Oh, and PS...

[desperance]

While I have your attention, here's the finest bag of Black Eye Beans ever to grace a grocery shelf:





(Yup. That's channa dal, that is. If it weren't comestible, I'd add it to my collection of Glorious Misprints. As it is, well, it shall be comested. But preserved none the less for posterity, through the glorious medium of art photography...

Comments

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Is that 'the Taj Mahal of cookery books' that it's resting on?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

According to the Chicago Tribune, it is. It's actually Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. Which contains, inter alia, my favourite-ever method for raita. Which I always need to look up, because it is a little intricate.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

PS - by Yamuna Devi. The book. I forgot that bit. (Authors? Who ever remembers authors?)

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I've had a copy for a few years, which is how I recognised the cover peeking out from behind the black beans dhal.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I've had mine for - oh, fifteen years at least. Maybe longer. I don't use it much (hell, I don't use any of my cookbooks much, though I have many hundreds and keep buying more), but it's a fallback when I have vegetarian guests; the search for something that will interest both them and me usually leads to Indian food.

And, as I say, raita. Om-nom-nom. Helen is coming to dinner tonight; I had meant to do octopus and scallops, but there was no octopus, can you believe it? So, curry...

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I buy cookery books, read them, and then, having absorbed most of what I need to know, put them on the shelf where they stay for years.

There's a thing in there, can't remember how it's supposed to be, but it has morphed into me frying up cumin and garlic, pre-cooked green leaves, and mung dhal that has been cooked until soft. Then I beat in lotsandlotsandlots of butter and it turns into amazing comfort food. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of that book. I like a cookery book that is too serious for glossy pictures :-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Me too - though I confess I am a sucker for glossy pictures also, just so long as they are not step-by-step illustrations of how to cook, because I hate to be patronised.

I just bought Grace Young's "The Breath of a Wok", which is full of pix of China and food and cooking, and is entirely scrummy...

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Do you have Thai Food by David Thompson? The one that's bound in fuchsia pink silk... That's a book to stroke and drool over.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup. Had that since day one, pretty much.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I think I'm getting the measure of your cookery book habit...

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Watching you playing "Top Trumps" cookery books is a wonderful spectator sport.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I just measured. I have about forty-five feet of cookery books, more or less. I may have missed a few...

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm impressed by the size of your collection ;-)
I have one cookery shelf and use that as a way to stop myself from buying all the cookery books ever.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ah. You have spotted my weakness: there is no way to stop me from buying all the cookery books ever. These days, I have the Lit & Phil's leftover bookshelves, but I used not to. Lack of shelving has never stopped me buying books. They stack, you know...

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

That was a very fun WTF? moment. But now I want red lentils stewed with apricots, and red lentils are very hard to find here.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Where? Where in the world can red lentils be hard to find? *sends you red lentils, wherever you are*