I have all the books you mentioned plus a huge library of other Indian and Chinese. Rasika from the D.C restaurant is good. Also was a big fan of Kurma Dasa and have all his books.
Yippee! Dakshin has gotten a couple more nominations, so now I get to make the case for it. First, to address @JenKalb 's concern about it being too specialized to carry three months… well, it doesn’t have to. That’s kind of the whole point of having three separate books going simultaneously. It allows us to dive into a book like this one, which would probably never have made COTM in the past. I’ll be the first to admit, it is not a quick and easy book. This book is uncompromising in both method and ingredients. These days we have so many “Indian” books published in the US and UK, written by authors living in the US or UK, and they aim to make Indian food and cooking accessible. That’s fine, but that is not this book. This book was published in India in 1992, and in the US in 1994, which is when I bought it. If there has been a better book written on South Indian cooking, I am not aware of it. It’s a slim book, but you have 2 or 3 recipes per page, so it covers a lot of ground. It will definitely require access to a good Indian market, or willingness to mail order (and still maybe substitute some vegetables). But if you are willing to go to some trouble, the results will be worth it.
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to me this is exciting food. Its fully vegetarian (not vegan there is dairy) - am decidedly not vegetarian but these flavor combinations are among my favorites, using inexpensive ingredients (lots of dals used different ways, cilantro chiles, coconut, curry leaves. Padmanabhan has at least 2 other books and they are all good if you cant find Dakshin. Ive loved the food I have made and it would be a pleasure to get this book out and go to work with it again.
How did I not know that she had more books? Of course she would! Well, now that I DO know, they are on their way to me!
Nominations are now closed. Stay tuned for further developments.
I have this on e h e way. Her first book was great
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Apologies for the delayed announcement, life brought some complications the past few days.
So, without further ado, our selections for Spring 2024 COTMs are:
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TENDERHEART: A Book About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds by Hetty Lui McKinnon
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ZAHAV: A World of Israeli Cooking and ISRAELI SOUL: Easy, Essential, Delicious by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook
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DAKSHIN: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan
Tenderheart and the Solomonov books, in particular, include plenty of weeknight-friendly recipes, as well as some more involved ones for when you have more time and ambition. And for those whose public libraries offer access to Hoopla, it has both Zahav and Israeli Soul available on demand.
I will post reporting threads for our selections on April 1, and thank you for your patience.
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Thanks for herding all of us cats through another nomination process.
For those looking for easier/quicker recipes, of the two Solomonov books, Israeli Soul excels in that category. I’d recommend starting with the 5-minute hummus in that book.
This is a pretty exciting mix of books.
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Reporting thread for Tenderheart is live.
*Reporting thread for Zahav and Israeli Soul is live.
Reporting thread for Dakshin is live.
