The Indian Family Kitchen | by Anjali Pathak
When Tom and I moved to Atlanta a year and a half ago, we had never tried Indian food. We had been serious foodies in Milwaukee, but as a less diverse city, Milwaukee didn't give us a lot of ethnic options. Clearly, we were missing out. We've now found our "go-to" Indian restaurant that we try to frequent, but it's about a 40 minute drive from where we live now.
Given the opportunity to review this cookbook was a welcome privilege. Since we can't visit our favorite Indian locale as easily anymore, this cookbook has brought out the chef in us. We're both naturally inclined to cook as it's something we enjoy, but we also love a challenge. After trying Indian food, we realized we were missing out on a great plethora of flavors -- this cookbook teaches you how to use and master those unfamiliar spices. Reading through each recipe and admiring its beautiful photography helped us realize we're perfectly capable of mastering the Indian cuisine right in our own home.
From whole roasted salmon with coconut and dill, to cumin roast potatoes, to pecan muffins with saffron cream... this beautiful Indian cookbook is, without a doubt, a book to cherish.
Anjali includes helpful secrets to go along with many of her recipes, as well as pages dedicated to her family history. It truly is more than a cookbook, but almost a memoir of an Indian family and the love and tradition they pour into their food. Her recipes are the same classics enriched with new techniques or ingredients. You can read more about Anjali Pathak here.
There is something for everyone in The Indian Family Kitchen. Recipes for beginners and intermediate cooks, meat-lovers and vegetarians, sweet tooths and health conscious persons, and everyone in between. I must say with honesty, keeping a large library of cookbooks is not of interest to me. They take up space and are generally not used. However, I'm convinced that a more ethnic cookbook holds more value in this respect, as it offers more than just recipes, but valuable information about the ingredients and techniques I don't have a natural understanding of. (Click here for a peek inside)
In our excitement to put this book to use, we tried one of the simpler recipes for Valentine's day. The Pomegranate & Ricotta Frozen Yogurt was simple, and in a word... perfection. It called for ingredients I would never mesh together and created such a harmonious dessert, we have already begun the process of a second batch. It was tangy, not overly sweet, creamy, and (seriously) addicting. The drawback was the fact that finding pomegranate molasses was nearly impossible... but we hunted some down before the day was out!
Isn't this book just stunning? Not only are the recipes mouthwateringly irresistible, it makes a gorgeous coffee table book. So happy to have this one in our collection.
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I received this book from Blogging for Books for this honest review.
