And what a great book to have bought. If nothing else, this book has taught me how to cook decent chicken and chick peas. Dishes have ingredients found in normal shops, dont take 10 hrs to cook and really do taste well.

This book is definitely a great buy!


very authentic   January 23, 2005
 16 out of 18 found this review helpful

I bought this book after being recommended it by a friend and I have to say as a second generation Indian girl, the recipes are very authentic. Some of them are exactly the same as the recipes, that have been passed on through the generations of my mother's family.

The only bad thing I would say, is in the quatities of ingredients given. For example, instead of saying 4 onions she says to use 50g of onion! Other than that, the recipes are thorough and produce some tasty dishes.

This is definately a 'must', if you're Indian, living away from home and want to recreate the dishes that your mother makes!


gorgeous Indian food from an expert   September 20, 2003
 32 out of 32 found this review helpful

I love cooking Indian food and have quite a few of Madhur's books, but this is by far my fave one. The spice descriptions and techniques at the start of the book would be useful for beginners, while I like to try out the menu suggestions. I find all the recipes I've tried to be very accurate and always a big hit with my family. The best so far has been cod steaks in a spicy tomato sauce, where we found the fish to be totally succulent. This is served with rice and scrummy spicy cucumber wedges. I also found it hard to resist trying out the tempting lamb dishes. The up-to-date design and pretty photos in this book make it a lovely gift. It's certainly one book that I will turn to over and over again.


The Bible?   April 20, 2003
 27 out of 28 found this review helpful

This is the dirtiest, stained, moth eaten cookery book we own. Thats hardly surprising with the amount of use its had!

This book gives a great introduction to Indian cookery. If you've never cooked an Indian meal before (and pre-prepared sauces and pastes don't count) you should try it. The book gives highly prescriptive (use 3 peppercorns!) but easy to follow recipies for well known and less known dishes. The fool proof recipies are a great starting point for enjoying this type of cookery and provides a good foundation for personalising dishes to your own preference as you develop a good understanding of the wide range of Indian ingrediants.