Indian Cookbook

[maxmillan]

I posted a similar request in the cooking section and thought I'd ask here as well.

I'm looking for the ultimate, most complete, comprehensive and authentic cookbook for Indian cuisine to add to my library.

What do you recommend?

Thanks for your comments.

[Monica Bhide]

If you look thru the forum a bit you will see that this question has been addressed at least a few times.... go ahead and look and then let us know if you still feel you need more information

[mongo_jones]

my own feeling is that you'd be better off just browsing this forum.

[marlena spieler]

Yes, when the terms comprehensive and complete etc start coming up....well, things will always be missed.....the Indian subcontinent is so huge and vast with the regional cuisines and minority group cuisines, and it is so alive and fascinating.....however there are a number of really good, evocative books out there that teach/educate and seduce, in equal measure. I love reading my way through Indian bookbooks, learning about the spices and techniques, and regions, etc.

Here are a few of my past faves. I loved the original Time life foods of the world book on India. And then there were lets see: Julie Sahni's book Savoring India is divine........for once the combination of both evocative writing and luscious regional recipes, as well as lush photography come together.

camilla punjabi's 50 curries (and even though curry is an anglo term, the book is really indian, really authentic). I like the modern indian essence by atul kochhar which will be published in the uk in june. and also the modern cinnamon club book alluring. maddhur jaffrey had a book a number of years ago that was good, too: it was Flavours of India. Anything by Mridula Bajiakar works really well. The New Curry Bible by Pat Chapman is very British but really guides you through almost any Indian restaurant and demystifies each dish, with representative recipes. 1,000 indian recipes (foulsham) is totally untested and without any narration, but hidden in its pages are many authentic recipes and dishes, all of which need re-constructing but many of which are total treats.

oh, and the modern veering on fusion, books: cinnamon club, namaste spice, etc, das sreedharan's new taste of india, anything by Sunil Vijayakar, beautifully photographed, colourful and enticing........

I'm always looking for new Indian cookbooks and dipping into the ones I have....

I find that sometimes when I"m just wishing for inspiration, I simply open one of these cookbooks and am carried away in a waft of spices and ideas........

Marlena

[Episure]

I find that sometimes when I"m just wishing for inspiration, I simply open one of these cookbooks and am carried away in a waft of spices and ideas........

Marlena

Hop across here to India and we will show you the real stuff!

[Modern Day Hermit]

My first Indian Cookbook was Introduction to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey. I was pretty happy with it at the time, I haven't used it in a while though.

It must have been pretty decent as when I met my Indian husband he was quite pleased with my cooking, which only improved over the years. He would even make note how many dishes were even better than his Mum's....that being said, I have to pay at least some homage to Madhur Jaffrey . No matter how many years its been since I've used her book.

In regards to most authentic, I've noted that their might be a general idea or rule, but "authentic" varies greatly from family to family. What is terribly authentic to my family is horrendous to another and vice versa.

[susruta]

I own dozens of Indian cookbooks but the ones I've used the most often over the years are the following:

Indian Cookery by Mrs. Balbir Singh, the Julia Child of North Indian cuisine. Her recipes can be very complicated and but they work and produce some fabulous results. She is the master!

Prasad, Cooking with Indian Masters by J. I.S.Kalra, regional recipes from hotel and restaurant chefs. The instructions are detailed and leave nothing to chance, and the results gratifying.

Indian Cookery by the mythical E. P. Veeraswamy, an oldie but goodie. Recipes aren't too complicated and he gives many variations on a single dish

For Kerala food, the books by Mrs. K.Mathew are very good. A new edition has just come out of her classic Kerala Cookery.

[marlena spieler]

I find that sometimes when I"m just wishing for inspiration, I simply open one of these cookbooks and am carried away in a waft of spices and ideas........

Marlena

Hop across here to India and we will show you the real stuff!

Dear Epi,

I am soooooo there. i'm heartbroken that its taken me so long and still, the closest i've gotten to India is 15 years living in London's Brick Lane.

Where do you live? India is such a vast subcontinent that I don't know where to begin. But i think this year is the one i get myself over there.......

Anyhow, after last years Diwali celebration in Britain when I was draped in a green silk sari, my husband said I looked lovely, but he didn't realize that with every step I was half pulling it off and constantly worried that I was going to unwrap myself completely.

x Marlena

[mongo_jones]

the correct answer is that no such thing exists. the best you can do is buy all the books in the penguin regional series and hope they keep bringing more of those out.

[Monica Bhide]

the correct answer is that no such thing exists. the best you can do is buy all the books in the penguin regional series and hope they keep bringing more of those out.

Not for all Indian cooking I agree. Pengiun is great for abehind the sheets look at regional cooking styles. Mine are more for the novice so really may not be what you are looking for. I would start with Julie Sahni's work and then add some of the others recommended here.

[mongo_jones]

i suppose it would be possible to create a comprehensive cookbook of recipes made familiar by indian restaurants in the u.s and u.k. but you'd have to be very careful about labelling it as such.

[maxmillan]

Thanks for your suggestions. I am a novice at cooking. My expertise is baking and pastry. I just came back from an Indian dinner consisting of butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, garlic naan and fish pakora...quite yummy.

I had inquired about the perfect Thai cookbook and a few people suggested David Thompson's "Thai Food", a very complete book. I had hoped there would be a similar one on Indian cuisine. I understand there are different regional Indian cooking styles and it would be quite the task to put it into one book...but wouldn't it be wonderful for someone to write one? Also, including a fusion/western Indian chapter?...I'd definitely put this in my library.

Edited May 3, 2004 by maxmillan (log)

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Yeah, it would be wonderful, but it would also be about 500,000 pages long!

Pat

[marlena spieler]

I had inquired about the perfect Thai cookbook and a few people suggested David Thompson's "Thai Food", a very complete book. I had hoped there would be a similar one on Indian cuisine.

I know, I know, that David Thompson's book accumulated accolades and awards, but I didn't find it enticing enough to ever cook from. I have it on my shelf, and a handsome hot pink colour it is, but I never ever open it. It is 'complete' but I don't feel passion or inspiration when I pick it up.

So I wouldn't recommend looking for an equivilant re Indian cuisine. I echo the previous posting about starting out with a good overview such as Julie Sahni's savoring india, and then specializing in smaller books with more personal narrative, observation, and recipes.

I really look forward to seeing monica's books, and the only reason they haven't passed my way before is because i live far away and haven't seen them in the shops. When i come to the us later this month, I shall dive into them immediately.

having a few personal voices on any cuisine is a good step towards making the cuisine come alive.

oh, and the pat chapman book i recommended might be very good for you because it walks you through an indian restaurant selection of dishes. good for cooking your way into and through the cuisine, and then for knowing your way through a menu when you eat out.

cheers,

marlena

[Pan]

Yeah, it would be wonderful, but it would also be about 500,000 pages long!

Pat

Also, aside from differences between individual northern Indian states on the one hand and individual southern Indian states on the other, the differences between northern and southern styles as a whole (to the quite limited extent it may make sense to generalize about "northern" and "southern" cuisine to begin with) are vast, and probably as great as differences between northern and southern European cuisines. India is a huge and extremely varied country and subcontinent.

[Sleepy_Dragon]

One book I've got that might help as an introduction to regional cooking (as opposed to an encyclopedic compendium of cooking from all regions) is A Taste of India, by Madhur Jaffrey. Unfortunately it's out of print, but there are used copies available.

She covers Dehli, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kashmir, Bengal, Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (in one section), and Kerala, devoting around 15 pages to each of background material, plus 10-15 recipes per region. The background stuff is all in her anecdotal style of visiting markets, people and families, along with her own family stuff, interspersed with bits of history.

It's a good book for considering a starting point in terms of picking a region to start with, having a few recipes, then thinking about what next to read up outside of the book.

I also used this book to kind of figure out how to make bhelpuri. She had a short paragraph describing it at the end of the Maharashtra section and I followed that to make it.

edited to add regions I missed in the contents, and the bhelpuri bit. Because that's one of the things I really valued about this book way back when I first got it; all the little bits of descriptions of foods throughout the background material which triggered my curiosity and desire to learn more.

Pat

Edited May 3, 2004 by Sleepy_Dragon (log)

[mongo_jones]

and leave us not forget the cuisine of the north-eastern states that bear even less resemblance to either north and south indian cuisines as those generally do to each other.

i think penguin is doing a wonderful thing with their series--it is probably the only way to begin to approach this task (and i'm sure each of their regional titles is incomplete at best): intriguing sociological context, no exoticizing fluff, fairly good directions. i hope they keep going.

here's a list of states whose foods i have never eaten (each of these states probably contains multiple cuisines):

orissa

madhya pradesh

meghalaya

manipur

mizoram

tripura

arunachal pradesh

sikkim

himachal pradesh

and i've probably eaten no more than 20 dishes each from these states:

rajasthan

maharashtra

karnataka

bihar

states whose foods i've eaten a lot of but could not talk about at any length:

gujarat

andhra pradesh

jammu and kashmir

assam

tamil nadu

goa

not counting the recent states (chattisgarh, jharkand, uttaranchal) or those which may not have a distinct cuisine of their own (haryana?) or the islands.

really this leaves only west bengal, punjab, delhi, u-p and kerala--i'm probably missing a couple of states.

i will not live long enough to fill in my gaps. this is why i hesitate to speak about "indian" food and why i doubt any 1 or even 5 cookbooks can make anything but the slightest dent.

edit to add: slicing this by states is not really a good way to approach this--given the fact that most states were created after independence, and often carved out of each other; region or community would probably be a better way to do it--as neither of these respect state-lines--but i've done it by states here to make a more recognizable impact for non-indians.

Edited May 3, 2004 by mongo_jones (log)

[Pan]

Good point about the Northeast, Mongo. I really know nothing about the cuisine of any of those areas. Point well taken about the arbitrariness of states, but that's really nothing new or unusual. All we need to do is look at the changes in national (let alone provincial, etc.) boundaries in Europe over the last 100 years. For changes in provincial boundaries, China is a good one, with a large area that was previously part of Tibet being awarded to Qinghai, for example.

Edited May 3, 2004 by Pan (log)

[Monica Bhide]

Thanks for your suggestions. I am a novice at cooking. My expertise is baking and pastry. I just came back from an Indian dinner consisting of butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, garlic naan and fish pakora...quite yummy.

I had inquired about the perfect Thai cookbook and a few people suggested David Thompson's "Thai Food", a very complete book. I had hoped there would be a similar one on Indian cuisine. I understand there are different regional Indian cooking styles and it would be quite the task to put it into one book...but wouldn't it be wonderful for someone to write one? Also, including a fusion/western Indian chapter?...I'd definitely put this in my library.

If I may make a suggestion.. try the eGCi classes on Indian cooking.. we have really tried to cover very basic things particularily in the Beginners guide to regional Indian cooking... perhaps they will help you decide the wisest way to spend your money

[Anna N]

Monica is being too damned modest! She has published two books of Indian recipes that are specifically aimed at those just getting their feet wet in the glories of Indian food. (I really must learn how to link to Amazon so the board gets the credit!). "The Spice is Right" and The Everything Indian Cookbook" are perfect for those new to cooking Indian food. And I should know, I tested many of the recipes for Everything Indian and I'm not Indian and had no previous experience!

[Sleepy_Dragon]

The Spice Is Right

The Everything Indian Cookbook

There we are.

They are on my To-Buy list, just have to wait for some wiggle room in my budget!

Pat

[tryska]

slightly OT - was it in one of Madhur's books that an anecdote was made about being at some party and eating with the left hand versus what the floor was made of?

if yes, which book please?

if no - where the heck did i come up with that anecdote? Time-Life maybe? (i doubt it tho)

Edited May 3, 2004 by tryska (log)

[Anna N]

The Spice Is Right

The Everything Indian Cookbook

There we are.

They are on my To-Buy list, just have to wait for some wiggle room in my budget!

Pat

Thanks for posting the links - I promise, I WILL get the hang of it.