If I ever have a chance to meet this Amazon reviewer in person - he will get a HUGE hug from me. Love, Love, Love this review for The Indian Slow Cooker! Here it goes: I know this radical new concept is about to blow all of your minds, but theres this crazy thing that kids are doing nowadays called ALTERING A RECIPE. Perhaps youve heard of it? I dont usually write reviews, but I felt so bad for the author, who made a great book thats getting crapped on by people too lazy to alter a darn recipe. The first few times I made Indian food from recipes I found online, I followed the recipes exactly. And my mouth lit on fire every time. Suddenly, I was struck by this ingenious idea to cut down on the spice! So avant garde. Much wow. Usually when a recipe calls for fresh chiles, I either cut it out entirely or put very little. I also halve or third the amount of cayenne. It makes the recipes taste a lot more like the mild, Americanized versions I have in restaurants, which is what Im looking for, because Im hopelessly white and a major spice wimp. The important thing is that you can CHANGE the recipe depending on whatever spice level is appropriate for you. Amazing, right? I am seriously in love with the curried chickpeas recipe from this book -- its quickly become one of my go-to meals. But even with this recipe that I absolutely love, I had to -- guess what? -- ALTER the recipe! The recipe says to put the chickpeas in dry with plenty of water and cook for 14 hours. Im a little wary of that, because Ive always been taught to soak chickpeas overnight and discard the water. So thats what I did. I accordingly cut the cooking time by several hours and put in less water. Ta-da! Meal came out fine. World did not end. Portions too big? Well, I know this sounds crazy, but try cutting the ingredients by half, or even a third, as I did, when I only had a 1.5 quart crockpot. Problem solved! Vegetables too crunchy? Stay with me here, but you can actually cook the meal for longer, or even raise the temperature level, to accommodate for this. Crazy, I know, but try giving it a shot. For me, this book is a godsend. I love Indian food, but all of the other recipes Ive encountered require constant maintenance, and I dont have time to stand over a pan for 2 hours every night. I love that I can throw in some ingredients in the morning, go off to work, and come back with a delicious dinner ready. Any book of recipes is going to require some altering, depending on your individual tastes and preferences. This book is no different. In fact, it might be even more so the case if this is your first time cooking Indian food and youre adapting to an entirely new type of cuisine. And even if this isnt your first time? As the author stated in a comment on another review, India is a huge and diverse place, and there is no one single definition of what Indian food is -- I feel a bit silly for even using the term at all, because I know that the food varies greatly between regions, but alas, Im not well enough informed to make such distinctions. This book has been a great start for me to get acquainted with a new style of cooking, and I hope I can keep on learning from here. Hilarious. Thank you for just putting it all out there!
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:16:03 +0000
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