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Summary: Wonderful and easy Indian cuisine
Review: A British friend of mine turned me on to Indian food a few years ago. She gave me this book as a gift, and it has been well used. Every recipe that I have made has been very good. There are some that I return to again and again, such as the Lemon Cilantro Chicken. This is the best Indian food cookbook that I have seen.
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Summary: Not the recipes I was looking for
Review: About half the book is meat, fish, and poultry, so if you're vegetarian, you may want to try a different book. Also, the book doesn't have recipes for any of my favorite restaurant dishes. There's no malai kofta, no vegetable korma, no dosas, and nothing with paneer. So check the index to make sure the book has the recipes you want before you buy it. Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian book is great, but I'm going to keep looking for an Indian cookbook.
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Summary: Great book on Indian Cuisine
Review: Along with two of Julie Sahni's books, my husband and I really enjoy trying recipes from Madhur Jaffrey. The directions are simple, and she explains ingredients very well--we were beginners when we started and had no problem figuring out what she meant. Her recipe for lentils with garlic and onion is one of our favorite lentil dishes!
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Summary: Down To Earth and Delicious!
Review: Every recipe that I've tried is delightful- most are easy to prepare and very delicious. Her vegetable dishes are unusual and exciting, her chicken dishes are company fare. This is a great cookbook!
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Summary: I love this cookbook!
Review: For an introduction to Indian cuisine, Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking can't be beat. The recipes are all easy to follow and to prepare, with ingredients, in both American and metric measurement system, listed in a column next to the recipes. Jaffrey does not concentrate on Indian vegetarian dishes, although many of the recipes ARE vegetarian. There are even a few beef recipes reflecting the non-Hindu population. (The beef baked in yogurt and black pepper is delicious!)Jaffrey includes a descriptive guide to Indian spices and ingredients as well as a chapter on cooking techniques. The section on breads is fantastic. I never thought I could make poori at home, and yet they turned out perfectly. I make naan fairly frequently, using a breadmaker to knead the dough, because it's my family's favorite. Other excellent dishes include Dry Potatoes with Ginger and Garlic, Gujerati-style Green Beans, and Spicy Baked Chicken. (The recipes are titled in English, with the Indian names in parentheses underneath.) Anyone with a basic know-how of cooking should be able to succeed with these recipes.
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Summary: I love this cookbook!
Review: For an introduction to Indian cuisine, Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking can't be beat. The recipes are all easy to follow and to prepare, with ingredients, in both American and metric measurement system, listed in a column next to the recipes. Jaffrey does not concentrate on Indian vegetarian dishes, although many of the recipes ARE vegetarian. There are even a few beef recipes reflecting the non-Hindu population. (The beef baked in yogurt and black pepper is delicious!) Jaffrey includes a descriptive guide to Indian spices and ingredients as well as a chapter on cooking techniques. The section on breads is fantastic. I never thought I could make poori at home, and yet they turned out perfectly. I make naan fairly frequently, using a breadmaker to knead the dough, because it's my family's favorite. Other excellent dishes include Dry Potatoes with Ginger and Garlic, Gujerati-style Green Beans, and Spicy Baked Chicken. (The recipes are titled in English, with the Indian names in parentheses underneath.) Anyone with a basic know-how of cooking should be able to succeed with these recipes.
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Summary: A must-have for any lover of Indian food
Review: I *love* Indian food. We eat Indian out quite a bit, and I am hooked on palak paneer, aloo gobi, pakoras, samosas, garlic naan, you name it. We were always a bit afraid to start cooking it in our home, though, because there are so many spices and often hours of cooking involved in these dishes. Then we came across Madhur Jaffrey and her series of books. They are superb!! This one in particular is a staple of our cookbook selection. The first part of the book goes over the spices involved and the different techniques used in cooking, to give you an overview. It even describes the types of equipment you should have. Then ... the recipes!! All of my favorites are in here. Naan, which we cook on a pizza stone. Saag aloo. Aloo ghosht. You just open the book to any page and you hit a delicious dish. There's beef and chicken, completely vegetarian, even a whole section on relishes and chutneys. If I had any complaint it would be that there aren't many pictures at all in here, but the recipes come out so well, and the descriptions are so complete that you rarely need to know what it looks like. It's always delicious!
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Summary: A cooking challenge
Review: I enjoyed the recipes I've tried from this book--this is real Indian cooking! But be prepared to spend a lot of money building up your spice collection. The first recipe I tried cost well over $50 to make. Obviously, once you have your spices, things won't cost so much. Jaffrey always chooses authenticity over practicality. For example, in the recipe for Rogan Josh, she calls for 10 cardamom pods. These are very expensive, and since they can't be eaten, they must be discarded after cooking. Switching to cardamom seeds or ground cardamom saves money and hassle, and I noticed no difference in the taste. Another frustration is the measurements. Jaffrey calls for potatoes and onions by the gram and ounce. How much is 225 g of potatoes? Why not just call for two medium russet potatoes? Even though the recipes are fun to make and the results are delicious, I found this book unnecessarily frustrating and expensive to cook from.
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Summary: The Queen of Spices
Review: I first became acquainted with this book when a friend prepared "Vegetable Pullao" from this book. The taste so took me that I bought the book the next day. Her recipes are detailed and specific. Her balance of spices is exceptional and her use of "heat" from chiles is balanced. My one complaint: the instructions are not written in bullet format which makes them harder to follow during the course of the prepartion.
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Summary: Love Maddhur Jaffrey's cookbook!
Review: I got this book back in '97, and every recipe I have tried has turned out AWESOME. Very easy-to-follow instructions and the dish just turns out perfect. Great addition to your cookbook library for those who are Indian food lovers. Saw a post below about the spices. Spices are very INEXPENSIVE if you get them in an Indian grocery store (most large cities have Indian or West Indian small grocery stores/markets). If you buy them in the supermarket or in specialty shops, yes, you'll end up spending big bucks. There are also some online places where you can purchase Indian and other Asian spices relatively inexpensively.
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