The best Indian cookbook available. It has been reprinted just once so grab it while you can!

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Product Description

Finally back in print--the definitive volume on Indian vegetarian cooking. Created by a noted author and lecturer, Lord Krishna's Cuisine features more than 500 recipes, filled with fresh produce and herbs, delicate spices, hot curries, and homemade dairy products. All recipes are based on readily available ingredients and have been scrupulously adapted for American kitchens. The recipes are enlivened by the author's anecdotes and personal reminiscences of her years in India, including stories of gathering recipes from royal families and temple cooks, which had been jealously guarded for centuries. Hailed by Gourmet as "definitive," and as "a marvelous source for vegetarians" by Bon Appetit, Devi has created the landmark work on the world's most sophisticated vegetarian cuisine. Repackaged and evocatively illustrated, Lord Krishna's Cuisine unlocks the mysteries of the most healthful and delicious recipes of the world.

* Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook of the Year Award

"Big and beautiful."--Julia Child

"The Taj Mahal of cookbooks." --Chicago Tribune

"Monumental." --Vogue

"The food on Yamuna's table looks great! It's full of life, full of flavor, vibrant and healthy besides." --Deborah Madison, author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32146 in Books
• Published on: 1987-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 816 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This impressive volume introduces light, nutritious food that lends itself to attractive presentation. Piquant pairings include banana-and-pomegranate salad, minted cucumbers and strawberries, and lemon stuffed with almond-chickpea pate. Such elegant dishes might easily grace the most sophisticated table without a whisper of the pedestrian connotations sometimes associated with vegetarian cooking. A prodigious, 800-page labor of love illustrated with lovely, delicate line drawings, the meticulous, encyclopedic cookbook faithfully reflects the philosophy that cooking is "a spiritual experience . . . a means of expressing love and devotion to the Supreme Lord, Krishna." The most esoteric ingredients are defined and demystified. And mail-order sources will help readers locate the requisite bitter melon, tamarind concentrate and white poppy seeds. The author is a cooking instructor in the U.S. and England.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
No, it isn't the esoteric, limited-audience work the title page suggests; it's one of the most important cookbooks in years. The American-born Devi, who as the disciple and personal cook of an Indian spiritual leader spent eight years off and on travelling with him in India and elsewhere, has assembled about 500 detailed, carefully written recipes representing the vast range of Indian cooking styles. They provide excellent, workable versions of - among much else - Indian pancakes, flitters, dumplings, breads, cheese and yogurt dishes, and sweets and pastries. (American vegetarians should note that the recipes use no eggs.) Only a real hater of Indian flavors could fail to come away with ideas almost begging to be adopted in everyday use - say, spicy creamed spinach. There are attractive experiments with American ingredients like maple syrup and jicama as well as the dozens that must be sought in Indian stores. But the recipes pale in interest beside the vast amounts of information on ingredients, techniques, equipment, and critical culinary indefinables. (David Baird's elegant line drawings contribute much in this regard.) In this, Devi more than equals such excellent competition as Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking (1980) or Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking (1985), or the fine works of Madhur Jaffrey. The only minor flaws here are a lot of would-be-appealing recipe titles like "Simply Wonderfuls" and a copy-editing job that leaves many needless errors intact. Despite these, this is a splendid work deserving of a large general audience. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Absolutely fabulous! Rescue for boring vegetables!
This cookbook is terrific, though it may require a visit to your local Penzey's spice store (or their website) to get all the spices you need for Indian cooking. Once you are "spiced up," this book is full of absolutely delicious new things to do with veggies. The author very helpfully makes suggestions on substituting western ingredients for Indian ones (such as olive oil instead of traditional Indian ghee), and I have found that I can take liberties (such as leaving out the hot peppers, using dry instead of fresh herbs, and not bothering to peel tomatoes) and the recipes still come out very tasty.

There are hundreds of different types of recipes in this book, from soups to sweets, but I have mostly made the vegetable recipes and have also had good luck with the unleavened Indian flat bread (although it took some practice!). My teenagers, who believe that potato chips are a vegetable, eat these recipes with enthusiasm, giving them rave reviews such as, "You can't even tell this is cauliflower!" Ah well. We take our plaudits where we can get them.

Excellent for reference, but with one caveat...
This book is targeted toward northeastern Indian cooking (Bengal and Orissa).

I hate the term "Indian cooking", because there is no such thing, just as there is no such thing as "American cooking": there is southern cooking, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Appalachian, New England, and so on. In the same way, there is a wide variety of Indian cooking: southern India, Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir, and so on. A country with 400 languages certainly has a wide variety of cooking styles!

Anyway, I find this book to be absolutely indispensable as a reference, because I've done my own share of Bengali cooking through the years.

However, I have found errors, that only my experience would have recognized. For example, in one dahl recipe, she says that you should "boil the turmeric". You should never, ever boil raw turmeric! Turmeric needs to be fried first! Boiling raw turmeric tastes horrible. If a person new to "Indian cooking" were to follow that recipe, without knowing that the turmeric should be fried first, they will walk away disappointed.

Rule-of-thumb: "non-sweet" spices (like turmeric, cumin, coriander, pepper, asafetida, and so on) should always be fried beforehand. Sweet spices (saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc.), as well as herbs, never need to be fried.

newtoindiancooking
This is a in depth, detailed cookbook. It explains the origin of the recipe. I am so impressed with it. All the recipes have so many ingredients, I feel overwhelmed. I am brand new to Indian cooking. Everything sounds so good. If you are already familiar with the ingredients, know where to get it, this is your book. If you are looking for quick and easy, look somewhere else.

This book is well thought out and written beautifully.