Customer Reviews

Entice With Spice: Easy Indian Recipes for Busy People

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I've had the pleasure of taking some of Shubhra Ramineni's cooking classes here in Houston. So I've gotten to taste some of the dishes that I knew would be included in this cookbook when it came out. I came to this already being a 'fan-boy'of Shubhra's cooking. But what I am saying here comes from the heart as this book truly lives up to the promise. If you're on my gift list for Christmas this year, this is probably the book that's gonna end up in your stocking.

As cookbooks go, this one is an absolute delight for the eyes. It is full of exceptional 'how to' photographs. Heck, this book is just one wonderful page of appropriate and helpful photographs after the next. Check out pages 56 and 57 where Shubhra walks you through the process of making dosa.

First section I started working from when I got my copy was the section on breads. She answered so many questions in this book about the best ways to make Indian breads in the home kitchen. Chapati. Naan. Besan Ki Roti. Aloo Ka Paratha. Poori. And my favorite: the puffed up 'beignet' of Indian breads, the bhatura. Again, spectacular photographs, making this my default grab-this-off-the-shelf-first book on Indian cooking.

Yeah, the sub-heading of this book is 'Easy Indian Recipes for Busy People'. And the book stays true to that theme. She has done a first rate job of understanding the logic of how these dishes come together and communicating the preparation of the dishes in steps that are easy to follow and fairly fool-proof. One of the very nice touches is that most of the recipes come with recommendations on pairing with breads or other recipes in the book.

Page 33: Lentils. Photos of the 7 most common lentils with descriptive info.

I fantasize about doing a "Julie and Julia' with this book and making my way through all of the recipes. I'm an engineer and a lot of my co-workers are from India. It would be so much fun to make this or that, bring it into the office and be able to share something home-cooked with them for lunch. But where to start?

Well, I can highly recommend the following to start with:

Oven baked tandoori chicken with a side of lemon rice

Spiced fish and rice with cumin and peas

Masala scallops with tomatoes and onions

Cardamon chicken

Dhuli masoor dal which is a Punjabi style lentil stew

Pepper shrimp on a stick

Oh yeah, there's also this great section near the front of the book of 'Tips and Tricks'. Basic techniques, freezing and reheating tricks, an Indian ingredients section, followed by a section on home-made yogurts, chutneys and relishes. Again, with just the best darned photography you could hope for.

I am a beginner cook. Most meals I have cooked in the past for my family are bland. Sometimes, I feel the need to apologize at dinner time for what I served my family. In many families such as mine, cooking was not passed on because of lack of time. So recipe cards or recipe books are the only way of really making up for what was missed. Entice with Spice not only makes up for what I missed, but also shares an entirely different culture and way of cooking that I thought I would never get the chance to experience in my own kitchen.

Entice with Spice helps me cook the way I always dreamed about. My family is also eating more vegetables because they are seasoned tastefully. Some vegetables are even hidden in the sauces such as tomatoes and onions. So, my husband who is not a fan of tomatoes and my daughter who is not a fan of onions, eats them without even knowing they did. Green Beans, which usually taste like crunchy water to me transformed into a sensational vegetable that I couldn't stop eating.

Entice with Spice, transports me to India at the kitchen table, where I can easily imagine my family riding Asian Elephants at Sunset!

I took one Indian cooking class and really enjoyed it because the flavors were so unique and interesting. I wanted to explore the cuisine more, so I bought this cookbook. It's a great book that has wonderful, but quite reasonable recipes in terms of simplicity and preparation time. The book lives up to its title.

I had to find out where our local Indian grocery was to get the new spices and herbs. I'd say I bought about a dozen new items that weren't previously in my spice drawer. Garam masala and carom seeds are my favorites of the new spices I've been using.

I've tried the following recipes:

Mint chutney

Cardamom chicken

Chicken tika masala

Fragrant chicken curry

Oven baked tandoori chicken

Lamb Kebabs

Dad's baked salmon

Fish curry

Potato and pea curry

Spiced cauliflower and potatoes

Mushroom and pea curry

Vegetables and coconut curry

Rice with cumin seed and peas

All of them have been really tasty. When I cook the fish curry again, I'll use a more delicate fish. I used cod and it seemed a bit hearty for the dish. Red snapper was in the recipe, but I had cod in the freezer.

My favorite is the "fragrant chicken curry." The mint and cilantro combination with the chicken was really superb.

When I was cooking for my wife, I cut out the cayenne pepper because she likes spices, but not the heat that cayenne gives. The recipes still tasted great without the cayenne. When I cook for myself, I use the cayenne as directed. Perfect for me. I like some heat.

Cheers.

Entice with Spice is wonderful addition to any cook's library. It is written in a very personal style and in very simple terms. The book takes the mystery out of what I have always thought of as a difficult type of cooking, even to the point of giving shopping tips, explaining use of different tools and basic techniques for preparations.

This is a wonderful accessible resource for no-fuss Indian recipes written in an engaging and personal tone. If you're new to cooking or Indian food, this is a good introduction that will get you up and running quickly. If you're an experienced cook, this is still a great collection of Indian recipes that can be made easily and on short notice.

The tips section near the beginning of the book is very helpful, and each recipe is annotated with storage and reheating suggestions. The ingredients called for are mostly readily available at your local market. There are substitutes listed for some of the more specialized items (e.g., brown sugar for jaggary), and the only extra trip I needed to make was to grab some tamarind paste. There is a list of mail order sources if your city doesn't have any Indian grocers, although if you're lucky enough to have any, you owe it to yourself to go.

The recipes cover a wide range of dishes - chutneys, breads, rices, meats, seafood, vegetables, drinks, and more. Some of the items I've made recently include:

Chicken Biryani

Saag Paneer

Ginger Chutney (this is amazingly good on almost everything, Indian or not)

Curried Okra

Lamb Kebabs

Chicken Vindaloo

My one recommendation is to buy your spices whole and have a dedicated coffee mill for grinding them. You will need to do this for a few of the recipes, and the difference in flavor versus buying pre-ground is astonishing. It's a very minor investment with a huge payoff that extends to any cuisine you may cook. Get some spice bottles and a label maker and you are good to go. This also goes for making your own stocks and breadcrumbs - neither of which are called for in this cookbook, but if you enjoy cooking, you need to at least try these easy things yourself.

Again, I highly recommend this cookbook. With a good assortment of delicious and easy recipes, it's a great and fun buy.

nice cookbook. very colorful and flavorful. a great variety of food, but i would have wanted some more. however, great cookbook and easy step by step instructions.

Shubhra, I just wanted to let you know that I made the Lamb Vindaloo curry with chicken last night and it turned out AMAZING! I am so impressed with all of your recipes, I feel like I can actually make Indian food with ease and not be frustrated being on the phone with my mom during the process! I don't eat meat but made it for my boyfriend. He likes really spicy foods so I added a serano pepper to the recipe, it was perfect, he absolutely loved it and said it was better than ones he had at Indian restaurants! I think next time I will make it for myself with fake meat. I also make the cauliflower and mushroom and pea curry all the time but add dhaniya (corriander) to the recipe because I am used to adding that to my Indian vegetable dishes. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends!

I have cooked many of the recipes and they are so easy to make and delicious! I grew up eating Indian food and these recipes taste just like the food my mom made. I just never knew how to make the dishes until now. The recipes are made with easy to find ingredients and great for busy moms like me. As a bonus, my husband even loves cooking from the book! I am so glad I have this book!

I had the pleasure this evening of preparing a few dishes from this wonderful cookbook. My 7 year old couldn't get enough of the Chicken Tikka Masala and my husband actually enjoyed eating cauliflower for the first time via the Cauliflower and Potato Curry. It was a wonderful meal and I am already looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow! The cookbooks is so informative and makes Indian cooking so accessible for the average American home cook. The pictures help to guide someone new to Indian cooking and the background and sourcing information for the ingredients is incredibly helpful. Thank you Shubhra for creating this great resource!

Like most useful things, the Indian cookbook ENTICE WITH SPICE was born out of a personal need. Having grown tired of eating take-out and frozen dinners after a long day of work at the office, author Shubhra Ramineni resolved to develop simplified recipes that would allow her to cook delicious homemade Indian meals as quickly and as effortlessly as possible--all without sacrificing flavor. The result is a comprehensive collection of one hundred easy-to-make recipes from both the north and south of India. (Most recipes can be made within a half-hour or less; Chicken Biryani and Chicken Tikka Masala are exceptions, requiring about one hour from start to finish.)

In ENTICE WITH SPICE, you will find a wide range of recipes, including everything from condiments, like yogurt and chutneys, to appetizers, main dishes and sides, breads and rice, and desserts and beverages. Favorite restaurant dishes familiar to Indian food lovers in America, such as Samosas, Naan, Aloo Gobi, Saag Paneer, Chicken Tikka Masala, Mulligatawny Soup, Mango Chutney, and Lassis, are included, as well as foods typically prepared in Indian homes, such as Chapati, an everyday whole-wheat flatbread cooked on a griddle; Kichidi, a simple rice and lentil porridge; Paneer Bhurji, an Indian comfort food made with crumbled paneer and green peas; and Anda Bhurji, Indian scrambled eggs. Wonderful south Indian classics like Dosa, Uttapam, and Coconut chutney, which have only recently begun to gain popularity in the United States, are also included. (Most Indian restaurants in the United States have historically served dishes from northern India.) Most of the recipes are traditional. Only a handful, such as Dad's Baked Salmon and Masala Scallops with Tomatoes and Onions, are the author's Indian-inspired creations.

Nearly every recipe in the book is graced with beautiful food photography by Masano Kawana, a recipient of the James Beard Award for . . .

[[This is an extract. To read the entire review of ENTICE WITH SPICE, visit Dowdy Corners Cookbook Club.]]