“Please teach me Indian cooking! I will bring ingredients and pay you for your trouble. I would like to know about your culture as well.”

And with this posting on Craigslist, so begins Nani Power’s journey to learn traditional Indian cooking in the most ancient of ways — woman to woman. Welcomed warmly into the homes of strangers, Power meets women of all ages and backgrounds, and from them learns the skills that were passed on to them from their own mothers. Power takes the reader into a culture, a cuisine, and the female psyche, with recipes and stories from each chapter revealing the struggle of modern women, both American and of Indian descent, searching for identity and a definition of what it means to be a woman today.

The recipes shared in this collection are far from ordinary; they are treasured family recipes from vegetarian homes in India — from homemade cheese cubes in a rich cilantro and almond curry to coconut-stuffed okra and luscious potato-curry dumplings. Power’s recipes and stories pave the road to understanding a culture that is at the same time ancient and so very much part of our modern world.

Nani Power’s concept is smart and simple. Place an ad on Craigslist for Indians interested in teaching this middle aged, divorced mother of two how to cook proper Indian meals. But right from the beginning, it’s clear the book is struggling for compelling content and the author is grasping at straws to deliver enough storyline to fill a hardcover printing.

The first 19 pages are a jumbled mess of ideas from Ms Power’s long interest in cooking & longing for new foods to relationships, love, Feminism, spices and the Indian God Ganesh. Readers are repeatedly reminded how she is struggling to make ends meet on her writer salary all the while telling herself she is content at being alone (yet speaks about love and relationships incessantly). Add in the simple fact the author has not traveled to India, and it’s hard to keep an unbiased opinion throughout the pages.

The recounting of her shared cooking experiences, the crux of the book, comes off as lightweight fodder. More detail into the lives of each teacher is lacking, a shame given the chance to learn so much more than just a recipe. As a writer, you would think Ms Power would be delving into a laundry list of conversation starters with her hosts, but she backs away stating her concern for Indian etiquette and customs.

Half way into the book an odd love story-arc is introduced. Clearly designed to keep female readers interested, the gist of her love for Indian food has now translated into an interest in Indian men. And as much as the 48 year old Ms Power professes countless times not to be a cougar, her relationship with a 20 something Indian college student appears to be nothing short of a codependent train wreck that both parties can’t walk away from. The retelling of their nights of fighting, yelling, and unending phone calls proves to be as interesting as watching water boil.

Each teacher flits in and out of the author’s life quicker than Uncle Ben’s instant rice is finished. Although she writes as if it is the Indian women who move on or create obstacles to keep up the lessons, Ms Power’s self mentioned past bares some weight in the failing of these relationships.

While a great idea, Ginger and Ganesh would have been better off as a brilliantly written magazine article or Sunday newspaper cover story. Instead, the bloated storyline is distracted with too much talk of not wanting to bring women back into the kitchen even as she admits it would be beneficial to the household on many levels. Oddly lost are her kids who are only briefly mentioned as guinea pigs during her Indian culinary crusade. Ms Power ultimately discovers that life with a young Indian man, however dysfunctional, is better than no relationship. And Ganesh, well he’s just there as a symbol she seeks throughout the cooking lessons as a sign of comfort. It makes for a catchy title.

Ginger and Ganesh is a basket full of crazy which left me feeling sorry for the families who endured their time with the author. Skip this title if for nothing else, the bargain bin 1000 Greatest Indian Recipes found at nearly every corner bookshop.

Steaming salna was poured into a plastic bag and pipping hot parottas were wrapped in newspaper for an Indian meal to go. When it was time to eat, a makeshift newspaper bowl was made, parotta on the bottom, chicken salna on top and fingers for eating. Within a few bites my forehead was beading with sweat from the spices and yet I just kept on eating until it was gone.

This new favorite is sure to please any Indian enthusiast. Follow the recipe  to try this mouth-tingling meal anytime.

The recipe below can be served warm or cold. Either style tastes great but you’re most likely to be served warm kheer in restaurants. Add golden raisins to this dish for a little extra texture and sweet bursts of flavor that mixes well with the almonds and pistachios. So tasty!

My absolute favorite dish with any meal is gobi aloo. Potatoes, cauliflower and Indian spices mix together to create a tasty side. Serve this dish with a main course or on it’s own with roti and curd. So good! Check out the recipe for this dish here or watch the video below.

When traveling India, most of my mornings are started with gobi paranthas for breakfast. Paired with a boiled egg and some chai, my hungry pains are covered until the late morning. Depending on the season or your location, gobi (cauliflower) may not be available and you’ll have to settled for aloo (potato). Parantha is stuffed whole wheat bread, similar to roti, with a spiced gobi or aloo filling. Served with pickled mango or chili peppers to really kick start your mornings, this staple of North Indian food can be found nearly anywhere.

Enjoy the video attached as well as the recipe. Serve this dish over rice with roti for a very filling meal.

Roti is one of those essential items for lunch and dinner along with say, a sliced red onion and chili peppers. It is the traditional flat bread served in millions of homes everyday across India. Baked in a tandoor (clay oven), the simple ingredients cook to a slight crunchy exterior.

Manjula’s Kitchen has a step by step video for making tandoori roti. Similar to naan, it’s great for eating meals without utensils or sopping up a well made masala gravy. If you like a bit of a crunch with your meal, check out Manjula’s recipe for Tandoori Roti.

Admittedly I failed asking what the exchange rate was until after my traveler’s checks were signed and the TC agent was processing my form. The average rate received through ATM’s the past 3 weeks of my travels was Rs 48 so I was shocked when she quoted me Rs 44 + fees. Losing nearly $100 by exchanging $1000 worth of checks was hard to swallow. During the final count, my clerk was unable to correctly count back my total. It took multiple tries, the help of another clerk plus a manager and a calculator to finally get a consistent and accurate stack of cash.

Had I not spent nearly two hours searching for the right TC office, a smarter, less tired me would have left.  TIP: Ask what the exchange rate is up front. Ask the advice of local drivers and/or hotel employees. Most 5 star hotels offer money exchange at very good rates. Use ATM’s for consistently good rates.