Having a CSA share means I have a lot of vegetables! This cookbook gives me some great ideas to use them! Its also a pleasure to just sit and read, absorb the stories and the joy the author has in the food. It even has some naturally gluten-free recipes! As an Egyptian woman, it is also fascinating to me to see how things with similar names to Egyptian dishes are so different in some ways, and similar in others. There's got to be a thread of Empire connecting some of this... it makes me look at my own food heritage with different eyes. ( )

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

This is one of the most user-friendly cookbooks I've ever had the pleasure of owning. Mohanraj provides just enough context and tells just the right stories to situate the recipe within the cultures this book represents, and then moves right along to the nitty gritty of the recipe itself. When we encounter uncommon ingredients, equipment, or techniques, there are plentiful tips on what can be fiddled with or worked around, and we're given a heads up when something is indispensable to the integrity of the recipe. There are helpful notes throughout about consistensies to aim for, or the stages of browning to watch for, or how to make sure your patties hold together. This is not a cookbook that will leave you feeling like you're being tested by Mary Berry in the GBBO tent! No, this book holds your hand and assures you that things will turn out fine.

And they do! Truly! Because the claim that Mohanraj makes which she delivers most thoroughly on is one that appears quite early in the book, in the introduction IIRC: that cooking these things isn't *difficult*. With the right guide - and she is it! - even neophytes will find some level of success.

I am a south Indian myself, so I was very familiar with the idli-dosa-poriyal section of this cookbook. But I'm still a noob at the other two thirds of the book. So far I've tried my hand at the curry buns and the milk toffee, and the results were surprisingly good for a first attempt. My kids made "yellow" ginger-garlic chicken (after I had helped with the chopping up of ingredients) - and they loved the results. I'm going to try the chinese rolls next. Wish me luck! ( )