List of Contents
“The inspirational aroma of spices that drifted in from my mother’s kitchen
excited my senses and intrigued me to an extent to foray into the culinary world and train to be chef.”
Veteran Chef Dr. Manjit Singh Gill
Are you a foodie who simply loves Indian cuisine but is confused by the huge variety of spices used while cooking? This latest Indian recipe book, ‘Masala Dabba’ by Chef Michel Swamy published by Om Books International gives you the answer. As the name suggests this book is an ode to the Indian masalas or spices. The spice box or the masala dabba has a significant role to play in Indian cuisine. In this book, the author, chef Michael Swamy, digs in the variety of Indian Spices, their importance, and recipes to make different spice blends that are used in various gourmet recipes.
What Didn’t Work:
- The whole book has a lot of high-quality photographs which keep reading through the content engaging. Since recipes of varied masalas like garam masala, meat masala, paanch phoran have been given in the book, including photographs of the ready masala blend against each recipe could have worked better as a ready reference.
What Worked in this latest Indian recipe book:
- The book is a comprehensive guide for the various masalas or spices. So it has tips right from buying and storing spices to their diverse blend preparations and use in any Indian dish.
- Masala Dabba book by Michael Swamy has a lot of recipes of the key masala blends like meat masala, garam masala and more explained.
- A bit of contextual trivia about each of the recipes given at the beginning is interesting to read.
- The language used in this latest Indian recipe book is simple.
- The vegetarian and non-vegetarian fod recipes given in the book are different from the cliched ones.
- It is quite easy to prepare your own blend of masalas using the recipe given in this book.
- Glossary towards the end of the book is quite helpful.
About ‘Masala Dabba’ Author:
Chef Michael Swamy is a graduate of the prestigious Cordon Bleu Culinary School, London. He did his specialization in bakery and patisserie post which he trained under several Chefs in the UK. Michael Swamy played a pivotal role in the menu creation of several top restaurants like The Bowl House , Kuwait Airways, Peppermill Bistro (Bangalore), Food Arena in Pune and more. Apart from this, he has worked at The Bombay Brasserie in London, a Taj Property. But he is especially known for his contribution to Virat Kohli’s restaurant ‘NUEVA’. It is India’s first Latin American Restaurant where the chef has created a menu called“Gardens Land & Sea”.
In addition to this, he has authored books like ‘The East Indian Kitchen’ which won the Gourmand Award 2011-12 in the Best Indian Cookbook (Technical) category, ‘Easy Guide to Pairing Indian Food and Wine’ & ‘Comfort Food’ published by Om Books & co-authored with Mugdha Savkar. ‘Masala Dabba’ is the latest Indian recipe book written by him.
Buy Here:
Amazon: Rs. 697
Verdict:
‘Masala Dabba’ by Michael Swamy is an all-encompassing take on the Indian spices. The recipes are fresh yet the traditional spices bridge and bring them close to Indian household kitchen. Chef’s travel escapades and learning from the local kitchen make the masala blend recipes authentic. The recipes given in this book have been tried, tested & perfected and so very easy to follow.
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I really want to grab this book …so much to try from this .. thanks for bringing this
As an Indian, I know how tempting India masala blend recipes are. Would love to read this!
I am a book addict. And love to try new recipes in the kitchen. Will surely check out this awesome book.
Amazing and beautiful post. Masala Dhaba is the best cook book. This cook book comprises of Indian recipes. Great thoughts.
My mom would love to read this book as cooking and kitchen are her best time killers..would definetly gift her this book on diwali
this is one book , I must have. My family is foodie and what can be better than a cookbook
Being a food blogger spices are what fascinate me with their endless mix and match options. Love the concept of this book.
The book sounds perfect blend of spices and Recipe. Indeed a must have for food lovers like me. Love to explore this soon.
Sounds like a delightful book. I love the authentoc masalas and its great to have a repository of their recipes finally.
Wow this is such an informative write-up. Would love to get more updates from u in future.
Masala Dhabha, the name itself is perfect for Indian spicy dishes. Wl try some receipies
It sounds like a book of exotic spices mixture. I’m gonna a grab a copy for my Sister in law as she loves cooking different dishes
Nope the book is about Indian spices and recipes made from them. 🙂
I have not tried any recipe book before but this One sounds nice. I really like the name and book cover too. It will also look nice on coffee table
It’s really a choice of book for cooking lovers. As festival season knocking on the door I will definitely buy it from Amazon
Glad to see that this book has vegetarian recipes as well. Indian cuisine is so varied. It can take a lifetime to master Indian cuisine.
Thanks for your review. I’m a novice at cooking and it seems like this book will make the task of learning Indian food much easier overall.
A book about Indian masalas and recipes, is something my mom would love to read. I am sure to get her a copy, heading straight to Amazon now.
Looks like an interesting read! Indian spices and herbs are such a delight to our taste buds. Would love to read this book.
This book sounds amazing! I will definitely check it out very soon. Thank you for reviewing it for your readers.
That sounds like a very promising book. I am a massive fan of the varied Indian cuisine. But I am so bad in cooking. Maybe I should pick up this book and master some recipes.
This is really a great and must have recipe book for every food lover …I surely want to have one copy of this
It’s always make me feel that a right kind of recipe book is very much needed for cooking and food lover and this is one such kind of book …I am surely going to have a copy
Good to know that the recipes are quite different form the traditional ones and they give us new ideas for cooking helathy yet classy meals
Well can’t really classify the recipes as healthy as in fitness p.o.v but yes they are very TASTY!!
As i love cooking and learning new dishes i will defiantly buy this book from Amazon, as well as the name of this book sound attractive. Thank you for sharing this article.
This book is going to be a treat for all who love to cook. But this also looks like containing some useful and handy tips.
Oh yes it has all the info about Indian spices.
My family is a great food lover and it’s a hot cake for me.. I definitely buy it to give my family mouth watering dishes ..
This book grabbed my attention. I am definitely going to check it out. Thanks so much for sharing a review.