{"id":14550,"date":"2017-03-21T04:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/?p=14550"},"modified":"2017-03-21T11:22:41","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T18:22:41","slug":"book-review-vibrant-india-chitra-agrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/book-review-vibrant-india-chitra-agrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Vibrant India by Chitra Agrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Masala dosa with potato curry and cilantro coconut chutney from Chitra Agrawal’s Vibrant India.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

**ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley** <\/span><\/p>\n

Vibrant India<\/a> melds tradition with the modern, capturing and adapting South Indian dishes for the home cook, whether you grew up eating Indian food, or it\u2019s all new.\u00a0 <\/span>The book suggests vegetable variations for dishes that reflect what\u2019s available in the grocery store and farmers markets, while also giving advice that\u2019ll help shoppers new to Indian grocers. 4 stars<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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My husband Ondraus and I were almost\u00a0regulars at a little Indian place on the second floor of a strip mall in Santa Monica. We didn\u2019t go for the weekday lunch buffet with the butter chicken and other Northern Indian dishes you might expect. At All India Cafe, it was about the masala dosa, a giant, crispy rolled crepe filled with spiced potatoes and peas. You’d tear off the end of the dosa for a first bite and dip it into a mint and cilantro chutney. The\u00a0potato curry came in the second and third bites.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>It was a dish reserved for the restaurant: our one attempt at making the dosa at home was a flame out \u2014 the mid ’90s recipe from a book I otherwise love, called for rice flour and farina, aka Cream of Wheat. Needless to say, it just didn\u2019t come out anything like the real thing. I didn\u2019t try making dosa again until I got my hands on Chitra Agrawal\u2019s ode to her family\u2019s South Indian cooking, Vibrant India<\/a>, out today from Ten Speed Press.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rice and lentil crepe dosa is the very first recipe in the book. It was a sign.<\/p>\n

\"Vibrant<\/a>Vibrant India<\/a> offers a full range of South Indian vegetarian dishes including salads and yogurts, soups and stews, vegetable stir-fries, rice and breads, and the chutneys and pickles that go with. What’s the difference between North and South Indian cuisine? The broad strokes, according to Vibrant India, are that South Indian cuisine relies on lentils and rice and features fresh coconut and curry leaves. In contrast, North India cooking features the naan, samosas and curries often featured in restaurants in the US.<\/p>\n

One of the things that made the book really resonate with me is that it’s chock full of adaptations. In bringing recipes from Bangalore to Brooklyn some recipes are adapted for available produce, but more importantly,\u00a0the adaptations don’t compromise the dishes, they reflect\u00a0how Indian-Americans eat and interpret recipes for the place. In a\u00a0Japanese-American home, we might swap in\u00a0a regular cabbage in place of nappa, or sprinkle furikake (seaweed-sesame sprinkle) on popcorn and Chex mix. Vibrant India offers a pickled cranberry version of a condiment usually made with gooseberries or mango, curried popcorn\u00a0and cardamom oatmeal cookies with dark chocolate and golden raisins. It’s both traditional and modern.<\/p>\n

Armed with the knowledge that many of the recipes in the book rely on the combination of black mustard seeds, asafetida, dried red chiles and curry leaves, I headed to a local Indian market, only to bump into a sign in the teeny produce section that said, \u201cSorry, no curry leaves.\u201d (I ended up getting them at Uwajimaya, the large Asian market in the area). So yes, depending on where you live, finding the ingredients may take a little bit of extra effort. But it\u2019s well worth it.\u00a0 <\/span>If you\u2019ve ever wondered why you just can\u2019t replicate your favorite restaurant dishes with what your mega mart offers, cutting corners on ingredients is ONE of the reasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take the opportunity to explore, the book gives the guidance on ingredients and some brands. It\u2019s simply on you to read and use that section. I know I\u2019ve certainly been guilty of skipping right over the front bit to get into the recipes. The book also includes links\u00a0for finding Indian grocers in your area and online resources for ingredients.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Turmeric gives this cabbage stirfry with lemon and coconut its gorgeous yellow color.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I wasn\u2019t crazy enough to make the dosa the very first recipe I attempted from the book. I started with the stir-fried potato curry filling, then the stir-fried cabbage with lemon and coconut. You could easily put those both on the table on any weeknight. Already I\u2019ve bookmarked several recipes, including Pineapple and Peppers in Red Coconut Curry(!), to try as ingredients come into season. I was tempted to make the\u00a0gorgeous salad on the cover, but I\u2019ll wait until closer to summer when the ingredients are really at their best.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Practice makes…better looking dosa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As to the dosa itself. That wasn\u2019t all fun and games. It took a few tries over the better part of a week to get the consistency and cooking right. In the end, I thinned the batter, more like a French crepe and used a copper skillet rather than the cast iron. I also resorted to swirling the batter in the pan rather than using the back of a spoon. I just couldn\u2019t get the temperature right to spread the batter thinly enough. I\u2019ll keep practicing, but it was a vast improvement over our first try at it years ago. \u00a0Ondraus deemed it legit in flavor and execution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vibrant India<\/a> is well worth a place on your bookshelf. If the book isn’t enough, get more from Chitra Agrawal on her blog,\u00a0ABCDs of Cooking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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