I have a bunch of them. I'm at work so right now so I can't remember the names of the books I use most but I'll try to remember to drop by GW later tonight when I get home.

I just cooked a yummy meal this weekend but I had to use three books. We had chicken skewers (the marinade was yogurt based), spiced basmati rice, carrots with a garam masala based sauce and garlic naan bread. Everything turned out wonderfully except for the naan. I tried to be too healthy and made them whole wheat. They came out hard and chewy. lol!!

I love indian food! We'll talk more about this later. :0)
-Mimi

I only have one Indian Cookbook given to me by a Lebanese friend a few years back. It's softcover and not that big, but seems to cover a lot of territory. When I cook from it, I have to make a special trip to a local Pakistani market to find the ingredients. No cream of mushroom soup anywhere in this book. I had no idea there were so many different varieties of lentils.

Anyway, it's: Favorite Indian Food by Diane Seed - I know that sounds very American, but she seems to have the credentials.

Kevin

I'm a fake Indian cook. I discovered Patak's pastes and stuff overseas, and was beside myself when I realized I could find it at some Kroger's/Publix/CostCo. The curry and tikka paste are really good for a quick meal. (Curried striped bass is truly kickass *blush*)

The local Indian retaurant near me is really excited when anyone comes in and asks for recipes, so you might want to try one near you and get your favorites.

OMG Mimi that sounds like an incredible meal, even though the naan didn't work out as expected. Is it hard to cook naan? A friend told me that the breads can be difficult. Kevin thanks for your suggestion. I'm gonna check that one out on amazon when I'm done here. I'm not surprised to hear about the many kinds of lentils, not after discovering that there are a million different kind of peppers all of them rated for hotness. It's mad science I tell ya. I'm gonna have to make special trips just to get the right stuff. Turkeytaker, PATAK'S!!! LOL. That's so funny because I just discovered them two weeks ago and that's what reminded me that I promised myself to try and learn how to cook some of the stuff. They're not bad for a quick fix. I was certainly expecting less from a can. However they do just remind me of the really good stuff. Thanks folks and don't forget that list of books Mimi. Naomi

I'll dig around for Sunita's seafood Karala....I think Shady may have made it too...Ben did, but he's long gone from the forum and so is Sunita for that matter!

Funny....I like Indian food. My dd, however, is too afraid to try it. This from the girl who asked me to make Thai coconut milk & curry shrimp tonight. Go figure.

Ahhhhh. Soooooo happy to be home. Work can be so stressful!

Naomi,
The bread isn't too difficult as far as bread goes. If you have ever baked bread from scratch, you will find it to be very similar. I am lazy so I make the dough in my bread machine or food processor. I have gotten good results baking it on a pizza stone (when I follow the recipe and use white flour). I also go the extra step to make it into garlic naan (not part of the recipe) by brushing the bread with olive oil (ghee (clarified butter) would be tastier but I am lazy)and topping the bread with minced garlic and cilantro.

Here is my library:

Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey. I would describe this book as indian home cooking. This is my main bible for the cuisine. Here is what I love to cook out of it over and over again:
Lemony Chicken with fresh coriander
Chicken in red sweet pepper sauce
Gujerati-Style cabbage with Carrots
Cauliflower with fennel and mustard seeds (really yummy)
Naan bread
Spiced basmati rice (we ate the leftovers by itself- yummy)
Aromatic Yellow rice

Healthy Indian Cooking by Shehzad Husain. This is part of a series of books on healthy ethnic cooking. I have to admit, I have used the thai book more than the indian book because I use the Jaffrey book so much. I have only made the chicken skewers but they were delicious and made tasty leftovers. I want to make the Baked tomatoes with panir and vegies and Roasted chicken with lime and herbs. This book is good because everything is low fat and contains lots of vegies but the food is still flavorful.

India: The vegetarian table by Yamuna Devi. I bought this book for $8 at a discount book store and then stored it away and forgot about it until last weekend. I made the Roasted Carrots with Garam Masala and they were amazing! I am going to make some more recipes soon. I am eying the vegetarian kofta and there is a recipe to make cheese (panir) which I might try since the recipes that contain panir look awesome.

Here are two books I got and have not tried out (I have a book collecting problem that rivals my orchid collecting problem).

Dakshin: vegetarian cusine from the south by Chandra Padmanabhan. The recipes are for food we don't often see in Indian restaurants here in the states. The previous three books contain recipes you can make with ordinary ingredients. This book has a lot of exotic ingredients that may take some searching. I love indian food with yummy sauce to eat with the rice. This book is loaded with those kinds of dishes.

The Indian Cookbook by Shehzad Husain. Same author as the healthy indian book. I picked this one up at Costco for $6.99 because it was cheap and I liked her other book. The recipes look good.

Hmmmm... I think I need to start exploring the other four books. I didn't realize I was in such a rut, lol!!

Lis,
I would love the recipe for Seafood Karala too. It sounds wonderful. I miss Sunita. I don't know why so many people are afraid of Indian food. I had to literally beg my coworkers to go to an Indian restaurant one day. They liked it.

Happy cooking everyone!!
-Mimi

I started paging through this book again and found this. I think it sounds heavenly.

Yoghurt and Saffron Cream (Shrikhand)

1 1/3 pints plain yoghurt
1 tsp saffron threads soaked in 4 tsp warm milk
6 T sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
5 shelled pistachio nuts

Line a sieve with cheescloth and put in the yoghurt to drain for about 8 hours in a cool place. Put the drained yoghurt in a food processor with the sugar and process for a few minutes. Fold in the cardamom and saffron mixture. Spoon the cream into individual bowls and decorate with the peeled sliverd pistachios. Chill.

For a variation fold in 500g freshly sliced peaches or fresh raspberries.

The saffron could break the bank, but otherwise it's simple.

K

Hey, someone talking about me? I'm still here Lisa, Mimi... its just that I've been so run off my feet that I'm worn out. So I'm mostly sneaking a few minutes of Net time here and there and most often, cant drum up the energy to make conversation.
Actually, 'Indian cuisine'is a pretty broad term. There's Punjabi cuisine, Moghlai, Kashmiri, Bengali, Hyderabadi, Goan,etc. all coming under the umbrella of 'Indian food'. What makes it even more deliciously confusing is that a single Indian state can have several different styles of cuisine.
I think what you have in mind is most probably Mughlai or Punjabi cuisine as thats what is most widely available in Indian restaurants around the world.
Do you still have that recipe for seafood Kerala Style, Lisa? I think the reason yourcurry was not fiery enough when you made it last was because of the variety of chilli used. Kashmiri chilli has a lovely red colour but is bland. If you use chilli from the states further south(like Madras chilli) it gets increasingly more pungent.
Naomi, have you tried the Net to get recipes? Incredible amount of Indian sites with recipes.I'll look up some for you. If not, I'll try and post some recipes.
I'm not too fond of cooking ... its too hot to stay in the kitchen. (I think I'll be skinned alive for saying that. All Indian women are expected to be great cooks and to love stuffing their family with one dish after the other!)

I'm not a big cookbook buyer but I may check and see if the library has some of these titles. I'm more apt to just do a Google search for a specific recipe when I want to make something Indian or otherwise. However, I suppose I'll get more ideas if I browse a cookbook, won't I?

And of course there's the online friends who are always full of great ideas :)

Sunita, you hit it in the head I think...most of the people in my area were from the north....I know I have it somewhere...but the somewhere is the point....I made it in CT, and I haven't unpacked all the boxes...I hit one which was loose recipies...I don't want to think about what the movers did....and I didn't have the gumption to go through it. I think I remember what I wrote it on....

Glad to see you in the print again Sunita! hugs!

on the head. Sheesh.

Really, Lisa. Although hitting it in the head was a good thing when I was a kid. Mom always got p.oed when I'd miss ;)

Ah, the life of a sailor's son.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to share your book titles, recipies, and info sources with me. I knew I could come here for what I needed. Ya know with all of the time I spend researching orchids online I never thought to use it for cooking. Go figure. I'll let you know how things work out. Naomi

snort. You should know that we're all foodies and we get back to food every hijack we can get!