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Indian Vegetarian Cookery
This book contains appetising recipes collected from all over India. They reflect a traditional view in which each daily act - including preparation, cooking and eating - forms a part of the divine gift of life. The creative use of foods and spices, and the variety of vegetable cooking techniques, allow the enthusiast to choose a delightful and well balanced menu for every day of the year.
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 30, 2011
This book was included in The Guardian's "50 best cookbooks of all time" in 2010 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyl...) and it's easy to see why. Published in 1973, in a Britain still recovering from the culinary trauma of rationing, long before Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey, et al. or even Madhur Jaffrey and Delia Smiith, it must have had a huge impact on those who read it.
The book begins in an occasionally vegetarian evangelist tone at the beginning and extols the virtues of a vegetarian way of life as central to Indian culture and longevity (note that the many meat-eating cultures of India are glossed over). What follows thereafter is a collection of 253 vegetarian recipes covering the full suite of curries, chutneys, sweetmeats, desserts, daals, breads, rice dishes and other items now more (or less) familiar to Westerners, all interspersed with Indian parables and guides to spices and cooking utensils.
The author takes some pains to encourage his readers to experiment with both quantities of spices and vegetables and to try exchanging some vegetables for others. As such, to use the recipes as inspiration and make them your own, just as home cooks in India (and elsewhere) would make their parents' dishes their own over time.
It's easy to see the influence of the book on current food-writers, not just in its ingredients, but also in this drive for culinary freedom and away from dictatorial prescriptions.
The book begins in an occasionally vegetarian evangelist tone at the beginning and extols the virtues of a vegetarian way of life as central to Indian culture and longevity (note that the many meat-eating cultures of India are glossed over). What follows thereafter is a collection of 253 vegetarian recipes covering the full suite of curries, chutneys, sweetmeats, desserts, daals, breads, rice dishes and other items now more (or less) familiar to Westerners, all interspersed with Indian parables and guides to spices and cooking utensils.
The author takes some pains to encourage his readers to experiment with both quantities of spices and vegetables and to try exchanging some vegetables for others. As such, to use the recipes as inspiration and make them your own, just as home cooks in India (and elsewhere) would make their parents' dishes their own over time.
It's easy to see the influence of the book on current food-writers, not just in its ingredients, but also in this drive for culinary freedom and away from dictatorial prescriptions.
March 3, 2013
This is my favourite Indian cookery book. It has the best ever recipes for rice pulau, khichhari, dal and delicious light and spicy vegetable dishes. It lacks a proper index but it is such fun to browse through the recipes that this fault can be forgiven.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews