The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook: Delicious, Authentic and Easy Recipes to Make at Home

by Sereena Kaul, Alexa Kaul, Priya Kaul

Priya, Sereena and Alexa Kaul's family left Kashmir to live in the UK. The three girls grew up in Derbyshire and loved rushing home from school to watch their mother make delicious dahl, korma and rogan josh with fresh spices from brought from Kashmir. When they had families of their own they longed for a spice box like the one their mother had - full of all the spices needed to make the recipes they craved from their childhood. So they created a spice box with thirteen essential spices and collected 100 family recipes that can easily made at home - just add ingredients from any supermarket or high street grocer.

This book is the three sisters' own collection of easy to make Indian dishes. Whether you are a traditionalor a creative cook or you have a busy lifestyle you will enjoy making and creating these delicious recipes. There is detailed section on how to identify and use fresh spices and plenty of information about the medical and culinary uses of ginger, cardamom, turmeric and more. Nearly all the dishes can be made in advance and frozen so ditch the take away menu and make your own fresh versions of our favourite cuisine with real Indian flavours and spices.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Indian Literature, Reference, Food

176 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2010

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few weeks ago I purchased "The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook: Flavours and Spices of India", which is the first cookbook I've ever bought for myself. The main selling point for me was that each recipe, from mains to dipping sauces, has a vivid color picture showing the final product. This is very helpful for a new cook, especially when the spices or cuisine are unfamiliar.

So far I've made six recipes, the most successful of which were the Lamb with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Lamb Rogan Josh, and Mango Chicken. Absolutely delicious. These dishes will definitely enter my general cooking repotoire. The Naan recipe also turned out very well (we devoured it!), but it was different than expected. When we have naan in restaurants it is very soft, but because this recipe called for using a pizza stone the naan turned out more like, well, a pizza crust: crunchy on the bottom and soft on top. Still good, no question, but different than expected. Maybe restaurants use a tandoori and that's what keeps the bottom soft? I'm not too worried about it, and I'll definitely be making this recipe tons, but other readers should know that it might be crunchier than they are used to eating. Also, it would have been nice if they included naan flavor variations/toppings. It might be as simple as sprinkling different stuff on top, but I don't know for sure - and that's why I turned to a cookbook in the first place.

One other thing that potential readers might note: the authors speak British English, so some of the words and terms they use might not be familiar. For example, courgettes instead of zucchini, coriander instead of cilantro, and saying "stone the mango" rather than "remove the mango pit/seed" (this last one was particularly confusing to me - "do I pound the mango with a mallet?"). The measurements shouldn't be a problem, they include both systems.

I'm still very much in-progress on this book (only 6 recipes so far!), but I wanted to get my thoughts out here while my impressions are still fresh.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the cover, love the fonts inside...adore that almost every recipe has a picture and love that it is my prefered picture on the left, recipe on the right taking one page format.
Easy Indian...and not many Indian cookbooks that I have come across actually live up to that standard.
Second favorite or an equal favorite would be the Vij's: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine cookbook.

[Jennifer Dickert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for someone new to Indian cuisine. I especially liked how the authors streamlined the collection of spices to have on hand to just 13 (not a lot, as Indian food can go). All the spices are easy to buy; there's nothing obscure. You can make all recipes in the book with this core set of spices.

The recipes are straight forward and easy to follow, and come out tasting authentic. There are many familiar favorites like rogan josh and channa masala.

This was one of the first Indian cookbooks I started with, and it gave me confidence in the cuisine to eventually travel down more complex and intricate recipes.

[Lainey Grieve Ramsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous book, perfect recipes, photographs and recipes. A perfectly made book of authentic Indian cuisine.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked this book out from the library, like I do with many cookbooks, to check it out before I considered buying it. I made 5 or 6 meals from this book and with the exception of one main dish (which wasn't bad, but just kind of bland, especially for the time it took) everything was delicious and easy to make. That said, most, but not all, of these recipes are not quick weeknight dinners. Most meals I made (usually consisting of a main dish, rice, and a veggie side) took an hour at least where you were busy and bustling the entire time. Often 75 to 90 minutes were a more reasonable estimate and allowed for a more relaxed pace, so knowing that in advance is helpful. Despite the time it takes, this book results in the tastiest Indian food I've made at home and is really accessible without feeling watered down. I plan to buy this book and cook from it regularly.

[Lindsey Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A substantial collection of family recipes from an Indian trio of sisters (hence ... the title), this book is the polar opposite of the last. Apart from a short introduction and an explanation of the primary spices (which is partly a plug for a commercial product these three offer), there is almost nothing but recipes throughout, only a few brief comments on the contents. Even though the recipes seem to have an easy to low-intermediate degree of difficulty, it's not a great book for a beginner because there is very little sense of the history and origin of the recipes. I wouldn't choose this book to get to know Indian cuisine ... but as someone who already enjoys it, there were a lot of promising recipes within these pages.

[Jenks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good cookbook and some excellent recipes

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chicken saag is to die for
The sisters recipes are easy and deeelishhh