Madhur Jaffrey Cookbook - An Invitation to Indian Cooking

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Description: There is no other book on Indian cuisine as persuasive as this Invitation to Indian Cooking from Madhur Jaffrey. Writing especially for Americans, she makes clear what Indian food really is, how extraordinarily subtle, varied, and exciting it can be, and how you can produce authentic dishes at home far better than any to be found in Indian restaurants in this country. 

Prompted to become a cook herself by her nostalgia for the tastes of her Delhi childhood. Miss Jaffrey, studying drama abroad, started writing home for the recipes she loved (samples of her mother's fine Hindi handwriting containing culinary secrets are reproduced on the inside covers). And because Madhur Jaffrey had to learn to cook on her own, and to adapt to Western kitchens, she is particularly skillful at conveying the techniques involved, at describing the exact taste and texture of a dish so well that even if you have never tasted an Indian meal, you can't go wrong. For example, she makes ingenious use of the electric blender, saving hours by having it do the work of the traditional grinding stone—pulverizing whole, hard spices, mashing ginger, garlic, onions, and herbs to make the paste so essential to much of Indian cooking. 

To the uninitiated, the number of ingredients in a recipe may look imposing, and her directions may seem long. But once you have the essentials laid out (and there is a directory at the back of over 60 mail-order sources for any special ingredients), the making of a dish is not difficult —the specialness lies in the precise use of a variety of spices, which imparts to each dish its particular distinctiveness. 

All of Miss Jaffrey's carefully selected recipes are followed by suggestions for serving, since in an Indian meal, the composition—the way one dish sets off another—is an essential part of what delights the palate. In addition, she has worked out two lists of menus (one especially for vegetarians), each ending with a glorious array of dishes for a party. But once you have discovered Indian food, it should by no means be relegated to special occasions, the author makes clear, pointing throughout to recipes that can enliven an otherwise dull Western meal—a bit of pungent tomato chutney, for instance, with leftover meats; a cauliflower cooked with ginger and Chinese parsley that will make even children like the vegetable; a cucumber, cumin, and yogurt relish for a change in salad; things to take on picnics, like squares of flat kababs with onion rings, or a marinated, "butterflied" leg of lamb to barbecue on an outdoor grill. For more leisurely moments there are the chapters devoted to the making of dais, pickles and relishes, and to the beautiful crisp discs of puffed-up wheat bread which, alone, are enough to make her invitation to Indian cooking completely irresistible. 

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Condition: Very good condition.