Indian Cookbooks

[Monica Bhide]

15) Flavours of the Spice Coast - Mrs.K.M.Mathew A classic, and this edition is well produced too. This is the standard book on Malayali (I REFUSE to say Keralan) food, perhaps with more of a Syrian Christian emphasis. Its known for its peculiar insistence on a dessertspoon as a significant measure. The recipes are good, but do take quite a bit of work

Just added this to my collection

[katabeta]

this might be an impossible question to answer, but is there one indian cook book you would recommend? The shelves of cookbooks in the store are overwhelming to me--I never know what to buy so I just don't (actually the only one I have is the Larousse Gastronomique!).

If this helps with the recommendation: I fell in love with indian food eating my friends' parents' home cooking, particularly gujarati and punjabi. I've tried to get their mothers to teach me recipes but it's always "some of this, then some of that" (the kind of recipes anyone's mother gives) so the only thing I know how to do reasonably well is chana masala. Maybe I should go back to California and get apprenticed in one of their kitchens!

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Ver! I am not sure how many people make this anymore. Even the Kashmiris.

What do people typically do nowadays if they aren't? Surely not storebought? That kind of advance strikes me as the sort of thing that would cause grandmothers and ancestors to roll over in their graves.

Pat

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Thanks for this great summary, Vikram. Well, my budget does not thank you...

Interesting, I had no idea the Achaya book I've got is the briefer (!) one. But yes, overall I agree about what a treasure trove of information it is. Also interesting was finding the familiar bits I had read elsewhere. Seems like other cookbook authors like to quote him a lot! Can't blame them.

12) Essential Goa Cookbook, The - Maria Teresa Menezes I don't know why, I didn't like this much. Goan cuisine is really delicious and historically very interesting because of the fusion between so many cultures - Portueguese, Hindu, Muslim. There is a long and lively Goan tradition of appreciating and writing about food. Menezes somehow doesn't do this justice

I'd actually been hesitating about this book even though I'd like to learn more about Goan cuisine. Just the cover alone was a turn-off, spoke to that prejudiced part of my brain that said this is probably form over substance.

Is it just her style or are the recipes not that great as well?

Pat

[JumpinJude]

Just three that I own, but I am constantly borrowing from the library (and have them loaned in from other branches). This thread is chock full of good info for me, since I'd like to augment my collection!

Edited July 26, 2004 by JumpinJude (log)

[Vikram]

this might be an impossible question to answer, but is there one indian cook book you would recommend?

I think I'd recommend the 50 Great Curries of India book. I would have said Madhur Jaffrey, since she's really reliable, but this book really approches Indian cooking in a thinking way. Also, apart from the curries, there are recipes for lots of side dishes and its beautifully produced,

Vikram

[gingerly]

from Vikram's list-'rotis and naans' is one i would recommend to anyone interested in making indian breads.it's been around quietly for years and i don't know that there's been a better one yet.the non bread recipes are pretty good too.

i like jasleen dhamija's book too-nice clean feel to all the recipes.i came a cropper with that detox soup though!i like her 'eccentric aunt ' style.

[gingerly]

also if you don't have it already Suman,the ruth davidar book is good reading from a nutrition standpoint.

[whippy]

pre thread: 39

post thread: 46

(215 all topics)

[Modern Day Hermit]

14 thus far.

[Pompollo]

this might be an impossible question to answer, but is there one indian cook book you would recommend?

I think I'd recommend the 50 Great Curries of India book.

Vikram

It seems there are two editions/versions of this book? One is called '50 Great Curries of India', the other is 'Great Curries of India" (no 50). Possibly one is for North America and the other for the UK. Both are 1995 editions and have 192 pages. Does anyone know if these are identical inside?

Amazon.com in the States has the one without the '50'. Also, it seems like a brand new edition (with the 50) is coming out in August. Paperback version. (per amazon.co.jp in Japan, where I live.)

Any cookbook experts know about this? I have heard great reviews about this book, but I want to get the right one.

Thanks.

[gingerly]

looks like the same one http://www.cottageindia.com/indiafood.html

The one serious drawback of this beautiful book is that it was originally published in England; although it has been Americanized, a three-line note on the acknowledgments page indicates that all cup measures refer to a seven-ounce cup-cooks beware!

[eEpicurean]

Hey,

I do have about 5 cookbooks..

1)3 of TarlaDalal's

2)Relish food the Vegetarian way by Vina Khandwala..the recipes r awesome..

& 3) Suman's Punjabi Dishes.

& My DM recipes too..!!

I was wondering if anyone from Atlanta or Montgomery,Alabama area are willing to share their cookbooks..!! I would love to try out new recipes.

Thanks,

Laks.

[Rushina]

Late but there… My list….

1.) Historical Dictionary of Indian Food K.T.Achaya.

2.) The Story of our food also by K.T.Achaya.

3.) The Indian Kitchen, Monisha Bharadwaj – One of my favourites…

4.) Prashad Jiggs Kalra – Will I ever cook from this book? I do not know but it’s a good one to serve as a benchmark to measure food against.

5.) A Taste of India - Madhur Jaffrey. I like this book for the its easy recipes. I have an old publication (found it for some Rs. 25 at the local raddiwalla). It even inspired me enough to cook from it.

6.) The Kashmiri cookbook by Sudhir Dhar – An okay book but I have it on authority that the recipes while they might be cooked by some Kashmiris are not the authentic ones.

7.) Flavours of Delhi - Charmaine O'Brien – This one makes for a very nice read. It is also very informative.

8.) The Essential North-East Cookbook by Hoihnu Hauzel. I bought this out of sheer curiosity as to wht cuisine becomes as it travels to this part of the country.

9.) The Gujerati Cookbook – My mother gave me this book when I was getting married. Inside she had inscribed “Rasoda ni Rani Banje”, the exact translation of this is be the queen of your kitchen. The symbolism behind it (this is my personal opinion) stems from the fact that most Gujeratis are food obsessed and the life revolves around the kitchen. They also predominantly live in joint families meaning multiple women in the kitchen.(yes the Saas – bahu thing) The daughter in law that ruled the kitchen ruled the house and was a favourite and would be loved and happy. I think it is a fond wish from a mother to her daughter for a happy life as the daughter sets up her own home and life.

10.) The Essential Andhra Cookbook, Part of the Penguin series – I lived in Hyderabad for two years and enjoyed the local food (Andhra as well as Mughul). This was a happy addition to my bookshelf as I could not replicate some of my favourites. The only thing I have cooked out of it has been the Mirch ka Salan which I have always loved.

11.) The Calcutta Cookbook, Meenakshie Das Gupta, Bunny Gupta, Jaya Chaliha This was the first book I bought when I got interested in the history of Indian food. I was not disappointed. It has also converted me to breaking raw eggs into my egg curries as opposed to boiling them and adding them later.

12.) Curries & Bugles by Jennifer Brennan.

13.) Parsi food and customs - Bhicoo J. Manekshaw.

14.) Anglo-Indian Food and Customs - Patricia Brown.

15.) Recipes of India Timelife - Vikram forgot to tell u when I spoke to u last night, after I read your post on books I went thru mine and discovered that I HAVE THE RECIPE BOOK FOR the Timelife book on India. (what say we do a swap)

16.) The Smasung book of Indian Microwave cooking

17.) Tarla Dalals Indian Vegetarian cooking – The first Indian Cookbook I ever owned…

15.) Not a cookbook but food related --- The Good Food Guide Mumbai – Rashmi Uday Singh. Since I live in Mumbai this was an obvious choice. Covers eating out with contact info reviews on food and just about everything, including catering in sources for ingredients nightlife etc…

17.) Rude Food: Vir Sanghvi. A compilation of Vir Sanghvi's columns on food. Had many guffaw moments with this book. Also garnered many jewels of information like the origin of Chicken Manchurian.

Do books that are not on my shelf count – These are mine, they just have not reached their new home yet (they will post Rakhi). If yes then my total comes to 23. (Total cookbooks number 40.)

The turmeric trail (this was before I saw that its author is amongst us now…)

Ain e akbari – abul fazl

Oxford companion to food

Ultimate Curry Bible

Historical companion to Indian food by Achaya

Rushina

[Vikram]

The symbolism behind it (this is my personal opinion) stems from the fact that most Gujeratis are food obsessed and the life revolves around the kitchen. They also predominantly live in joint families meaning multiple women in the kitchen.(yes the Saas – bahu thing) The daughter in law that ruled the kitchen ruled the house and was a favourite and would be loved and happy. I think it is a fond wish from a mother to her daughter for a happy life as the daughter sets up her own home and life.

This reminds me of an anecdote my mother tells about how after she (Malayali, hates cooking and has insisted on having a cook all her life) married my Gujarati father. They were doing the rounds of his relatives and at one aunt's house my mother, at a loss for any other conversation to make, asked the aunt politely, "So do you cook?" My mother says there was pin drop silence, and then my father hastily changed the subject. Afterwards he yelled at her, "You NEVER ask a Gujarati woman if she can cook. What you should say is, 'so what is your speciality?'!"

Rushina are your brothers really going to buy you all those books for Rakhi? You must be one powerful sister!

And I promise to find you a copy of the Time Life India book somewhere on the pavements, and you give the booklet to make a photocopy, OK?

Vikram

[Edward]

And I promise to find you a copy of the Time Life India book somewhere on the pavements, and you give the booklet to make a photocopy, OK?

Vikram

There always seems to be copies of the Time-Life Indian Food book on www.alibris.com.

[raghavan iyer]

The turmeric trail (this was before I saw that its author is amongst us now…)

thanks for the purchase Rushina...hope u like it. Are you getting it from here or is it available in India? And its great to meet you too.

[Rushina]

Vikram - not one powerful sister, just have many (MANY) brothers. Actually my birthday comes up right after rakhi. (Rakhis on the 30th and my bday is on the 9 sept.) so its kind of a combined thing.

Raghavan - I am really looking forward to reading it. I read a few rave reviews of it on Amazon, that is what made me go for it... Which parts of India are you visiting on your trip?

Rushina

[raghavan iyer]

Raghavan - I am really looking forward to reading it. I read a few rave reviews of it on Amazon, that is what made me go for it... Which parts of India are you visiting on your trip?

Rushina - thanks for the kind words - though there was one that accused me of not representing recipes from all of India (I guess I should have written a book about his/her memories and not mine...hard to please everyone), that my stories were too uplifting (obviously they didn't read some of them, especially my grandmother's preface story) - oh well. I was/am/will always be a Mumbaiite (although lived there when it was always Bombay to me) - the first 21 years of my life, so still have a lot of family there. I will be in the north/northwest parts of India and will stay back for two weeks in Mumbai and go to Goa, Kerala, Bangalore - I am working on a VERY large project and will be there for research. Would love to connect with you when I am there. I have always had a soft spot for my birthcity. Thanks again and take care.

[rajsuman]

674 so far.

The third one is The Essential Kodava Cookbook, by C. B. Muthamma and P. Gangamma Bopanna. It's part of the Penguin Books India regional series, recommended by mongo_jones here awhile back. Looks excellent, but I haven't tried to cook out of it yet.

Pat, that's the reason I asked. I thought it said 'kodava' and now I've GOT to add it to my already-too-long wish list. A Coorgi friend in college used to bring this heavenly bamboo shoot pickle from home. Simply superb!

milagai

(ps: how do you attach pictures?)

Milagai, I'm writing this in the selfish hope that I might get to see your collection.

Go to www.egullet.com, click on 'Image Gullet', upload your images and copy the img tag, then paste it into your post.

My list of cookbooks coming up.

Suman

[rajsuman]

1. The Best-ever Cook's Collection - Indian Shehzad Hussain and Rafi Fernandes

2. 50 Great Curries of India - Camellia Panjabi

3. Dakshin - Chandra Padmanabhan

4. Gulf News Cookery Book Volumes 1 to 6

10. Khaleej Times Cookbooks 4 Volumes

14. The Super Indian Cookbook Vol. I & II

16. Fresh Flavours of India Das Sreedharan

17. Prashad Cooking with Indian Masters Jiggs Kalra

18. The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking - Yamuna Devi

19. Flavours of India - Madhur Jaffrey

20. A Taste of India - MAdhur Jaffrey

21. The Indian Menu Planner

22. A Cook's Tour of South India - Vimla Patil

23. Indian Recipes - Premila Lal

24. Cook and See Vols I, II, III

27. Indian Cuisine Dal Roti - Vimla Patil

28. Taste of Rajasthan - Nita Mehta

29. Taste of Gujarat - Nita Mehta

30. Chatpatatta Khana - Rano Suri

31. The Curry Secret - Kris Dhillon

32. Bengali Cooking Seasons and Festivals - Chitrita Banerjee

33.Tandoori Curry Cookbook - Pat Chapman

34. Cooking the Punjabi Way - Aroona Reejhsinghani

35. Coastal Fiesta - Traditional Mangalorean Delicacies

36. Dakshin Bharat Dishes - Jaya V. Shenoy

37. A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food - K.T. Achaya

38. Home Encyclopaedia - J.B. Lobo

39. More Paneer - Nita Mehta

40. The Snack-time Cookbook - Indra Khosla and Smiti Munwani

41. Delights from Goa - Aroona Reejhsinghani

42. Karnataka Sangha Dubai Cookbook

43.The Sumeet Cookbook

44. Food of Kerala (lent it to a friend, and can't remember the author's name )

45. Party Cooking - Tarla Dalal

These, though not strictly Indian cookbooks, still qualify I think.

46. Chinese Cooking for Indian Homes - Shailaja Abhyankar & Poonam Anand

47. Eastern Vegetarian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey (lots of lovely recipes, but unfortunately I've only tried Indian ones)

Suman

[Monica Bhide]

OOOOOHHHH I want that Mangalorean cookbook... YYYYUUUMMMM

[rajsuman]

Hi Monica,

I could send you a copy if you like. My parents are coming over mid-August, if they manage to track it down in Dubai (that's where I bought it from), I will have no problem sending it to you. Just don't blame me if your hubby files for divorce.

Suman

[Monica Bhide]

Hi Monica,

I could send you a copy if you like. My parents are coming over mid-August, if they manage to track it down in Dubai (that's where I bought it from), I will have no problem sending it to you. Just don't blame me if your hubby files for divorce.

Suman

How could I refuse! Let me know the cost by PM and your address and I will be happy to send you a check! YAY

[rajsuman]

correction:678 actually. I thought I had 43, but ended up counting 47.