Indian-ish: The Final Verdict

June saw us take to a new frontier: Indian food. I’ve always had a great love for east Asian cuisines, although I’ve long lived the bastardized American versions of a lot of iconic dishes like pad thai and fried rice. I’ve dabbled in curries, usually from a canned jar. Indian-ish brought me to the world of Indian food by knocking the canned sauces out of my hand, and I’ll be forever thankful for it.

I’ve never thought of Indian food as much more than X, Y, Z curry. America does not have a deep Indian history compared to countries like Britain with a large Indian immigrant population, so I have never so much as walked into a dedicated Indian restaurant in my whole life. Opening up Priya Krishna’s ode to her childhood changed my thoughts on Indian food in America, and I will long be thankful for this cookbook.

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The techniques used in several of the recipes bring such deep flavor to the dish that I never would have expected. For example, my favorite side dish from Indian-ish, potato sabzi, begins by frying whole spices in oil before you really get down to the cooking. Not only does it open up the seeds, it infuses every freakin’ drop of oil with the insides of those lovely seeds. Not one hunk of potato or red pepper went without. We do this in some western cuisines, but it's often with raw vegetables such as a mirepoix.

Most of the book is vegetarian, a fine reflection of the actual eating traditions of India. The book challenged me as a woman who can’t go without a protein to face the music: vegetarian food is good and flavorful. You don’t miss out if you miss the meat. The vegetarian base of the cookbook is not the only challenge. Many ingredients arise that I haven’t tried before, like lentils, and Priya and her mother Ritu make them very accessible.

The lovely thing about Indian-Ish is that the whole book begins by walking you through how to get some of the more specialty ingredients that won’t be in the average supermarket. This is a nice touch. I’ve struggled in the past to locate ingredients for some of the more unusual cookbooks in my collection, and while yes, Amazon is often the answer, Priya lays out a path to try before you give your business to Jeff Bezos. If you have the opportunity to give your business to a local specialty market, absolutely do that first.

Now, I’ll admit that I haven’t done as much cooking as I would like from Indian-ish. My surgery on the 17th has rendered me essentially incapable of tasting food during my recovery. It is perhaps worse than the repeated sinus infections that took me to getting surgery. As a home cook and an avid cookbook reader, I don’t need to make every dish out of the cookbook to know that this is one that’s going to stay on my shelf for the weeks that I need a little more adventure in the kitchen.

You can find Indian-ish on amazon and at your local bookstores. If you’re interested in a free preview, Priya demos her saag feta recipe on Bon Appetit’s youtube channel. This recipe is the one that convinced me to buy the book. Check it out if you’re on the fence about Indian-ish. I highly encourage you at least try this recipe, which is also featured in the cookbook, to see another side of Indian food that we don’t acknowledge in most of America.

Stay tuned for more information about the July Cookbook of the Month!