Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian cooking without the hassle.
For fans of Indian cooking, what can be better than Madhur Jaffrey? – Madhur Jaffrey simplified! The noted cookbook writer, who has won the James Beard Award six times, has taught countless women – and men – how to cook. Now she’s set off on a very 21st century mission: Saving time in a hectic world. These recipes retain the classic touch without the classic toil of gourmet Indian food.
In ‘At Home with Madhur Jaffrey’, she has made the recipes for complex dishes easy and quick – simple to make in a rushed, complicated world. The dishes are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, emphasizing the unique flavors of each of these countries.
She’s gone back to her childhood to recreate some of the leisurely, sumptuous dishes at a fraction of the time involved. Thus roasted almonds specked with black pepper, stirfried peas in pods, and papaddoms made in the microwave become quickie snacks which add spice to drinks.
At a recent book launch for ‘At Home with Madhur Jaffrey’ organized by Indo-American Arts Council at the rare book art gallery of Glenn Horowitz, guests included Shashi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda, as well as the author Ved Mehta. At an intimate after-party at the home of Glenn Horowitz and writer -filmmaker Tracey Jackson, the dinner menu honored Jaffrey with several dishes made from recipes in her book.
At the launch, Jaffrey talked about how these recipes could free one up for relaxing, watching favorite Mad Men episodes, and yet have wonderful food on the table for the family. Having lived in the US for so many years, she has transformed her own cooking to make it simpler and take advantage of shortcuts.
These are recipes where fresh produce is the star and simple steps like stir-frying and marinating enhance the flavors while cutting the time. The palette of spices transform ordinary ingredients like eggs into something very special such as Masala Omelette or Indian Scrambled Eggs. The corner deli would never have thought of adding whole cumin, brown mustard seeds and chopped coriander to the eggs it dishes out!
The dishes include everything from fish and seafood to lamb, pork and beef, and the vegetables, daals and breads which are such an important part of an Indian meal.
The major tools seem to be the refrigerator and the oven, and great spicing, along with simple methods. The blender is another secret weapon as some curries are made completely in the blender and hence known as blender curries.
Traditionally, curries take forever to make, as the onion needs to be browned or ‘bhunoed’ but these new recipes take shortcuts. An example is the Stir-fried Chettinad Chicken, the famous dish from Tamil Nadu made by the Chettiyars who are a trading community in the South. The dish is rich with black pepper, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, cinnamon and urad dal. Complex as it is, it takes only 7 minutes to make. The secret is in the marinating which is done in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
From Kerala Lamb Stew to Pakistani Goat Curry to Goan Style Dal Curry, the book has scores of inventive recipes, 32 photos by Chrisotpher Hirsheimer, and surprisingly, some winsome decorative drawings by Jaffrey.
Anyone leading today’s frenzied life will really appreciate these stir-frys, blender curries and no-fry dishes where you can put things into the oven and forget about them – and later sit down to a rich and fragrant curry! For those intimidated by Indian cooking, ‘At Home with Madhur Jaffrey’ makes the process fun, easy – yet flavorful and rich. A cookbook whose time has come.
Here are some gourmet dishes from the book which don’t require you to be chained to the cooking range.
Related Article: Madhur Jaffrey – Mistress of Spices
