Cookbook: Vij's Elegant & Inspired Indian Cuisine

This is a brilliant book. I have been cooking Indian food for over 30 years, and this book has totally changed the way I think about Indian cooking. Where many Indian cookbooks have a long list of ingredients, this one tends to have fewer ingredients, but they are absolutely the *right* ingredients, and not in stinting quantities. The result is flavors that are crisp and bright.

Because of the clear instructions and illustrations, I am now making my own paneer (cheese) at home. It’s far superior to anything available in the stores and is much cheaper (less than $2 a pound if you get milk on sale).

I hesitated to buy this book because so many of the recipes are for meat and seafood, but I’m very glad I got it. The non vegetarian recipes can often easily be adapted for meatless use. And there *are* quite a few meatless recipes.

There are some editorial anomalies. For example in the recipe titled “Sautéed Arugula and Spinach with Paneer and Roasted Cashews,” the arugula and spinach is in fact never sautéed. It is added to the liquid curry at the very end and cooked until wilted and heated through. Go figure. (Great recipe by the way, but reduce water to one cup from three.) Two recipes call for three cups of pureed tomatoes. One calls for “six large” the other for “nine medium”. Why not just give us the weight? I’ve found that a 28 ounce can of tomatoes yields just over three cups of pureed tomatoes and that’s what I use.

I also found that the authors tend to use more liquid than I would. If you are an experienced cook and you feel that a recipe calls for too much liquid, trust your instinct and go with less to start with. You can always add more if you need it. The only time this was a problem for me was when I made a lentil rice pilaf, using the quantity called for – it was one of the first recipes I made. There was so much liquid I had to cook it down much longer than I would have liked and the result was mushy. The flavor, however, was superb. I’ll make it again often, but with much less liquid. (In this recipe, the problem could simply be a difference in the rice and lentils these cooks use compared to what I’m using, although other reviewers have mentioned the same problem.) I have often also significantly reduced the amount of salt called for.

Despite these quirks I’m giving the book a full five stars. It’s a beautiful book and the food is magnificent.