Essential Indian Cookbooks

Indian cooks tend to make recipes from their own communities (Gujrati, Punjabi, Sindhi, etc.), and so when I grew up I basically knew how to make what my mother (a Sindhi) and what my father (a Manglorean Christian) taught me. Indian cookbooks opened up whole new worlds, introducing me to a range of ethnic specialities that I had rarely eaten and never made myself. I've gone through vegetarian phases (very brief ones!) in my life, and many of these were crucial in that process -- no cuisine does vegetarian quite like Indian does.

Here are the books I consider essential, with a few extras thrown in for good measure.