Monica Bhide's "Modern Spice." Great book.

Gwyn wrote: "Does anyone have a suggestion for a great Indian food cookbook? I have The Food of India (Murdoch Books) and Curry Cuisine but I haven't had too much success with the recipes in the former and am ..."

With respect to buying a rabbit leg; refer to the Gypsy Cookbook; "First steal your rabbit...." :)

Anything by Madhur Jaffrey! I especialy enjoy her book WORLD VEGETARIAN, but it has more cuisines than just Indian.

best Indian cooking you can find on
http://www.india-n-food.com

I have those books

I suggest "Curried Favors: Family Recipes from South India" by Maya Kaimal Macmillan

This was her first book, I prefer it over her second which is

"Savoring the Spice Coast of India: Fresh Flavors from Kerala" by Maya Kaimal

Oh, and I imagine you can substitute chicken thighs in place of rabbit legs if you aren't able to find them.

I second the suggestion for Suvir Saran's Indian Home Cooking. Also Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy is a good beginner's book though the quick is sometimes only true with a pressure cooker.

I'd say Madhur Jaffrey is a good place to start if anyone is fairly new to Indian cooking.

Julie Sahni has a couple of great books: Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking and Classic Indian Cooking.

Lord Krishna's Cuisine -The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi is fantastic (get the full book not the abridged version.)

I started out with: 5 Spices, 50 Dishes-Simple Indian Recipes Using 5 Common Spices, by Ruta Kahate and Susie Kushner. This book has great recipes, and the 5 spices are easy to find in any store, along with the ingredients called for.

For me, it was good to start out with basics and learn the cooking techniques. Since then I have moved on to Feast of India: A Legacy of Recipes and Fables by Rani. It has dishes from all the different regions of India, and includes dishes that were influenced by other cultures, like British and Portuguese.

I love my friend Suvir Saran's book Indian Home Cooking and his new book American Massala.

Ooh I second that emotion on the Vij's cookbook!

For vegetarian, Lord Krishna's Cuisine has almost always worked for me, though I only play with the savory dishes. (The sweets are best left to professionals or very serious amateurs.) I should say, however, that if you like things spicy, you ought to add a little extra percentage to the LKC recipes.

For meat, there's a UK/India book on Calcutta's cuisine from Penguin (I'm away from my cookbook collection for a year, so I can't give a better citation), that can be productively played with.

The advantage of both of these books is that they are good for less exotic dishes that don't involve rabbit's legs! And LKC, as I recall, gives a nice rundown of what you'll need to stock your pantry with.

And a last side note, any food-history-o-philes out there might be interested in the novelist Mulk Raj Anand's 1932 (I think) Indian cookbook that he wrote while he was in London to help out the English and other Indian students. The philosophical/civilizational preface is an interesting document of that time, space and person.

Good luck to all!

The best Indian cooking book I have come across is Indian Delights by Zuleikha Mayat.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Indian-Delights-...

If something a little non-traditional will suit, I really like the Vij's restaurant (in Vancouver) cookbook, by chef Vikram Vij. My MIL has cooked more extensively from it than I, and she says that once you acquire some of the spices you'll want on hand you'll be good to go.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a great Indian food cookbook? I have The Food of India (Murdoch Books) and Curry Cuisine but I haven't had too much success with the recipes in the former and am unable to get my hands on many of the ingredients in the latter. (Where exactly do you buy rabbit leg?)

Thanks!