update: I bought some fenugreek. It tastes, smells and looks nothing like fennel seeds.

I've gotten back to cooking, instead of just eating Mediterranean-style salads for dinner (and before that, eating less healthily).

Lately the theme has been Indian food — almost always vegetarian curries, and pretty interesting and complicated ones at that. When was the last time you had shredded coconut and cayenne pepper in one meal, much less one dish? Much more interesting than a tuna sandwich.

What I wonder, with the sizeable ingredient lists, is whether or not you can really taste all those spices. I mean, when you're putting 1/4 tsp of something, is it just for show? Also, I wish the books were more informative about substitutions. Is it OK that I substitute fennel seeds for fenugreek, yellow mustard seeds for black, and bay leaves for curry leaves?

Also, I use a my beloved wok instead of a saucepan or pot. This takes a little fudging of the recipe's cooking time and perhaps adding a bit of water towards the end.

A great help has been Manisha Kanani's Curries (out-of-print, even though it was published in 2001, unfortunately). It's gorgeous, as far as cookbooks go. Well-organized, cleanly laid out, wonderful photos — an oustanding help beyond just ingredients and well-written directions. It kind of reminds me of the Williams-Sonoma series (e.g. Salads, which I also own). Of course, the food is great too, but I can't judge other books in that respect, unless I've used them.

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