No recommendations yet. I bought hard copies and they will arrive Sunday. Amazon is amazing in some ways
For me in Boston, it’s been fairly easy to find most of the Ottolenghi ingredients and since Middle Eastern/Eastern Med is what I cook most, I have lots of other uses for the ingredients. Like Jen Kalb, I don’t find most of the recipes fussy and I always find the flavors worth the time and ingredients.
The recipes in the Guardian (sometimes) and in Nopi are more complicated in terms of technique/complexity/number of ingredients. I make my own pom molasses, etc., so that’s where I come from in approaching these recipes. That’s my take; obviously, there are other opinions.
4 Likes
I’ve used Six Seasons a lot…it was a Chowhound COTM. I have way too many cookbooks and need to donate in large amounts, but I will keep Six Seasons.
5 Likes
I can’t deal with ebooks for cooking myself. I’m way too messy and scrolling around with wet/food-ladden arthritic hands is impossible for me. And I spend way too much time looking at screens without cooking with screens. All my news reading is on the web, for example, and I do a lot of email and research and documentation for my family, so even though I do not participate in social media, I’m looking a screen a lot.
The kitchen is a refuge for me!
6 Likes
I haven’t even looked at the new Yossi Arefi but have already asked for it for Christmas! I usually like to try out cookbooks from the library before I buy, but the Toronto Public Library site has been hacked, which has had an alarmingly significant impact on my life. No holds!!
2 Likes
I was looking at the chewy cocoa brownie recipe on the preview, and I didn’t think it was humanly possible to go higher than Alice Medrich’s 10 tbsp of butter, but she adds another 1/4 cup of oil on top of that 
I’m going to give her method a spin the next time I make brownies. (The rest of the ingredients are substantially similar.)
1 Like
NYT’s best cookbooks of the year (gift link). Most surprising to me? An apparently authentic regional Chinese/Chinese American cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen, not known for its facility with recipes outside the American tradition.
I already had library holds on Snacking Bakes (long wait), Bake Smart (currently on order and I’m fourteenth on the hold list, so also a long wait), and Ever-Green Vietnamese.
4 Likes
Thanks for sharing this. I’m picking up Snacking Bakes from the library tomorrow and it turns out that Indian Flavor Every Day is (supposedly) on the shelf - I’ve been looking for a beginner Indian cookbook.
1 Like
I’d also recommend checking out Made in India by Meera Sodha. This was a very successful COTM several years ago on Chowhound, and the recipes are quite approachable.
2 Likes
I just got Snacking Bakes from a friend: can’t wait to crack it open! The Toronto Public Library is STILL recovering from a hacking, so no holds can be placed. I have a very lengthy list when they are back up and running…
4 Likes
I got this from the library and made the chickpea/potato curry for lunches. Yum! I’m seriously considering getting the cookbook although nobody else here will eat any of the dishes, those scaredy-cats…
2 Likes
I created a new discussion for 2024.
2 Likes
Hmm, could you try Mum’s Chicken Curry on them as an entry point?
2 Likes
I didn’t see that in this cookbook - same author different source? I could probably get them to eat a tandoori chicken dish if I call it something different. It’s all about branding…
1 Like
Oh, I thought you were referring to Made in India, but maybe you meant Indian Flavor Every Day. Mum’s Chicken Curry isn’t tandoori, it’s chicken braised in a spiced tomato sauce.
2 Likes
What’s the issue? “Don’t like indian food” or something more specific with spice or flavor profile?
Life is too short to try to convince someone of something they’re dug in on.
(My best friend from college still says she “doesn’t like indian food” though she eats anything Indian-leaning I cook or order, or another Indian-origin friend of ours cooks.)
3 Likes
I’ve run into a few people who say they don’t like curry (or sushi, or spicy food, or perogies ).
The “no curry of any kind” comment happened on a couple dates in my 30s, and in 2 instances, I took it as a flag that the fellows were more closed minded than I’d like.
4 Likes
If you dont want to acquire another tome, Meera Sodha has tons of recipes on the Guardian website.
5 Likes
I had borrowed Indian Flavor Every Day. (If you have that, the chickpea/potato stuff was good!)
Very good questions. My fellow diners are:
(1) DH, who grew up in a very Midwestern household with two parents who cooked for sustenance not for fun. His palate has expanded in our 20 (!) years together, and he learned that he loves some Thai dishes, but Indian scares him, I think.
(2) DS13, who in some ways is a typical teenage boy (burgers and nachos). He’s pretty good about trying new forms of ingredients he knows he likes - eg chicken or tomatoes - but has clear dislikes and forms opinions quickly on the basis of absolutely nothing. Did I mention that he’s a teenage boy?
Neither of them have had any exposure to Indian food beyond the few (very few) dishes I have tried to make. And I don’t know the cuisine well enough to help them navigate. In the past, I’ve gone to buffets and tried all the dishes that looked interesting… unfortunately I can’t do that anymore.
3 Likes
