Tiffin: 500 Authentic Recipes Celebrating India's Regional Cuisine

A solid contemporary book that compliments out collection of Indian cookbooks (it is hardbound ~500 pages heavy gauge paper and weights about 5 lbs). I presented a copy to my daughter for Christmas and decided to keep it for ourselves—was too heavy to take travel with and we loved it—we ordered another one for her via Prime. Clearly written. Good pictures. Nice description. Partially agree that this is not for beginners but which cookbook ever is? Disagree with haters who have it a one-star review calling it a cut&paste job—it’s not.

I just bought this book and it is exactly what I have been looking for! This book brilliantly tours an impressive variety of Indian food and it goes beyond the conventional dishes you would be more familiar with more europeanized Indian restaurants. It tours different regions explaining their unique cuisines and shows you exactly how to reproduce what you would find in India with recipes that are easy to understand and referenced within the text. Right in the very beginning it tells you about some of the more common ingredients found in Indian cooking and helps familiarize you with things and how they are used. Then it it explains the different spices and goes into great detail about how they are used to impact the flavor. Then it goes off and explains how to prepare some of the more common spice blends and ingredients (various masalas, ginger garlic paste, chutneys, and puff pastry's). There are recipes for making chaats, curies, pilafs, various bread (Naan, roti, dosas), deserts and more. It then gives you different regions and shows you a good sampling of things to try.I feel that I got a great value in purchasing this book. It a well written, hard bound book with beautiful pictures and over 500 recipes ( It is as thick as a college textbook). I honestly don't understand how this book doesn't have a higher rating as I didn't find half of the complaints in the reviews to be true. This book is all about delivering an authentic experience and doesn't take shortcuts in that aim. Yes there are some ingredients that may be harder to find unless you have an Indian market nearby but there are still plenty of recipes that don't need anything that you couldn't find in a decent supermarket. Yes some of these recipes are complex and take some finesse to do well but there are lots of recipes in this book that are straightforward. I have been interested in learning more about Indian food had been intimidated by it in the past. I feel that the author has done an impressive job in presenting the variety and complexity in a very understandable and relatable way. I think this book will keep me busy for a long time to come!

1. If you haven't ever cooked Indian food, this isn't the book for you. Try Madhur Jaffrey's books instead. Many aspects of Indian cooking are taken for granted such as how long to cook certain items - for example Indian pressure cookers work differently from ones in the US and so the time needs to be specified rather than whistles etc. etc. Instead, it is a book where an experienced Indian cook can make excellent food, with some modifications that they know that they prefer. Think jazz, not orchestral music.2. The lack of a decent index is a giant irritant, forcing me to do linear search inside a region. This should be easy to fix.3. A URL to provide feedback on recipes - basically a web site for the book would have been useful.Other than that, this is an excellent book.

The media could not be loaded. I have dozens of Indian cookbooks but there's nothing else like this I've come across. This is the most comprehensive, beautifully published, and seemingly authentic cookbook I have come across yet. All the ingredients have the transliterated Hindi name after them in parentheses so there's absolutely no confusion on ingredients. I would say this is a cookbook for somebody who is familiar with Indian cuisine, ingredients, and cooking techniques already..... I think it might be challenging for the beginner. The cookbook is divided into north south east west and Central cuisine, with a small dissertation proceeding each section. I'm so overcome by the magnificence of this cookbook I'm speechless....... INCREDIBLE. Beautiful photographs, too. It's mostly vegetarian, with some meat and fish in it also, but lesser so. I don't know exactly how many recipes are in it but it seems like hundreds.

This is a beautiful and comprehensive Indian cookbook. I have gifted several copies over the years and everyone loves it. I didn't give five stars because it arrived damaged. :(

I own perhaps a dozen cookbooks on Indian cuisine and cook up a feast once a week or so. This book is not for folks unfamiliar with this and requires many specialized ingredients, so a visit to an Indian grocer is a must. If you are undaunted by these warnings, I highly recommend this book.

This is a gift. After I received the book, it was so difficult to give it away! The photos are exquisite, the book design and layout is amazingly done. There are photos that transport one to the many regions of India without ever leaving one’s living room.I also ordered a beautiful tiffin online. Together, with a few Indian spices included in the package, I think it will make a fantastically creative gift.

Indian cookbooks tend to be difficult because India is so large and Indian cuisine is so diverse. Of the pan-Indian books I've read, Tiffin is the best yet. The recipes are easy to follow and the techniques are clear. More information about particular ingredients would have been helpful, and a more comprehensive index would be nice. But by and large this is a beautiful and useful book.