600 Curries Cookbook Review

Cook Indian Food at Home Chef Raghavan Iyer's Book

Feb 23, 2009 Elizabeth Bastos

With chef Raghavan Iyer's cookbook 660 Curries in the kitchen, it's possible to cook Indian food restaurant recipes at home, with tremendous success.

It takes a certain courage for to cook Indian food in an American kitchen. Spices are unfamiliar and not readily available; some methods of preparation are out of the usual - for instance: the tandoor oven.

Chef Raghavan Iyer Goes Beyond Curry

But for many Indian food lovers who cannot get enough of the spiced and fragrant meals of their local curry take-out, cooking at home is a acceptable challenge. They say, bring it on! Who doesn't want to put out on the homey kitchen table a platter filled with incredible sag paneer, the North Indian specialty made with spinach, cilantro and fresh, home-made cheese? And what about gulab jamun, the sinfully rich sweet balls made with that same cheese, plus honey, cinnamon, and cardamom? The heady smell of cardamom-scented basmati rice filling the house makes the option of the average weeknight macaroni and cheese dinner seem hopelessly old-school and boring. Indian food is where it's at.

Plus, aside from the cream and cheese-centric dishes of Northern India -- the kind of subcontinental cuisine Americans are most familiar with -- Indian food is healthy. Vegetables and grains never had it so good as when prepared by Raghvan Iyer, the author of the cookbook 660 Curries. The book is biblical in proportion and should have a place of honor in your kitchen, next to Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's a masterpiece.

Exotic Indian Food At Home

Have a load of turnips from the local CSA (community-supported agriculture) and don't know what to do? Raghavan Iyer provides a recipe for kidney bean and turnip stew with fennel, cumin, turmeric, onion, and tomato that transforms the humble turnip into a Disney princess. People who say they hate vegetables will be filling their bowls to the brim.

For every piece of meat, green leaf, legume and grain 660 Curries has an all-star spice treatment. Think spinach and cabbage don't go together? Think again. They do, and so harmoniously you'll want to plant more in your container garden so you can gather them frequently.

Chef Iyer takes the home chef by the hand. His writing is pragmatic, funny, and embellishes the book with stories of his own experiences cooking. His young son was one of his happy recipe tasters.

Indian Spice Mixtures

The first section of 660 Curries is devoted to spice mixtures, blends, and pastes. What is bottled as "curry seasoning" in grocery stores is a misnomer, and don't waste your money on it. Curry to an Indian cook is not just one blend of spices, but many and each Indian home cook as their own special mixture which is usually ground fresh from whole seeds that have been pan-roasted to bring out maximum flavor.

This is Indian food 101 and really important as a foundation; get the spice blends down and the recipes that follow will flow like the Ganges. The food history and food culture of India is giant, with much to learn and experience. Start with 660 Curries and grilled chicken with cashew tomato sauce and get a taste. There's no going back to bland.

Armed with the cookbook 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer, Indian cooking is

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