Indian Cookery

by Dharamjit Singh

Book Overview

A guide to traditional Indian cookery. The author describes the background to Indian cookery and explains the techniques - from sauce making to the preparation of bread - necessary to recreate some of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140461418
• ISBN13: 9780140461411
• Release Date: July 1970
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Oldie but Goodie

I now own several slick picture Indian cookbooks but I use this one more than any of the others. It is simple, with easy to follow recipes, but comprehensive. It is out of print. If you love Indian food and can find this book, snap it up.

Favorite Cook Book of all time

My boss was having a clear out of her loft at home and brought boxes of books and other junk to the office to see if people wanted any of it. I passed on the VHS movies and old vinyl and found this book lurking near the bottom of the box. I have been cooking curries for as long as I can remember, my mother taught me and her mother taught her and this was the first book I ever picked up that was totally awesome to me. The ingredients and the methods use showed me how lazy I had become as recipes had been passed down the simplified. The author is a puritan about Indian food and a long preface to the book basically rants about over spiced Western curries that are not authentic. If you follow the recipes and directions that Dharamjit Singh lays out exactly you will get some awesome food out of it. As a side note, this is not necessarily a book for those of you looking to keep your cholesterol levels low. There is lots of clarified butter and fat and it is certainly not a book for a cook who wants a quick throw together meal. On the other hand if you really want to impress somebody or treat yourself once in a while this food is amazing. It is not always a fun read, it is certainly not for people that can not follow directions without assuming they now best. For $2 used? -- You would be a fool not to buy it.

Excellent and comprehensive

I have a number of newer Indian cookbooks, but D. Singh's classic remains my favorite for traditional northern Indian cooking. It doesn't have any photos, it isn't printed on glossy paper, it doesn't have colorful anecdotes, it doesn't categorize recipes by region (in fact it is all northern, no dosas here), but it gives careful descriptions of ingredients and especially cooking methods, and always produces wonderful results. It is also more comprehensive than most of the more recent cookbooks. It is a great pity that the softcover has been out of print for some time, and the hardcover (which would be more practical in the kitchen) for much longer. I'd strongly recommend buying a used copy.

Taught Me How to Cook

As the other reviewer said, the recipes in this book can be complicated. But Mr. Singh imparts many lessons - such as the browning of onions and the abomination that is curry powder - in such clear and memorable ways that I can look back now and realize that I learned what I needed from this book. The Steamed Green Peas dish is a favorite - fast and easy to cook, it can work with fresh, frozen, and even canned peas - chick peas are a great substitute as well.

Authoritative

What a pity this is out of print. It is the best cookery book I've ever owned. Most of the recipes are rather complicated and time-consuming. But if one simply trusts Mr Singh unquestioningly and religiously follows every step of his extremely clear instructions something astonishing and utterly delicious results every time. Not most of the time, but every time. If you love Indian food go out of your way to get your hands on a used copy.