You might be thinking what is the need of cookbooks when lakhs of TV programs and millions of YouTube videos are already there on the net. Am I right? Well, YouTube and TV programs are great places to start when you are just beginning to cook. While watching the videos, you will just do whatever they say in the video. Just a sort of CTRL+C and CTRL+V. Cooking is not just about gathering few ingredients and mixing on heat as said in the dictionary. Cooking is an art to be explored, and science to be understood. When you cook foods by using cookbooks, in no time you find yourself good at culinary vocabulary. In a few days, you will master the art of cooking. While cooking, you will know how much spice is to be added rather than measuring exactly as in videos. They are real treasures for the master chefs. These are few cooking books on Indian cuisine, which will make you fall in love with the mouthwatering dishes of India. Just on a side note, These are my recommendations based on my experience with each of them. They are neither an increasing or decreasing order of favorite books.
1.Tasting Inida -Christine Manfield
India is the home of diverse traditions and each place you visit, you will find new recipes, new spices and new culinary styles. When you try of starting a particular cuisine, you will find it impossible to decide where to start from. This book made your work easy and begins with some delectable food dishes in different places of India. She wrote this book based on her innumerable experiences in India. This book is more enjoyable for those who love travelling along with cooking.
2.50 Great Curries Of India -Camellia Panjabi
Looking at the word curry, do not cross it off thinking that it is just a collection of fifty curries and nothing else. Neither does it begin with curries’ recipes. The author did extensive research on the book and finally came up with a mind-blowing chronology. She began with the philosophy of Indian cuisine, describing its roots and its evolution till modern day. This book is highly recommended for beginners since he described how to choose the cooking pot and also about how to make corrections to the food when something goes wrong. With this one book, she stuck off the traditional idea of curry as nothing more than a gravy. I am sure you will embrace the Indian cuisine after reading this book.
3.Indian Instant Pot Cookbook -Urvashi Pitre
Are you one among those who cannot manage to cook food at home amidst your tight schedule? Then this book is for you. The author was also in your shoes at one point of time. Feeling disheartened that her family was not able to eat the homely food, she searched for ways to cook food instantly and healthily. She finally had come up with this idea of cooking in an instant pot. She wrote some potful of delicious recipes which can be prepared using this instant pot. With this book as your weapon, you can defeat the time since the savories which consume 2-3 hours can be cooked in about 30-45 minutes in this method.
4.Prashad At Home -Kaushy Patel
Prashad is an award-winning restaurant in UK, which serves many foods from Gujarati and south Indian cuisine along with some dishes from British cuisine. Since the day it won Gordon Ramsay’s best restaurant, its reputation has grown tremendously. The author of this book is Kaushy Patel, the woman behind the success of the restaurant. This book targets beginners and it starts with basics of Indian cuisine like roasting cumin seasons and tips to find which vegetables are fresh. She also gave a set of alternatives for the ingredients which seem to be unusual and difficult to find when you are in a remote area.
5.The Complete Indian Regional Cookbook -Mridula Baljekar
This book authored by Mridula Baljekar jotted down lots of recipes including sides, breads and desserts. It includes variety of cuisines that are hard to find outside Bharat. She eloquently mentioned recipes and instructions including exotic ingredients which some books might have avoided. But yet, this focusses only on the modern Indian cuisine and does not go very deep of traditional Indian cooking. If you are a beginner, this is a good choice. But this wont be a very good choice for experts who wish to get to the roots of Indian cuisine.
6.The Dal Cookbook -Krishna Dutt
Dal is a regular yet, an integral part of Indian cuisine. All the households across India, poor and rich consume it on a regular basis. Yet, if you are one among those who term Dal as “boring”, you are in the serious need of this book. Dal is such a delicacy which can be savored with very low investment of money or efforts. In this book, the author, Krishna dutt classified all the recipes of dal based on the regional influences and jotted them down in a simplified way.
7.Made In India: Cooked In Britain -Meera Soudha
This book is a true myth buster for those who say that Indian cuisine only consists of ultra-complicated recipes. The author, Meera soudha wrote about 130+ dishes which take hardly an hour to make. Also, a myth is there that Indian cuisine cannot be adopted in other regions of world due to the exotic flavors which are found there. Well, it is true for some extent but not completely. Most of the dishes from Indian cuisine are made using self-sustainable grains and pulses except for a few rare dishes. She wrote this book concerning such people. This book is filled with delicious recipes along with some light hearted humor which every Indian can relate to.
8.Rick Stein’s India -Rick Stein
Seasoned cooks, who are already having an idea about Indian food and flavor must try this book. It is authored by Rick stein, who reached India on his search for the best curry he ever tasted. He describes the food he tasted in various areas with their recipes jotted down. He wrote about his views on India, its cuisine and culture. He also mentions Indians’ style of eating which is very new to them.
9.Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen -Richa Hingle
All the above books are either based on vegetarianism or it includes nonvegetarian elements too. But this book is fully based on veganism and avoids the use of milk products. If you decided to be a vegan, initially it would be hard for you to resist. At that point of time, you need inspiration with some delicious vegan dishes. If you are in this situation, just go for this book. Even for nonvegans too, this book might interest them with delectable delicacies.
10.Season -Nik Sharma
As spoken by the author, this book is not just a collection of recipes. It gives proper guidance to bring few flavors to your recipe. Under his guidance, probably you can experiment on your kitchen and bring out awesome results. Its main aim is to erase the thin line between hotel food and home food with some tips. It has some of the author’s favorite recipes from Indian and American dishes. Just give this book a shot!
11.Entice With Spice -Shubhra Ramineni
It is refreshing to have a dinner with family after a great tiring day at work. If it is a homemade, then it brings more homely feeling to the dinner. Another case, after preparing the whole meal, and then your child starts fussing about It, then your efforts are ruined in seconds. So here is a book that gives some recipes that children can never make a fuss on.
12.Indian-Ish -Priya Krishna
This is an interactive book by Priya Krishna about the Indian recipes she had learnt from her super-mom. She is a part-time writer and was also a journalist in some period of time. This book begins with answers to some basic questions every beginner has. As ‘A’ is for alphabet, ‘Rice’ is for Indian cuisine. The author begins with this very point and helps you going through many Indian dishes. She also mentioned some tips and shortcuts which are helpful for you to beat time.
13.Dishoom -Chefs Of Hotel Dishhom: Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, Naved Nasir
Dishoom is one of the most loved restaurants of Mumbai. After a long wait, this restaurant had released some of its secret tips behind its lip-smacking recipes. With its amazing photography, you can feel the Bombay around you reading it.
14.Instantly Indian Cookbook -Madhur Jaffrey
If you are a food enthusiast, you would have already read some of her books. She is an Indian actress who is now a traveler and food writer. She is amongst ones who introduced our Indian foods to the west. Each of her book is a gem and difficult to choose one among them. Or else, I would say, try all of them. This a gem among gems of Madhur Jaffrey’s books I read. So, hope you like it as well. Well, It focusses more on the recipe rather than forewords.
15.I Love Indian -Anujum Anand
The author offers her personalized cluster of the most favorite recipes she has gathered while travelling along the cities, villages and coasts of India. She regards this as homage to her nation, her family, to its mind-blowing food culture due its diversity as well as from traders and immigrants.
16.Spice Kitchen -Ragini Dey
Indian food is not as complicated as it seems. One side it is an array of spicy flavorsome dishes but from another side, one standard procedure is adopted for all infinite procedures. This standard procedure is explained and adopted for most of the recipes in the book. This book can make your learning a cakewalk.
17.India: The Cookbook -Pushpesh Pant
This one’s definitely worth the hype. A great variety of dishes, including something which are not seen in other Indian cookbooks – Tribal foods from the North East! The author has done a better job at dividing the Indian cuisines into categories. Usually cookbooks classify into north-west-south-east, this book divides them into nine and gives background on each of them eloquently. Extra love to the masala section. It’s a great book for those wanting to familiarize themselves with Indian food and cuisines.
18.How To Cook India -Sanjeev Kapoor
This book is a huge collection of delicious authentic recipes from many regions from India’s most popular cook Sanjeev Kapoor. It has instructed concisely and clearly with bullet-point lists. He described authentic Indian ingredients/techniques/utensils. He also gave a few alternatives for outsiders who don’t have access to some ingredients/utensils. This book De-mystifies Indian cooking yet, there are no illustrations whatsoever. The measurements are somewhat confusing and inappropriate. So try this only if you have already expertise in cooking and you can properly judge the quantities.
19.The Curry Secret -Kris Dhillon
This Curry book is just one of its kind. The recipes everyday foods but the various foods served in Indian restaurants worldwide. This book should be on everyone’s shelf, follow the recipe exactly and you get the exact same curry as you would from your favourite takeaway or restaurant, get the base sauce cooked up and from that you can have your favourite dish ready to eat in 15 minutes. If you buy in the ingredients listed and follow each recipe carefully you cannot go wrong, the way it tells you to cook is just remarkable. With this book, your entire cooking is just three step process- Get high quality ingredients- Follow the book as it is- Serve it and enjoy it.
20.Kunal Kapur In The Kitchen -Kunal Kapur
This book is from India’s loved chef, Kunal Kapur! This book offers mouth-watering recipes. He often mentions his memories of dining table conversations from his childhood and describes the aromas from his grandfather’s rasoi or traditional kitchen. Kunal has picked 15 Complete meals comprising salads, poultry, seafood, assorted lentils, beverages, desserts and many more. They are explained in simple Steps, and accompanied with mouth-watering images. This book is also worth trying for the chefs who wish to impress their family with their culinary skills.
