With their most recent cookbook, Home Baking
, the authors of Seductions of Rice
and Hot Sour Salty Sweet
strayed slightly from the kind of pungent Asian food that is their strength, but they're back on track with this paean to the subcontinent, which they've been visiting separately and together since the 1970s. The many dals, like soupy Easy Karnataka Chana with chickpeas and salads like Nepali Green Bean-Sesame Salad are simple and terrific. Entrees are often spicy and always authentic, like Goan Pork Vindaloo, made by rubbing a vinegar-spice paste into the meat. A chapter on street foods is full of promising tidbits, including the suggestion that readers make fried foods such as Mushroom Pakoras with Fresh Herb Chutney for guests (so long as they don't mind spending a whole lot of time in the kitchen). Reading Alford and Duguid's chatty text and headnotes is like receiving envy-inducing postcards from a college friend who never gave up backpacking—if you have the sort of friends who would be disposed to build a tandoor oven out of clay and manure or visit Arugam Bay in Sri Lanka based on a tip from a snake-bitten fellow traveler. This is a comprehensive book filled with compelling writing—a worthy addition to the couple's impressive body of work. Color and b&w photos. (On sale Nov. 20)
