🧵 3/ Masala: Recipes from India, The Land of Spices/ Anita Jaisinghani ⬆️

There are so many dishes to love in this book. Pakoda, spicy salads, a cactus curry!, dals, soups. Some Indo-Chinese dishes. The dishes come from or are inspired by many regions of India, but all have the trademark Gujarati simplicity.

Recommended for those who want to push their knowledge of spices to a new level, people who love Indian and Indian-influenced cooking and people who get excited by pushing the boundaries of their cooking repertoire.

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🧵 2/ Masala: Recipes from India, The Land of Spices/ Anita Jaisinghani ⬆️

There is much to love in this book. I love that she calls curry leaves as kari leaves (far more correct that curry leaves) but am disappointed that she calls some dishes like dals and bean dishes as "stews". For a book that is so educational, it is a pity that that approach has not also carried through with the recipe nomenclature. I guess she needs to appeal to the American market.

The paper is beautifully matt, so excellent for note jotting and inspirational thoughts.

There is a quick Table of Contents with chapter names - the recipes are divided by dish type - and also a second ToC that also lists the recipe names. A big ✔️ for that. The index is extensive.

It does not have an in-book bookmark, sadly. A book of this size needs 2 at least.

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🧵 1/ Masala: Recipes from India, The Land of Spices/ Anita Jaisinghani

The third in the pile of 4 Indian cookbooks that I am reviewing (and running a little behind on). Surprisingly, this is also a book whose author is also from Gujarat! That's the 3rd book in recent times highly influenced by the wonderful Gujarati cuisines.

This book is increasing in chefy-ness, also as promised. Anita runs Pondicheri restaurant in Houston, Texas. An interesting name - Pondicherri (now reverted to Puducherry) is a beautiful town in Tamil Nadu with huge french influences due to French colonisation.

Masala: Recipes from India, The Land of Spices, by Anita Jaisinghani
Published: 2022
Publisher: Affirm Press
Pages: 304
Price: Around $40AU, but always check around as prices vary. Ebooks can be cheaper.

171 recipes, 120 of which are meat-, fish- and egg-free. Not a bad ratio. 👯

This book will change the way you think about spices. It begins with a huge (and fascinating) 70 pages of information about India, India's food history, the Indian approach of food as medicine, Ayurveda and its 6 tastes (Sweet, Salty, Sour, Astringent, Pungent and Bitter), key spices and more....

It is not a book of traditional Indian recipes, although many are there, and not quite in the genre of #ModernIndianFood. Its very interesting approach is to take the spices, and therefore flavours, of India and create dishes that could be Indian.

The book feels like a reference book. It is, at the same time, like a book you'd find in a chef's kitchen, and a teaching/informing book with information about each recipe and its ingredients. MANY RECIPES HAVE NOTES FOR A PLANT-BASED VERSION. 💯

There are not as many photos in this book, although there are still plenty.

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