Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking

                                               
" Quick & Easy Indian Cooking " by author Madhur Jaffrey has more than 50 delicous recipes from Soup to Sweets which most of it can be prepared in approximately 30 mins. The cookbook gives you recipes with only few ingedients and with substitutions such as some recipes says beef however substitution with lamb or chicken is allowed. The book is going to be favorite with the novice to expert cook because of the easy to follow recipes with basic ingredients. The book talks about the ingredients, utensils and other basic requirement for cookingalong with recipes without feeling intimidated to cooking these Indian recipes.
This book will serve as a great start to Indian cooking book for beginner's.

About the author: Madhur Jaffrey is a cookbook author, TV chef, illustrator, and award-winning actress originally from Delhi, India. She's won the Burt Greene Award for Food Journalism and lives in New York City.


Pros: Easy understanding recipe with few ingredients and substitution.
Cons: This recipes are Indian but not the authentic ones, well that is why you can make them so quick as title says, however not all of them though.
Overall: Nice Book
Book can be purchased at Amazon and Chroniclebooks.com
ISBN 0811859010

ISBN13 9780811859011

Thank you Chronicle Books for review copy. Picture and Author's Bio copyright Chronicle Books
xoxo.

Simply Smoothies: 200 Refreshing Drinks for Life, Health, and Fun by Delia Quigley

Simply Smoothies: 200 Refreshing Drinks for Life, Health, and Fun by Delia Quigley features 200 mouth watering recipes. The book starts with Introduction and then follow's with 9 chapter's . The 1st chapter talks about "In the Pantry" where she talks about fruits to be used and their benefits to out health. Then you see " Smoothies for health" which have smoothies which help you increase your energy gradually and help decrease your waistline with smoothies like Carrot-Orange, Vegetable Protein smoothie, Avacado Veggie Tango and much more. Chapter 3 is " Smoothies for Fun" where you will find smoothies mildly decadent to over-the-top decadent smoothies such as Pomegranate Slush, Classis Milk shake, PJ-OJ, Carob Chip Smoothie ans so on. The 4th Chapter is about "Exotic Fruit Smoothies" which sure will make you think you are on exotic trip while sipping them in the comfort of ypur home with Moroccon Surprise, Tropical Vacation, Sunshine Smoothie ans such many more. In Chapter 5 " Healing Smoothies" this smoothies are also famous in many other contries such as India , china and Japan as these smoothies help you treat your illness as well as is healthy drink too like Cranberry Vitamin C Smoothie, Ginger Lemon Cough Remedy, Body-Mind Smoother and more. Chapter 6 "Low-Carb Smoothies" which would help you fight obesity while keeping check on your weight wilt low carb smoothies such as Low- Carb Chocolate or Fruit Smoothie, Creamy Coffee Delight to name some. Chapter 7 is my favorite as I love Chai and Coffee and this includes recipes related to "Chai smoothies, Coffee and Tea". Chapter 8 "Party Smoothies" no matter who , when and where smoothies in the menu always is perfect addition in parties with smoothies like Frozen Blizzard, Frozen Srrawquiri, Almond Scot, Bloody Mary to name few. The last chapter "The Simply Smoothing Eating Plan" it explains and shows you how to change your food choices and get optimal nutrition without counting calories or fat grams.

About the author:Delia Quigley has more than twenty years of experience in the fields of natural food preparation, nutrition, and Hatha Yoga. She is a Kushi-certified macrobiotic chef, an alternative nutritional consultant, and the author of two vegetarian cookbooks

Pros: Some amazing and healthy smoothie recipes
Cons: No pictures except the front cover
Overall: Good Book

Book can be purcahsed at Amazon and Adamsmediastore.com
ISBN:9781593370169
Bio and Picture: Copyright Adams Media
Special Thanks to AdamsMedia for the review copy.

xoxo,

Crab Fry (Kurle Fry)

My mother whenever we get crab's would prepare these and they would taste so delicious. The other day when we went for grocery shopping we saw huge king crabs and at that very moment my mom's crab fry came to my mind. Usually in India my mother uses small crab's to fry. I didn't get small ones so I have cut my  big king crab's main part into 4 halves and still each of them were big portion.

Ingredient's:

King Crab- 2 (cleaned and cut into 2 or 4 pieces)
Tamarind Past- 1/2 tspn
Garlic- 3-4 crushed
Turmeric: 1/2 tspn
Chilli Powder- 1 or 11/2 tspn ( depends how spicy you want)
Coriander-cummin powder- 1 tspn
Salt- As per taste
Corn flour or Rice flour 1-2 tbspn or as needed for light coating.
Oil- 1 tbspn for mixing  and as needed for shallow frying or deep frying

Mix the above inrgedients in 1 tbspn oil to apply it to crab pieces.

You can either deep-fry or shallow fry. If you do shallow fry make sure to fry it a little longer and on all sides till you see it slightly brown on all sides.

Enjoy this delicious crab fry with curry and rice.

xoxo,

The "I Dont Know How to Cook" Book Mexican

Recently, I was sent couple of books out of which 1 was The : I Dont Know How to Cook" Book Mexican by Linda Rodriguez. I love Mexican food and am always on a lookout for mexican recipes which are quick and easy to fix.
This book has 300 recipes. In the book there are 12 main categories in which each category has recipes for that. The book starts with Introduction which explains everything you need to know to make mexican food. Each recipe in the book is grouped and classified by symbols like E (Easy), M (Medium), H (Hard).
The books has easy and mouth-watering recipe with step by step instruction's for Appetizer's & Salsa's, Soups & Stew's, Salad's, Beef & Pork, Poultry & Eggs, Fish & Sea-food, Vegetables, Rice and Bean Dishes, Fruit, Desserts & Traditional Favorites.

Whether you want to cook for your family or for friend's, This book will definately have something that will be helpful to fix easily.

About the Author: Linda Rodriguez has been cooking Mexican-American meals for family and friends for most of her life. She has fond memories of the feasts of mole and tamales that accompanied every wedding and quinceanera. she still remembers the early days of her marriage when she made six dozen enchiladas, carnitas with chile, and a big pot of pozole for her husband's college graduation party---with only a hot plate and a toaster oven! She resides in Kansas City, MO.

Pro's: Easy and quick recipes
Con's: No pictures of recipes

Overall: Good  Book

Publisher: Adams Media
ISBN:9781598696073


Book can be purchased at : Adamsmediastore.com, Amazon
Copyright of Adams Media: Book cover picture and Author's bio.
Thanks to Adams Media for review copy.

xoxo,

Book Review: Everything Indian Cookbook

"The Everything Indian Cookbook: 300 Tantalizing Recipes is written by Monica Bhide.The book has 15 categories and each includes minimum 10 to maximun 24 recipes in it.

The author has started this book very well explaining the "Basics of Cooking" . She talks about techniques and ingredients required for or used in making these delicious Indian recipes. She explains the terms in both hindi(local indian language) and english so it is easy for all reader's to understand. She talks about basic recipes (masala's) that are used or needed while cooking most of  these dishes. The book has next section  about Starter's or Snacks which includes recipes like Spiced Crunchy Okra to Curried Mixed Nuts. The Drinks/ Soups and Teas includes recipes like Rose-Flavored Yougurt Drink, Ginger Tea, Coconut and Tomato Soup and many more. The next category's in the  book is  followed with recipes for various kinds of Salads, Vegetarian Dishes and  Non-Vegeterian i.e Meat, Poultry and Sea-food recipes. She also has some great recipes on Rice Dishes along with Lentil and Yogurt Dishes. There are also recipes for various kinds of Breads(Roti) and Chutney's(Pickles). At the end of the book she has some great recipes for Indian Sweet Dishes and Royal food.
I really loved this book and tried Nawabi Mutton which turned out great and was easy and quick to make. The book has some great mouth-watering recipes of India. The book also has Glossary section with Hindi-English names for ingredients used or required to make these dishes. The author also has added a section of additional resources of stores where you can shop for these groceries across USA which i thought was great.
I also loved the fact that the author had thanked each and every person who had contributed while writing this book, which i hardly see nowadays.

About the Author's:Monica Bhide (Dunn Loring, VA) is a native of India who has been cooking Indian cuisine for more than twenty years. A graduate of several formal Indian cooking courses, Ms. Bhide is an accomplished caterer and home chef.



Pro's:  A great book with great recipes. Very well explained instructions throught out the book
Con's:  There are no pictures in the book except for the front cover.
Overall:  Great Book

Books can be purchased at Amazon, AdamsMediastore.com
ISBN: 9781593370428
Picture and Author's Bio is Copyright of Adams Media.
Special Thanks to Adams Media for sending this book for review.
xoxo,

There is something cooking up for 2011...

Dear Food Lover's,

Trust everyone had a great New Year Party and had some good food....this year i will be not only be active again posting new recipes but also will be reviewing some cook books for some publishing companies and maybe may have a giveaway too...still working on that.

So are we ready to cook some delicious food and get some review on some great cook books that you would love to know about before you buy.

This week stay tuned as i post Chicken and Dumpling soup(southern style), Sukha(Dry) Mutton with variations.

xoxo,