Recipe Reviews for Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey

For the holidays in 2006, I asked my parents for a Indian cookbook (and gave them a number of choices of books I've heard recommended). They bought me:

Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey 2003 edition Barron's Buy from: Amazon

Below are the dishes I've cooked so far by star rating (out of five). I plan to group dishes into categories after I've cooked more of them. Within each star rating, the ordering is arbitrary -- it doesn't mean anything. Click on the dish's name for a review. A list of what I've cooked most recently appears on the right side of the blog under the heading "Recent Dishes."

Chicken & Meat & Seafood

Picture	Name	Rating
	Red Lamb or Beef Stew (Rogan josh)	5 stars
	Lemony Chicken with Cilantro (Hare masale wali murghi)	4.5 stars
	Shrimp with Zucchini (Jhinga aur ghia)	4 stars
	Chicken with Tomatoes and Garam Masala (Timatar murghi)	4 stars
	Delicious Cocktail Koftas (Chhote kofte)	4 stars (optimistically)
	Tandoori-Style Chicken (Tandoori murghi)	3.5 stars (maybe 4)
	Chicken in a Fried Onion Sauce (Murghi rasedar)	3.5 stars

Pulses (Dals)

Picture	Name	Rating
	Red Split Lentils with Cabbage (Masoor dal aur band gobi)	4.5 stars
	Whole Green Lentils with Spinach and Ginger	4 stars
	Small Yellow Split Peas (Chana dal)	4 stars
	Sour Chick-Peas (Khate chhole)	4 stars
	Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seeds (Masoor dal)	4 stars
	Black-Eyed Beans with Mushrooms (Lohbia aur khumbi)	3 stars
	Red Kidney Beans (Punjabi rajma)	3 stars

Vegetables

Picture	Name	Rating
	Gujerati-Style Green Beans (Gujerati sem)	5 stars
	Cauliflower with Cumin and Asafetida (Heeng zeere ki gobi)	4.5 stars
	Carrots, Peas, and Potatoes Flavored with Cumin (Gajar, matar, aur aloo ki bhaji)	4.5 stars
	Cauliflower With Potatoes (Phool gobi aur aloo ki bhaji)	4.5 stars (likely, if made with less salt)
	Frozen Spinach With Potatoes (Saag aloo)	4 stars
	Cauliflower with Onion and Tomato (Phool gobi ki bhaji)	4 stars
	Cabbage with Peas (Bund gobi aur matar)	4 stars
	Beets With Onions (Shorvedar chukander)	4 stars (maybe 3.5)
	Gujerati-Style Cabbage With Carrots (Sambhara)	3 stars

Desserts

Picture	Name	Rating
	Carrot Halva (Gajar ka halva)	5 stars
	Semolina Halva (Sooji ka halva)	4 stars
	Drunken Orange Slices (Sharabi narangi)	3.5 stars

Misc

Picture	Name	Rating
	Yogurt with Eggplant (Baigan ka raita)	4 stars
	Gujerati Carrot Salad (Gajar ka salad)	3 stars
	Carrot and Onion Salad (Gajar aur pyaz ka salad)	2 stars

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Post a comment to the relevant page for the particular recipe (or this page itself) or e-mail me: my first initial followed by pearson42 AT yahoo.com. My name is Mark. Additional keywords: review, reactions, thoughts, changes, revisions, change, revision, descriptions, kitchen, cook, cooking, recipes, Indian food.

Cauliflower with Cumin and Asafetida (Heeng zeere ki gobi) Review

4.5 stars? 5 stars? (on a 5 star scale) p. 145 A very good dish that's both easy to prepare and fast to cook. Some notes on the ingredients:

• I skipped the "generous pinch" of asafetida because I didn't have any.
• I used one fresh hot green chili, with seeds. (The recipe recommended 1/2 - 1 chili.)
• I skipped the 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander because I didn't have any. Though I didn't miss it / didn't think it would add anything, my friend says she would've liked it.
• I used 1/4 teaspoon cayenne. (The recipe recommended 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon.)
• I skipped the lemon juice because I didn't have any. Both of us eating this dish thought it would've added a nice touch (for next time).

Some notes on cooking:

• I used only two tablespoons of oil (rather than the three recommended) to apparently no ill effect.
• I added the recommended 1/2 cup water. I think this was too much; I needed to cook the cauliflower at medium/medium-high heat (rather than low) for twice the recommended length of time (12 minutes compared to 5-7) in order for most of the water to be gone. Next time add less water.