COMPLETE INDIAN COOKBOOK
Mridula Baljekar
EASE: 4-5
Photos: Every recipe
Is it true you always play favorites with your first? Maybe so. Or maybe I come for inspiration to this book before the other Indian cookbooks because every recipe has a full color picture of the finished dish; or that 4 out of every 5 dishes we’ve tried we come back to again and again; or that she takes such care to detail the order in which spices must be toasted, dried, ground into paste, or fried in oil to achieve subtle layers of flavor.
I love Indian food and when I’ve lived in communities with large and active Indian populations, I usually get lazy and leave the cooking to the experts. But when, as now, the nearby Indian restaurants are pricey and cater to a Western palate, I turn to my culinary mentors, Ms. Baljekar first. You can prepare a full Indian dinner from these pages, from appetizers to entrees and vegetables to breads & rices to sauces, drinks and desserts. Of course, the all-stars are here, Tandoori Chicken (72) and Fish (52), Vindaloo (136), Samosas (38 & 46), Chicken Korma (84), Naan (228), Rogan Josh (120), Aloo Gobi (140), Tarka Dhal (306), and Cucumber Raita (322).
Once you’re ready to venture beyond these familiar stand-bys, consider Chicken with Whole Spices (cinnamon, black cardamom, cloves, allspice, 88), Marinated Lamb Chops (marinated in seasoned yogurt and cooked with spicy spinach, 138), Sagwalla Dhal (highly seasoned yellow split peas and spinach, 310), Carrot and Mooli (daikon) Salad (lightly fried with black mustard and cumin seeds, 318), Kheema Shahzada (ground meat flavored with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, coriander, poppy and sesame seeds,150), or Cardamom Rice (fragrant cardamom and black cumin scented rice, 252). In our home, many of the side dishes have crossed over to accompany non-Indian dinners – Carrot Mooli Salad and Cucumber Raita are great with any grilled or roasted meats, Tarka Dhal makes a wonderful vegetarian wrap or quesadilla filling, and Cardamom Rice is the perfect counterpoint to any fragrant stew or curry.
My biggest gripe with this book is with its Index. The recipes are listed alphabetically by title name so it may not be easy to find a recipe. For instance, if you want to make a vindaloo, it is not under V, but under M, for Meat Vindaloo; and samosas are under M, for (you guessed it) Meat Samosas, and under V, for Vegetable Samosas.
This recommendation comes with two caveats: first, this book is published and sold in the U.K. and so the measurements can really throw the U.S. reader for a loop. Whereas in the U.S. we tend to measure by volume, in the U.K. they measure by weight, so a kitchen scale is very useful, but this is really only an issue when measuring flours, rices, and pulses (beans). Second, some of the spices called for will not be found in the supermarket (e.g., black cardamom pods), but happily, many health food stores carry whole and ground spices in bulk that you can measure out in small quantities for your recipe.
UPDATE: With a free on-line converter specifically for cooking measures, the different measuring systems are less of a hassle now for the chef. See our review of the converter here.
