The Ayurvedic Cookbook

Rating: 4 out of 5

Author: Amadea Morningstar and Urmila Desai

Editor: Amadea Morningstar and Urmila Desai

Year: 1990

Category: Healthy Alternative Cooking

Publisher: Lotus Press

Price: 13 USD

ISBN: 0914955063

This excerpt comes from one of my relatives who has a passion for collecting cookbooks; according to her ayurvedic cooking is a tad bland compared to the usual spicy fare that Indians are so used to. This may well satisfy the palate of those looking for a healthy way of cooking and also for the benefit of our western-Indian food lovers.

Here are some reviews from Amazon.com:

This is a fantastic cookbook for experienced cooks wanting to explore both Indian cooking as well as Ayurvedic cooking. I’ve learned a lot about the appropriate use and balance of traditional Indian spices.

However, if you are relatively new to cooking, you may find the recipes to be a bit difficult. They are pared down for those who are more intuitive with cooking, but you will not have a step-by-step guide on how to do each task, like you might find in grocery store recipe magazines or Betty Crocker cookbooks. I have also run across occasional omissions of ingredients in the directions, and some of the grain recipes call for too much water (way too much).

On the whole, this book has a great net benefit. In fact, it’s the only book I’ve been using for the last 3 weeks. Indian grocers sell incredibly affordable pantry items, and the food is simply wonderful. Please give this book a try!

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This book is slowly turning me from “I don’t like to cook” to “Why not cook” and I cannot wait to try all of those recipes. The pumpkin or sweet potato halva recipe had us on our knees. It is sublime. The Indian tastes are simply like swimming in a deep ocean while the American cooking is more like swimming in a small and shallow pond. Why not jump in on the deeper side of life?

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Tags: ayurvedic cookbook

Here’s a book on Indian cooking which has been one of the top sellers in Amazon. The book is called ‘Indian Home cooking’ written by Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness. The author Suvir Saran is a cooking class teacher and many of the recipes in the book comes from his expertise and also directly from the retaurant which he runs in Newyork called “Amma”. The recipes in the book include:Samosas, Potato Patties, Chicken Tikka masala
Coconut chicken with cashews etc,

 

Some customer reviews of the book :

“I have about 250 cookbooks. I had two Indian cookbooks in my collection, which just collected dust. Not so with Suvir Saran’s “Indian Home Cooking”! I’m a member of a cookbook club. Five of us wanted to explore ethnic cooking and this book was our first selection. We have enjoyed four dinner parties to which we each brought two dishes from this book. We were impressed with each of the forty dishes we tried, eventhough we’re all new to Indian cooking. The beautiful illustrations and clearly written recipes led to success in tackling a new cuisine. The chapter introductions provide insights to important ingredients and techniques. Each recipe has an introduction which might give family anecdote, insight into regional differences, or serving suggestions and variations. I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks Indian cooking is intimidating. You will discover a rich culinary tradition.” – Colleen farnham

This beautiful book makes the fabulous flavors of India accessible even to those who do not want to spend all day cooking. While I have collected many Indian cookbooks over many years, this is the one I cook from.Suvir is a generous teacher who answers all the questions you might have, and you don’t even have to ask! I particularly like it that he tells you how almost almost every dish might fit into a complete Indian meal. He has many suggestions for quick and easy small repasts as well as true “company” presentations. I am a reader of cookbooks even more than a cook, and the warm tone and interesting personal anecdotes that accompany most recipes add to both my reading and cooking enjoyment.

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Here’s a book (ebook) on “Starting your own catering business.” This book covers aspects such as initial decisions required, investement, business setup, marketing and the finance part of it. This book may be especially profitable to work at home moms but others ( like me-:) could also benefit from it.

This is an overview of the contents of the book ( Source : Starting a Catering Business website )

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Table of Contents:

Introduction

Decisions for Starting a Catering Business

Caterers’ Qualifications and Skills
Complying with City Ordinances
Working with Your Local Health Department
On-Premises Catering Vs. Off-Premises Catering
Sharing or Renting a Kitchen
Required Equipment
Start-Up Coverage

Setting up your business:

Setting Up Your Pantry
Smallwares and Utensils
Finding Used Equipment
Establishing a Menu
Setting Up a Kitchen
Service Equipment

Types of Catering Opportunities

Social Catering
Corporate Catering
Community Affairs
Special Events
Kosher Catering
Wine and Bar Service

Event Management

Organizing Your Time and the Party Setup
Managing an Event from Introduction to Conclusion
How to Estimate the Food Quantities
Floral, Decor, and Subcontractors’ Services
Scheduling Staff and Assistants
Hiring Versus Leasing Employees
Outsourcing Entertainment

Marketing your business

Defining Your Niche
How to Get Business
Putting Together a Promotional Kit
Getting Referrals and Repeat Business
How to Advertise your business
Tracking Your Success
Sales
Written Agreements and Contracts
How Much to Charge
Closing the Deal
Keeping a Portfolio

Running your business

Estimating Quantities, and Writing Proposals
Calculating Your Kitchen Labor
Making and Food Presentation
Beverages and Alcohol
Public Service Perishable Food Distribution
Establishing Relationships with Wholesale Purveyors
Insurance Suggestions
Product Liability Insurance
Public Liability Insurance
Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Growing your business

Employing Family and Friends
Food Handling and Sanitation

Appendix

Professional Organizations
Other Resources

BONUS RECIPES

Hors d’Oeuvres
Appetizers
Soups
Entrées
Vegetables
Potatoes, Pasta, Grains
Salads
Desserts

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So Grab a copy if you’re venturing into the business space with your food ideas.

You may get more details of this ebook here…..

Recently my mom purchased a book called Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal: An A – Z Guide to Safe and Healthy Eating. This book was purchased through our ‘Reader’ Digest’ magazine subscription. Usually when you subscribe to reader’s digest they would be sending you some promotional offers from time to time. We have a lot of Music CDs, Books and other gifts that we got from being a loyal Reader’s digest subsciber for many years. So this time it was this book about ‘an A-Z guide for healthy living’ that caught my mom’s eye. And so we bought it. It doesn’t come cheap in India, we paid about 1000 Rs for the book (about $25)….you could easily buy this book for $10 or less from amazon.com…….

It wasn’t until one day a discussion on heart disease came up, so i picked it up and looked to find something on it for Heart and found useful info on several other ailments as well. I have to call the book a table-top collection; It is more of a reference book than a fast-read book. Lots of of vegetables, fruits and other food and cooking related artistic photos are included in most of the pages. You can look up info on foods and on ailments in a dictionary like format along with information in side bars related to specific topics along with photos ofcourse. I even found a topic on “food cravings’ .

For certain topics on the book, ‘side-boxes’ provide useful information , for example if i was looking up in the sectio for Headache, apart from the information provided, a side-box presents youi with what foods to avoid and wnhat to eat, when to consult a doctor and other info.Each topic begins with benefits and drawbacks( for Foods) and for Ailments, the topic begins withwhat to eat and what to avoid…

Overall a very informative book, can be used as a reference book and more than that it is interesting and fun toread with its photos and layout.

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