Customer Reviews

Feast of India: A Legacy of Recipes and Fables

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

 

 

I have been using Indian recipes for years, and this is quite simply the most USEABLE collection of Indian recipes I have yet encountered. Every recipe works, and works the first time, and can work for any decent cook, and for the most part with easily available ingredients.

The recipes cover a wide enough assortment of styles to suggest the breadth of Indian cookery. The stories and anecdotes that accompany the recipes, while very interesting in and of themselves, also serve to place the recipes in context -- for instance, the way multiple spices in a dish should blend together.

A wonderful book and one of my most-used. I, and my dinner companions, have taken to referring to the author as "the incomparable Rani."

"Feast of India" is overlooked and underrated. There are no photos and not as much information about cooking technique as some other books have, but this book has the best selection of recipes that I've found. Rani's roots are in Andhra Pradesh which results in more southern Indian influence than you get in most general Indian cookbooks. I also own several Indian cookbooks including "Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking", Sahni's "Classic Indian Cooking", "Curried Favors" by Maya Kaimal MacMillan, "Dakshin" by Padmanabhan and a few others I like less than those, but if I could only have one it would be "Feast of India."

I have tried some(6) of the recipes and they are pretty good so far. It seems also that the recipes are accurate in there ingred.I read some of the indian books(at borders) before I went with this one. Deepak Chopra put his 2-cents in also.

This book reminds me of cookbooks by The Frugal Gourmet in that the recipes are hit-and-miss. Some of the "curries in a hurry" work ok but so many of the recipes in here are truely disgusting. I am a skilled cook and followed the recipes to the letter and they are just bad. However even the curries that worked out ok were nowhere near as good as Indian take-out. In all this book is just ok, I'd give it a grade of average. If I were you I'd try one of the other highly-rated Indian cookbooks available on this site instead. There is a cool Indian zodiac at the end of the book that is really interesting, but other than that....you can do better.

This is my 'go to' book for Indian food. I have owned this book for many years and ordered a second copy as a backup. I followed her recipes to make my own spice mixes (make sure windows are open when the skillet smokes as the spices brown!) and keep jars of them on the shelf. Have also learned new techniques along the way like putting raw onion, garlic, etc. in the blender to puree then adding to meat for kabobs as an example. (This is called sofrito in other cuisines.) You don't sautee the onion/garlic first so the taste is more fresh in the end product. She also tells you the history and stories of India between chapters that are fastinating. I own other Indian food cookbooks - some are 'fusion' cookbooks - but this one is the everyday food - with a legacy.

I love this book. Every time I have guests over and am serving Indian food I make at least 1 recipe from this book. I own about a dozen Indian cookbooks and this is the one I always recomend. I just recently lost this book due to lending it out. LOL. She loves this book as well. The recipes are very user friendly and are not too dificult even for beginers. I seldomly write "reviews" but, the fact that I am willing to buy this book twice speaks volumes about it.

The selling point for me was that it actually had the recipes for the curry blends. I think toasting the spices and grinding them yourself is better than a store brand curry. And there are recipes for homemade paneer to use in other dishes. The book uses recipes within recipes. So if homemade from scratch isn't your style this may be too advanced. On the other hand if you truely love Indian food and are not lazy this is a perfect book.

The operative word here is "useful." While it does not have detailed pictures, the recipes are easy to follow. And the results are tasty indeed! Throw in a few stories and this book is a gem!

Don't waste your money. I tried two of the recipes and they were so bad I had to throw the food away. If you don't believe me just try the Goan Portuguese Style Spicy Pork (Shikar Vindaloo) on page 94 which calls for a cup of vinegar -- your eyes will want to pop out from the high acidity. or try the Masala Khichidi (Rice with Lentils and Vegetables) on page 170 -- it is a pot of mush -- trust me or prove it for yourself. The one star is for the information other than the recipes.