Looking for a cookbook with delicious Indian food.
January 15, 2010 2:01 PM   Subscribe

Recommendation Filter: I'm looking for a great Indian cookbook!

There are a couple of requirements:

- It needs to be as authentic as possible.
- It needs to be geared towards a North American palate (so not filled with insanely spicey recipes) and food availability. It should also be written in pretty basic food terminology OR have an index at the back with translations/explanations, since I'm still fairly new to this whole cooking-without-mum thing.
- Preferably would have both vegetarian/vegan and meat dishes.

I don't mind what part of India the recipes originate from, but a mixture would be very nice.
posted by Planet F to Food & Drink (24 answers total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
Here's three:
Chilis to Chutneys and The Indian Vegetarian by Neelam Batra. I use these two all the time. They're very readable, and the recipes aren't insanely complicated.

Lord Krishna's Cuisine by Yumuna Devi. Also a really good book, but a little different - it's Vedic cuisine, so no meat, onions, garlic, or mushrooms (for example). There's a lot of really delicious recipes in here, though.

All of these have a discussion about ingredients and where to get them.
posted by chbrooks at 2:11 PM on January 15, 2010


I am working my way through 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer and looove it. It meets all your requirements, and even suggests where you can buy some of the more interesting ingredients online if you can't find them around your area. (The more interesting ingredients are what make the food so so so good, by the way). The recipes do skew spicy, but you can always add less of the hot peppers.
posted by emyd at 2:12 PM on January 15, 2010


Years and years and years ago, when I was in college and new to cooking I bought a copty of Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cooking. It was, just like it said on the box, a perfect way in. I recently picked up another copy from a used book store, and have been cooking from it again. It's still great. And it totally meets all your criteria.
posted by neroli at 2:13 PM on January 15, 2010 [6 favorites]


Seconding Madhur Jaffrey.
posted by saladin at 2:16 PM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


By 'authentic' do you mean 'exactly like they serve in Indian restaurants'? If so, buy one of these (not both - they're substantially identical, so much so I suspect one pretty much copied the other):

The Curry Secret.

Indian Restaurant Cook Book.

Otherwise, anything by Madhur Jaffrey.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:18 PM on January 15, 2010


The other standard, iconic book is Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking. Really useful, but not quite as charming and user-friendly as Jaffrey.

I love love love 660 Curries, but maybe it's a little overwhelming for your first book.
posted by neroli at 2:24 PM on January 15, 2010


Nthing Madhur Jaffrey, and I'd also suggest From Mom With Love. It includes both basic and advanced shopping/pantry lists and even what kind of pan you should use.
posted by bgrebs at 2:26 PM on January 15, 2010


Authentic and geared towards North American palates are pretty much mutually exclusive. Also there are a plethora of wonderful vegetarian dishes in many subcontinental cuisines, but many of them also revere and delight in dairy products, so its going to be tough to find a wide variety of authentic vegan Indian recipes.

All that being said, Madhur Jaffrey has been recommended several times already for good reason.
posted by BobbyDigital at 2:30 PM on January 15, 2010


Anything by Madhur Jafry
posted by burhan at 2:33 PM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's a website, not a book, but manjula's kitchen is awesome. The recipes are clear and not overly complicated, plus almost all of them have videos in which Manjula herself goes through all of the steps. The focus is on vegetarian food. We've cooked just about everything she's posted and many have become staples in our household. (You'll need to make a small initial investment in spices like hing, cumin seed, etc., but otherwise nothing special is required.)
posted by imposster at 2:44 PM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


I originally got My Bombay Kitchen out of the library, but now both my mom and I own copies. it;s by an Parsi woman living in California (and friends with Alice Waters) so there are great recommendations on how to make authentic food in North America, and how to tweak traditional food to suit North American tastes. Everything I've tried from this book has been fantastic, and it's also full of anecdotes about the author's family and Parsi culture, and life in general. I can't recommend it highly enough!!
posted by genmonster at 3:18 PM on January 15, 2010


Every book I've read pales in comparison to the culinary delight that is Vahrehvah, including the Madhur Jaffrey and 500 Curries books cited above. The recipes there "just work", and Sanjay Thumma is a hoot to watch. There's something inherently awesome about the enthusiasm of a guy who can be moved to tears by taste of his own mutton biryani.
posted by deadmessenger at 3:21 PM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Seconding Lord Krisha's Cuisine and Julie Sadhi's Classic Indian Cooking. The latter taught me how to cook, pretty much.
posted by foodmapper at 3:21 PM on January 15, 2010


In addition to anything by Madhur Jaffrey and Julie Sahni, my favorite Indian cookbook is Curries Without Worries by Sudha Koul. It's out of print now, but used copies turn up on Amazon and half.com frequently. It's really lovely: the recipes are simple, Sudha is a warm and friendly writer, and she encourages you to adjust up or down the amount of spices or ghee to fit your palate and dietary requirements. (One of the negative reviews on Amazon bitched about the amount of fat in each recipe, but I've made almost everything in the book, as written *and* with the fat reduced significantly, and the recipes work fine either way. The taste and textures won't be identical, but they will still be very, very good.) Just a winner all around.
posted by bakerina at 3:50 PM on January 15, 2010


Imposster: Manjula's Kitchen was the subject of the most favorited post in Metafilter's history.
posted by deadmessenger at 5:45 PM on January 15, 2010


One of my personal favorites is Bombay Palace Cookbook: A Treasury of Indian Delights Adapted for the American Kitchen. I can honestly say that I've yet to find an unappealing recipe in there for as long as I've been cooking from it. The directions are very clear and well written throughout. Additionally, it contains a term glossary that is helpful.
posted by lrkuperman at 6:26 PM on January 15, 2010


Vij's Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine is my favorite. Mobile so no imbed, but here's the link:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d.html/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/182-0571281-7748217?a=1553651847
posted by experiencing a significant gravitas shortfall at 7:11 PM on January 15, 2010


Mr. KathrynT got me Mangoes and Curry Leaves for Christmas, and it's fantastic. It quite deliberately covers the entire Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, not just India. In addition to a lot of classic Indian Restaurant favorites, you can also find yummy offbeat things like Tamarind Potato Curry and Green Beans with Coconut.

I have many of the authors' other cookbooks, and I just adore them. They are about the only cookbooks I know of that are both insanely gorgeous and really, really usable.
posted by KathrynT at 7:58 PM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Madhur Jaffrey is a true culinary ambassador: it's impossible to understate the role she played in the 1970s and 80s.

50 Great Curries of India is aimed at the modern British Indian palate, which is Westernised but perhaps a little further on (at least comparing restaurant offerings outside big cities) than the American experience; it's very very good, particularly at introducing the reader to the role of spices in Indian cooking.
posted by holgate at 9:37 PM on January 15, 2010


I always recommend The Curry House in these threads, from the "inauthentic but like a restaurant" angle. Again this is more British than American but there is a crossover.
posted by galaksit at 9:17 AM on January 16, 2010


I agree with obiwanwasabi. Dhillon's The Curry Secret - Indian Restaurant Cookery at Home.
posted by cyniczny at 9:20 AM on January 16, 2010


Absolutely Madhur Jaffrey. The classic book is "Indian Cooking".

I've linked to the current hardback, but it's also out in paperback and has been since the 80s I think. Her recipes are easy to cook, and the results taste fantastic, better than restaurant food.
posted by w0mbat at 10:10 AM on January 16, 2010


The original edition was called "Indian Cookery", here's a link on the UK Amazon site. It accompanied the 1980's BBC cooking show that made her famous in the UK.
She has published lots of books with similar names - if you want to verify you are buying the right book in a physical bookshop confirm that it has "Lake Palace Aubergine" in the index.
posted by w0mbat at 10:21 AM on January 16, 2010


For books, I will third the telephone-book sized _Lord Krishna's Cuisine_, which is an engaging, interesting read in addition to being an encyclopedic reference. I credit the several years I spent in the 90s working through it as most of the reason that my food blog is sometimes mistaken to be the work of a person of Indian descent.

Whatever book or books you choose, do also watch Manjula's videos. There is a great deal of basic technique of the cuisine that's easier to learn from watching rather than reading - especially things like rolling and cooking breads and managing oil and spices - and Manjula is really good at showing that.
posted by jocelmeow at 10:50 AM on January 17, 2010


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