138 of 139 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Indian Cookbook period., January 24, 2005
I've been eating Indian food for over 30 years and cooking it for over 20. I can't believe the few negative comments about this book. You do NOT need a pressure cooker. You will very soon be making food better than any Indian Restaurant in the US. I have made about 15 of the recipes without a single dud and four of them are now absolute regulars at our house. It is FAR better than all the other books with fancier photos or millions of recipes.
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116 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Almost 100% successful recipes, January 12, 1999
Overall, this is a fabulous cookbook, and we've made most of the recipes with great success. The person who reviewed it above complaining about the onion fritter recipe is correct - that's one of two confusing recipes in the book.
(Add 1/2 cup water for the onion fritters, normal flour works fine, and if you're using a deep fat fryer, try 380 degrees. Once you do these things, the onion fritters are great.)
The other dangerous recipe is the fish fillets in a curry sauce, which is hard because it doesn't scale well and the heat is highly dependent on your curry powder.
Otherwise, though, the recipes are stunningly good, and generally easy after the work of cutting everything up and measuring spices. Even ingredients I don't like normally, like spinach and cabbage are wonderful when cooked in Indian food.
Highly recommended.
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91 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Madhur Jaffrey - the Savior of expat Indian students!, December 22, 1996
By A Customer
I am a graduate student in the United States, by definition
of which, I have to economize on both, the time and the
money I spend on cooking. Besides, an important factor in keeping
a cheerful countenance is tasty (!) food. This is where
Ms. Jaffrey steps in.
Before I started using "Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian
Cooking," I relied on a few recipes handed down from my Mom
and my sister. Some of Ms. Jaffrey's recipes are
refreshing renditions of old favorites (e.g. red lentil `tarka',
whole green lentils with cilantro and mint, hard boiled eggs
masala,...), and some creative delicacies, like fish in green sauce, and
stir fried shrimp in an aromatic tomato cream sauce, simply
grilled tomatoes,... ah, the list is seemingly endless!
To give a sampling of Ms. Jaffrey's creative prowess in
whipping up culinary delights, it is instructive to discuss
a recipe that I recently used. `Fish in Green Sauce' (p.69)
is a recipe that calls for cooking a green sauce made of onion,
garlic, cilantro (the "green"), tomato, ginger, and lemon
juice, and then simmering the fish steaks in the sauce.
I admit I was skeptical at first. I am a cilantro devotee,
and the thought of mixing cilantro and fish never ever
occured to me (I guess this is where her creativity comes in).
I have just one thing to say about the end result--wow!
I think deep down Ms. Jaffrey is a sentimentalist. Her
recipes are peppered with such homey, down-earth musings
about her childhood memories as, "... I remembered how much I
had loved it [fresh green mango chutney] as a child. Memories
of breakfasts and lunches with fresh pooris, vegetables, and
this chutney came flooding back." This book evokes similar
feeings in me, as I flip through it now, wondering what to cook
for dinner tonight, of course, not worrying at all that I have
my study group meeting in about one hour.
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