Customer Reviews

Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a single male from North India who loves South Indian food. Bsides I am a vegan who abstains from any animal products. Even though in the vicinity of Berkeley we have lots of Indian restaurants, they are dominated by Mughlai (or Punjabi) cuisine - which include the all-too-familiar tandoori chicken, palak paneer, samosa etc. A few South Indian restaurants recently opened up, but ghee (by popular demand!) seems to be used in almost all dishes. (No wonder Indians have one of the highest rates of heart problems, beer-bellies and lots of other health problems.)

Decided that if I wanted to eat good and healthy South Indian food, I had to cook it myself. Bought this book. Am not an expert cook and don't have much time to search around for 1/2 teaspoonful of XYZ. Luckily this book has been good in that respect. Only 5-6 standard Indian spices (all available from Indian grocery stores), with a few specialized spice mixes, will allow one to create authentic dishes like sambar and rasam. Food photos are excellent, and some days, I just look at those pictures to satisfy my hunger for South Indian food!

Thus far, have tried a few recipes, and all turned out well. In future, I plan to expand my menu.

I hope this book helps to make South Indian food popular among Americans. In my view, South Indian staple food like idli, dosa, sambar, rasam, and various rices are healthy and tasty unlike those overcooked, oily Punjabi food they serve in Indian restaurants. My wish is for the author to come out with a vegan version of this excellent book, because I think veganism is the way to go for all for health, for environment and for compassion. :) Thanks for reading.

Quote: Greatness of a country is judged by the way its animals are treated - Gandhi.

If you follow her instructions exactly, the results taste exactly like my mom's cooking, or my aunts. I go a little slower on the chillies, but that is a personal preference and depends on the type of chilli used. Its perfect in terms of flavor for sambhar, rasam, avial, mor kuzhambu etc. However, the recipes don't include chettinad flavors etc. i.e. I found that her non Rasam type dishes do turn out a little watery. So I would personally be a little more generous with the thuvar dhal(make extra and add to thickness/taste)

I would definitely not recommend "Savoring the Spice Coast" from Maya Kaimal like the Berkeley reviewer did. This cookbook uses absolutely the right ingredients, and unlike Maya Kaimal's cookbook, does not treat curry leaves and bay leaves as equivalents. For dosas in the USA even in a California winter, one needs to ferment the batter in a warm oven at least overnight. In Chennai, 4-5 hours at room temp would have done it. And in terms of spiciness, I use more jalapenos than I would serranos, and of course habanero chillis i use sparingly. And with ginger, young ginger is very mild. How fine you chop/grate also makes a difference to the spiciness obtained.
I buy this book for friends, and even have a copy for our vacation home since I find it hard not to have on hand. An absolute must if you cook S. Indian. though not quite as comprehensive as the long time staple "cook and see"

I received the first edition of this cookbook from our bestman's wife. She, like me, had to learn how to cook her husband's favorite foods from home. This was a challenge as I had never eaten spicy foods let alone cook them. I've grown to enjoy the dishes and this book taught me how to cook them. The book teaches the method and is very easy to follow. Many of my guests (women who learned to cook in India) have asked for the name of the book and author. One relative bought a copy for each of her daughters to give to them when they left home. I always receive a very favorable comment from my in-laws when I prepare a meal from this book. My only regret is that the hardback edition is out of print. I would urge the publisher to bring it back into print.

The photographs in this cookbook will make you hungry just looking at them. There are all sorts of real classic dishes in here - like the Sambar and Kootu recipes. Some of the recipes call for dairy products like yogurt or cream but I just replace it with soy yogurt or soy cream and they turn out just fine. The ingredients are all very traditional - using fenugreek, mustard seeds, etc. Some spices I've had trouble finding are things like ash gourd so I've had to leave it out but its still tasty. There are also great rice recipes in here - mango rice, coconut rice, etc. The recipes are pretty straightforward but sometimes include some extra steps like pureeing.

I'm a South Indian myself and a total gourmand... apart from the classic "Cook & See" series, this is the book that results in the most authentic taste and flavor-filled dishes!

The Cook & See books are translated from Tamil and not very well at that... but the results speak for themselves.

This book, on the other hand, is written in English with good instructions... about the spice level, I think it's perfect but then I grew up eating this stuff!


So if you have a mild palate, I'd easily quarter the chiilies and lessen the spices a tad.

So if you are looking for a well-written book with good illustrations, with authentic flavor, I'd recommend this one!

I bought this cookbook because I wanted to learn how to cook Indian food, particularly southern Indian food as my boyfriend is from Bangalore. Indian cooking has an entirely different philosophy than any other cooking I've ever done. Most of my friends consider me to be pretty gourmet when it comes to Western cooking, and I have found the cross over into Eastern cuisine exciting and fun.

This cookbook has extremely tasty recipes, however, I would warn you about the suggested use of red & green chillis. In some recipes, the author calls for *6* red chillis--ouch! I cut it down to one, and sometimes it is still too hot.

I would also agree with a previous reviewer, that some of the yogurt based dishes turn out to be too watery. So be careful how much water you use to cover the vegetables.

I also think that the directions for this book could have been much, much better written. For instance, when making "Ordinary Dosai" they tell you to soak the rice overnight, then drain the rice, then grind it to a batter adding 1 c. of water as you do so. THEN they tell you to soak the beans, etc. etc. Why would they not say to soak the rice and the beans overnight? Then do the next steps. These types of things are quite common, so read the entire recipe first!!

I have had a lot of trouble figuring out what each different kind of dal is. I've googled them, but then when I go to my local Indian grocery, they have all sorts of different names. I've gotten to the point that I don't really think it matters if you use a Tablespoon of urad dal or moong dal in the tempering. But then again, I'm not an expert.

Also, I think these recipes are really easy. I was super nervous about the first recipe I made (which was Buttermilk Kootu), but my boyfriend (who is VERY particular) gave it an A+. The main thing to do is figure out the order in which to do things. I always start boiling the veggies first while I am making the paste (again, the recipes would never tell you to do this first, it always comes last). Also, feel free to subsitute with other vegetables if you can't find the ones she calls for. The other night I used yams instead of ash gourd (I still don't know what it is) and added some green peas. I have only made 3 dishes (I have the Ordinary Dosai fermenting in the oven right now for the 4th and plan to make the Potato Masala to accompany it), but each has been great. And once you figure out the basic way these things are put together, they are a snap.

Some other tips: dry your curry leaves because they turn black in about a week if you keep them in your fridge; buy frozen shredded coconut--it's actually really good and works much better for the paste than the dried.

I would highly recommend this cookbook for the taste of the food and the EXCELLENT pictures, but the quality of the writing leaves a lot to be desired, and the ingredients can be confusing sometimes.

I am myself from South India but moved to the U.S. before I could learn how to make all the traditional dishes. Occasionally mom write down a couple of recipes for me. But eversince I got this book, I do not have to bother mom. The recipes are very simple to follow once you get a hang of the basic ingredients used in South Indian cooking and the taste is unbeatable. What more, South Indian vegetarian cuisine is healthy and wholesome.

My boyfriend is from India, hence he loves the spice that South Indian cooking has. I was very fearful about cooking with Indian spices and dals (grains) that I had never heard of. This book makes it easy. The instructions are easy to follow, the recipes are written clearly and easy to comprehend. Even though I have come accross more Indian cookbooks this one remains my favorite. I sometimes use this as a guide because it has all the spices need, menus and a glossary of the terms used in Indian cooking. A must for anyone interested in learning the art of Indian cooking.

i have been cooking indian food for many years. i have been looking for something new, not for beginners, and this book is for the more advanced cook.
the recipes are very intersting, and some are new to me, which i liked.
she tends to use a lot of asafetida which i cut down, as well as a lot of hot chillies, so i toned it down as well.
a great source for south indian cooking.

I came across this book by accident, and have fallen in love with it. Has helped clear the mystery about ingredients used in various sambar and rasam powders. A must-have for anyone interested in South Indian vegetarian cooking. Also, very easy to follow. The photographs are especially appealing.