Customer Reviews

Madhur Jaffrey's Step-by-Step Cooking: Over 150 Dishes from India and the Far East, Including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We were so excited when we saw there was a new Madhur Jaffrey book on Asian cooking that we ordered it immediately. What a hoax--this is nothing more than a reprint of one of her earlier books, Far Eastern Cookery. That book is out of print, and so if you don't have it you might enjoy this book. But everything is virtually the same--the text and the recipes! The only difference is that there are a few Indian recipes tossed in, and there is less interesting information on the countries. The format is also less convenient. The publisher should be ashamed, since they also published Far Eastern Cookery, but there is no mention of the earlier book anywhere in this one--not even in the list of her previous books. Buyer Beware!

Glenn Kessler is exactly right. the book is almost identical to madhur jaffrey's far eastern cookery which i purchased in 1990. changes are a joke. e.g. one quarter pound in 1990 --four ounces in 2001. .... fortunately i have a cooking friend who does not have this one and has a birthday coming up so my [money] is not wasted. thanks for giving your clients this opportunity for expression, good or bad.

I recently received this book from Santa for Christmas and have already made three dishes. The Red Chicken Curry was the best version I've ever tasted (I've been enjoying Thai food for 15 years). I love the format of this book as the recipes are well layed out and there are lots of beautiful photographs. Madhur has provided a great selection of dishes from this region. Perhaps if you have other cookbooks from the author this might replicate the recipes, but for someone looking for a consolidation of the best dishes of the East, I would highly recommend this book.

I'm a huge Madhur Jaffrey fan and I must admit this is one her better ones (even though it may be quite similar to Far Eastern Cookery). With tempting pictures and easy to follow recipes you can easily recreate some of Asia's best dishes. I've rarely suffered mishaps with her recipes. I think you will find many of her recipes to be guaranteed successes.

I live in Korea and I've tried most of her Korean dishes in restaurants and homes. Her recipes are authentic and, dare I say, better than most of the ones I've tried here. My Korean friends would also agree. However, never substitute Korean gochujang - there's no alternative as she suggests. Try the recipe for bulgogi. It's one of the best I've ever had!

I have used Madhur Jaffrey's other cookbooks with great success. I found that without exception her recipes are foolproof and absolutely delicious. I love the layout of the step-by-step cookbook. Typical of Madhur Jaffrey, she uses no-frills ingredients to great effect and the suggested menus in the back actually look doable. This cookbook is inspiring thanks to the huge color photographs covering almost every other page. I review all new cookbooks from my local library -- religiously -- and this is the only one that I simply had to own.

This is my 2nd favorite in my extensive cookbook collection, because the recipies are both delicious and practical. The recipies are not overly complicated, ingredients are not difficult to find, there are fantastic menu ideas, and many, many, excellent recipies from a variety of Asian cultures. The book is also beautiful to browse through. No gourmand should be without this masterpiece.

Madhur Jaffrey does it again! Wonderful step-by-step cooking making "exotic cuisine" intelligible as well as "doable" in the standard American kitchen without buying endless specific use equipment or tons of ingredients you will only use once and then have littering your cupboards forever! I love cooking in 40 years I've collected enough cookbooks, worked my way through "The Joy of Cooking", Julia Child & Simone Beck's books back in the late 1960's and bought enough other cookbooks to finally figure
ENOUGH already I'm in my 60's and have done it...at least with the Internet if I
heard of something I could just print out what I needed so that should be an indication of how great I think this cookbook. There are very few cookbooks so well written and
illustrated that after all these years I think of them more of "classic textbooks
of cooking, ingredients and techniques" but Madhur Jaffrey's book definitely qualifies

Mainstay for many-including us Indians in India and abroad.

Madhur Jaffery's work is a pleasure to read,easy to follow and ends up in delight for all.

I rate this cook book one of my most used in my library. The recipies are consistantly good and I like having pictures of what the finished dish should look like. I tend to like fresh+light but still spicy approaches and this book has plenty that fit my palate. It is nice to have the variety of Asian flavor choices in one book. This is especially good if you want to try different recipies from a cook who is offering you her own personal favorites from these countries.

This cookbook is ideal for novices in Asian cooking. The photos are beautiful and instructive. The directions are in American measures and are easy to follow. The results are truly delicious. I tried four different recipes so far, and each one was excellent.