Husain, Shehzad and Rafi Fernandez. Indian: Deliciously Authentic Dishes. Anness Publishing, London, 2003
I don't remember how old I was when I discovered Indian food - maybe seventeen? An Indian restaurant had opened up briefly in a downtown location in my hometown. I've always been a curious, adventurous eater and so I clearly had to give it a shot. I remember having liked it, although the experience is so lost in the dim mists of history that I no longer remember what I ate or how it compares to the dishes that I've enjoyed since then. I'm pretty sure that the restaurant is gone now, or at least there's another lousy fast-food type joint where I remember the restaurant as being located. I guess my little Upstate city wasn't quite ready for the deliciousness Indian food has to offer. Anyway, moving to Boston for college allowed me to try Indian food again. Having an Indian roommate for half a year certainly helped! It quickly became one of my favorite cuisines. When I got my first solo apartment and was able to cook for myself for the first time, I started buying up Indian cookbooks when I could find them. I picked this one up because it was on the bargain shelf at the bookstore, but I really came to enjoy it.
It's part of the Hermes House imprint, a series of cookbooks you've seen me review here before. It follows the same format as other books put out under this label, and the recipes are all beautifully illustrated. The recipes are easy to follow - possibly a little basic for experienced cooks - and rarely call for ingredients that are difficult to find in an urban area. Recipes come from all over the Subcontinent, but provenance is not always given. There are two major differences between this volume and other books from this series: some of the recipes contain nutritional information and are indicated as "low-fat recipes," which is very helpful in menu planning, and there is a list of suppliers in the back of the book. I'm not so sure about this list of suppliers. The authors list one Indian grocery in the state of Massachusetts, in Boston's Oak Square. I don't know when the list was drawn up (my copy is a late edition), but when I lived in Oak Square I did not see this grocery. I was however very much aware of other Indian groceries in town, so I wouldn't view their supplier list as gospel. Use your local telephone directory or a search engine instead. Still, it was helpful of them to provide a starting place. While the recipes may be a little basic, I really enjoy this book and use it as a launching pad for many of my own recipes. I'd recommend it to anyone curious about Indian food or to a novice cook.
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