Customer Reviews

Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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I grew up with a lot of Indian cookbooks in the house - none of which ever produced things that tasted like what we got in restaurants. This cookbook is fantastic - not only extremely extensive, but with totally delicious (and familiar) results. I really appreciated learning how to make flavorful charred vegetables (like Baingan Bartha), and having recipes for Lassi and Naan that came out just like I craved. I also appreciated the completeness - there are frequently several methods of preparation offered - for instance, there are instructions for wild yeast, commercial yeast, or sourdough Naan. Some of the recipes are a little on the salty side, but the only total disaster I encountered from this book was something where you steam and chill a cauliflower and then slather it in avocado spread. That was a little weird. That's just my palate, though. The only thing missing is a recipe for chai.

As an American who's lived in India and is married into an Indian family, I appreciate Indian recipes that actually taste authentic, but also recipes that are clearly written for non-Indian cooks. We don't all have access to an Indian grocery store around the corner. This cookbook often gives ideas for substitutions that are easy to come by, without lessening the quality or impact of the recipe. The recipes also don't assume you know something that possibly every Indian knows, but most non-Indians do not - the author is great at throwing light on different techniques.

As a vegetarian, I find it indispensable for helping me figure out what to do when I open my refrigerator or pantry, find that I have only enough quantities of two random vegetables, I look in the index and BAM! there are 3 recipes using those two random vegetables, and each is fantastic. I can truly say I've never hit a bad recipe in the entire book, and I've tried very many of them. And her notes on each recipe, which follow her travels in India, are fascinating reading. A must have!

To put this book in it's proper context within the much larger world of culinary tomes ... Yamuna Devi is to Indian Cuisine what Marcella Hazan is it Classic Italian, and Julia Child is to Americanized classic French.

If you want to own only one book on either Indian or Vegetarian cuisine, this is one of the very best choices available anywhere. It's magnificent.

STRENGTHS:

a) SKILL: Devi covers her material confidently and expertly, in both breadth and depth, and has won her share of prestigous awards in the process.

b) INDEX: Devi also includes helpful chapters in the back on things like "A-Z General Info on Ingredients" {no photos, granted, but they're well written}, and a "Glossary of Hindi Culinary Terms" {which include definitions and pronunciation guides}. Good stuff.

c) DETAILS: There's plenty of excellent instructional detail - including exhaustive and highly educational headnotes. She goes out of her way to mentor the reader, and I appreciate that beyond words. Yogurt making, bread making, how to sprout legumes ... it's all in there.

VERY MINOR NITS:

1) EXCLUSIVELY VEDIC VEGETARIAN FOCUS: Indian cuisine is perhaps the most wonderful, varied, robust, and culinarily sensual of all the cuisines in the world when it comes to vegetarianism ... but meat & seafood curries are also culinary joys not to be overlooked, and omitting them leaves a void that some will miss. However, this is not really a nit per se, because there is still an enormous amount of material that the author covers, and there are a plethora of other books on Indian cuisine out there that focus on meat to the near exclusion of vegetables, so it's a void easily filled. I'd recommend getting least 2 other books on Indian Cuisine to supplement this one ... a good book on Northern (for sultry slow-simmered meat curries) and Southern (for hot and spicy fruit, coconut & yogurt themed seafood curries). I should clarify, for the benefit of vegeterian readers, that the authoress's particular brand of vegetarianism is "Vedic" ... grossly oversimplified, that means no meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, mushrooms or vinegar, which is a step further than most vegetarians are used to. Not a complaint - just a factoid for the reader's consideration. Personally, I love onions, and I'd be hard pressed to give them up in a good curry base, and their absence, more so than meat, is my single biggest disappointment with this otherwise fabulous tome.

2) No photos, and illustrations are somewhat sparse and are all hand drawn. Such things are an optional luxury anyway, so that's not really a major nit.

3) NON-REGIONAL FOCUS: If I recall correctly (and I admit it's been a while since I last read it heavily rather than merely raiding it for the occasional recipe or three), the authoress roams freely between northern and southern indian, without really making an attempt to clearly segregate them by style (which makes it a little harder to search for dishes based on region). Again, a very minor nit.

4) RELIGIOUS OVERTONES: I dont mind mixing a little philosophy and religion into discussions about food, but the authoress (who's a Krishna devotee) tends to ramble a bit at times. Anyway, that's a minor nit, and does not detract from the culinary majesty of this offering.

CONCLUSION: This is a truly magnificent tome, and even though I listed a few minor nits, they do not prevent me in any way from giving this an enthusiastic 5 star endorsement. It's one of the best, and most exhaustive, books on vegetarian cuisine to be found anywhere in the English language. Very highly recommended. If you buy only one book on Indian cuisine, buy this one.

Yamuna Devi's "Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking" is a constant companion in my vegetarian kitchen. I had tried to crack the code of Indian cooking with the works of Madhur Jaffrey and others, but no other cookbook has helped me understand both the unique ingredients used in Indian Cooking (by way of an exhaustive and comprehensive ingredients glossary) and the rhythm of preparing and cooking meals in the Indian tradition. If you're looking to break into the world of authentic Indian cooking, this is the perfect cookbook for you.

This book includes recipes for entrees featuring all the vegetables, greens, pulses, and rice you expect from a vegetarian cookbook, but also includes breads, pakoras, candies, sauces, drinks, and snacks. You can prepare a hundred lavish Indian banquets from the pages of this book without fear of tiresome repetition. In its scope and depth it is second only to the original Joy of Cooking.

Many of Ms. Devi's recipes can be adapted to include meat if you're set on it, but the food is so delicious prepared exactly as she suggests I doubt you'll want to.

There are no glossy photos in this book, so if you like that, you'll be disappointed. The wealth and variety of recipes and information offered here is incredible. To capture the cuisine of a nation so thoroughly is an anthropological undertaking.

This book is outstanding in both the quality of the recipes and the description of the background behind the recipes. Don't worry about having no connection to Lord Krishna, this book is a must-have for anyone who just wants to make wonderful dishes based on vegetables and legumes.