Indian Cookery Course: Techniques, Masterclasses, Ingredients, 300 Recipes

I hesitated for days before purchasing this book.I have a few cookery books and have tended to go for the '5 ingredients or less'...or 'Quick and easy home cooking' etc etc. I'm an okay cook / many different meals etc but as ever its often down to time and energy after a day's work, which is the main reason I hesitated on this purchase. I thought it would be too involved, but how wrong I was. Not that it isn't comprehensive and complete because it is. Its packed with evrything I need. for me now this is my best indian cookbook, cant see me ever looking at my other indian recipe books ever again!I think where this is such a great book is in the CLARITY in which each recipe is laid out and indeed the whole way the book itself is organised.Greatest purchase ever for me.

I researched heavily before buying this book - I did not want just recipes, I wanted to really understand the style of cooking. With this book I got both. I gained tips and understanding that will stay with me, familiar dishes such as butter chicken have taken on a whole new level, and new dishes such as the amazing 9 jewelled curry have become firm favourites. I loved the book so much that I booked with the author for a cookery class for me and a friend, simply search Cooking with Monisha for the range of classes, you will not be disappointed!If you only own one book for Indian cooking, make sure it is this one - even the quality and photos are just beautiful.

There are plenty of recipes in this book that can be made from a staple selection of ingredients which is always handy when you are limited on cupboard space. However after making many different meals from all sections of the book, some more exotic or unique ingredients would have been welcome to make some of the final results more interesting. This is a good introduction into the world of Indian cookery and comes with easy to follow instructions and alternatives for the harder to obtain spices. There are some solid recipes which taste good and are not too tricky (Makhani Chicken and the Dal's), and some that need a lot of aftercare to pick the flavour up from a rather bland base (some of the spinach dishes or those laden with onion). All in all though, the content level and additional background information help keep this book relevant and its a good base for starting out.

I have plenty of Indian cookery books but have now given most away, this book is excellent.Some good tips increased my ability to cook spices correctly and have turned out some super meals although I'm fed up of making onion bhaji as family love them and have to double the amount I cook so they can have some the following day.Recipes from easy to hard and great variety. The pictures are actually matching what I've cooked for first time doing Indian food.Got it in hardback and just got it on Kindle for 99p. Buy it xx

Within 3 days of this book being delivered I have already ordered another one for my parents. It is a brilliant Indian recipe book, I bought this as a bit of a bible due to my boyfriend wanting a curry for his birthday, I ended up making a lamb, egg, dal, and pea & mushroom curry from it. I am vegan and I was cooking for a gluten free diet too, both were well catered for as there are plenty of veggie recipes and very little conventional flour is used - as usual in Indian cooking.I haven't read through the beginning of the book properly yet with the hints, tips and explanations of what is frequently used in the recipes. I found instructions easy to follow, the dal, egg and pea/mushroom took no time at all so there doesn't have to be hours spent preparing. I made these a day ahead and they kept well.The book is inspiring me to cook and I can't wait to try more! Purchasing the same copy twice within half a week I think speaks for itself

I have a large collection of Indian cookbooks and spend many a weekend walking around Hounslow or Wembley buying Indian ingredients for cooking at home or sampling various authentic dishes. Many Indian cookbooks concentrate a little too much in the area of Indian cuisine that the author grew up in and it is quite difficult to find a book that covers all the variety of regional India. It's even less likely that they include little masterclasses on how to perfect each technique.Quite bizarrely, a few months ago, a gentlemen started to talk to me at a bus stop commented on books that I had just purchased and mentioned this book. I am presuming he was the "crazy cow vet" who has also reviewed this book. (He mentioned he had been on Monisha's course, bought 6 copies of the book and couldn't praise it enough:-).The books strong points:Good high level regional coverage of different Indian CuisineAuthentic recipesWell IllustratedSimple instructionsWell structured and editedSome commentary and background, but thankfully not the endless storytelling many cookbooks now suffer from.Its actually quite difficult to fault this book. There are more comprehensive and detailed books out there on regional Indian cooking, e.g. Dakshin for south Indian food which is superb, but If you want to get into Indian cooking and only want to buy one book, buy this one. (I have over 50 Indian cookbooks at home and would fling 90% of them out for this one book). At this price it's a steal. Well done Monisha, stellar book.