Ajanta: Regional Feasts of India [Hardcover]

Lachu Moorjani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2005

There are as many regional flavors and dishes in India as there are languages and dialects, and no one knows this better than Lachu Moorjani, owner of Ajanta Restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Widely recognized as the Bay Area's premier restaurant for Indian cuisine, Ajanta sets the standard with its ever-changing menu, offering creative dishes from the many regions of India. Ajanta represents one of the best places to experience a taste of India without leaving the country!
Moorjani is proud to present Ajanta, featuring the specialties of each region in India, and an excellent introduction to the cuisines and flavors of this richly diverse country.
Organized by region, Ajanta includes more than a dozen feasts. Each menu includes an appetizer, main dish, side dish, rice dish, bread, and dessert. Moorjani also offers tips on Indian cooking and Indian ingredients, making this cuisine accessible to most any cook. Luscious full-color food photography pairs with step-by-step photos showing how to make everything from pakora to poori bread.
Recipes include Tandoori Portobello Mushrooms, Spinach and Feta Cheese Samosa, Indian Crab Cakes, Khumbi Pakora, Chicken Pistachio Korma, Tamil Lamb Curry, Prawn Curry Bengal, Palak Paneer (Spinach and Paneer Cheese in Spices), and Chicken Biriyani, along with unique recipes for chutneys and raitas.
Lachu Moorjani was born in the state of Sind, India, which later became Pakistan. He grew up in Rajasthan, and later moved to Bombay. Lachu immigrated to the United States in December of 1969. Formally trained in engineering, he left this field in December of 1987 to open a small restaurant in Berkeley, called New Delhi Junction. In 1993, he sold New Delhi Junction and opened Ajanta. Lachu lives with his wife in Berkeley, California.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Paneer Kofta (Paneer Cheese Balls in Curry Sauce) takes at least three hours to prepare, but the result, with a creamy, deeply flavored sauce and crisp balls of tender cheese, is so good that a cook might be tempted to fly to Berkeley, Calif., for the sole purpose of eating at Ajanta, the award-winning restaurant on which this cookbook is based. These recipes are not easy: those that use just a few ingredients, like the Gajar Halva (Carrot Pudding with Nuts) take at least an hour and a half to make. Finding dried fenugreek for Methi Wala Alu Gobi Matar (Potatoes, Peas and Cauliflower with Fenugreek) might take longer than the Mango Mousse does to freeze. Moorjani does all he can to make the process easier, and complex instructions are usually accompanied by step-by-step photographs, particularly for the regional breads. Each chapter also includes a shopping list, which can make the search for specialty ingredients easier. Though these additions are helpful, the indexing makes navigating and finding recipes difficult, as recipes are listed under their full, often unfamiliar, names and are not always included under the logical heading. The rest of the book sparkles with personal touches and the author's memories that go along with many of the dishes. With its upbeat section on pairing wine with Indian food (yes, it's possible), Moorjani's book could easily become the introductory bible of haute Indian cuisine.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

Ajanta: Distinctive Indian Cuisine From Ajanta Restaurant in Berkeley, California, comes the essence, flavors, and richness of Indian cuisine. Ajanta: Distinctive Indian Cuisine captures the best recipes from Bengal to Kashmir to Delhi to Punjab, bringing to life for the western palate the most pleasing of Indian fare. Traditional Indian favorites and the author's own creations merge to create a fusion of Indian dishes that are sought out by lovers of Indian food throughout the United States. You will discover delicious recipes that will become addictive whether they are old favorites or completely new to you, including Paneer Cheese Cakes in Thickened Milk Sauce, Stuffed Chile Peppers in Chickpea Batter, Spicy Scallop Cakes, Chicken Mulligatawney, Lamb in Mint Curry Sauce, Tandoori Asparagus, and Mango Mousse. In the cookbook, each region has a menu for a feast that includes an appetizer, main dish, side dish, rice dish, bread, and dessert. A chapter is devoted to tips on Indian cooking and another chapter to introducing Indian ingredients. The author's succinct style and specific instructions make the recipes very accessible whether you have ventured into this type of cooking before or not. The book is beautifully illustrated with full-color food photography as well as dozens of color process shots that show step-by-step how to make the dishes. Step into the sensual world of Indian cooking with Ajanta, and bring to life the fabulous feasts of India. Lachu Moorjani was born in the state of Sind, India, which later became Pakistan. He grew up in Rajasthan, and later moved to Bombay. Lachu immigrated to the United States in December of 1969. Formally trained in engineering, he left this field in December of 1987 to open a small restaurant in Berkeley, called New Delhi Junction. In 1993, he sold New Delhi Junction and opened Ajanta. Lachu lives with his wife in Berkeley, California.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith; First Edition edition (November 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586857770
• ISBN-13: 978-1586857776
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent recipes! Authentic taste!, January 24, 2007

By 

Iris Cook (Montreal, QC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ajanta: Regional Feasts of India (Hardcover)

I have made five of the recipes so far and each has been a complete success. The only challenge, as another reviewer has mentioned, is compiling the necessary spices. Ajanta restaurant sells a spice box called "Shanti's Spice Box" for about $30 which is available on their web site. I've purchased two - one for myself and one for a friend. The ingredients in the box are in quantities proportional to their use in the cookbook, so pretty much everything you'll need is there. The spice box makes following these recipes really easy. The cooking techniques may seem a bit different, but they are well-explained and straight forward. Just read through your recipe completely and have everything ready before you start and it will be a success! Two favorites: the green bean and potato recipe shown on the cover and the prawns bhuna masala.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Never disappointing!, October 23, 2006

By 

Tatiana Brovko (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ajanta: Regional Feasts of India (Hardcover)

I bought this book after stumbling into the Ajanta restaurant in Berkeley. My friend and I were incredibly hungry and were craving Indian food- and Ajanta was the only restaurant left open on the top part of Solano Avenue.

I am soooo glad I accidently stumbled into that restaurant! That night they were having a party for Lachu Moorjani, who had just put out his cook book. I remembered really enjoying the cuisine (especially all of the dipping sauces used for the samosas), so I thought I should get the book and try recipes.

Me and my family have tried numerous Indian recipes from online as well as in other cookbooks, but the results are always substandard....sauces are drippy, no taste, spices aren't just right, etc. And when it is so easy to get good Indian food in Berkeley, I would just give up trying to cook my own Indian food...until I found Ajanta!

And now I live in a smaller Midwestern city with limited Indian restaurants (I think there are maybe one or two here)---I am soo appreciative of the book!

The Ajanta recipes are fabulous! Between my sister and I, we have made about 8 recipes- all of which turned out well, if not extraordinary. None were disappointing! And all were so tasty! I am so excited!! If anyone loves Indian food, this is the book for you.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have for Lovers of Indian Food, November 27, 2005

By 

Winston K. Lerner (Wisconsin/California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ajanta: Regional Feasts of India (Hardcover)

This is a must-have cookbook for lovers of Indian/Pakistani food. I own over a dozen Indian cookbooks (including several by Madhur Jaffrey; Julie Sahni; Pat Chapman; Udit Sarkhel; Nella Paniz; etc.). This is clearly the best of the bunch by a wide margin.

As other reviewers have noted, author Lachu Moorjani is owner and proprietor of Berkeley's Ajanta restaurant. The recipes in this cookbook demonstrate why his is one of the best Indian restaurants in the country. Moorjani has done an excellent job in scaling down and adjusting restaurant recipes in a way that allows the home chef to achieve restaurant-quality results. Many cookbooks miss the mark on this score, failing to fine-tune recipes for the home environment. If you look recipes in most Indian cookbooks, for instance, you will see that many typically require the home chef to add a cup or more of water to achieve the moisture in a curry or other recipe. Even when one reduces the sauce mercilessly, the result is almost always a thin, watery curry. The recipes in this book usually derive their moisture not from adding water and reducing, but from using tomatoes, onions, and other sources of moisture. The result is a thicker, more flavorful curry or sauce, comparable to what you get when you order the dish in a restaurant.

Not only are the recipes wonderful, they are easy to follow. The book is beautifully designed and illustrated, with recipes divided by region and organized as "feasts" with various dishes designed to compliment one another. So far I've made about eight of the recipes, and I've yet to run into one that wasn't delicious. Highly recommended!