Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking

I love to cook. I am a home-cook who can hold my own in a kitchen and the type of cook who never follows a recipe (unless I'm baking OR completely out of my element). I have always enjoyed Indian cuisine. Lately, though, I have craved it non-stop. But the list of ingredients is very intimidating. This is not the case with Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and EAsy Indian Cooking. I have tried 3 recipes from this book in the 5 days I've had it. None have been a miss and I feel confident that I can cook ALL of the recipes from this book. There are many great main course meals but also a wonderful selection of side dishes. This is not a HUGE cookbook but is most certainly a great place for someone to become acquainted with this style of cooking. It has beautiful photos in it. Most of the recipes boast a photograph of the finished product. THe author has a writing style which is easy to follow and fun to read. Not overly sentimental but with enough personality to make it fun to read beyond just the recipe. What I love about these recipes is that they are a great base for a good tasting Indian meal that won't take alllll day. And you can tweak them to suit your preferences. With the three dishes I made I modified them to suit me. If you are interested, I will include the mini modifications I made at the end of the review. I don't think my changes would offend Jaffrey. I think sometimes people review this (and all cookbooks) harshly because they are not brave and/or creative enough to modify recipes to meet their expectations. My Indian palate, admittedly, is novice. But my tastebuds know when something tastes good. These recipes were tasty as written-- but I used my own taste to change them to be better suited for me and my family. Tonight I made the vindaloo for my kids, husband, and friend. My kids loved it-- but they don't mind a little spice-- and my husband enjoyed it as well. My friend LOVED it. This is her favorite dish and she orders it frequently at her local Indian restaurant. She said it was awesome and just as good as her favorite place. I will absolutely recommend this book to friends wanting to be introduced to Indian cuisine. I cannot wait to try more of these wonderful recipes! This is NOT one of those cookbooks I will leave to gather dust on a shelf. My modifications: Chicken Korma- cut oil in half.... used half n half in place of cream. Extra cayenne pepper. Lamb or Beef Vindaloo- substituted chicken... added 2tsp garam masala...xtra dash red wine vinegar Rice w/peas and dill- added approx 1/2 tsp extra garam masala... added raisins (boiled)... used brown jasmine rice in place of basmati.

This is a great book with recipes easy to make an adapt based on the cooking tools you own.

I've wanted to try making Indian dishes for awhile now but frankly, I've been a bit intimidated by it. Let's face it, Indians are known for their magical use of spices in cooking and a lot of those spices I've never even heard of. That's why I love this cookbook so much. Madhur Jaffrey keeps the list to a mininum and most of those you can find fairly easy. You may even already have some of them on hand from holiday baking! So far, I've made about six or seven dishes from the book and all of them have been wonderful. Although, I was less impressed with the mushroom curry. However, that might have been user error. All the recipes have been clear and not hard to make at all. I love the way my house smells when I'm cooking them and feel that if I were served them in a restaurant, I'd come back for more! Add to that, the author's intimate way of writing makes it seem as if she wrote these recipes especially for you. It is by far, my favorite cookbook now. If you've ever wanted to try cooking Indian food, I think this is the perfect book for beginners. That being said, if you want to know nutritional information for the recipes, it's not here. Just in case that's a deal-breaker for some of you. For those of you who think ignorance is bliss, dive on in! You won't regret it.

This is a good book- its a good into to basic Indian cooking. Most of the recipes are pretty simple and easy to follow. I was able to find all of the ingredients I need without much hassle. Some of the recipes do have a lot of spices that you need to purchase- but it has taught me a lot about flavoring food. I am able to incorporate some of my new spices into other dishes now.

I just got this book in the mail a few days ago and I have already made three of the recipes from this book. As the title says, they were all quick and easy. Since the recipes are so simple to make, this book is perfect for times when there is little time to cook. This would also be a great starter book for someone who is new to Indian cooking because the ingredient lists are not as long as some cookbooks tend to be. With this book, a few spices, a couple of fresh or frozen ingredients, and an hour or so (including washing, chopping, measuring, etc.), you can have a flavorful Indian meal on your table. Your family or guests will be impressed and you will be less stressed out. I almost didn't buy this book because I already have several of Madhur Jaffrey's books. I am sure glad I bought it because the recipes are new and fresh. She does not recycle her old recipes, and I appreciate that.

I ordered this because I absolutely LOVE Jaffrey's By Madhur Jaffrey Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking which I've used so much I've bought a second copy. I've NEVER had a bad recipe in that book. This one, in contrast, seems to be all over the place. I found the curried Tuna recipe almost impossible to make without radical adjustments. The recipe yielded a dry, pasty, and easily burned result. Also, the recommendation to use a non-stick pan is just weird. I suppose that is some kind of dieting attempt (to use less oil), but I don't use non-stick and don't think of such pans as serious pans for cooking. Anyhow, the other recipes I've tried are far better, but all have required more tweeking. Most that use garlic advocate far too short periods for cooking the garlic (often she recommends just cooking it for 30 seconds before adding significant amounts of liquids) and if you don't ignore the instruction you'll end up with a dish that has harsh, mostly raw garlic. I love garlic, but it really needs to be slightly browned in my opinion.

Full disclosure, I'm writing this review while I'm eating the Garlicky Mushroom Masala Omelet (p. 44) for breakfast. I'm also having the Hard-Boiled Eggs Masala (p. 43) for snack later today. And lunch is The Most Delicious Meat Cubes recipe - pork (p. 37). So when I say this is my favorite cookbook I'm NOT kidding. Once you have collected the Indian spices (which are much less expensive and more plentiful at an Indian grocery store if you can find one), the rest of it is a piece of cake and most other ingredients can be purchased at a local supermarket. The recipes are so good that I have people stopping me at work to ask me what that wonderful scent is. And it really is easy - but only if you're prepared. Many of these recipes have specific timing, sometimes only seconds in between steps, so portion everything out ahead of time and keep it handy. But once you have your groove on what you're making for dinner will be the envy of everyone around you.

I got this book for my husband's birthday, and we absolutely love it! We have begun cooking a meal from this book about one night each week, and we just can't get enough of it! Every week I look forward to our Indian food night. We have enjoyed every dish that we have made out of this book thus far. The recipes are all easy to very follow and somewhat quick. The author uses a pressure cooker for some of the recipes to speed up the cooking time, so if you don't have one, you will have to simmer the dishes a little longer (she lets you know how long). Though the cooking times can sometimes be long, the prep time is short and easy. Just plan ahead to make sure you have enough time to let the dishes simmer. I like that I can use the simmering time to clean up my kitchen. You may have to buy some spices that you have not used before, but don't worry, you will definitely get your money's worth. So many spices are found in multiple recipes, so you won't find yourself investing in a spice, only to use it in one dish. This is an excellent book to buy if you are new to cooking Indian food, as we were. The author repeats many of the same techniques in each recipe (such as infusing oil with spices), so these already easy-to-make dishes get even easier as you become used to these techniques.

This is a great way to start making curries and they taste wonderful. I have made about 6 so far and each one was completely different and delicious. Dont be put off by list of ingredients as once you have them the rest is easy. Cilantro is hard to come by but Ho Hing (Chinese Supermarket)do this and fresh curry leaves that freeze really well. Personally these two ingrediants make a huge difference and elevate the curries to really good restaurant quality.

インドの家庭料理という感じの簡単で美味しいレシピが沢山。 アメリカのAmazonで良いリビューが沢山で、何らかの賞を取ったと読んで購入しました。 普通の鍋と圧力鍋両方対応のレシピか、普通の鍋用レシピがあります。 圧力鍋を使って時短で冷凍骨付きラム肉を料理するのが病みつきになってます。時短の為に冷水をかけて圧力鍋の蓋をはずすように本には書いてありますが骨付き肉の場合は自然冷却が良いようです。二度目は骨回りのスジが残らずホロホロになりました。 本中の2レシピを料理したところ両方とも当りだったので作者の新しい本も購入決定！ バスマティ米の鍋での炊き方も本通りにやったら水につける時間無しで普通の鍋で25分できれいに炊けたし、エスニックフード好きなお友達が来た時にも大活躍するレシピ本だと思います。 インド料理必須の香辛料はネット販売で安く手に入れましたが、生パクチー（コリアンダー）だけは近所のスーパーで購入してます。私の住む辺りでは一店舗で取り扱いがあるのみなので、生パクチーの入手先確保が料理前に必要ですが、試して損はないとお勧め本です。

I have had this cookbook for over 20 years and it's still my favourite. Finally bought it for my Mom and she loves it too. Ingredients are easy to get at supermarket, recipes are not very complicated, and the food has great flavour. If you love Indian food this is a must-have.

Wonderful book full of great recipes. Easy to use and understand. Lucky we live in a multicultural city so the ingredients are easily available. Perfect for any cook

Includes a good selection of decent, relatively easy to follow recipes. The main things that caught me out were: a) it's an American publication, so the measurements are in cups; and b) her cooking utensil of choice seems to be the pressure cooker, and while she does also include the non-pressure cooker timings, its one to bear in mind.