Topic: Recipe Book Suggestions?

[Bob_McBob]

I'm interested in ordering one or two more Indian recipe books, and I'd love some suggestions.  I find any given book will have quite a few recipes that are pretty good, but perhaps one or two that I *really* like, so it is nice to grab a new book now and then :

Here are the books I have:

"50 Great Curries of India" by Camellia Panjabi.  This one has a lot of recipes I really enjoy (rogan josh and chicken pistachio korma in particular), but I find she concentrates rather a lot on lamb, which I don't often have the opportunity to cook.

"Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni.  This one has a huge selection of recipes, but I wish there were more meat recipes that didn't include things like cloves and cardamom, which I find often overpower the rest of the dish.  A lot of the vegetable recipes are quite good (the hot Hyderabad tomato chutney is absolutely to die for), and it is definitely a good overall resource for a wide variety of Indian cooking.

"Indian Cooking" by Madhur Jaffrey.  This one is a bit hit or miss, but there are lots of hits.  There are, however, a few recipes that always end up being crap, no matter how I make them.  I also find the selection of stuff a bit random, but again, most of the vegetable recipes are very good ("dry" okra and the black-eyed pea one).  It's too bad so few of the recipes are photographed like "50 Great Curries".  It's annoying when there's a huge photo of some random spice where a photo of the recipe itself could go!

There isn't really anywhere here that carries much in the way of Indian recipe books, so I would have to order online, which means I can't check them out beforehand.  I've been looking at "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking" by Julie Sahni and "Lord Krishna's Cuisine", but these are both vegetarian books.  I would like some suggestions for other authentic Indian books to try out.  I'm especially interested in chicken recipes, since I never have time to cook lamb or seafood

[Mark J]

Hi Bob,

I've got a lot of curry cookbooks (dont we all  ;D) and would recommend the curry lovers cookbook by Mridula Baljekar. Good recipes, all with full colour photos showing final dish and stages.

[Chilli Prawn]

Why not try the original bible of curry recipes for the home AND restaurant chef; Mrs Balbir Singh's Indian Cookery Book.  No kitchen should be without it!  It was first published in 1961.  The famous group of Rajdoot Tandoori restaurants were the first to introduce Tandoor cooking in the UK, and their first retaurand (still there) was on Fulham Rd Chelsea in 1965 (I recall).  I became a personal friend of the Manager (Mr Brown) then and he and his chefs taught me a lot.  Mrs Singh's recipes where used for some of their dishes, and if you go to it or one of their sister retaurants in other cities you will taste the same exotic and delicious food.

I guess there will be an outcry that this is traditional not bir food in her book and I don't really care because I know otherwise, so there ;D

CP

[Bob_McBob]

Now you have me interested, CP.  It looks like the book is well out of print, but perhaps I could pick up a used copy.

[Chilli Prawn]

I think Amazon(uk) can provide

[spicysarsy]

In agreement with Chilli Prawn, Amazon UK are excellent for back issue publications as I use them myself allot.

[Bob_McBob]

Amazon UK only has used copies, the same as Amazon and Amazon Canada.  It seems the last edition (HarperCollins) was published in 1981, with the last printing around 1985.  Apparently the 1975 edition added about 50 new recipes, so I guess I will be looking for one at least that new.  I usually buy used books from abebooks.

Could you possibly post a sample recipe from the book, CP?  I will probably order a copy today, it sounds pretty interesting.

[Chilli Prawn]

Bob I will try to help as soon as possible.  i just got back from holidays and have alot of things to catch up with.

CP

[Mark J]

Just bought it from amazon  ;D

[CurryCanuck]

Same here  ;D