Book Synopsis:
In this new cookbook, author Rinku Bhattacharya combines her two great loves—Indian cooking and sustainable living—to give readers a simple, accessible way to cook seasonally, locally, and flavorfully. Inspired by the bounty of local produce, mostly from her own backyard, Rinku set out to create recipes for busy, time-strapped home cooks who want to blend Indian flavors into nutritious family meals. Arranged in chapters from appetizers through desserts, the cookbook includes everything from small bites, soups, seafood, meat and poultry, and vegetables, to condiments, breads, and sweets. You’ll find recipes for tempting fare like “Mango and Goat Cheese Mini Crisps,” “Roasted Red Pepper Chutney,” “Crisped Okra with Dry Spice Rub,” “Smoky Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Puree,” and “Red Harvest Masala Cornish Hens,” to name a few. As exotic and enticing as these recipes sound, the ingredients are easily found and the instructions are simple. Rinku encourages readers to explore the bounty of their local farms and markets, and embrace the rich flavors of India to cook food that is nutritious, healthy, seasonal and most importantly, delicious.
Spices and Seasons is available in ebook and hardback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.
My Review:
My husband and I are huge curry fans so we’re always looking for new recipes to try. We really enjoyed trying some of these easy to follow receipes which I am happy to report made some delicious curries! The author includes advice about how to make this vegetarian or gluten free which was very helpful for us as my daughter’s gluten free.
There are some interesting spices and ingredients used in this book which are listed in the helpful introduction at the front of the book. I’d not heard of some of these so enjoyed exploring them and discovering how they all taste. Most of the ingredients aren’t available in a normal supermarket so you will need to have access to an Indian supermarket or specialist shop for them. We’re lucky to have one not far from us but I’m not sure everyone would.
The author’s passion for Indian cookery shines from the page and I loved the background information she gives on every recipe. She helps make the cooking even easier with lots of helpful hints and advice which as a fairly novice cook I found very helpful. There are also some lovely pictures of the food accompanying the recipes which are bound to make your mouth water. I can see this book being a family favourite and I can’t wait to try all the wonderful recipes!
Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Rinku Bhattacharya was born in Kolkata, India and currently resides in Westchester, New York. She teaches cooking classes, maintains a popular food blog, Cooking in Westchester, and writes a weekly column, Spices and Seasons, for the Journal News website.
Over The Rainbow Blog 