Six Spices: A Simple Concept of Indian Cooking [Paperback]

The art of Indian cuisine at your fingertips.

Neeta Saluja simplifies Indian cooking with a unique approach to its preparation. She focuses on the fundamentals—the special ingredients and techniques every cook can use to create fragrant, delicious, and well balanced dishes.

Six Spicesdemystifies the exotic and complex flavors of Indian cuisine by explaining the characteristics of its essential ingredients—hot chili powder,
aromatic coriander, sweet cumin, roasted nutty mustard seeds, bold asafetida, and hearty turmeric. But here is the twist: the book also reveals the methods used to incorporate them into exquisite, authentic recipes.

Keeping clarity and simplicity in mind, Saluja has created recipes easy enough for beginners, yet inspirational enough to encourage inventiveness in the more seasoned cook.

Readers will discover that seasoning withchounkis one of the basic techniques used to enhance the flavor of beans and legumes. A dish of red lentils will become memorable when infused with aromatic seasoning of hot ghee, fresh herbs, and spices; and cooking with masala, or curry paste, can turn a humble dish into the essence of Indian cuisine.

Saluja has taken the fear out of approaching unfamiliar culinary fare. Her recipe collection has been tasted and tested throughout her more than twenty years of teaching and cooking Indian food.

INTRODUCTION

When I arrived in Australia from the city of Bhopal in the central province of India, the weather was cold and blustery. I felt alone in an unfamiliar land and among people I did not know. I thought I knew English, but in Sydney it was spoken with an accent that was hard for me to understand. Almost immediately, I regretted leaving friends and my native land. But these feelings soon passed as I was reunited with my parents, who had immigrated to Australia the previous year. Once I arrived, I was happy to learn that my mother had keptlãš