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Rating: 
Summary: not exciting
Review: to begin with, this is book inacurately titled. the style of cooking is pakistani, rather than indian (though comparing the two styles is interesting) and the technique is not precisely stir-fry as in chinese stir-fry.there's been nothing actively objectionable about the recipes i've made from this book, but there's been nothing wonderful, either. aside from an excessive-for-me amount of dried red and fresh red and green chiles, there's not a lot of flavor in what i've cooked. and the flavor that has been there in most of the items i've cooked isn't interesting enough for me to tinker with the amounts of the spices. i'd rather spend my time on a good, traditional(ish) indian dish. there are some recipes that are easy and quickly enough made that they could be done on a weeknight after work, and they are not so exotic that small children and un-adventurous spouses would run out of the room. they are also not so memorable that anyone would request them again. many of the recipes call for what most of us would consider an unnecessarily large amount of oil. reasonably experieced cooks could compensate for this easily (by grilling the marinated lamb chops instead of deep frying them, for example). the recipes are in european, british and american measurements. the photos that accompany each recipe are clear, but misleading on occasion--in one recipe, the two tablespoons of yoghurt called for looked more like a full cup. in two others, the sauces in the photos were a great deal--a VERY great deal--more colorful and copious than the real-life results. while i haven't quite decided to make this the first cookbook i have ever discarded, i would not recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: not exciting
Review: to begin with, this is book inacurately titled. the style of cooking is pakistani, rather than indian (though comparing the two styles is interesting) and the technique is not precisely stir-fry as in chinese stir-fry. there's been nothing actively objectionable about the recipes i've made from this book, but there's been nothing wonderful, either. aside from an excessive-for-me amount of dried red and fresh red and green chiles, there's not a lot of flavor in what i've cooked. and the flavor that has been there in most of the items i've cooked isn't interesting enough for me to tinker with the amounts of the spices. i'd rather spend my time on a good, traditional(ish) indian dish. there are some recipes that are easy and quickly enough made that they could be done on a weeknight after work, and they are not so exotic that small children and un-adventurous spouses would run out of the room. they are also not so memorable that anyone would request them again. many of the recipes call for what most of us would consider an unnecessarily large amount of oil. reasonably experieced cooks could compensate for this easily (by grilling the marinated lamb chops instead of deep frying them, for example). the recipes are in european, british and american measurements. the photos that accompany each recipe are clear, but misleading on occasion--in one recipe, the two tablespoons of yoghurt called for looked more like a full cup. in two others, the sauces in the photos were a great deal--a VERY great deal--more colorful and copious than the real-life results. while i haven't quite decided to make this the first cookbook i have ever discarded, i would not recommend it to anyone.
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