Book review: Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery

Madhur Jaffrey, originally an actor, has become a key voice in Indian cookery, often credited with bringing the cuisine to the world.

She was a revelation as an Indian person talking about Indian food – rather than it being warped through translation – and she dug down into regionality and sources in a way that commanded authority.

Her first book, An Invitation to Indian Cookery, led to countless others, including Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, which was attached to a TV series in 1982. Now it has been re-released as a 40th anniversary edition, updating the relatively timeless original. “Forty years old but still the best Indian cookbook written to date,” says chef Meera Sodha.

And indeed it contains a whole breadth of dishes, from Bengali black pepper potatoes to Bombay-style chicken with red split lentils. Anglicised dish names are given preference, but the traditional names are listed underneath, so you know Jaffrey isn’t simply throwing ingredients together and calling it Indian.

So many variations of rice are given there’s one for every mood, while fish dishes use species that are readily available in the UK. Lamb is the most common meat in the dedicated meat section, as due to religious diets beef and pork are eaten less – although they do get a look-in with Goan pork vindaloo and Pakistani spiced beef kebabs.

Visually the book has been given a makeoever, with watercolour illustrations by Emma Dibben. The dishes don’t have accompanying photographs, but some feature an illustration by Dibben, perhaps showing how the book has been adapted to the modern reader, who will most likely be more familiar with Indian cookery than in the past.

One almost comical element is the warning on the contents page: whole spices are not intended to be eaten, but rather discarded. Perhaps not everyone knows how unpleasant it is to accidentally chomp into a whole cardamom pod in a biryani, but Jaffrey continues to look out for the less experienced.

Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey (Bloomsbury, £20)