Product Description

This cookbook aims to provide complete coverage of Indian cuisine. It introduces the basic spices and ingredients fundamental to Indian food and explains the techniques employed in using them. The cooking principles are well-known and there are plenty of short-cuts with a food processor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1142271 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 560 pages

Customer Reviews

The title says it all. A classic collection of Indian foods.
After many enjoyable years of Maddhur Jaffrey and Pat Chapman this book provides a new slant on Indian cookery. Enjoyed in the United States for 20 years this volume is a new arrival to our shores, and quite frankly is long overdue. Julie Sahnis recipes are superb and she provides a number of variants on the old favorites. Her Butter Chicken has been given a clear "thumbs-up" in our household with its overtones of Tikka-Masala but without the long winded and extensive ingredient list and preparation given in other cookbooks. From a comprehensive guide to the cookware required and basic spice blends, Sahni moves through the appetizers and snacks, main and side dishes, rice and breads, accompaniments and finally deserts, sweetmeats and beverages. A comprehensive cookbook that should be at the right hand of everyone who enjoys Indian cuisine.

A serious book on Indian cooking
I own an older edition of this book, and am similarly astonished at the reviewer below who called it a "vanity" book. Nor do I have any recollection of coming across unexplained references to bhoonaing. He or she must be talking about another book entirely!
In fact, Sahni meets all the requiremenst for clarity, understanding of cultural background and good personal taste that reviewer stipulated. She has wisely chosen to concentrate on the cooking she knows best, Moghul cooking of North India.
Her book, along with Jaffrey's Indian Cooking, are my most useful (and used) cookbooks. In fact, Sahni is a good counterweight to Jaffrey. She tends not to offer the shortcuts that characterise Jaffrey, but i think she gives the reader a better understanding of what the dish should taste like and what the process of cooking Indian food should involve. Also, she has none of Jaffrey's breathless "i love this dish with a passïon' style that I, for one, find irritating. As a result, out of the fifty-odd cookbooks I own, this is the one I turn to when I want to please special guests.
I have cooked almost all of her meat, fish and main vegetable courses and some of the dals, and all were excellent. Standouts include chicken kabuli, shahi korma,zarda pilaf with peaches and an out-of-this-world keema with cashew nut butter and chickpeas.
All in all, a cook book worth having.

Classic Indian cooking
I am really astonished at the reviewer who says that this is a vanity book.This is a culinary classic with crystal clear instructions and 100%reliable recipes.This is one of the best cookbooks
I have ever come across.I have the larousse gastronomy book the reviewer is talking about and there is no comparision.Classic Indian cookery is a hands down winner.I highly recommend this book.