snpmurray's Full Review: Yamuna Devi - Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of I...
I have been devoted to Indian cuisine for many years. Following a fairly rigid dietary regimen, I stick almost exclusively to fresh fruit and vegetables, keep my oils low, and my meals multicolored. Given these considerations, ounce for ounce, only the Mediterranean cuisine can stand up to the Indian in terms of combining nutrition, taste and innovation in my opinion. Indian cuisine is an art form, and "Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The art of Indian vegetarian cooking" is a master class in that art form.
The author, Yamuna Devi, has been cooking Indian food for more than forty years. She served a formalized cooking apprenticeship under a noted swami. Being raised in the United States, she happened to be introduced to this man who had spent most of his life in India, preparing food under a philosophy that held that the skilled and dedicated preparation of food was a spiritual act. In his tradition, no recipes are used, nothing is measured, and nothing is tasted during the period of preparation. The cook must become intimately familiar with the ingredients he or she is using, and more importantly, familiar with their synergistic effects. Yamuna Devi is also a noted food historian, adding validity and authority to her recipes, gathered from all over the Indian subcontinent and this, her first book, won the IACP "Cookbook of the Year" award.
At just under 800 pages, and containing some 500 recipes, to say that this book was a comprehensive introduction to Indian cuisine would not be fair. This is no mere introduction, this is a symphony of carefully chosen recipes and commentaries singing the praises of one of the most ancient and delicious food traditions there is.
The book is divided into the main categories of foods....the main categories breakdown as follows:
Rice
Breads
Vegetables
Dairy
Salads
Chutneys
Sauces and Relishes
Light Meals and Savories
Snacks and Nibblers
Sweets
Beverages
Each of these sections opens with a brief introduction to the subject matter. This is of great value, and the unique joint qualifications of the author as both chef and food historian provide the ideal forum in which to learn about not only the socio-cultural context of each category, but also where, when, and how it should be eaten. Indian cooking has a whole host of foods and styles of preparation which are unique to itself. Indian breads are a lifetimes project to perfect on their own, for anyone not owning their own tandoor! And who but the Indians can prepare such perfectly harmonized dishes that the exquisite flavor of basmati rice is complemented by the accompanying dishes? I could go on and on forever......enough to say, by the time the reader hits the recipes in each section, he or she feels well armed to discuss the resulting dishes history with whomsoever should eventually form your appreciative consumers!
In the larger sections (for example, vegetables, not surprisingly) pages are devoted to any cuisine-specific techniques which must be mastered in order to get the most from the recipes. The reader is guided not only in terms of a specific recipe, but more in terms of principals.....what flavors and styles are complemented by precooking vegetables, and which by sauteing them, by example. If the reader, over years of pleasure, experimenting in the kitchen, can master these subtleties, Indian cuisine can be prepared more intuitively, thus leading to a flair in the kitchen that your family and friends will be able to taste and smell for a long time!
At the back of the book is a seventy page section which is humbly entitled "A-Z General information." I commend your immediate attention to this section, which, despite the unassuming title, is quite the most authoritative and exhaustive concordance to Indian cuisine you could hope to find. It is this sections thoroughness, in addition to the regional and historical veracity of the recipes which makes this book THE book on Indian vegetarianism. The A-Z covers every ingredient you might need, in both history, how to get it, where and when to buy it, what to look for in good produce. It covers the cooking techniques of Indian cuisine, giving pointers and the occasional trick to get the most authentic Indian flavor to your cooking in the standard western kitchen! It covers the nomenclature of the various Indian cuisines, spread throughout the subcontinent and how to distinguish them both on the page and on the plate. It covers kitchen equipment, both in terms of what you need to get going (not much) and how and when you might consider branching out for more specific dishes such as dumplings or breads (yes, you can indeed make your own tandoor out of an old oil drum and some clay!). All in all, if you need to know it, or ever wondered about it, and it's connected with vegetarian Indian cuisine, look for it here, and look here first.
So how do the recipes turn out? Well, I have got to tell you, if you are used to eating Indian food in restaurants, you are going to go through a life changing experience. Of course, it is generally true to say that food you eat that was prepared en masse for twenty or thirty people is never going to taste as good as that which was prepared by one for consumption by two. This is especially true in Indian cuisine. This book emphasizes the subtle blending of tastes, and the exact control of cooking techniques to bring out the best in each ingredient. Even in such a commonplace example as frying onions, the moment at which fried onions are exactly ready for inclusion in some dishes is, to say the least, fleeting. In the pages of this book, you will learn all you need to recognize that moment. You WILL taste the difference.
If you need one Indian cookbook for your shelf, this is it. Fact.
For lovers of ethnic, gourmet, and exotic foods, 500 recipes filled with fresh produce and herbs, delicate spices, hot curries, and homemade dairy pro...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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