Cooking Along the Ganges: The Vegetarian Heritage of India

I've had this book for some two years now-- and it has never, ever failed to produce a wonderful dish. If you have a love for Desi food, you need this sucker in your kitchen. Seriously.

This book is more than a cookbook, it is a journey to a world of sight, scent, and flavor enticing the reader to forge ahead and experience a culture of adventure, courtesy, and delicious food.

This is my second cook book,I like the recipes in this one too Malvi Doshi,she had owned the restaurant for over 15 years and then she retired. This book of the recipes is from her restaurant.

Authentic Gujarati recipes.

Update December 3, 2020. 16 years later this still remains the singularly most use cookbook in my library. Even if Indian cuisine isn't your first cuisine with the loving recipes of Malvi Doshi it could well be your favorite. I am back getting extra copies for family members who absolutely love Malvi's cooking. Malvi Doshi is now fully retired still lives in the San Francisco Bay area now over 90 years of age she only cooks for family and a few close friends. She is the director cousin of Mahatma Gandhi and has many of his personal correspondence which she has generously shared with women's museums over the last several decades. She graduated from New York University in 1960 with a masters degree in political science which she achieved while working full-time for the royalty Embassy in New York. She remains the most remarkable chef I have ever known and I count myself blessed to have known her for a little while much less the 30 years that she has been my friend. You cannot find a finer cookbook then the one between these covers.These are recipes you won't find anywhere else. This is a cookbook you will take down again and again. Malvi Doshi writes concisely and in an easy to follow manner from the novice to the expert. I had the good fortune to frequent her restaurant, "The Ganges" when she had it. Alais, there are only two ways to get her cullinary expertise now, live in the Berkley area and attend a class, or this cookbook. Her original cookbook, "A Surti Touch" while out of print remains a well loved (if not food smeared) classic.I personally stopped "collecting" cookbooks with the advent of web based recipe searches, but this book, this book, is more than something to hold a distinguished place on any fine cooks shelf. This book is one to be used and treasured for a lifetime.Thank you, Mrs. Doshi for your wisdom and guidance. I have waited along time for more of your wonderful, mouth-watering recipes!

I consider myself a very experienced amateur cook, with special interest in Asian and Indian cooking. Although I'm not a vegetarian (too many tasty meat dishes to give up), I bought this book based on friends and acquaintences ravings about Ms. Doshi's former restaurant in San Francisco.I have not been disappointed. Unlike most other Indian cookbooks, this one specializes in a relatively unknown regional cuisine of Gujurat. There are many recipes I have not found in other books. Despite the relative obscurity of these recipes, the book manages to describe them very thoroughly and all the recipes I have tried thus far have been fairly easy to follow. An added plus is that minimal oil is used so this book would be very good for the health conscious.In summary, the strengths of this book are the great number diversity of recipes, excellant writing, thoroughness of descriptions, and inclusion of relatively hard to find recipes. The only major weakness is the paucity of illustrations. I would highly recommend this cookbook to Indian cuisine afficianados who want to learn more about Indian cooking beyond the usual curries and tandoori dishes.

I have been using this book for over 2 months and I can't express in words how much I've enjoyed it. A good friend of mine, who used to live in San Francisco and was a regular customer at The Ganges restaurant, recommended purchasing any cookbook written by Malvi Doshi. I'm new to Indian cooking so I was a bit intimidated by Indian cooking with all its spices. However, this book is very easy to followed and detailed so that I felt at ease, even as a beginner, in preparing these meals. There are tons of recipes, many of which I have never heard of or tasted at any Indian restaurant. Evertime I have cooked meals from this book for a dinner party, my dinner guests have been very impressed by the tastiness and uniqueness of the meals. I consider this cookbook one of the best I have ever owned.

A vegetarian who grew up in India, but who never really mastered Indian cooking (I was what Americans would call a "military brat") I find this book to be absolutely essential. The recipes I've tried thus far -- my favorites being the Biryani (spicy rice with yogurt) and the 'Gulab Jaman' dessert (rose-flavored dumplings) -- have yielded dishes that remind me of the best meals that I enjoyed in India, when I last lived there.In addition to the hundreds of scrumptuous, majority low-fat recipes in this book, I particularly appreciate Chef Doshi's attention to detail in explaining procedures and ingredients. Chef's Doshi's knowledge is vast, and the wonderful stories with which she embellishes her text are an added delight. Highly recommended for novice and advanced cooks alike!