Indian for Everyone: The Home Cook's Guide to Traditional Favorites

Singla's (Vegan Indian Cooking) latest guide to Indian cooking may be her best yet. Over the course of the book's 100 plus recipes, she guides home-cooks through classic Indian cuisine, offering courses that are complex enough for experts but approachable enough for the novice. After covering the key qualities of basic spices, Singla instructs readers on how to create the many masalas (spice blends) and chutneys they'll be relying on later to create Vegetable Samosas, Aloo Gobi, Tandoori Chicken, and the many lentil and bean-based dals that Indian cuisine is known for. Those easing their way in will appreciate cross-cultural riffs like Grilled Ginger-Garlic Chicken and Pav Bhaji, aka Veggie Sloppy Joes, a popular street food served atop buttered, toasted bread. While many of Singla's recipes will work for vegans, she goes a step further by offering vegan variations on meat-based dishes like Indo-Chinese Chile Chicken (a spice-laden mashup that substitutes tempeh for meat) and Punjabi Chile Chicken (subbing tempeh, extra-firm tofu or seitan). Though the length of her recipes may seem daunting, her style, a blend of rote instruction coupled with coaching and informative asides alerting readers to key steps in the process, assures readers they're on the right path, and is sure to increase confidence and success. Those looking for an introduction to Indian cuisine they can grow with would do well to give this some serious consideration. An impressive and useful addition to the canon. (Oct.)