The Complete Book of Indian Cooking  has all the hallmarks of a Robert Rose cookbook but, in addition, it’s a beautiful book.  It begins with a wonderful, artsy map of India.  The remainder of the book is interspersed with vivid photographs of spices and miscellaneous scenes from India.  The recipe headings are colorful, with ethnic design borders.

The book’s subtitle is “350 recipes from the regions of India.”  That’s a lot of recipes.  One for almost every day of a year, if you’re paying attention to the math.  Because Indian cuisine varies from region to region, the recipes are color-coded and a small map icon in each header indicates what region the recipe is from.  They are roughly divided into north, south, east, and west Indian regions.  Information about each region’s emphases is contained in the introduction, along with foundational information about the major and/or unusual ingredients.

Then we get into the recipes.  These are divided into sections: Appetizers; Chaat; Beans & Lentils; Rice, Cereals & Breads; Eggs, Chicken & Meat; Fish & Seafood; Vegetables; Salads, Raitas & Chutneys; Sweets & Beverages.  Each section has a brief introduction and then is further divided by region.  Recipes that are particularly hot are indicated as “HOT” in the sidebar.

Because of the color-coding, if you prefer to cook by region (for instance if, like my sister, you’ve visited a particular part of India and are interested in recreating that region’s foods), you can simply flip through to the sections of the appropriate color.  Northern India is red, western India is blue, southern India is green, and eastern India is orange.  These colors run in 1.5-inch bands across the tops of the pages, so the whole book is easy to flip through this way.

Another helpful feature is that many ingredients (spices and legumes, in particular) are listed by both their American and their Indian names.  For example, one recipe calls for “split white lentils” and “fenugreek seeds,” but puts in parentheses “urad dal” and “methi.”  Also, measurements are given in both standard and metric.  Notes in the sidebars help those of us who are less familiar with Indian cuisine, with comments about why certain ingredients are used, the origins of the recipes, or what they are typically served alongside.

I don’t have the ability to discern how authentic the recipes here are (although I get the distinct impression they’re pretty authentic), but overall, I’m more impressed with this cookbook than probably any other ethnic cookbook I’ve seen yet.