Review of Indian curry - The way the restaurants make it
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Zanne Crystle
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- Latest Review: Indian curry - The way the restaurants make it by Carl Williams
Review of Indian curry - The way the restaurants make it
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Indian curry - The way the restaurants make it" by Carl Williams.]
Indian Curry: The way the restaurants make it by Carl Williams is a cookbook that can help you make quick, flavorful curry dishes that taste like authentic dishes from Indian restaurants. Williams’ very short cookbook only has a few recipes of popular curry dishes and tells you everything you need to know to fix your home versions of these dishes. The book has recipes for vindaloo, madras, korma, rogan josh, bhuna, dhansak, and even recipes to make the different types of meats that can be used in these curry dishes. Williams gives the secret ingredient that restaurants use to make these dishes quickly and with an authentic flavor. The secret is the first recipe shared in the book, and it’s a curry base sauce that is used in all the curry recipes. Besides the popular curry dishes, there are also recipes for variations of rice and naan bread that should pair well with the curry dishes for a well-rounded meal.
At the beginning of each recipe, Williams introduces each dish with some interesting bits of information about the dish, like what ingredients make the dish unique and what kind of meat is usually added. Thankfully, it’s short and doesn’t ramble like the introductions on cooking blogs. After the short introduction, there is a list of ingredients, followed by the steps to get all the ingredients prepped and ready to go into the pot. I appreciate that Williams added a checklist for what the finished prep should look like. I hate going over the list of ingredients and the preparation instructions before I start cooking. It’s so tedious. Having a checklist was convenient and was a great touch to the book.
After the checklist are the cooking steps. The cooking steps are simple. They are just adding the ingredients into one pot at the right times and in the right order. Plus, the instructions have tips like how long to sauté each ingredient and what temperature to set your stove at, such as low, medium, or high, so you won’t be guessing. I made the curry base sauce and the vindaloo, and I think they turned out great. I can’t wait to try the others. I can’t say for sure it’s exactly like a restaurant dish, as there’s a lot of variation between restaurants, and different people have different expectations. But I can say that it tasted great and better than my previous attempts using an online recipe. All of the ingredients were easy for me to find, and I don’t think it would be a problem for most people.
I also liked that the book is short. Since there are only a handful of recipes, it feels more manageable. I’ve owned cookbooks with dozens of recipes and barely used them. Since there are only a few recipes, I feel like I can actually take the time to learn and perfect each dish.
That said, the book isn’t without flaws. There are quite a few grammatical mistakes throughout, which were very distracting. They don’t make the book unreadable, but it definitely needed more careful proofreading because the mistakes are very obvious. And it’s not just grammar mistakes. I noticed that the interesting fact about vindaloo is repeated under the madras recipe. The same happens with the interesting fact about vindaloo and the interesting fact about madras, which are repeated under the korma recipe. It’s a small thing, but it stood out.
Also, the pictures in the book could definitely be improved. Some are too small or seem stretched, which detracts from the overall visual appeal. There weren’t pictures of the finished dish for each recipe, which was definitely surprising. Since the book is short, I expected at least one picture for each dish. The book would have been more appealing if a high-quality picture of the completed dish had been included at the start of each recipe. Pictures in cookbooks usually motivate me to try the recipe and also give some visual guidance that makes me more confident. Unfortunately, this aspect is lacking.
The book isn’t perfect, but I enjoyed it because the recipes are time-friendly, easy to follow, and use ingredients I can actually find, and the book isn’t too long or complicated. Unfortunately, I have to remove stars because of the poor editing, organization, and lack of good pictures. I think these issues bring down the reading experience of the book. So, I’m rating the book 3 out of 5 stars. To improve the rating, I recommend updating the book with more thorough editing and better visuals. I still recommend this book to anyone looking for simple recipes to make restaurant-quality curry dishes at home.
******
Indian curry - The way the restaurants make it
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Indian Curry: The way the restaurants make it by Carl Williams is a cookbook that can help you make quick, flavorful curry dishes that taste like authentic dishes from Indian restaurants. Williams’ very short cookbook only has a few recipes of popular curry dishes and tells you everything you need to know to fix your home versions of these dishes. The book has recipes for vindaloo, madras, korma, rogan josh, bhuna, dhansak, and even recipes to make the different types of meats that can be used in these curry dishes. Williams gives the secret ingredient that restaurants use to make these dishes quickly and with an authentic flavor. The secret is the first recipe shared in the book, and it’s a curry base sauce that is used in all the curry recipes. Besides the popular curry dishes, there are also recipes for variations of rice and naan bread that should pair well with the curry dishes for a well-rounded meal.
At the beginning of each recipe, Williams introduces each dish with some interesting bits of information about the dish, like what ingredients make the dish unique and what kind of meat is usually added. Thankfully, it’s short and doesn’t ramble like the introductions on cooking blogs. After the short introduction, there is a list of ingredients, followed by the steps to get all the ingredients prepped and ready to go into the pot. I appreciate that Williams added a checklist for what the finished prep should look like. I hate going over the list of ingredients and the preparation instructions before I start cooking. It’s so tedious. Having a checklist was convenient and was a great touch to the book.
After the checklist are the cooking steps. The cooking steps are simple. They are just adding the ingredients into one pot at the right times and in the right order. Plus, the instructions have tips like how long to sauté each ingredient and what temperature to set your stove at, such as low, medium, or high, so you won’t be guessing. I made the curry base sauce and the vindaloo, and I think they turned out great. I can’t wait to try the others. I can’t say for sure it’s exactly like a restaurant dish, as there’s a lot of variation between restaurants, and different people have different expectations. But I can say that it tasted great and better than my previous attempts using an online recipe. All of the ingredients were easy for me to find, and I don’t think it would be a problem for most people.
I also liked that the book is short. Since there are only a handful of recipes, it feels more manageable. I’ve owned cookbooks with dozens of recipes and barely used them. Since there are only a few recipes, I feel like I can actually take the time to learn and perfect each dish.
That said, the book isn’t without flaws. There are quite a few grammatical mistakes throughout, which were very distracting. They don’t make the book unreadable, but it definitely needed more careful proofreading because the mistakes are very obvious. And it’s not just grammar mistakes. I noticed that the interesting fact about vindaloo is repeated under the madras recipe. The same happens with the interesting fact about vindaloo and the interesting fact about madras, which are repeated under the korma recipe. It’s a small thing, but it stood out.
Also, the pictures in the book could definitely be improved. Some are too small or seem stretched, which detracts from the overall visual appeal. There weren’t pictures of the finished dish for each recipe, which was definitely surprising. Since the book is short, I expected at least one picture for each dish. The book would have been more appealing if a high-quality picture of the completed dish had been included at the start of each recipe. Pictures in cookbooks usually motivate me to try the recipe and also give some visual guidance that makes me more confident. Unfortunately, this aspect is lacking.
The book isn’t perfect, but I enjoyed it because the recipes are time-friendly, easy to follow, and use ingredients I can actually find, and the book isn’t too long or complicated. Unfortunately, I have to remove stars because of the poor editing, organization, and lack of good pictures. I think these issues bring down the reading experience of the book. So, I’m rating the book 3 out of 5 stars. To improve the rating, I recommend updating the book with more thorough editing and better visuals. I still recommend this book to anyone looking for simple recipes to make restaurant-quality curry dishes at home.
******
Indian curry - The way the restaurants make it
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
