The Chakhle India Cookbook by Aditya Bal – A Book Review

Chakle India by Aditya Bal is another cookbook which I have received from BlogAdda for a review. Aditya Bal is the well known anchor of NDTV Good Times cookery Show named Chakle India. This book is based on that most popular food show on NDTV Good Times.

Aditya Bal has roamed all over India and is familiar with most of the local cuisines. The saying goes ” World’s best chef’s are Men”. Apart from being the NDTV’s cookery show anchor, he was also a model. He poses well infront of the camera.

The Introduction section begins with Aditya telling us how he grew up. His family is from Punjab, but he was born in New Delhi and he grew up in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. His grandmother was a very talented cook. She had hand-written a number of recipes in many books. She is an indirect source of inspiration to Aditya. She used to bake many cakes for Aditya. For every Birthday he would get a different type of cake. But Aditya has not mentioned a single cake recipe in the recipe book.

He was a great model once upon a time and tried some luck in Bollywood. Later he packed his bags for Goa where he brushed most of his culinary skills. No doubt Goa was is his most favorite food destination. His journey from being a model to a chef is well explained.

The Indian Pantry section well explains the ingredients which are used in the Indian kitchen. All the ingredients and components are divided into groups based on the type of ingredient, along with how it can be used.

Essential Kitchen Gear mentions a list of basic kitchen tools that are required while cooking at home.

Cooking Techniques like Bhunao, Baghar,Boiling,Braising,Yakhni etc are explained with great detail.

Basic Recipes like coconut milk, ginger-garlic paste, kokum extract, tamarind extract, tomato puree and whisked curd are mentioned.

Meat Recipes, Chicken Recipes, Fish and Seafood Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes, Snack and Sweet Recipes are mentioned in details.

The recipes mentioned are well chosen and are specific to a particular region.There are more non-veg recipes mentioned here. The Veg recipes are very limited i.e. just 10 of them to count.

On the negative side, there are a lot of grammatical mistakes and looks like the book has not been reviewed before publishing.

Though the recipes are mouth-watering, the pictures clicked are not very appealing. They don’t have the professional food photography clicks.

An index of the recipes is missing. If there was an index maintained, it would have been easier to find the recipes quickly.

This book is definitely not a buy for the first time cooks.

There are 157 pages in the book.

Priced at Rs. 395/-

Published by westland.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!