Customer Reviews

Best Ever Indian Cookbook: 325 Famous Step-By-Step Recipes for the Greatest Spice and Aromatic Dishes

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most cookbooks are either full of pretty pictures with so-so recipes or full of strong recipes but no pictures. This book makes a new niche for itself on the rather crowded indian cuisine shelf by being worthy on both accounts: fantastic quality pictures and a comprehensive cookbook with delightful recipes. It even has calorie and nutrition information for the recipes. The only drawback is that some of the pictures are just there to fatten the book, just ingredients being mixed in a pan which don't add any real value but there is always a picture of the final meal. If you wanted to buy a single book on indian cooking and care about pictures, this would have to be the one.

I bought this cookbook from Borders for $9.99. I was a bit skeptical of the title but the pictures inside looked appetizing and it contained many dishes I enjoy.

This has been the best cookbook I've ever bought. Why do I say that? Because I've used it more than any other cookbook I've ever owned.

First off, the prologue is an excellent introduction to spices and herbs. The cookbook is expansive enough for almost any dish type be it meat (beef, fish, chicken, etc) or vegetarian (from potato to rice and more).

I've cooked a dozen or more recipes from this book. All have been delicious, many superb. We've had many people over and all have been amazed by the food. Be it a curry, spinach saag, home made cheese or flat breads.

But why is this cookbook so great?
Because it got me cooking!

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Some notes regarding this cookbook. I found that many dishes could use to be a tad hotter. It does seem to be toned down to American palates. But it may also depend on your definition of red & green pepper. Different varieties greatly differ in heat.

Second, I found most dishes which called for lemon/lime call for a bit much in regards to American palates. So try seasoning to taste instead of going with what they call. (Mind you this comes from someone who eats fresh limes.)

We have now tried many of the vegetarian and seafood recipes in the cookbook. They are uniformly quick, easy, and delicious. We haven't found any dish that we have not liked, and are now eating almost exclusively from this cookbook.

This cookbook appears to be well put together, with a wonderful selection of recipies and photos for everything.

However, when you attempt to make the recipe's, the wrongness unfolds. Both of the curry's we attempted from this book had problems - despite having had great success with other books.

One recipe calls for simmering raw potatoes over low heat for 5-7 minutes. This is far from the length of time need to produce tender potatoes. Another recipe was way off in its ratio of meat to thickening agents.

I'd give this a pass.

This is truly the best indian cookbook ever. Both my wife and I love to cook with it. If you are an indian food aficionado, you will not be disappointed. It contains all the recipes you ever wanted to prepare. Unlike other indian cookbooks, the dishes come out to look exactly as depicted and they taste delicious, just as you would expect. If you are a beginner, this book is great initiation to indian cooking. We both recommend this book highly.

Great book that lays out how to prepare and serve authentic Indian cuisian with photos from start to finish of the dish.

After a trip to India I wanted a comprehensive cookbook that would help me create some of the dishes we ate on a daily basis and came across Best Ever Indian Cookbook.

The beginning of the book is chock full of information that will help make each dish the best you can make without being in India. You'll find chapters on principles of Indian cooking, preparing Indian curry, planning an Indian meal, spices and herbs, curry powders and pastes as well as individual ingredients. There is also a nice chapter on utensils that are used most in the making of the recipes.

And if you really get into the spices, Amazon offers a selection of Nagina Stainless Steel Masala Dabba Deluxe (Traditional Indian Dry Fruit / Spice Box) on their site. We saw a lot of these while in India!

Like with most cookbooks, I found myself going to the same recipes over and over. I love the Jeera chicken as well as many other chicken recipes. I happen to love lentil based dishes and there are some marvelous ones in this cookbook!

If you love Indian food I don't think you can go wrong with this cookbook!

I always thought that Indian cooking meant "add 2 Tbsp curry powder". Was I ever wrong! Best Ever Indian Cookbook teaches you everything you need to know to produce authentic Indian food in your own kitchen. The recipes are surprisingly easy to make and the ingredients are not difficult to find. The act of combining simple, natural ingredients to make not only healthy, but spectacular meals has been a wonderful experience. My family, who all thought they hated Indian food, line up with plates in hand as the aroma of exotic spices fills my neighborhood. By selecting rice, rather than bread, as an accompaniment, most meals are gluten-free - an important consideration for me. I've never had so much fun cooking. I can't wait to choose the recipe I will try tonight!

We bought an earlier edition of this cookbook ("Best Ever Indian Cooking", same publisher), and have been waiting forever for a re-print, so I could buy a gift copy.

Pros:
- extremely easy to follow - the recipe steps are logically and (mostly) sequentially laid out... many cookbooks' recipe steps seem to jump around a bit, so if you're not a big "mis-en-place" cook, you'll suddenly find that you need an extra cup of "X", or to have already minced "Y".
- a very good early section on prepping the pastes & other mixtures you'll be drawing on frequently
- very useful pictures to help keep you on-track
- a TON of different recipes - and many are "everyday" style
- and the recipes, for the most part, seem to be pretty forgiving of substitutions or measurement alterations

Cons:
- none really, but a small quirk (might not be relevant)... many Indian restaurants divide up their menus regionally, so if you're used to that, using this cookbook might re-orient you a bit, since it's more traditionally laid out (by meat/fish/veg/etc).

I have used this book on quite a few occasions and it I think it is an amazing book! It is very concise and well written, with step by step, clear instuctions!

There is a section in the beginning "Principles of indian cooking" which is excellent for people who are not so familiar with the fundamentals of south asian cooking. ENJOY