🧵 2/Indian Cooking Class/Christine Manfield ⬆️

(cont.) To the recipes. Honestly, I think had hoped that this book does not have the "cons" of her Tasting India book - at least I had my fingers crossed. But see below.

There are recipes that jump out - Kashmiri Tomato Salad, eg. How simple this is but how divine. I do wish she had included the Indian names of dishes in the titles. Its a black mark 🙅‍♀️ to not do so. #CulturalAppropriation . The names can appear in her introductory text, but I don't think that is good enough. THE INDIAN NAMES DO NOT FEATURE IN THE INDEX.

Another example of this is the recipe called Scrambled Cheese - NOT Scrambled Paneer, nor Paneer Bhurji. The recipe is not indexed under paneer.

I don't want to go on. If I can find such fundamental errors in a browse of the book, I can only imagine how it impacts those new to Indian cooking.

There are many dishes in this book that look so inviting, honestly. But the book is let down by some fundamental things.

So use at your own risk, and perhaps use for inspiration. The recipes indeed might be accurate, and many of the recipes are simple enough that the chance of error is low. Recipes are marked as GF or V where appropriate.

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🧵 2/Indian Cooking Class/Christine Manfield ⬆️

(cont.) It is a huge book, but luckily has 2 attached ribbon bookmarks. It could have done with a third. The book lies flat when open (phew). The paper is rather too glossy for ink-based comments. You will struggle for space in some recipes for biro (perhaps) or pencil (perhaps) comments.

The recipes seem well explained and towards sufficiently straight forward, however, unlike other books that we have reviewed lately, there is no introduction to spices, Indian pantries and equipment, cooking techniques etc at the front of the book. It dives straight in.

The Chapters are divided in the usual fashion, nothing different there. The index looks comprehensive and workable.

The recipes are well laid out, appear easy to follow, and a few have extensive photographs that show how to make the recipe. I notice some variations in spelling eg papri and papdi, various spellings of the same item, and wonder if I can pick this up, why an editor missed it. it can be confusing for people new to Indian cooking,

The pics are gorgeous, and all have a chefy feel, as you'd expect from a chef, rather than a home cook.

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🧵 1/Indian Cooking Class/Christine Manfield

I've been reviewing recent Indian cookbooks lately, starting from easy and moving up to chefy. This weekend we have 2 chefy ones. You can see the previous ones here: https://mastodon.au/@LifeTimeCooking/110518254036498714

For full transparency, I knew Christine waaaaay back when we were studying. I have 3 of her cookbooks. Although I love her to death, I find her recipes in the other books often leave something to be desired in terms of accuracy. This is especially true of Tasting India, and I suspect the recipes were not tested. That book is a beautiful coffee table book containing recipes she collected while travelling around India. I will often use this book for inspiration but search out recipes elsewhere.

Indian Cooking Class, by Chris Manfield
Published: 2021
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
Pages: 448
Price: Around $45AU, but always check around as prices vary. Ebooks can be cheaper.

RECIPES: 275, around 175 of which are meat, fish and egg free - EYB is down at the moment so I can't be more exact. The vegetarian ones include dips, chutneys, desserts, soups, etc as well as main and side dishes.

Chris spent a lot of time working in kitchens and chef-ing in hotels and restaurants in SE Asia, where she fell in love with spice, and India, which captured her heart. Prior to that she had award-winning restaurants in rural Sht Australia and Sydney, and afterwards had a fabulous restaurant in London.

Looking at EYB, the recipes in this book that have been cooked by members all have good reviews, many commenting that the recipes are easy.

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