Foods of the World: The Cooking of India -- Text by
Santha Rama Rau, recipes by Devika Teja. Mohammed Aftab, a
Time-Life correspondent in Islamabad wrote the chapter on Pakistan and Bangladesh.
This book is a great read. Ms. Rau was a terrific writer and the book is filled with colorful anecdotes and reminiscences. The recipes are amazing. Apparently the trick to great Indian cooking as opposed to good Indian cooking is the willingness to use a lake of ghee in every dish. Really, though, with few exceptions this is some of the best Indian food to come out of my kitchen. I decided to throw a dinner party and just make an entire sample menu. Here's what I made:
Kesar Chaval (saffron rice) -- Best basmati rice I've ever made. I've never been a huge fan of Basmati. This stuff could change my mind.
Mattar Pannir (peas and paneer) -- This was the one (very minor) disappointment. I had cheese stuck to the pan and the result was lots of unevenly cooked, broken up cheese cubes. I will stick to my old recipe, which deep-fries the cheese in oil rather than sautéing them in ghee. I liked the larger ratio of peas to other ingredients, which lent a nice sweetness, but I didn't think it was as richly flavored.
Bharta (curried eggplant) -- Delicious and easy. It would be even better if you roasted the eggplant on a grill.
Manh Ki Dal (black lentils) -- This required a little internet research since "manh dal" does not appear to really be a thing. Most Google hits were just EYB referring to this very cookbook. Eventually, I decided that it was likely to be whole urad dal and ran with that. Wrong bean or right, an extremely tasty dal.
Pakora Ka Rayta (yogurt with fried dumplings) -- Despite a few burns from making the tiny pakoras, this was a very nice raita. Making the pakoras was like making deep-fried chickpea spaetzle.
Simla Mirch (green peppers stuffed with potato) -- The big winner of the evening. This is a great dish for entertaining. It's attractive, it can be made ahead, and it can go straight to the table. The recipe called for "Italian frying peppers" which the internet assures me are cubanelles. Maybe, maybe not, but it was clear that I would need double the amount of stuffing called for. Whatever. They were swooningly yummy in cubanelles. Next time I might use half cubanelles and half those long sweet orange peppers for even better presentation.
Adrak Chatni (ginger chutney) -- It was chutney, made from ginger, garlic, and raisins. One of my guests ate an entire puri dipped in it.
Puris -- but you knew that already.
I made a different dessert,
Aam Ki Kulfi from a different cookbook.
Foods of the World called for a carrot
halva and I had invited a carrot-hater.
My biggest quibble with this book is that it gives no clue how to make all that food happen at once. Unlike the Chinese book, the dishes are not planned out so that they are not all requiring attention at once. Actually, there is no way to make each of these dishes start-to-finish, all-at-once, and have enough burners on a typical stove. I had to apply my own kitchen experience and a few restaurant tricks to make it come off and I was still over half an hour late getting it to the table.
All-in-all, though, I'd say if you come across this book and like Indian food, definitely pick it up.