Cookaholics Bulletin Board

have the French Table & the new NYTimes on my wish list. Anyone have any fab new cookbooks to add to my wish list? No baking. Anyone know of a good Indian book with ingredients that can be rather easily found (not vegetarian) & doesn't have a million ingredients? Or is that impossible?
K

K,

Ethnic: http://www.fuzzychef.org/archives/Three ... -2010.html
http://www.fuzzychef.org/archives/The-A ... -2010.html

For Indian, my recommendations would include Madhur Jaffrey, of course. Here's her two "quick and easy" cookbooks:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780307268242-0
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780811811835-0

I also have 30-minute Indian, which is a bit more useful as a source of side dishes than mains, but the recipes are good:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/66-9780600617600-0

Of course, a few lessons in Indian cookery would do you more good than a whole bookshelf of cookbooks.

Thanks, Fuzzy.
Thought you might be the one to respond. They both look exactly like what I am looking for. Lessons for Indian cooking I live in PA Dutch country. We are lucky to have a few Indian restaurants within driving distance!
K

K,

I'm sure there are Indian tech workers in Pittsburgh and Philly.

Anyway, you know it's an authentic Indian recipe when it calls for 4-7 different spices, totalling 2-4 tablespoons.

I can't even begin to tell you how far I'd have to drive...

Josh, what was the name of the restaurant we went to in SF?

I got a book called Raising the Salad Bar last year and I LOVE it. They have a sweet potato black bean and corn salad that is amazing.

Mary

I have a couple of Indian cookbooks by Smita Chandra. I've never found it too difficult to find the ingredients for about 85% of her recipes. Of course, now that I'm in the Detroit area, I can find all the rest. I also had the benefit of a Bangladeshi roommate who was a pretty decent cook. I would also recommend reading the CI article on curry from 1996 (I think, might be '98). The recipe is pretty bland for Indian food, but it gives you a pretty good idea of some of the method for building flavors in Indian food.

Recipe please?

Amy

Amy,

If we went to Indian, it was probably Dosa. Did we have giant Indian crepes?

Since then Dosa is no longer the best South Indian restaurant in the Bay Area (although it's still pretty good). That one is "Om" in San Mateo. Also thanks to Indian tech workers from Bangalore, theres a lot of cheap-but-good dosa restaurants in the Bay Area now ... Udupi Palace is our most frequent visit.

I can't recommend a good South Indian cookbook. The couple I've tried so far were badly translated from Tamil and made a lot of assumptions about preexisting knowledge of Indian techniques.

For that matter, I have yet to master making dosas at home. The problem is that, in restaurants, they make them using huge cast-iron griddles (I got a lesson in the kitchen at Om, actually). When I do them in a pan, they scortch and/or break up.

It was Dosa, and it was great. That's the style of Indian I'd like to make.

Amy