4 Recipe Books We are Exploring this Monsoon

This monsoon, cosy up with one of 4 splendid cookbooks, with suggestions for comforting, warming foods. Ruth Dsouza Prabhu reviews the cookbooks she’s been cooking from this season.

Is there a more fun assignment for a food writer than reading through recipe books for her column? I can’t imagine one. And every month, I am always amazed at the varied inspirations that result in the creation of a cookbook.

This time, we have a book that addresses the eternal question that moms (and some dads!) have to face every morning — What do I pack in my child’s lunch box? Another is the coming together of several food professionals for a festival. Yet another is the fourth in a series on Parsi culinary heritage — a micro-cuisine of India that deserves time in the spotlight. And finally, a memoir told through recipes.

Healthy Lunchbox Plans for Children

I am a mom who has been packing lunch boxes for 14 years, and I can confirm not a day goes by that I am not fretting over what to pack, that is equal parts delicious and nourishing. Tasty Tiffin by Archana Doshi aims to help with that question, offering more than 40 recipe ideas for children's lunch boxes.

Archana is the food writer and entrepreneur behind Archana’s Kitchen. As a regular reader, I appreciate that her recipes make everyday meals exciting, and also include nutrient information. She approaches her book in much the same way.

The book is divided into meal ideas for the classic Indian school system of tiffin breaks — a small snack break and a longer lunch break; there are also ideas for after-school snack boxes, with selection of sandwiches, pancakes, and waffles, a section on pastas, and Indian-style tiffins. The recipes are simple, and she has taken care to show how they can be arranged in everyday tiffin boxes (with images).

Archana focuses on combining textures and flavours. For instance, adding a granola bar here or a khakhra there can make a snack box more interesting; adding fresh fruits alongside a cheesy spinach open toast can lend a burst of freshness to a meal.

The images in the book are relatable. As a reader, I can hope to recreate something exactly as the picture. I also loved that the recipes are not just for small children, but are easily workable for teenagers (and adults!). I tried out her Pav Bhaji and the Broccoli Peanut Sandwich — and both were well-received; as was the Creamy Tomato Pasta and Stir-Fried Zucchini, and Mushroom Biryani with Raita. I made an extra portion of everything for my own lunch because I think it’s cute to have the same lunchbox meal as my teenager.

That said, the recipes in this book are not rocket science, but they serve as a great guide when faced with that perplexing question in the morning. I personally would have also liked a few links on where to buy quality lunch boxes; an evergreen question on parenting forums.

Tasty Tiffin
Archana Doshi
HarperCollins India
Rs 399/-

A Potluck of Recipes from a Festival

The Festival Cookbook — a collection of recipes by The Locavore X Serendipity Arts Festival — is an unusual cookbook. This is a collection that has been carefully sourced from several collaborators who were part of The Locavore’s Culinary Arts curation at the 2023 festival. The book’s introduction describes it as ‘a potluck of recipes from people and organisations from different parts of the country.’ It is a comprehensive booklet that showcases several local customs and culinary traditions from across India. Many of the recipes also highlight how sustainability is woven into Indian food consumption patterns naturally, and is part of the oral tradition of recipe-sharing.

As a booklet, there are no conventional divisions of starters, main course and dessert — which is a great approach considering that Indian meals at home are never served course-wise; everything is brought to the table all at once.

The first recipe that caught my eye was Tomato Ghee by Chef Aditya Raghavan. We have all heard of, and even made, flavoured butters; but this is such a simple yet flavourful creation, with just four hours of bake time! Bharwan Bhindi is a favourite in our home so it was a no-brainer to cook Rohini Kejriwal’s version, and it was wiped clean. Sienna Café’s Bengali bitter course — the Biye Bari Shukto was another dish I tried (minus the radhuni) and it was perfect with hot rice. Payal Shah’s End of Week Fridge Pickle is a lovely idea. We usually end up making a mish-mash of leftover vegetables or a pav bhaji, but this recipe asks you to brine it all instead!

When I saw Midnight Brekkie in the index, I imagined warm pancakes or steaming idlis. Instead, I found a lockdown creation where the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich was turned into a cocktail. Pankaj Balachandran of Countertop India hit gold with this creation, and Midnight Brekkie became the highest-grossing cocktail in Goa.

The recipes in this booklet will easily slip into your everyday cooking cycle. It shows regional Indian food in all its simplicity — seasonal, easily available, resplendent in the ever-changing bounty of nature. Cook through it and you will have eaten your way through the cuisines of a significant number of Indian states.

The Locavore CookBook
The Locavore X The Serendipity Arts Festival
Rs 300

The Persian Route to Parsi Food

I have a soft corner for all things Parsi. It comes from having grown up with a Parsi best friend who lived one door away from me. We lived by an unsaid rule — on days we were home for lunch, we would pile our plates high in the kitchens, meet at one of our homes, and exchange plates. Its no wonder I ate equal amounts of Parsi food and Mangalorean food growing up!

The Route to Parsi Cooking is Niloufer Mavalvala’s fourth book on Parsi cuisine and heritage. It is beautiful, with a hardbound cover and photographs guaranteed to induce drooling. The pictures show exactly what you are going to achieve in the kitchen — my creation of the Macchi nu Patio looked like one in the book and tasted almost like my best friend’s mom’s cooking!

Aloo Pateti. Photos Credit Niloufer Mavalvala

The focus of this book, Niloufer mentions in her foreword, is on the impact of Persia on Parsi cooking. For the food history buff, there is much information about the Parsi community and its movement through time and geography, and the impact of their travels on their food. It is information that is easy to read, and will make for several fascinating conversation starters. The fact that Maestro Zubin Mehta has been a vocal promoter of Niloufer’s work, right from her first book, should come as little surprise.

I learned that the signature Patri ni Macchi is a Persian import that now uses saltwater fish from the Indian Ocean, instead of fish from the landlocked Caspian; and about Ma Gos, the concept of home meals being in a ratio of 2:1 (vegetables to meat).

The etymology of the Bombay Duck is fascinating; the pages dedicated to dhansak had my full attention, with multiple origin stories — it is eaten at the end of the four-day mourning period, and it is a Thanksgiving harvest festival dish. I never doubted that my friend’s mother loved me like a daughter, but I never did manage to wrangle a dhansak masala recipe out of her. Niloufer mentions that it goes beyond the classic Parsi dhana-jeero (coriander-cumin) powder. I set myself up for quite the challenge making Doodh na Puff, but it was well worth the effort.

Each recipe has a delicious little titbit accompanying it. Overall this is a lovely book that is deserving of your time.

The Route to Parsi Cooking
Niloufer Mavalvala
Rs 1900

A Culinary Coming of Age

When you pick up this book, the first question you are likely to ask is, what is Thalayalam? You’ll need to dive into Vasantha Ranganath’s book to find out.

The book traverses the journey of a young bride, stepping into her husband’s home for the first time — into a new world and a new culinary culture. Across 432 pages, you have a front row seat into Vasantha’s life or what she calls a ‘time capsule.’ We can see behind the veil, into how homes function, into social expectations and the resilience of women in the face of adversity. In Vasantha’s narration, I forgot it was a recipe book in my hands, and for what is a first for me, I looked through the recipes after I read all of the essays.

When the author was still finding her footing as a new bride, she was entrusted with a full meal. Vasantha shares recipes from that meal — recipes she has now mastered, but, on that day, didn’t go the way she had hoped. From it, I tried the Kosumalli (a mish-mash of cabbage and coriander), which was fresh and textural.

There is a section on Rajasthani food, Sindhi dishes, a collection of Tamil recipes, food from Kerala, and more. Her collection of recipes from her time in Delhi includes Bhatura, Fried Green Chillies, Jackfruit Kebabs and more. Somewhere in the book is also a mention of Mangalore, thanks to an uncle who lived in the city. I haven’t seen Vodu Dosa in a cookbook until now, and have to admit, I was delighted. The same goes for the very homely Kadala Manoli Sukka, Southekayi Puli and Keerl Neli Sukka. What joy!

So what is Thalayalam? It is the coming together of Tamil and Malayalam — symbolising the coming together of Vasantha and Ranganath (her beloved husband Rangan, who is now no more) from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Thalayalam is an ode to love, where the bridge in an arranged marriage across two different cultures, was food.

Thalayalam
Vasantha Ranganath
Family Fables
Rs 1500

Ruth Dsouza Prabhu is an independent features journalist based in Bengaluru, India. She has been writing on food for over a decade. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, Reader’s Digest, and Condenast Traveller, among others.

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