Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking [Hardcover]

Julie Sahni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 1985

Julie Sahni's remarkable ability to make authentic Indian cooking accessible to American cooks continues to make her first book, Classic Indian Cooking, the definitive work of its kind.

This is her long-awaited second book. To prepare it, Julie Sahni traveled extensively throughout the regions of her native India, to assemble a splendid second volume of Indian culinary delights. Whereas her first book explored the riches of Moghul cuisine, this totally new collection systematically reveals the never-before-described treasures of India's vegetarian and grain cooking.

The book begins with a simple explanation of the ingredients and techniques characteristic of this cuisine. For the first time anywhere, Julie describes every classical blend of curry in the Indian tradition, with accompanying recipes on how to use them. From this book alone you will become master both of India's wonderful curries and of the many new varieties you will now know how to create for yourself.

In addition to a thorough going mastery of cooking with curry, this book provides a complete experience of India's incredibly varied vegetarian and grain dishes. Try the heavenly spread of yogurt cheese flavored, with fresh herbs, a favorite of the Gujarati Jains. Be adventurous: make Steamed Rice and Bean Dumplings in Spicy Lentil and Radish Sauce, traditionally served as tiffin one of the great classics of Indian vegetarian cooking.Vegetarians, the super health-conscious, and meat eaters who want to vary their menu with exciting new dishes, all will want to sample the vegetarian masterpiecesvirtual one-dish feasts-that are the very heart of this book: Malabar Coconut and Yogurt-Braised Vegetables; Hearty Blue Mountain Cabbage and Tomato Stew; Baked Zucchini Stuffed with Vegetarian Keema and BuIgur; Madras Fiery Eggplant, Lentil, and Chili Stew; and so many many others. To accompany these dishes, Julie provides an abundance of chutneys, pickles, breads, rice dishes, dals, vegetable side dishes, yogurt salads, and volcanically hot condiments.

Any time of the day you can snack or nibble on tasty foods that will contribute to your health but not your waistline: refreshing chats (salads without oil), a succulent array of fritters, kaftas, and kababs all ingeniously created from fresh vegetables, and a wide selection of crunchy savories from plantain chips to the irresistible giant papad (lentil wafer).

Your sweet tooth is not neglected by India's vegetarian and grain cooking. Lotus Seed Pudding, kulfi (India's delicious ice cream), coconut dumplings, and Quick Glazed Carrot Halwa are only the beginning of the unbelievable assortment of desserts and sweets Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking makes available to you. Plus divine recipes for lassi (yogurt drink), refreshing teas, and classic South Indian coffee.This invaluable and instructive book places India's ancient tradition of delicious vegetarian and grain dishes directly into your hands.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One might expect that this fine sequel to Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking covers a smaller subject than that earlier work. But since most Indians are vegetarians, and since they cook in a diversity of styles, this new volume in many senses gives a truer panorama of that nation's classic cuisine. After an exhaustive glossary of foodstuffs and spices that make up the Indian larder, Sahni launches into the recipes, which in a rare concession to Western ways are arranged course by course. There is much that even a devotee of Indian cooking will find new in the areas of fritters and griddle cakes, braised dishes, lentils, chutneys. Though the ingredients are often exotic, Sahni's directions for buying (a mail-order guide is included) and cooking are precise. She brings some of the subtler practices of one of the world's great cuisines within America's reach. Foreign rights: Esther Newberg, ICM. November 25
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Julie Sahni is director of Julie Sahni's Indian Cooking School, established in 1973.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (December 9, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688049958
• ISBN-13: 978-0688049959
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Indian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great start toward Indian cooking, January 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking (Hardcover)

My wife and I received this book a month ago, for Christmas 2002, and have been cooking our way through it ever since. We are both vegetarians and, while not Indian, have had authentic Indian cooked food.

The recipes are fairly well done, easy to follow, and obviously well tested. Unlike some cook books, the times are correct, the food tastes "right," and the descriptions are accurate. It is well worth having this book as a good introduction to Indian style cooking. Try the Eggplant and Potato side dish (as a main course) over rice, it's wonderful!

There are a few minor annoyances that cause me to only give four stars rather than five. First, the index is horrible. Looking up dishes by the Indian names is tedious as the book has been almost over Americanized. Second, with a title with the word "classic," I am disappointed in the number of items that tell me to "buy this at the store/nobody makes these from scratch anymore/this is too complex, here is a simplified version" in this book. I appreciate the information, but I don't want the variation, at least not without the true recipe too. Third, even most of the side dishes will feed an army. Not being Indian, I would like even more information on meal planning than is given. If I made all the things suggested, we would be eating the same meal for a week straight!
Finally, the book doesn't go into much detail about the different regions and I would prefer to have things divided into regions as well. Again, these are minor, and I recommend this book as a good first book, but the recipes are good, so give it a shot! Oh, there are some typos in the book too, and considering how long it has been in print, they should have been fixed long ago!

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm Not a Vegetarian, March 18, 2008

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking (Hardcover)

I can imagine becoming a vegetarian for reasons of social conscience, but it hasn't happened yet. I do, however, have vegetarian friends who tolerate my lack of enlightenment, and I do sometimes cook for them. On such occasions, if I feel like challenging myself, this is the cookbook to which I turn for inspiration.

Julie Sahni offers clear enough descriptions of the tasks involved in classic Indian cooking so that anyone who's a halfway good cook in any other style can easily produce something delicious from her recipes. I never follow recipes exactly except when I use this book; I've learned from trial and error that whatever Julie says is right. The lessons she offers in nutrition - balancing grains with lentils and other pulses; using spices to AID digestion; conserving nutrients in the cooking process - are invariably worth learning.

The cookbook begins with eighty pages of descriptions of the basic ingredients of Indian vegetarian cooking, especially the spices and spice blends. Julie tells us which spices can be ground or purchased ground in advance without sacrificing flavor, and which cannot. Lots of recipes in the newspapers, for instance, call for "garam masala" as if there were only one blend of spices under that name. Julie offers five quite different blends of aromatic and piquant spices, all regional garam masalas, and tells us when each is appropriate.

Some of the best recipes in the book are for pilafs and hearty stews. Then there are clear instrutions for making two dozen sorts of Indian breads and dumplings. Home-made chutneys, I can tell you, are way tastier than gunk from jars. Cauliflower stuffed with nuts and greens is one of my favorite showy dishes for company. How about 'tiny new potatoes smothered in fenugreek leaves?' She includes instructions for growing a pot of fenugreek from seeds. Cardamom ice cream and rose petal rice pudding are always show-stopper desserts. There are also ideas for whole menus - combinations of dishes both for aesthetic and nutritioal balance.

I have half a dozen Indian cookbooks - gifts from friends mostly - but Julie Sahni's is the only one that's speckled with food stains and oil smudges. Honorable decorations for a cookbook, indicating frequent use.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars publishers, please correct the errors!, January 6, 2006

By 

And You May Find Yourself (Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking (Hardcover)

This book has been in print since 1985 - proof enough that it's not just another vegetarian book or indian cookbook, but a particularly good one. The recipes are excellent - some of them intriguing; the introduction is thorough; the index is good; recipes sometimes include ingredients that can't be found outside India, for authenticity's sake, but alternatives are also suggested in most cases; and the writing style is clear.

But I won't give it 5 stars. To me, a book is the responsibility not only of the author, but also the publisher. It's just not acceptable to leave errors in a 20-year-old book, such as the dish from Mysore that turns out to be from Bangalore, or a reference to Tanjore as the site of the Meenakshi temple (that left me wondering - did they get the temple wrong, or is the recipe from Madurai?). Also, if I'm going to pay for a hardcover edition, I expect it to be durable, not start falling apart at the (glued-together) seams the minute I start using it.

Also, I agree with another reviewer that this book should have had a lot more on other grains, especially millet and sorghum which are very popular in India but almost never available in restaurants.

And I might as well mention my pet peeve with both Sahni's books: why the distinction between side dishes and main dishes? I find it meaningless - it would have made more sense to put veg with veg, dal with dal, etc.

Still, if you like Indian cooking and don't want to limit yourself to what your corner curry house can offer, and if you want to learn about a vegetarian tradition which is far and away the richest in the world, you will find this book very enjoyable.