Thursday, March 1, 2007

Desperately Seeking Cookbook

The excitement of opening a show and pretending to be famous for a few days aside, today marks a piece of sadness in my life... the day the non-renewable, inter-library-loan, out-of-friggin'-print copy of Madhur Jaffrey's World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking had to go back to the library.

Yes, I own two other Jaffrey cookbooks. But none I liked so much as this one. (Okay, I actually really, really like Climbing the Mango Trees, so maybe it isn't a fair statement. But I'm being maudlin, so I can elegize a little.)

*commences being distraught*

I'm going to get my own copy as soon as I can, but in the meanwhile, how will I remember how to make saag and/or mattar paneer?

*pauses*

Oh, wait. The internet has six kajillion recipes available.

*considers, decides it will be more fun to play distraught for a while*

But how will I know if they are any good?????

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you cook precisely by recipe instead of by feel? It's funny, I figured you for an improviser rather than an exact follower of instructions. Maybe this is a good time to jam, recipe wise ...

Anonymous said...

http://www.allbookstores.com/book/compare/0394402715

Good luck getting the book back! :)

Blue said...

Ennis -- ahem. Two months ago I had no idea what fenugreek, coriander, mustard seed, fennel, or chickpea flour were, much less how to combine them into something palatable and appealing. My cooking consisted of taking things out of boxes and putting them into the microwave. So... I kind of need the instructions.

Daniel -- you are le plus awesome. Much cheaper at that site than at Amazon. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Blue, it just occurred to me that your desi cooking experiments so far have fallen into North Indian cuisine. While Hyderabad has its own distinctive cuisine, Andhra cooking is quite different from Ms. Jaffrey's style. So I would suggest that you try out making a variant of rasam sometime as an entry into Southie cooking.

Blue said...

From Sashi's link:

"Rasam has been known to also cure the common cold."

I love you, Wikipedia.