World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey, 9/50
I grabbed Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian because I was interested in having a more plant based diet and I found it was a great find because I love it. Jaffrey's writing style is engaging and polished, the recipes are clear and easy to follow and the background she gives the recipes are fascinating. She is an Indian and has many recipes from the Sub-continent, but she also has vegetarian recipes and adapted to be Vegetarian, recipes from around the world. My favorites have been from Cyprus, Morocco, Turkey, and Trinadad. Places from where I have not sampled food before. She explains why the food in Cyprus is distinct from Greece or Turkey and what is unique about Moroccan cooking. (Recipes from Latin America, Korea, France and Italy are easily found. The book is truly a world cook book.)
The first set of recipes are for Dried beans, dried peas and lentils. She begins the chapter with a descirption of her own experience with the food, one I enjoyed reading: "As a child, I remembere sitting with my mother and all the other women of our large Indian household, perpetuating my little place in a family ritual. The oldest woman of the house -- generally my grandmohter -- would place a few handfuls of lentils, split peas, or beans into the big metal plates we each held. Quite automatically, we drew the legumes to the edge nearest our bodies. Then, in an ancient ritual, enacted as if in a half-remembered dance, we began pushing the lentils toward the far side one by one, plucking up and discarding all sticks and stones as we idd so. Sometimes we sang, sometimes we gossiped, sometimes we werre lost in our own silences. As we were doing this in India, Chinese, Syrians, Mexicans and Peruvians were doing the same in their own courtyards, gardens, and kitchens."
A James Beard award winner, listing 650 different recipes, I plan on using this book a lot.
ETA: I can't beleive that I left out that I thought the recipes were delicious.