Customer Reviews

Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I feel like maybe this book needed to be proofed a bit more. The recipe for meatballs in spinach sauce came out so watery with the four cups of water that were called for. And the recipe called for 1.5 pounds of lamb and 1 pound of spinach (which is quite a bit of spinach considering it's light weight, most prewashed bags are 6 ounces) yet serves 4-6?

And then the recipe for Madras Curry, the instructions referred to sauteing the onions until they were glossy, but there were no onions listed, only shallots. Perhaps this is splitting hairs onions versus shallots.

I also would have liked to have the total time a recipe takes to have been listed.

If you love cooking, this book should definitely have a place on your shelf.

This book contains 100s of great recipes that mix and match ethnicities and burst with flavor. I love that some recipes are short and sweet while others are more complicated for when I'm feeling adventurous. While I live in a city with ethnic groceries, I would imagine that some people may have trouble locating more exotic ingredients. Thankfully, Ms Lakshmi provides an online source for ordering hard-to-find ingredients.

She also provides great personal essays which reveal more about who she is than we see on Top Chef.

I have tried several recipes...all delicious. Red Stripe Beer with Chicken, Candied Pecans, Chili Honey butter on Shrimp. I cook alot, so I was able to make various leaps in the recipes, but it is definitely not a step by step for a new cook. If you know how to cook, this book is LOTS of fun.

I enjoy Padma Lakshmi on Top Chef, and was delighted to hear about this cookbook. Bought it the first chance I had, and dug into it immediately.

The look of the book is great with beautiful, sort of rustic photos, and I love the concept itself. The recipes aren't overly complex or difficult, but include enough exotic ingredients and unusual ideas to make a home cook like me excited to explore them. The recipes I have tried so far have been good, if not quite great, surprisingly. (I'll keep testing, though!) But I can't get past the absolutely awful editing job! The explanatory text before one recipe suggests adding to the lemon juice in the recipe as a substitution for an obscure herb....except there IS no lemon juice in the recipe, only lime juice. A sublime sounding recipe for an exotic mac and cheese neglects to tell you whether to actually cook your pasta before adding it to the sauce. I see here that others are finding similar mistakes elsewhere.

I can't imagine writing a cookbook, and sending it out into the world without paying attention to something as essential as the recipes! I am taking more care with the editing of this review than the author and colleagues exerted on the book in question. I own a lot of cookbooks, and have never come across this before. The book is worth a look, and perhaps two, but it feels like less a serious cookbook, due to the carelessness with which it was created, than a dashed off vanity project. Too bad.

I made all of the following dishes as part of my menu for a SE inspired dinner party with excellent results: Keralan Crab Cakes, Deviled Eggs w/Serrano Chilies, Asian Cole Slaw, Carrot & Cilantro Salad, Green Mango Curry. Most of the recipes are not complicated, but they often require ingredients that you may not find at regular supermarkets (e.g. amchoor, or dried mango powder, and asafoetida) - I found everything I need at Kalyustan's in NYC (http://www.kalustyans.com). The author does suggest alternatives for the more hard-to-find ingredients, and her easy-to-follow recipes have inspired me to try making more labor-intensive dishes like Moroccan Bisteeya.

I received this book as a gift and while I don't usually go to cookbooks for my dinners--I'm much more of a "what's in the cabinet? okay, look online" kind of menu planner--I've given three of these recipes a go. The curry butternut squash soup was good and filling, and nice to add to my repetoire in that the flavor is easily changed to fit the needs (and meat requirements) of various guests. The Jamaican chicken in Red Stripe was terrible, but I'm not sure if that's partially my fault for rushing the browning, or maybe there was something missing? Editing standards are so horribly low these days that it's possible. And we just had the Fiery Shrimp and Linguine. Fiery? Not at all, but very tasty and like Ms. Lakshmi we found ourselves licking our fingers. The ingredients are difficult to locate only for some of the recipes; there are enough recipes for you to try without having to go hunting through the smaller Asian markets. Definitely a good book to help you play more in the kitchen and broaden your horizons--I'm now at least somewhat reconciled to anchovies!

Ever since Padma Lakshmi arrived on the Top Chef set I've been defending her to my nay-saying foodie friends who question her credibility to be a critic and judge to determine the nation's "top chef". Sure she's pretty and, especially in her first season on the show, liked to bare her midrift a lot. But she always came across to me as having a pretty accurate opinion and good taste.

This cookbook proves my point. The girl CAN cook. I'm a personal chef and knew from just perusing the pages in the bookstore that I was going to like this cookbook and use it a lot. And I do. The only dish I have been wishy-washy on was the Chicken Korma, but it's possible I did something wrong on my part. Have only made it once. Otherwise, I have been delighted with the interesting and tasty dishes I've made from this book. So far I've really enjoyed the Green Dragon Curry with Shrimp, Andouille Sausage with Black Lentils and Artichokes (odd combination but great flavors!), Linguine with White Ragu, Chicken with Ground Cashews, and my favorite, Passata of White Beans and Sage.

I think that the cookbook is written well and is a great narrative of her exciting life shown through her food and the stories behind them. I definitely expected there to be a lot of Indian dishes in it, and there are several, but there are also some great American, Mexican, European, etc... dishes. Check it out if you want to go on a culinary journey around the world. Granted I am a professional chef, but I think that the recipes are not too difficult for the average joe cook. The only difficulty may be in finding some ingredients. But it's amazing how a dish can come together by substituting ingredients you don't have with similar ones you do have.

Looking forward to future cookbooks from Padma!

The pictures are beautiful, the stories enchanting... but the food, meh. I don't think all the measurements were calculated correctly and the spicing is hit or miss, ok on some dishes but seriously lacking on others. Really expecting more from Padma.

The novelty value of these recipes is VERY appealing, so I persist in trying the recipes. All have been successful, despite the oft-mentioned editing errors. (I've adapted to using poorly-edited cookbooks.) The flavors, however, are mostly forgettable with a few 'pretty goods".

Of the dozen or so recipes I have tried, the only "repeaters" are a couple that are easy, quick, freeze well, or are a good use of ingredients I might have on hand (like herbaceous salad, curried squash soup, white bean & sage soup). I will probably cook another dozen recipes and then donate this one to my local public library. I would recommend that people borrow a copy if possible, then try a few recipes to see if this style resonates at your table.

This is the "go to" cookbook in my kitchen. I've made recipes from every section of the book, many several times over and have taken the liberty to experiment with different meats (i.e. the Pan Asian Curried Beef recipe I've made with ground lamb, beef, buffalo, etc.)These recipes have tested the palates of my friends and pushed my culinary skills to new levels while at the same time relatively easy to understand and achieve great results. Love the fact that most recipes are loaded with flavor, but not so much on the calories!!! And yes, some of the ingredients are difficult to find, though a quick order online and a few visits to specialty markets will do the trick. Too many great recipes to list suffice it to say, I'm not the greatest cook but I feel like a culinary goddess with this cookbook by my side.