kathleen440's Reviews
60 recipes reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Book Title | Date 
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The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
By Deb Perelman
Knopf - 2012
Yum. Next time I will probably increase the quantity of grapes and olives a bit, so that I can have a little bit of each ingredient in each bite. It's a great combination.
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Awesome. The crust is really easy to make but came out golden, flaky, and perfect. I definitely recommend using the egg wash, and I think the pastry benefits from a little sprinkling of salt and pepper before baking too.
The filling was great, but you could apply the recipe to any filling you want, really. One note: you cannot caramelize onions in 25 minutes. Give yourself at least 45 to get them really browned! It's worth it.
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660 Curries
By Raghavan Iyer
Workman Publishing - 2008
I love savory/sweet dishes, and this is one of my favorites. Who would have thought to eat spinach and raisins together? As with all of the chicken recipes in this book, I use chicken thighs instead of breasts for extra richness.
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I love this one. Creamy and balanced, with a lot of sweetness. This is a good one for dinner parties, it's a crowd pleaser. I reduce the salt by half, though - 2 tsp. is too much.
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Yum. I used half and half in place of the cream, as I do with pretty much every recipe in this book, and it was still yummy.
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Wonderful. The panch phoron gives this a great bittersweet flavor, and I loved the texture. A great accompaniment to any of the other mustard-based curries in the book.
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Yum. The beef wasn't as soft as I would have liked, so I'd up the braising time to 1.5-2 hours. Otherwise, I loved it.
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From Mom With Love . . .: A Complete Guide to Indian Cooking and Entertaining
By Pushpa Bhargava
Crest Books, Inc. - 2009
The flavor of this was good (if very sweet), but the texture was off - very soft and difficult to manipulate. I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong, but we did have fun eating this with a spoon.
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Wonderful, rich flavor. I prefer boneless thighs, but a mix of white and dark meat would be great too.
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As dry curries go this is not my favorite. I tried it with flat beans (which were available in my area at the time) and the dish felt bland and a little undercooked. Perhaps it would be better with regular (long) green beans, which appear in the picture.
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I really liked this version - easy and healthy, with a smooth texture. Next time I'll probably add a few ounces of mustard greens or chard.
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Tasty, and easy due to the use of the precooked masala. It felt a little bland, though - I might doctor it up next time by frying some cumin seeds at the beginning and upping the garam masala a bit.
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Yummmm. This is so easy, especially if you already have the precooked masala on hand. I used canned/drained/rinsed beans, and ended up adding about 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the recipe to get the consistency and flavor I wanted.
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660 Curries
By Raghavan Iyer
Workman Publishing - 2008
Love the flavor of this. It's a big hit at dinner parties. It's also easy to cook in combination with other dishes (doesn't require a lot of babysitting) and it's compatible with the most common dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free).
The sauce is thin compared to a restaurant-style chana masala, so I often cut the water by a third or even half.
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The author wasn't kidding about this curry being tart! I didn't love the flavor. It was a bit strange, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I used the Punjabi garam masala.
I also used canned/drained/rinsed kidney beans, which ended up with a strange rubbery texture. Next time I will dry this with dried beans.
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This spicy-sweet blend is dominated by mint, which makes it a perfect match for lamb dishes. I don't think it would be out of place sprinkled on breads, either!
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Hot damn. This may be the best thing I've made in this entire book. It's rich, sweet, and fragrant, but has a great savory quality from the lamb. The lamb leg in my market was very expensive so I deboned, trimmed, and cubed several shoulder chops with very good results. This recipe also gave me an excuse to make the Rajasthani garam masala, which was excellent. I highly recommend this dish.
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Quite good! What seems like an odd assortment of ingredients (potatoes, onions, bell peppers, sweet spices, raisins, and cashews) comes together in a delicious whole. I did feel that there was a bit too much liquid left at the end, so next time I think I will cook the curry uncovered for the last 5-7 minutes. This recipe is a great use for the Balti masala, which I love.
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An Invitation to Indian Cooking
By Madhur Jaffrey
Vintage - 1975
I really enjoyed this! I highly recommend the variation with peas - without a little bit of greenery it would seem plain. The fried onions are also a nice addition. Next time, I'm going to stuff bell peppers with this.
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From Mom With Love . . .: A Complete Guide to Indian Cooking and Entertaining
By Pushpa Bhargava
Crest Books, Inc. - 2009
Outstanding recipe, and very easy to execute. This is the aloo gobhi recipe I always go for.
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660 Curries
By Raghavan Iyer
Workman Publishing - 2008
Sometimes you just want a rich, restaurant-style curry, and this hits the spot. I prefer to make it with bone-in thighs.
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This recipe is deceptively simple, but the flavor is vibrant and balanced. Like pretty much every other chicken recipe in this book, I prefer to make this with bone-in thighs and legs.
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Another solid, straightforward curry that's a great introduction to Indian flavors. Very simple flavor profile.
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Straightforward but good - I like the balance between the coconut and the chiles, the coconut keeps it from being too hot.
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Simple, mild curry that's great for people who are new to curry, but still satisfying for those who make it at home every week.
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Keep it simple, stupid. A good, basic raita recipe that will never fail you.
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Holy crap, I love this soup. I made it for our Seder this year and it was a huge hit. The instructions are really easy to follow, and the matzo balls themselves turned out great.It's rather spicy, so tone down the chiles if you prefer.
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This is a really interesting technique, and I like the dish a lot, though I think I would prefer to fry the spices in oil first.
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Yummy, and easy. The Maharashtrian garam masala makes this one just a little different. I like to reduce the amount of water just a bit - I think it's plenty saucy with the juices from the chicken.
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Wonderful flavor, and so simple. I couldn't get the potatoes to crisp particularly well, but it still turned out really tasty.
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I really enjoyed this one - it's aromatic and mild (in terms of heat) but has a lot of pungency from the oil and black cardamom. Definitely seek out mustard oil for this dish - it wouldn't have nearly as much character with canola oil.
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I loved this! The rice cooked up perfectly and the flavor was great.
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Yum. I used half spinach and half chard, and it was delicious, but it would be great with just spinach too. I like to puree the curry in my food processor before adding the chickpeas to get a more restaurant-style texture in the sauce.
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Oh, man. This might be my favorite recipe in the whole book. The greens are incredibly sweet, and the texture of the cheese is a great contrast. A couple of notes:
I substituted frozen spinach and turnip greens (8 oz. of each) for the fresh spinach and mustard. Just thaw them a bit and add them in step 3. You could hypothetically substitute any leafy green - collards, swiss chard, kale - for the mustard greens, provided the sauce is still half spinach.
I also pureed the sauce in my food processor before adding the paneer and cream, to give it more of a restaurant-style texture. I loved it prepared this way.
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Mmmmmm. I used half and half instead of cream and it was still great. The flavor is sweet, nutty and spicy all at the same time.
Edit: My boyfriend proclaims this "the best side dish you've made so far" out of this book. Try it, you won't be disappointed.
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Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition
By Julee Rosso, Sheila Lukins
Workman Publishing Company - 2007
My favorite recipe, endlessly adaptable. I like making a coconut almond chip version with shredded coconut, coconut extract, almond extract, and dark chocolate.
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This is so, so good in the summer. Use really fresh tomatoes from the farmer's market.
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660 Curries
By Raghavan Iyer
Workman Publishing - 2008
This is really different, smoky from the black cardamom and anise-y from the fennel. Delicious with lentils.
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My favorite of the spice blends I've tried so far - use it for mutter paneer.
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Who knew? This sauce is so tasty - in addition to using it for recipes in this book, I've used it to build pasta sauces - anywhere you would use caramelized onions.
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I loved the flavor of this - very earthy. The Balti masala is wonderful. I did end up with a lot of extra liquid, though - next time I'll start out with 3 cups of water instead of 4.
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50 Great Curries of India
By Camellia Panjabi
Silverdale Books - 2005
Loved the flavor of this, although there seemed to be too much sauce - next time I will use more than one pound of eggplants.
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From Mom With Love . . .: A Complete Guide to Indian Cooking and Entertaining
By Pushpa Bhargava
Crest Books, Inc. - 2009
I would definitely precook the potatoes next time - despite cutting them into small pieces they took far longer than the recommended 5-7 minutes to cook. I really enjoyed the flavor of the spices, though.
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Classic Indian Cooking
By Julie Sahni
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1980
Yum. I used 2 cups of whole-milk yogurt and omitted the sour cream; substituted cilantro for mint; and refrigerated the raita for about 2 hours before serving. This was a delicious accompaniment to my dinner.
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660 Curries
By Raghavan Iyer
Workman Publishing - 2008
Wow - I found this to be a totally novel way to put together two ingredients that I think of as traditionally Southern. You have to like okra in all its goopy glory to eat this stuff, though. Embrace the slime!
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Very good - but you have to be a fan of beets to like this, it's still very earthy. Use the beets the same day you buy them so the greens won't be too wilted.
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This blend is very aromatic; the flavor is heavy on cinnamon.
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Outstanding! I upped the amount of mace a bit. Use the really small, thin-skinned bell peppers (from the farmer's market) if you can get them. I also used skinless bone-in chicken thighs, as I typically do with chicken stews in general, and thought it was great with the dark meat - moist with extra flavor from the bone.
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Delicious. I had been looking for a different way to eat green tomatoes, and this is it. I used tiny eggplants, both globes and long skinny ones, from my farmer's market. I wouldn't use a big eggplant from the supermarket, it won't be as flavorful. I like eggplant skins, so I'll always make this recipe with small eggplants.
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So yummy! The paste gummed up my blender, so I could never get it down to a smooth consistency, but the flavor was great even with a somewhat chunky sauce. Use really fresh cauliflower for this one.
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