Cooking from the books

Some time ago I found three rather interesting cookbooks, which I wanted to write about. Here it is...

RUSH HOUR COOKBOOK
Bapsi Nariman

50 GREAT RECIPES – TIFFINS
Master Chefs of India

50 GREAT RECIPES – SHARBATS
Salma Hussain


Cookbooks are always a good gift to give - and get - especially if they are large sized, with delicious photographs, pages that can be wiped free of masalas and dripped sauces, and a print that can be easily seen through cooking steam without too much squinting or swearing from the cook-aspirant. And if the recipes within this tempting package are easy to follow, it makes the whole package a very edible one indeed.

Cookbooks also need to meet other criteria – they should lie flat when opened to a particular page, they should be neatly edited so that all the ingredients are identifiable – to the grocery store-keeper, if not to the wannabe chef and they should have recipes that list all the ingredients used and use all the ingredients listed. After all, this genre of literary expression is not a mystery or thriller (where, oh where and when did that dangblasted ketchup go into the peas that were brought to a boil?), but a culinary procedure that will result in, hopefully, something that can be eaten without health hazards!

Bapsi Nariman’s Rush Hour Cookbook for Good Housekeeping manages to do all this and more. While it would be regarded with some disdain by the expert DIY cook, it is perfect for the harried house-person, wife or husband, singleton or au pair equivalent, who wants to make something hatke without too much work, foraying beyond the realm of roti-sabji-dal to more exotic stuff of which rave reviews are made – from Gazpacho to Bouillabaisse, Carrots Vichy to Florentine Eggs, Cheese Scones to Sole Veronique. Of course, that same harried individual may want to know how to make Dalia, Sali Boti or Pakoras, too, all of which and more are catalogued carefully under separate and self-explanatory headings. Of course, like every cookbook, there is a gentle element of mystery attached to recipe names – Eggless Egg Salad, for one, is a stumer, while Wonderful Fried Potatoes invites investigation, as much as Halved Tomatoes suggests a challenge that must be met. Nariman adds tips, handy hints and serving suggestions to the package she presents, along with cute anecdotes and an occasional historical vignette that make for that special lagniappe (something extra) any chef likes reading when waiting for a pot of something to boil – never watch it, remember!

The 50 Great Recipes series is all about simple to make, easy to eat foods that are familiar, along with the everyday adaptations that bring the foods into a modern context, rather than relegating it to the storage shelves of tradition and ‘grandma used to make’ family history. The Tiffins volume is a good example of this. The multi-grain adai, for instance, conventionally served up with home-made white butter, is pictured with obviously processed butter. Murukku is machine spun, not hand twisted like Atthai would create at Gokulashtami time. And sambhar incorporates the standard masala mix instead of the carefully added individually roasted and powdered spices that always gave that spicy lentil stew its typical and delicious flavour. Which makes it all very doable and convenient. But authentic? Shut up and eat!

The same series serves up 50 Sharbats by Persian scholar, food historian and hotel consultant Salma Hussain. She sips her way across the country, from the tartly refreshing Kokum Sharbat of Maharashtra to the Panna of the central plains to the Jaan-e-Bahar of the north. She also does an international hop, with a glug of hibiscus juice from Egypt, a swig of lassi (Ayran, a yoghurt and milk drink) from Turkey, a glass of Good Luck Punch via Africa and a sweet slurp of Apple Milk from Malaysia. And as she drinks her way through the list, she explains how one can be cooling, the other laxative, a third digestive and yet another, energy boosting. Easy to create, easier to swallow and healthy, to boot! How can you possibly lose with this one!