Indian Vegetarian Cooking

I liked this cookbook a lot. It is well organized, doesn't make many assumptions (Uses the Imperial/Metric and "American" systems of measurement), and easy-to-follow recipes (most have 3-5 steps). Really liked the Aloo Tamaatar Bhurta and the Bhaante Ka Bhurta.

This book is very easy to follow and has many great recipees. I would definitly recommend it to beginning cooks.

Michael Pandya covers a wide range of recipes, so that almost anyone interested in learning how to become an Indian chef would be able to find favorites, and create well-balanced meals. Although not comprehensive, the book is very practical. It introduces the reader to a multitude of spices and teaches how to prepare everyting from scratch. The northern cooking is not well represented (which is by no means an impediment to the book), so the readers who are interested in milder flavors can complement this book by "Himalayan Mountain Cookery", by Martha Ballentine (Publisher: Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science & Philosophy of the USA).

Pandya has done a good job. There are few cookbooks that detail the home made taste of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as well as other North Indian states, and not the typical restaurant type menus. It was a pleasure to find dishes that were made using ingredients like turnips, beets, bitter gourds, okra,not so easily found in other books on Indian cuisine.