The following four cookbooks offer an incredible variety of recipes, Indian style, for home cooks, as well as a wealth of knowledge about ingredients and techniques.
Spice Kitchen: Vibrant Recipes and Spice blends for the Home Cook by Sanjay Aggarwal, Hardie Grant, $32.50, 208 Pages
“My mom has spent her life lovingly cooking with spices.” So starts Sanjay Aggarwal in this new, lively, and well-illustrated cookbook, his debut attempt. Mom, Sashi Aggarwal, born in Kenya and raised in India, turns out to be not only a superb cook but an entrepreneur as well. While living in Birmingham, U.K. (where Sanjay was born and raised), Sashi decided to start a spice business following her retirement. At first it was simply a hobby; before long, her blend of spices proved to be so popular that the business became a family endeavor.
In the book, Aggarwal discusses the origin of spice blends and offers tips on how to make your own. Examples are: Chinese Five Spice, Harissa, and Tandoori Masala. Tarka, a spice mix used daily in India, consists of nothing more than mustard seeds and cumin seeds combined in equal proportion. Za’atar, a complex mixture popular in the Middle East, contains sesame seeds, sumac, dried thyme, and other dried herbs.
The recipe chapters are labeled according to occasions: Lunches, Midweek Dinners, Messy and Casual and so on. The recipes contained therein span the globe. Aggarwal is equally at home sharing recipes for Ethiopian Chicken and Egg Stew or Tex-Mex Beef Burger with Guacamole as well as dishes that require few ingredients such as Baharat-roasted Chickpeas, Za’atar Yoghurt or Whole Baked Cauliflower 4 Ways.
“This is the sort of food,” says Aggarwal, “that I want to cook, want to eat and feast on with friends and family; all made better with spices.” This book might inspire a reader to do just that.
Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques + Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals by Nik Sharma, Chronicle Books, $35, 351 Pages
Award-winning author, blogger, and food photographer Nik Sharma offers an innovative cookbook that celebrates vegetables. Raised in Bombay (now Mumbai), Sharma found that he enjoyed growing chili plants, offering a clue that he’ll develop a passion for food in future. Later, when he pursued higher education in the U.S., Sharma gravitated toward the study of molecular biology.
His scientific background informs this book. The first chapter is titled “What’s a Vegetable?” This explores characteristics of a vegetable: where it originated—the Western or Eastern Hemisphere—how it can be classified by its plant family, and its unique characteristics.
Recipe chapters follow. Each highlights a specific plant family, such as the Amaryllis family, which contains onion, garlic, and shallot. Other chapters showcase yams, asparagus, cassava, and so on, as representatives of various plant families.
As for the recipes. Sharma blends influences from many cultures and traditions. Examples are Corn Cakes with Sichuan Chive butter; Brassica Fritters, Okonomiyaki Style; and Okra + Shrimp Coconut Curry. Meat and seafood are featured in dishes such as, Mustard Chicken, Fennel + New Potatoes and Crispy Salmon with Green Curry Spinach.
Instead of using an ingredient list, followed by step-by-step instructions, Sharma provides the ingredients and their respective amounts at the point in the process where they’re used. Some cooks might find this confusing. Others might adjust to it and consider it a minor quibble, given the breadth and brilliance of this book.
Mr. Todiwala’s Bombay: My Recipes and Memories from India by Cyrus Todiwala, Hardie Grant, 223 pages, $35.
This is a warm, intimate, and nostalgic cookbook from another Bombay-born chef, Cyrus Todiwala. Now established in the U.K, Todiwala is a British television celebrity chef and restaurateur, appreciated also for his charity work.
“Oh Bombay, my Bombay . . . A little careful, a little watchful, this is Bombay, my dear.” So starts this book, in which Todiwala’s love for the city and especially its Parsee cuisine is evident. (Parsees are believers of Zoroastrianism, who fled to India from Persia in the 7th and 8th centuries. Todiwala was raised in a Parsee family in Bombay.)
The recipe chapters are divided into Snacks, Seafood & Fish, Meat & poultry, Vegetables, Street Food and so on. Some of the recipes, such as Chicken Tikka and Makki Ki Roti are standard fare. There are also recipes that are lesser known and tempting: Besan No Poro (Chickpea flour omelet), the Great Bombay Street Sandwich, Laapsi Kichdi a la Pervin (Wet Rice and Lentils with Onion & Tomatoes).
Parsees are fond of potatoes and to prove the point, Todiwala provides a variety of potato recipes. Examples are: Chotta Aloo Rassa (Baby Potatoes in a Tangy Tomato sauce), Papeta Pur Eedu (Eggs on Potatoes) and Aloo Chana Caju Chaat (Potato, Chickpea and Cashew Salad). Photographs of Bombay, especially street scenes, adorn the book.
One question that might haunt the reader is this: Does this book stand up to newer, more modern, and innovative Indian cookbooks? “In this book,” says Todiwala, “I share with you favorite recipes from my life in this remarkable city, to give you just a taste of what my beloved Bombay has to offer.” Perhaps that explanation will be enough.
An Invitation to Indian Cooking: 50th Anniversary Edition by Madhur Jaffrey, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, $40, 304 pages
Half-a-century ago, Madhur Jaffrey became well-known for introducing Indian flavors to the American palate. It started this way: As a foreign student living in England and starved for home cooking, Jaffrey experimented with her mother’s recipes. Later, living in New York, she’d be confronted with queries about where to get an Indian meal. The solution? She published a cookbook containing the afore-mentioned family recipes that would go on to win awards and become a classic.
The recently reissued, 50th anniversary edition of that book, contains a new foreword by a fan, Yotam Ottolenghi, and an introduction to the new edition by the author herself. The book also showcases her own decorative drawings.
Jaffrey offers chapters titled Soups and Appetizers, Meat, Fish and Shellfish, Rice and more. There are over 150 recipes, some examples being Lamb with spinach, Chicken cutlets, Shrimp with peas and parsley, and Broiled bananas.
A section titled “A note on flavorings” reassures those new to Indian cooking that most of the spices (such as cumin, coriander, fennel, and others) are now available in supermarkets. Aware of the needs of her American readers, Jaffrey offers the following serving tip in the introduction to the recipe for Sweet Rice: “This is a very simple recipe for sweet rice. It goes rather well with many American dishes like baked ham, pork chops etc.”
Although there is at present a plethora of beautifully photographed and creative Indian cookbooks on the market, Jaffrey’s classic might, once again, steal many hearts.
Bharti Kirchner is the author of nine novels and four cookbooks. Her most recent novel is Murder at Jaipur: A Maya Mallick Mystery.
