Author(s): Rani Kingman
Publisher: Interlink Publishing Group
Publication Date: 1998-03
Pages: 128
Review: I can’t believe that this book even got published. This just shows that anybody who claims know how to cook can publish a book. The editors, the publishers, for that matter the Author herself doesn’t have any clue what Authentic means. I am from Madras. I come a family of fabulous people who cook great food and I am Chef. I love to collect books and I was flabbergasted to go through this book. All her so-called Tamil names are not even Tamil. Names like ‘Rungaswamy Meen Kolomba’, its supposed to be ‘Rangaswamy Meen Kuzhambhu’, its ‘Thayir sadam’ and not ‘Thayar satham’,.I shows that she is totally confused. I really pity the students who learn from her. The pictures in this books reveals the result of the recipes, utter nonsense. The end product is not supposed to look what she has depicted and that not authentic crispy Dosa or chappthi. She must have compiled it thinking that nobody is going to even question what she has written. For those people who say that they have tried and liked the recipes, unfortunately, they are not authentic recipes and it is not in any way authentic. Claiming that its Madras food and not one recipe has a mention about ‘Curry leaves’. You can make authentic tasting South Indian dishes without Curry leaves. I am so frustrated that I bought this book and I hope my fellow members don’t do the same mistake I did. Its a book I’ll have for a collection called ‘how not to write so-called authentic cook books’. Its a disgrace to South Indian cooks and the cuisine.A Taste of Madras is one of my favorite cookbooks and I have scores of Indian cookbooks, as I’m sort of a gourmet chef. I wrote a cooking column for a sailing magazine for a couple years and one of my favorite articles was my “Two Ways to Tandoori” which you can read in one of my “Amazon So You’d Like to Guides,” if you want. Tandoori chicken is just delicious. Anyway, while I was making the guide, I listed fifty cookbooks from my collection. I have more. I know, I know, one would think a couple books would be enough, but it’s sort of an obsession with me, making food taste great and I just love to see how others have done it.

While I was doing the guide, I pulled out all my Indian Cookbooks, had them all stacked around me. Then I decided to pull out all the ones I didn’t think I could live without. It came to an even dozen and A Taste of Madras was one of the books. The recipes are just divine. I’ve never been to India, been a lot of places, but never there. Delhi, Bombay, Ganges, names that just ring with adventure. I imagine I’m there every time I cook up something Indian. I can feel the smells as they wrap their delicious flavors all around the kitchen, or galley, if I’m cooking on board the sailboat my husband Dub and I live on half the year. You won’t go wrong with this book. Check it out. Check out my other eleven too. Cook up something from India tonight, taste the adventure.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne I would give average to this book. the author says the taste of Madras but truly Madras has more taste and culture in its cuisine.

I have tried a couple of dishes - they turned out okay. Authentic Madras food would also be good healthy vegetarian diet. This book does not come anywhere near this.

As a person brought up on South Indian cuisine, but now living in the West, I found this cookbook invaluable in reprising the tastes of my home, and introducing me to some new dishes that I had never tried before. It was clearly written and all the recipes I attempted were very delicious. It has cemented my belief that South Indian cuisine is the ‘best kept secret’ for the modern food connoisseur.As a person brought up on South Indian cuisine, but now living in the West, I found this cookbook invaluable in reprising the tastes of my home, and introducing me to some new dishes that I had never tried before. It was clearly written and all the recipes I attempted were very delicious. It has cemented my belief that South Indian cuisine is the ‘best kept secret’ for the modern food connoisseur.
Price: $17.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Manju S. Singh
Publisher: Crossing Press
Publication Date: 1981-06-01
Pages: 222
Review: Amazon does not actually appear to have this book, now or ever. I waited two months for it, and they just kept delaying the shipment date. Don’t waste you time ordering it from this website!I own over thirty Indian cookbooks and I use this one the most.I have catered large parties with recipes from this book and all I get is compliments.
If you can afford only one book…this is it!The Spice Box can be used as a concise, informative introduction to the many spiced adventures of varied East Indian vegetarian cuisine. The Introduction contains definitions of Curries and Dals as well as descriptions of many of the most popular spices, in addition to mixtures of spices, such as garam masala, and basic procedures, such as roasting cumin seeds, grinding dals or spices, or breaking open a coconut. The Indian name for each ingredient or dish is always given after the English in parentheses, a practice to encourage the uninitiated.

Chapters are offered on Appetizers and Snacks, Soups, Vegetables, Dals, Egg Dishes, Rice Dishes, Indian Breads, Yogurt Salads (Raitas), Fresh Chutneys, Pickles, Indian Sweets, and the Finale, which is paan, or a betel nut spiced sweet wrapped in betel leaf. Classic curry recipes abound, including Pumpkin Curry, Tomato Curry, Turnip Koftas Curry, Mashed Zucchini Curry, Chickpea Flour Curry, and Pink Lentil Curry. The chapter on breads also contains many classic Indian bread recipes, including Raised Bread (Naan), Chappatis or Roti, Paranthas, Puri, and Fried Bread, or Bhatura.

The Yogurt Salads suggested provide a cooling note to the spicy curries and vegetable main dishes, and the Pickles and Chutneys add further authentic flair to the Indian feast. If the reader prefers, the Introduction contains a list of sources or places to buy Indian foods in the United States organized by region. But it is also incredibly fascinating to see the list of spices that go into a coconut chutney or a sweet mango pickle, for example. The Desserts chapter includes Rose Syrup Milk Balls (Gulab Jamun), Sugar-Coated Cookies (Sakkaarpara), and many wonderful vegetable puddings.

In all, The Spice Box packs a lot of stimulus into a slender package. It’s appeal rests not only in its authenticity, but also in its accessibility. It is surely a classic.

Nancy Lorraine, ReviewerThis is by far the best Indian cookery book I have ever come across. It is a pleasure to use - I am delighted by it. The recipes are easy to follow and only require easily found ingredients. Everytime I cook from it my husband says “I feel like we’ve just eaten at a restaurant” we are so impressed! There is plenty for the vegan too.

Our favourites so far are the Whole Eggplant Curry (page 75), Hyderabadi Chili Curry (page 69) and the Pink Lentil Curry (page 112). There are so many wonders awaiting us - we haven’t even tried any of the soups or apetizers yet.

My only criticism is the lack of photographs - it is nice to see photographs for reassurance if nothing else!

If you like delicious, authentic Indian food you’ll love these recipes!Definitely a great cookbook to have. The recipes are quite tasty and very straightforward. The book has the following chapters: appetizers, soups (great ones!!), vegetables, dals, egg dishes, rice dishes, breads, yogurt salads, chutneys, pickles, sweets. I was glad to see the mulligatawny soup since that can be a tricky recipe to find a good one and this one is. There are also some really great eggplant dishes like the whole eggplant curry that has peanuts, tomatoes and coconut in it. yum. Glad I bought this book!
Price: $12.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Manju Malhi
Publisher: Duncan Baird
Publication Date: 2008-05-06
Pages: 216
Review: Easy Indian Cookbook: The Step-by-Step Guide to Deliciously Easy Indian Food at Home

Learning to cook Indian food has been one of the more fun adventures I’ve set out on. This book has easy to follow recipies and lovely illustrations. I would recommend it. To add to the fun it comes with a CD of traditional Indian music which I played as back ground music for an Indian dinner party I gave shortly after receiving the book.
Price: $24.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Marcia Keegan
Publisher: Clear Light Books
Publication Date: 1987-09
Pages: 120
Review: Long before I ever ventured into the Southwest (I did, eventually, to live & work), I brought this little cookbook home to add to my collection. Over the years I cooked it ragged, then loaned it to a friend. It has never come home, so I am absolutely delighted to find a replacement.

This book is full of gorgeous photos and easy, tasty recipes for authentic Southwestern foods. You’ll find good food and enjoyment here for years to come.Marcia Keegan’s Southwest Indian Cookbook wonderfully showcases Pueblo and Navajo recipes enhanced with beautiful photographic images and thematically appropriate quotes. From Potato and Tomato Cream Soup; Skillet Squash; and Taos Rabbit; to Pueblo Venison Stew; Indian Fry Bread; and Navajo Cake, the Southwest Indian Cookbook is a fitting culinary tribute to Native American cuisine and would grace any multicultural kitchen cookbook collection.This my favorite cookbook covering Pueblo and Navaho foods. Not only are the recipies delicious and authentic, but the many photographs of the people and the landscape of the southwest, along with their words, has produced a small but beautiful book that displays the recipies within the context of the land and cultures.
Price: $12.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): mridula baljekar, rafi fernandez, shehzad husain, manisha kanani
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2007
Pages:
Review: First the good:

1) Great pictures, and generally easy to make recipes, and the ones I have tried do work.

2) I like the intro and the way the cooking basics are described.

Now, the bad:

The book does not even come close to representing the various regions of India or represent the majority of cooking. I do not understand the basis on which the authors decided to select recipes. There is a large section on Balti dishes, which, as the authors state, is Indian inspired, but not traditional Indian food. All this is great, but it is included at the expense of LARGE regions that are entirely ignored. For example, where are the Gujarati dishes? Of the vegetarian dishes, I am surprised to see that the region of India that is PRIMARILY vegetarian and has a great variety of hugely popular dishes is excluded altogether.

Also, what about the entire southern Indian region? There is a soup or so from the South of India, but dosas? idlis? How could these hugely famous foods be ignored so completely? Even the regional breads are not included while there are multiple recipes that are a slight variation of one another.

There is a single recipe (the bombay potatoes) from the large metropolitan city of Mumbai, but otherwise, the entire myriad of dishes that come out of Bombay/Mumbai are pretty much also ignored.

A very large portion of the book is dedicated to small variations of various meat dishes. This is not representative of India because a very very large part of Indian food is actually vegetarian.

The book should have clarified that it has recipes from SELECTED REGIONS of North India, Pakistan, and English-Indian food, but not claim to be the “Best ever” “Indian” cook book. This claim is not substantiated.

It seems to me that the authors just lazily chose recipes based on what they knew rather than attempting to reach out to represent the true representation of Indian food.

All in all, my suggestion is to use this book in conjunction with several other Indian cook books because relying on this alone will have you miss out on a great variety of Indian food.
Price:    Buy This Book

Author(s): Pushpa Bhargava
Publisher: Crest Books, Inc.
Publication Date: 2009-07-01
Pages: 182
Review: Pushpa Bhargava is an exceptional cookbook author. “From Mom with Love” is wonderful, user friendly & well written. A picture of every recipe, clearly written instructions, plus serving suggestions and tips make this a must have cookbook for anyone wanting to learn to cook Indian dishes-or expand their repertoire! As a vegetarian and a longtime Indian food enthusiast, I bought “From Mom with love…” last year, and it has since become one of our most dependable and beloved cookbooks.

The book seems to fill a particular void in the market: An Indian home cookbook that is very accessible, personal, fairly thorough, with great recipes, and loaded with the practical tips and bits of helpful information that one tends to wish for in a cookbook but seldom finds. It’s like having an experienced guide there with you as you plan and cook. Ms. Bhargava additionally goes the extra distance of maintaining a website with videos of cooking techniques to supplement the content in the book.

Even if you like to experiment as you cook, I’ve found that this collection serves as a great reference guide of sold, trustworthy standards to work from.

I have a particular pet peeve that many cookbook authors overreach to try to bulk up large volumes (or multiple volumes) with recipes that are rough and unperfected, and that don’t flow from the author’s heart and benefit from their long-experience in working with them over time. Clearly this was not at all the case with “From Mom with love…” These home-style recipes bear a much-appreciated personal touch. It’s been a delightful experience for us working our way through this aptly titled labor of love.I purchased this cookbook as a present for my husband who loves Indian food but never learned to cook it. We’ve now made several recipes (mostly our favorites from Indian restaurants, but also some we were unfamiliar with) and all of them have been delicious. Some recipes are complicated, others less so, but nothing has been beyond our skill.

Standout aspects of this excellent book:

- glossary explaining ingredients

- list of ingredients to have on hand

- list of special equipment needed

- menu suggestions for entertainment

- lassi and homemade paneer recipes

- suggestions for meals that freeze or keep well

- suggestions for recipes

Problem and suggestions:

- The list of ingredients preceding a recipe is not organized in the order of use. She might tell you to heat oil in a pan and then add two or three spices, but those spices will not be the first items on the ingredients list, they might be the 3rd, 4th, and 10th items in the list. To overcome this confusion we’ve developed two techniques:

1) Read the recipe thoroughly at least twice before starting to cook. If you are accustomed to scanning a recipe and then diving in, don’t be tempted to do that with this cookbook.

2) Measure out all the spices ahead of time. We use small dishes and organize the spices as they are used in the recipe. If 3 bay leaves, a stick of cinnamon and a tablespoon of turmeric all go into the pan together, we put those three spices into one bowl and set it aside, and so on for all the spices in the recipe. That way as you are cooking you can grab one bowl that contains all the relevant spices for that area of the recipe. This means you spend less time being confused by the disorganized list of ingredients. (And you can feel like the host of your own Indian cooking show)

I highly recommend this book especially if you have never cooked Indian food before. Don’t be intimidated by the long lists of ingredients for each recipe!

i have to write to say i am thrilled with my recent cookbook, “from mom with love.” i am new to indian cooking, and am so happy with this wonderful book. i have used the shopping list, have revamped my pantry, have made masala, and am planning a menu for this weekend, and this gem has inspired it all!! i really love the suggestions for cookware that are on each recipe page, and suggestions for complimentary dishes. recipes are easy to follow, the glossary of definitions/translation of products is wonderful, and the extra bonus of being able to email author for advice or to answer questions is great!! good pictures of what raw ingredients look like, and very appetizing pictures of final dish. anyone looking for a cookbook for indian fare, i highly recommend this one. p.s. my neighbors are loving it, too.Very pleasantly surprised - the recipes actually taste like they are supposed to. Perfect for those who are out of the house and wondering “How did Mom make it - my version tastes nothing like it” well.. with this book, it does. Geared more to the North Indian style of cooking, though it has some wonderful westernsouth indian dishes thrown in. Love the chapter on setting up your pantry, substitutions of food based on what is available in the US, and the tips. Excellent buy, the one recipe book that gets the most use in the kitchen.
Price: $27.95   Buy This Book

Author(s): Monica Bhide
Publisher: Adams Media
Publication Date: 2004-04-08
Pages: 304
Review: the only reason i purchased “the everything indian cookbook” was because i had a couple more books ordered and thought “heck, the price is so low on this one i’ll just add it to my cart with the others”.

how delightfully surprised i was to find this is an informative, easy to follow, good sized indian cookbook that is worth more than the few dollar price tag.

i love cooking indian food and would recommend this one to anyone!

This book by Monica Bhide is just perfect. Not one of those where it becomes a “chaar aane ka murgi aur baara aane ka masala”- these are truly makeable, eatable dishes. I am a self proclaimed “Iron Chef India” and I recommend this for bachelors as well as housewives. In two words-”Paisa Vasool”. This cookbook is full of recipes, and I can’t wait to try a lot of them! I think for the price it was well worth it. I am disappointed that there is no recipe for naan bread included, and a few other items I thought would have been basic are not included. The index of ingredients is quite good and I feel helpful in locating ingredients. Overall, I am impressed with the book and would consider buying another cookbook from this series.I would like to state that this Indian cook book is indeed very helpfull in learning the basic Indian recipies. The recipies given in the book are very much clear and easy to follow. As a result, it has enabled my wife to learn cooking quiet easily. In return even I get to enjoy a variety of delicious preparations. I would certainly recommend this book to any one who wishes to learn to cook Indian food. Being married to an Indian who doesn’t cook (yet), I’ve been trying to learn how to make some of our favorite dishes at home. This is the fourth Indian cookbook I’ve bought, and now it’s almost the only one I use!

The problem I’ve run into with most of my other Indian cookbooks are that they turn what should be a simple dish into something with 30+ minutes of prep time and dozens of ingredients. From my experience, that’s not really how Indian people cook at home and certainly not how I want to be cooking at the end of a long day! Sure, this happens for some notoriously hard-work recipes like samosas (perhaps that’s why they’re missing?) but for basic curries it’s a much simpler process.

One of the things I absolutely love about this book is that it includes some of the basic straightforward spice mixes in the recipes. If you’re cooking Indian regularly, you should have a jar of Ginger Garlic Paste around. If there’s no Indian grocery handy, there is a recipe in the introduction to make your own (ditto for Ghee, Paneer, etc). But if you have the convenience of being able to buy some of the basics ready-made, the recipes are already set up for them. One of my other cookbooks (I’m not naming any names) actually lists all the sub-ingredients for Garam Masala in the recipes! What a nightmare, especially when most supermarkets these days carry it right on the shelf (and may not even have the sub-ingredients)!

Another thing I like about this book is that it includes some of the simple recipes. Most recently, I was thrilled to find their basic Chai recipe. Most other books I’ve seen don’t want to waste half a page to something so simple (even in the Beverages section), but it’s definitely something I want to know how to make! Sure I could look it up online, but I bought the cookbook so I wouldn’t have to do that so often!

I’ve tried quite a few of the recipes and found them all very straightforward and surprisingly authentic! The prep and cooking times seem fairly accurate. The recipes do tend to err on the side of mild, so I usually have to throw in some extra masala to cater to my husband’s high-spice palate.

Now for the negative points. Yes, there are no beautiful photos of the finished recipes, but this is an Everything series book, where illustrations are not all that common.

The biggest problem I have is that there is no way to look up a dish by its traditional name. The index appears to only have the English translations, which are not always intuitive. An example: Gobi Manchurian, a common Indian-Chinese dish is translated as something like “Garlic Cauliflower” (forgive me; I don’t have the book handy to look up the exact translation). Looking for “Gobi” or “Manchurian” in the index is fruitless, and skimming the listings for cauliflower offers only a vague list of English dish names. Thankfully the original names are at least included with the recipes, so by flipping to each cauliflower recipe, I can better identify them.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good reference for cooking Indian dishes. And I will continue to turn to it first on my shelf! But I will keep at least one of the others around for when I feel like putting in the work for Veg Samosas!
Price: $15.95   Buy This Book