Lord Krishna's Cuisine: Authentic Indian Vegetarian Cookbook - Traditional Recipes for Home Cooking & Spiritual Gatherings

I was in search of an Indian cooking bible, something like Julia Child's Art of French Cooking. Of South Asian origin myself, I was taught that Madhur Jaffrey was the go-to, but found her recipes - at least the older books - quite a palaver. Rick Stein is great if you want that huge spice kick I crave sometimes, though he's better with meat dishes. There are loads of popular Indian cookbooks for those that want to occasionally cook something Indian-ish, but despite all the 5-star reviews, these generally tend to be under spiced and targeted to western palates.What I wanted was something with the authentic flavours and spice grouping that I get whenever I go back to India, a reference that would actually show me the how-to and why so that eventually, I would be able to cook Indian dishes without recipes. This book definitely fit the bill. Clear and precise directions on the proper way to soak basmati, how to make homemade dahi and parathas and all sorts of dishes I never even knew existed. It is a cooking course in a book.No, there are no pictures - there are a few drawings - and I thought this would bother me, but it doesn't, perhaps because I'm already familiar with many of the dishes. The recipes are thorough and straightforward.I was a little miffed when I read the vegetable section and realised this was 'Vedic' cooking, i.e. no onions or garlic. This sounded like sacrilege for someone who grew up to the smell of fried onions and garlic. But I took it as an opportunity to properly learn how to handle Indian spices and aromatics.I've only tried 2 recipes so far - have marked up plenty to try in the future - and both my wife and I (both South Asian) were very pleased with the results. They were in line with what we would expect from home cooking/dhabas in South Asia and this is precisely what I wanted.