Product Description

"Dakshin" is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning "south." It symbolizes what this Cookingbook is all about - the best and most delicious of South Indian vegetarian cuisine. Filled with tempting recipes and evocative photographs, Dakshin also includes an extensive glossary of terms and ingredients for those new to Indian cuisine and a meal planning section. From sambars and rasams to cooling desserts and sweet treats, Dakshin takes you through the elements of South Indian meals, including chutneys and pickles, rice dishes, pakoras, payasams, poriyals, kootus, bondas, and vadais. With its use of fresh produce and a Healthy, balanced approach to eating, Dakshin is an ideal Cookingbook for today's lifestyle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40304 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Indian-born and -raised Padmanabhan is a veteran cook and writes on culinary matters for Madras Musings , a South Indian newspaper. Here she muses for Americans on meatless meals and snacks originating in the Southern part of her native country; "dakshin" means "south" in Sanskrit. The author directs us on basics: there are recipes for curry powder, chili powder, rasam powder. She also defines what may be unfamiliar menu staples--sambars, or first courses, distinguished by tamarind, dal, or buttermilk foundations; poriyals, or sauceless curries, made with stir-fried (or occasionally deep-fried) vegetables. Her recipes are varied, authoritative and imaginative, especially those in the chapter on snacks, where breads vie with each other for primacy. Not everyone will find it possible to cultivate a taste for the often creamy, overly sweet desserts. But the chutney section comes as a refresher. Padmanabhan also provides recommendations for menus, a glossary of Indian terminology and a list of specialty Indian food shops in this country. Color photographs on nearly every other page are even more than usually tempting.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The Indian food that most Americans are familiar with is from North India. Here are two new books to expand their horizons. Dakshin, the first in a new series, is a lavishly illustrated introduction to the cuisine of South India, where most of the population is Hindu and vegetarian. The author, an Indian food writer, presents dozens of recipes for the various courses of a South Indian vegetarian meal, most accompanied by inviting full-page color photographs. American cooks may recognize a few dishes from Indian restaurants, but most will be new. Although some of the ingredients may be somewhat difficult to find, Padmanabhan's recipes should be worth the effort. Law, a cooking teacher and author of the excellent Southeast Asia Cookbook (LJ 8/ 90), has traveled frequently to India over the last decade. She has collected recipes from both home cooks and chefs throughout the country, but here she emphasizes the lighter dishes of the South, usually but not always vegetarian. She has adopted a few dishes, cutting back on the fat, but most are authentic versions. Law's text is both informative about Indian cuisine and culture and a pleasure to read, and her recipes are very accessible to Western cooks. Both titles are highly recommended.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Atlanta Journal
"An uncommon primer on the distinctive vegetarian table from the four states of South India."

Customer Reviews

Awesome Authentic South Indian cuisine
This is undoubtedly THE BEST cook book for south indians away from home who are trying to cook memories of hot fresh home made food... Very authentic and detailed and a great result each time as long as you follow the recipe to a T.
Much better than the Lord krishna cuisine cook book.

And the pictures.... its worth it just for the pictures!

Mouthwatering
If you cook with your eyes, then this is a feast. Every recipe appears in one of the book's many lush photograph's, and warms the appetite almost as much as the aroma would. Let yourself enjoy the aromas for real, though. Each recipe includes clear, easy directions. It may take you a trip to an Indian grocer to get some necessities for some recipes, but the trip will be well worth it.

This shows how to make every part of a rich Indian meal from soups and savories to sweets at the end. I've tried only one recipe (so far), the Tomato Rasam. I had to make some minor adjustments to available ingredients, but only minor, and it went together without difficulty. The result was incredible - tomato gave it tang, beans cooked til they disintegrated gave body, and a pleasant bite came from chilis (both green and red), ginger, and mustard seed. Other spices, including asafoetida, contributed a rich, deep note to the flavor. It tasted great, of course. Much to my surprise, my wife's asthmatic cough quited down after a bowl of it, then resumed promptly after the last of the leftovers were consumed - I'm not a "food as medicine" fanatic, but make of her report what you will.

I like this book a lot, and so does my wife. And, since it was recommended by an Indian colleague, I'll take his word for its authenticity. Enjoy!

-- wiredweird

Delicious! A bit misleading about the quantities.
The recipes in this book are delicious. You could open your own restaurant. I'm not Tamil, but I've eaten excellent Tamil food at friends' homes on several occasions. The recipes here taste closer to the real thing (as I remember it) than any other book I've tried.

One thing to be aware of: the quantities in her rasam recipes need to be scaled up if you're really going to feed the number of people she says. e.g. I make twice the quantity of her Ordinary Rasam to feed 4 people. On the other hand, her podis/powders will turn out to be in larger quantities than you need for immediate cooking. Of course, this is not a serious problem because they can be stored.