Everyone I know loves their crockpots. They love the idea of putting everything in a pot, leaving to cook, and coming back in the evening to a prepared meal! I love this idea!
BUT, I've tried so many crock pot cookbooks over the years. They always seem to produce the same results--palatable, but bland meals. So, you can imagine my hope when I saw 150 best Indian, Thai, Vietnamese & more Slow Cooker recipes by Sunil Vijayakar. When the cookbook arrived and I opened it up, I was pleased. The formatting was so easy to read and follow. There was a heat rating for each recipe. The pictures were appealing, though I noticed that they photographed ingredients as well as dishes. Curries strike me as not the most photogenic of dishes. Several of the recipes do require various curry pastes. I chose to fix several recipes which did not use them. The first recipe I tried was The Bombay Chicken Curry. My mom, who came to live with us last October, has told me before that she doesn't like curries. But, I knew my husband loves them, so I hoped she would enjoy it. Before I go any farther, my whole family (husband, me, my mom, 3 kids...) all loved it! The curry powder I use is mild and it was a very mild curry, but my husband was able to spice it up with cayenne. If your whole family loves spicy food, just add more spice while you're putting the recipe together.
So, the my first recipe I tried was a great success!
My mother in law happens to be a vegan who loves curries, so I invited her over for lunch after church and tried two more recipes--a sweet potato curry and a cauliflower curry. These two curries were well liked by all of the adults in the room, though not as favored by my children. I think it was the looks of the curries that put them off a bit. The cauliflower curry looked unusual and children are quick to judge foods by how they look. I did make some small substitutions on these recipes. I wanted the sweet potato curry to be milder, so I substituted some Ancho Chile powder for the 2 hot chiles that the recipe calls for. I didn't make any alterations to the other recipe.
I would make both of them again. My husband felt very good about eating so many vegetables.
There is only one caveat I want to mention--I read another reader's review of this cookbook and it mentioned sticking to the cooking times for the recipes. I took this advice and I'm glad that I did. I did modify the cooking temp (high/low) and time based on what I know of my crockpots--I do not have a medium sized one. I have a large and a small. My small cooks fast and the large one cooks slower. I would recommend doing the same for your crockpot. Notice how they cook--fast or slow--is the food mushy for the time in the recipes? Then decrease the time or switch the temp to low from high.
It is rare to find flavorful crock pot recipes, but I believe this cookbook contains some! I feel like a schoolgirl who wants to stand up and yell, "Yippee! Yippee!" I am so thankful to add this cookbook to my collection. It has refueled my hope that I can find even more truly flavorful crock pot recipes. This cookbook by Sunil Vijayakar is a great find!
Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this cookbook from Robert Rose Publishing for review.
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