Calling All Cooks

[Peter Johnson]

I've always loved Indian food; after watching Bend it Like Beckham recently, I was thrilled to see the special feature about making Alu Gobi Matar (sp?). I've been trying to cook more recently, and was wondering if anyone can recommend an Indian food cookbook; I don't really want a straight-up "Indian Cooking for Dummies" type of thing, but something that will provide many of the "staples" and discuss the particular spices, etc.

Any and all suggestions appreciated--and if it all works out, maybe I'll have an organissimo "Indian food night" for whomever wishes to trek to Philadelphia!

Thanks

[maren]

I'd recommend starting with Madhur Jaffrey's "An Invitation to Indian Cooking"

It should be easy to get in paperback. She has a bunch of books out -- this one is GREAT (I also have her "World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking" but am not crazy about it).

Anyway, "Invitation to Indian Cooking" is very easy to follow, has tons of recipes, tells you where to get ingredients and what to substitute if you can't. (In my experience, once you get used to making a few dishes, you could try cutting back on the amount of oil the recipes call for -- I pretty much get by with HALF.)

[PHILLYQ]

I don't know of any cookbooks, as the one I have was originally printed around 1950 and is very stilted in terms of language, but have you looked online? If you're looking for a particular recipe there are quite a few websites full of recipes for virtually every cuisine.

If you don't have much in the way of spices you will need a nice collection to cook Indian food the right way, such as turmeric, mustard seeds, cardomom, garam masala, etc. As soon as I find a website I'll pass along the link.

[PHILLYQ]

I haven't check out these sites myself,but they look interesting:

http://theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/history/people/cuisine/

http://www.cuisinecuisine.com/HomePage.htm

http://www.gadnet.com/recipes.htm

Let me know how it turns out or if I can help with my limited knowledge of Indian cuisine.

[undergroundagent]

I don't know about you guys, but "Butter Chicken" & "Chicken Korma" light my fire!

[Peter Johnson]

Chicken Korma

Ahhhhh yeaahhhhh...

[Peter Johnson]

Thanks for your suggestions--

Maren, Invitation to Indian Cooking is on hold for me at Borders right now! I can't wait! Thanks!

[minew]

I highly recommend Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Cooking." I would go so far as to say it's the best work on the subject in English.

[Peter Johnson]

Okay, I've got Sahni on hold too...these two seem to be the bibles, maybe I'll get both!

[kenny weir]

I am not, yet, in a position to recommend a book, as it's only in the past couple of years that I've returned to Indian cooking, and I'm using an OK composite book (it includes recipes from Malayisa, Burma, Sr Lanka, China and so on) by Aussie Charmaine Solomon. Getting a comprehensive Indian/Sri Lankan book is on my "to do" list. Sometimes I find good recipes in newspapers or magazines.

What you will want to do, however, is find a good Indian style deli or market. Perhaps in Philadelphia there is a suburb/neighbourhood where the Indian community congregates - you'll find one there for sure. (Where we live in Melbourne, we are lucky to have a couple of these joints nearby).

There you will be able to buy all the usual spices, but importantly the more exotic ingredients - such as tamarind, asafoetida and so on.

And you will be able to learn that there is a lot more to dahl than just red and green lentils.

And if you really get into it, buying basmati rice by the sack is certainly the go.

I just found this site - Interesting Indian Cooking Place - that I'll be checking out for myself.

Have fun!

Edited February 5, 2004 by kenny weir

[minew]

You won't regret it.

Your next step will be to find an Indian grocery, or at least a middle eastern one which will stock many of the same ingredients: bulk whole spices (for a fraction of what they cost at the supermarket), whole milk yogurt, Indian breads, basmati rice, ghee, Indian legumes, pickles, chutneys, etc.

Enjoy.

Edit: Looks like Kenny and I were posting at the same time. So, in other words, ditto.

Edited February 5, 2004 by minew

[maren]

Look HERE, Peter -- there are all kinds of Indian groceries in Philly! (I myself happen to live 4 blocks away from a hotbed of Indian groceries and restaurants here in NYC.)

I've given the Julie Sahni book as a birthday present -- at the time it was only out in hardcover, absolutely lovely -- and cost more than I would spend on myself! I've gotten lots of great crowd-pleasing meals out of the Jaffrey.