSM premium art paper, four-colour 2) A picture with every recipe 3) A photo glossary 4) Section pages designed with photographs of Pedatha and a write-up 5) A simple transliteration scheme for pronunciation of Telugu terms 6) Interesting variations in many recipes 7)Special tips by Pedatha throughout the book

Indian Vegetarian Cooking at Your House (Healthy World Cuisine)

Sunetra Humbad, Amy Schafer Boger

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Book Publishing Company (TN) Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $6.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Rather disappointed 3 out of 5 stars.
20 of 26 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this based on 6 great reviews. I love to cook and am a long-time vegetarian, but I've not found a good Indian cookbook and have little to no experience cooking Indian foods.

Unfortunately, I just haven't had a good experience with the recipes in this book. Most of them seem to use the same set of spices (hence, very similar tastes no matter what you make). I guess the recipes turned out OK, but not a winner. I thought this would allow me to make restaurant-quality Indian food (as it did for another reviewer), but it didn't. Just more fair-quality food. I liked one recipe with spinach and lentils but couldn't find a recipe for Naan, my chipatis didn't poof up like the recipe said they should, another lentil dish was rejected by my kids. You might be more experienced with Indian food and have better luck, but this cookbook was a disappointment for me.

Editorial Review:

Learn the secrets of authentic Indian cuisine from native-born cook Sunetra Humbad. With the collaboration of Amy Schafer, most of the cooking methods, techniques and ingredients in these recipes are basic and familiar. Each recipe has a separate listing of ingredients needed to make shopping and planning easier. Menu plans help put it all together.

Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices

Chitrita Banerji

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bloomsbury USA Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $11.76

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Great Read, even for an Indian reader ! 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

You think you know India, but after reading Eating India, you realize how wonderfully rich, tasty, and complex is the "Khichdi" called India. The real melting pot through millenia that has absorbed the waves of Aryans, Huns, Mongols, Greeks, Mughals, Europeans, and many others into its ever changing but unique identity is explored here in this book through the medium of food. The book is more than just a food book. It offers a prismatic look at the people, history, geography, and culture of the various regions of India. I grew up in Gujarat, but after reading the book, my salivary glands are working overtime, and I cannot wait to visit Ahmedabad and check out Agashiye restaurant. For the gastronomically adventurous traveller, especially if she has the digestive immune system that can handle a few choice microbes, the pleasures of eating at a roadside "dhaba" is not to be missed.
A wonderful book for anyone who loves food, travel, and history. Desis and non-desis alike will find it stimulating and appetizing.

Editorial Review:

Though it’s primarily Punjabi food that’s become known as Indian food in the United States, India is as much an immigrant nation as America, and it has the vast range of cuisines to prove it. In Eating India, award-winning food writer and Bengali food expert Chitrita Banerji takes readers on a marvelous odyssey through a national cuisine formed by generations of arrivals, assimilations, and conquests. With each wave of newcomers—ancient Aryan tribes, Persians, Middle Eastern Jews, Mongols, Arabs, Europeans—have come new innovations in cooking, and new ways to apply India’s rich native spices, poppy seeds, saffron, and mustard to the vegetables, milks, grains, legumes, and fishes that are staples of the Indian kitchen. In this book, Calcutta native and longtime U.S. resident Banerji describes, in lush and mouthwatering prose, her travels through a land blessed with marvelous culinary variety and particularity.

Complete Book of Indian Cooking: 350 Recipes from the Regions of India

Suneeta Vaswani

Amazon Price: $25.51 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Robert Rose Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $22.83

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Classic recipes from the many regions of a diverse and culturally rich nation.

Indian cuisine is widely revered for its distinctive tastes and ingredients. The sheer size of India, combined with its history and religious diversity, is reflected in the country's cuisine. Complete Book of Indian Cooking provides hundreds of user-friendly and great-tasting recipes from all regions and cultures of this extraordinary country.

Local/regional ingredients deliver unusual flavors that satisfy the search for new tastes. Each recipe includes background information that helps the home cook become more knowledgeable about -- and comfortable with -- Indian food.

Here are examples of the hundreds of exotic, yet easy, recipes:

• Starters like fenugreek and spinach fritters (methi palak pakoras), and steamed corn bread (corn dhoklas)
• Bengali shrimp and long squash (lau chingri); fried dumplings with yogurt and chutney (pahi pakodi chaat)
• Kerala lamb biriyani; assamese roast chicken (poora kukura); Coory egg and potato curry
• Vegetarian delights like curried spinach and cheese (saag panir), and chickpea flour dumplings (besan ke gatte)
• Refreshing desserts like baked bananas with coconut and jaggery.

In addition to all the regional foods, the book features chaat the crunchy, sweet and wildly popular street food of India. The chapter on Indian meal traditions and customs rounds out this comprehensive handbook on Indian cuisine.

The Indian Grocery Store Demystified (Take It with You Guides)

Linda Bladholm

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Renaissance Books Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $8.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Reference
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

So you want to make a curry. There's a small Indian grocery store on the way home from work, so you figure you'll pop in and grab a few items--but when you get there you're overwhelmed by the pouches of aromatic spices and the jars of pickles and chutneys. Where to begin?

With The Indian Grocery Store Demystified, of course. Author Linda Bladholm walks you through a typical Indian grocery store, aisle by aisle, shelf by shelf. Start with the rice aisle and learn the differences between basmati, gobindavog, red patni, and several others. Learn which rice goes best with what type of recipe, how to prepare it, and what it should taste like. Then head down the flour aisle (here's where you learn how to bake several variations of naan and the popular pappadum), to the spices and seasonings. "Without spices," says Bladholm, "one cannot even imagine Indian food." Be sure to stock up on the cardamom, cumin, coriander, black pepper, tamarind, and turmeric. Mosey down to the herbs, then on to fruits and vegetables where you'll be introduced to the sakriya, a small vine-grown yam, and the sweet-and-sour woodapple, indigenous to the Indian jungle. There's also a chapter on ayurveda, the balancing of mind, body, spirit, and environment, and which foods can help you achieve this balance.

Though a few recipes are included in the back, this is not a cookbook, but rather a preparing-to-cook book. Bladholm thoroughly covers a vast amount of information and makes you feel like you could stroll into your local Indian grocery and make smart, informed purchases. And if you're still a little timid, The Indian Grocery Store Demystified is small enough to stick in your bag to reference while you're there. --Dana Van Nest

Curried Favors: Family Recipes from South India

Maya Kaimal Macmillan

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Abbeville Press Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $17.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

slightly dissapointed 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I Was disappointed with this book. There are several recipes that are not a staple of south India such as paneer, rogan josh, puris, koftas and birayani and chapatis--the list goes on--. I already have plenty of north Indian cookbooks so these recipes are not the kind that I was looking for. I suppose she used them as fillers. I was rather annoyed when I looked up the recipe for dosas. She substituted the rice in the recipe for wheat--not a common starch in south India--I would have been ok with this if she would have included the original recipe as well. She claims it's too "tricky" so she omits it. I have found nothing in this book that I did not find by doing an Internet search. As a matter of fact I did find the traditional dosa recipe that this book omits

Editorial Review:

Few cooks know their subject as personally as Maya Kaimal MacMillan who in Curried Favors focuses on the less familiar cooking of Southern India, particularly the province of Kerala, her family's original home. "Curry," she informs us, correctly refers to a range of dishes calling for differing blends of spices known as "masalas." Coconut, curry leaves, and mustard seeds are particularly key in the wet masalas often used by her aunt and others in Southern India. MacMillan offers intelligent substitutions, where necessary. Curried Favors provides detailed directions so you can comfortably try dishes such as Idli, Yogurt, Aviyals, Kichadis, and Pachadis as well as more familiar northern favorites such as Khormas and Biriyanis. Something of a mini-coffee table book, Curried Favors would be a good gift, thanks to its handsome presentation and MacMillan's conversational commentary.

From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail

Madhur Jaffrey

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Clarkson Potter Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $14.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Indian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Indian cookery is among the world’s most distinctive and enticing cuisines, one whose influence can be discerned in culinary traditions around the globe. In this groundbreaking book, bestselling author Madhur Jaffrey presents more than 100 of the best curries, many recorded for the very first time, plus all the savory accompaniments to serve with them.

In this fascinating volume, Madhur traces the origins of curry, explaining how Indian immigrants brought ingredients and techniques to new lands, creating an ever-growing cornucopia of delicious hybrids. To illustrate the evolution of curry, and its close relative, the kebab, she not only includes the finest recipes from India—like Hyderabadi Ground Lamb with Orange and Dry Masala Fish—but a wide variety of exotic curries from all over the world. Enticing recipes include Sumatran Lamb Curry from Indonesia, Red Beef Curry from Sri Lanka, Burmese Chicken-Coconut Soup from Myanmar, Lobster in Yellow Curry Sauce from Thailand, Vietnamese Pork with Lemongrass, Lamb Shanks Braised in a Yogurt Sauce from Pakistan, and even a beef curry from Japan, where, as in the United Kingdom, curry is one of the most popular meals, even among schoolchildren. To complement the curries, there are soups, noodles, breads, chutneys, beans, vegetables, and, best of all, twenty recipes for easy and deliciously spiced kebabs.

Beautifully illustrated and filled with the kind of comprehensive insight into the art of curry that only Madhur Jaffrey could provide, From Curries to Kebabs makes fascinating reading for cooks everywhere and will be an outstanding addition to any curry lover’s library.