[.ca] Raji Cuisine: Indian Flavors, French Passion (ISBN 0060192224)

From Amazon.com:
"While mastering the art of French cooking," Raji Jallepalli writes in the introduction to her cookbook, Raji Cuisine: Indian Flavors, French Passion, "one learns to embrace the finesse, formality, control, and order of the classic restaurant cuisine that has evolved primarily through the hands of male chefs. In Indian cooking, you will find simple and quite ancient kitchen traditions laced with spontaneity, intense bouquets, and a very basic approach to preparing inviting meals that has evolved through the hands of women in the home kitchen." The food served at Restaurant Raji in Memphis, Tennessee, is a combination of the two methods. "In my kitchen," Jallepalli explains, "I retain the basic principles and balance of French cuisine while introducing the profound bouquets of Indian cooking." Jallepalli divides her book into chapters that include hors d'oeuvres and appetizers, soups, salads and side dishes, meat, poultry, game, fish, vegetables, and desserts. She begins with Sevruga Caviar and Dal Blinis and ends with Chilled Mango-Saffron Soup. In between you'll find such dishes as Coconut Milk Soup with Lobster and Toasted Poppy Seeds, Veal Medallions Wrapped in Lotus Leaf, Tea-Smoked Quail with Hyderbad Biryani, and Lemongrass Sorbet with Sweet Spice Madeleines. From the natural elegance of the recipes that Raji Jallepalli presents in Raji Cuisine (many of which are illustrated with beautiful color photographs) it would seem that these two threads of culinary tradition have been waiting to merge ever since the Age of Discovery first presented the possibility. Nothing seems forced or contrived. The masculine tradition of the French kitchen has gone home splashed with sandalwood and patchouli, forever changed. These are not every day recipes, but to plan a special dinner party around Raji Cuisine would truly spring a joyful surprise on the unsuspecting. --Schuyler Ingle

Simple and Beautiful:
She has a beautiful philosophy and created a simple book. It is really French dishes with Indian accents (with the exception of some phyllo). As she puts it, Indian cooking tends to disguise the main ingredient while French cooking does the opposite. I learned from her that French cooking is really the simplest cooking, and not to be intimidated by it. And, likewise, not to be intimidated by Indian ingredients. I really love this cookbook.

Not what I had hoped for.:
I cook often and adore Indian food. These recipes are a bit labor intensive as they often require oils and other elements that you must make before beginning the recipes. And the results are good but lack that Indian 'spice' (not heat - but intensity, rather) that I had hoped for. So I will continue to play are with Madhur Jaffrey's authentic (and delicious) recipes, incorporating French elements on my own. I have had better results that way.

Elegant Indian Fare:
Usually cookbooks that are photographed so beautifully have recipes that are impossible to follow or replicate. This is not the case in Raji Cuisine. Most Indian cooking is quite labor intensive, requiring numerous steps. Most of Jallepalli's recipes were quite easy. The real test came when I prepared a 4 course meal using the recipes in the book. My guest were quite pleased, and loved the variety in flavors that usually don't detect in average Indian fare. Since it is sometimes difficult to decide what wine should go with intensely spiced food, I appreciated the wine suggestions for each of the main courses.

Beware: This is not flavorful Indian food!:
I thought this would be the best cookbook ever - Indian spices with elegant French fare. Well, I've made three things from this book and all were pretty bland. If you already have basic cooking skills, you'd be better served by buying an Indian cookbook and applying that philosophy to cooking to meats and vegetables.