India Express: Simple and Delicious Recipes for Every Day

by Rukmini Iyer

Minimum effort, maximum flavor―Rukmini Iyer’s Indian cuisine is effortlessly delicious and achievable, from simple snacks to quick curries. Rukmini Iyer grew up in London with two working parents who were always transforming their family’s Indian recipes into quick and easy weeknight meals. So, when Rukmini and her parents took a trip through India on the Coromandel Express―from her mother’s native Kolkata to her father’s native Chennai―Iyer was inspired to recreate the cuisine of their travels for the harried home cook. Featuring 75 recipes, this book is the ultimate display of Iyer’s skill for deliciously doable dishes. Aptly titled India Express , it lends the word “express” dual meaning, evoking both a culinary tour of India by train, as well as the delightful speed and ease required by the recipes. From Bengali popcorn shrimp and mango cardamom lassis to mini-naan pizzas and more, these dishes perfectly capture the depth of south Asian flavors with Rukmini’s signature fuss-free flare.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food

264 pages, Paperback

Published August 8, 2023

About the author

Rukmini is a food stylist and food writer, who enjoys recipe developing and styling for editorial, advertising and commercial clients. Her cookbooks include 'The Roasting Tin' and 'The Green Roasting Tin', and her next cookbook 'The Quick Roasting Tin' is out with Square Peg in June 2019.

Rukmini left the law to retrain as a chef, working for Tom Kitchin at 'The Kitchin' in Edinburgh before moving to London to do what she loves best - food styling, recipe writing and development. Her first two cookbooks, with Parragon and Quadrille, are due out early in 2016. When she's not styling and writing, Rukmini enjoys planning for an extensive organic kitchen garden from the confines of her London balcony, complete with chickens.

Reviews

[Isobel · Rating 2 out of 5]

After greedily reading and testing numerous recipes from Iyer's Roasting Tin series, I was a little let down by this book. It has a handful of very good recipes but unlike her other recipe books, I can't just pick a recipe at random and trust that it will be delicious.

It took me a while to pinpoint why I was disappointed by India Express. The recipes are clear and simple, and I believe they are authentic (though I really wouldn't know if they weren't). The problem is, the food just doesn't taste that good.

The best recipes are: homemade paneer (revolutionary in my kitchen!), quick-cook masala utthapam, spiced roasted paneer with tomatoes and peppers, and Padmini's tomato, onion and spinach curry.

The worst recipes are: beetroot curry leaf and ginger brunch buns, and South Indian-style black pepper and fennel prawns (no matter how much I want to love this recipe, it never tastes satisfying).

Some recipes are just... I'm not entirely sure why they are included. Bengali salt and pepper potatoes with scrambled eggs is literally just crispy cubed potatoes served with scrambled egg. Besides the 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes and freshly ground black peppercorns, it just has no pizzazz.

Could this be my British palate kicking up a fuss? It's a definite possibility. But my issues with the worst recipes are a lack of spice, body and warmth, not too much of it. The biggest problem with writing cook book reviews is that it all comes down to personal taste. A generous pinch of salt indeed.

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was vegetarian and vegan but this has a lot of fish recipes in too. I found many of these recipes were more western inspired than what I would expect from an Indian cookbook, lots of deep frying, food that involved lots of cheddar cheese, foods such as pizza, not what I hoped to find in an Indian cookbook.

[Jess˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was hoping there would be more chaat recipes and cooking techniques. Still not bad tho