On the Threshold of Kitchen, by the Danthi sisters

Some of the most important Indian food knowledge is not to be found in the mainstream fancy, vanity publications. It is in a different kind of cookbook. The kind of cookbook self published by enterprising ladies or representative bodies of the various community kitchens of India. Communities defined by religion, geographical location, history and a variety of other things that have evolved a distinct cuisine of their own. Each of these books brims with recipes following the "a little this and a little that" advice grandmothers would be known for but are are invaluable to cooks of every stripe from the community they belong to. And are often un-celebrated but mandatory in the wedding trousseaux for girls getting married!

By that definition, On the Threshold of Kitchen, by the Danthi sisters has to be my most treasured possession. In no small part for the "Rasoda ni rani banje" (may you be the queen of your kitchen) inscribed in it by my mother. But also because, growing up in a modern Mumbai home I very rarely stepped into the kitchen, so this book that came as my "dowry" became my fallback when I needed to cook traditional Gujarati recipes in my North Indian marital home. Now everybody knows Gujarati Cuisine, but like many regional cuisine, has dialects, one of which is the cuisine of the Kutchi Bhatias. While Kutchi food is classified under Gujarati food, Kutchi cuisine is markedly different from larger Gujarati cuisine.

Ask any Kutchi Bhatia for a book on Kutchi food and they will tell you to get yourself a copy of On the Threshold of Kitchen by Bindu and Ruxmani ben Danthi. While their compendium of four books is labelled a Gujarati recipe book, hidden in its pages are classic Kutchi recipes.

"To be able to prepare a recipe that all in the family can relish, in an elegant, simple and systematic manner is in itself a source of boundless satisfaction. We only hope and pray, this little effort helps someone, someday to get a smack of that satisfaction"  It is with these charming sentiments expressed in the preface of the books, and inspired by their mother - in - law who had the talent to combine traditional recipes with meticulous measurements and timing recipes, that the Danthi sisters in law embarked on their first book on Gujarati food "For the sweet tooth - Gujarati traditional sweets" in Gujarati. This first attempt at illustrating to other women that cooking need not be daily drudgery and could in fact be a form of expressing ones creativity and affection for those they love was met with a great response. So they followed it up with 3 more, Tasty treats - Gujarati Savouries and snacks, The everyday fare - Gujarati staple cuisine and finally Luscious Accompaniments. 

Even my friend Pinky Chandan Dixit owner of Soam restaurant who is Kutchi herself swears by this book. "Not only is it the most practical handbook but it s a font of long forgotten  home style recipes."

Descended from a warrior race, Kutchis are today largely engaged in trade and commerce. The food they eat is unique in its simplicity and fresh flavour. It does not manifest itself in the names of the dishes; in fact there are a lot of dishes common to both Gujarati and Kutchi food. The difference is noticeable in the style of preparation of dishes. Where Gujarati food tends to be oily and leans towards sweet heavily spiced fried foods, Kutchi is one of the healthiest Indian communal cuisines. Usually cooked with fresh seasonal ingredients, food is brought to the table steaming, straight of the flame. The use of oil is minimal and flavorings lean toward the Surti style with a predominance of leelo masallo (or fresh green masalla), usually a combination of Ginger and Green chilies. The use of garam masalla is minimal and spicing is used to compliment the dish being cooked, at no point overwhelming the natural flavor of the food. Unlike Gujarati food, the sweetness quotient of gur or sugar is selectively used. Gur or Sugar are only added in dishes where a balance of flavors needs to be achieved like in the yoghurt based Kadhi or Khatta Mug (whole mung cooked in yoghurt) or tomato based dishes where there is a need to alleviate the acidity of the tomatoes. Some of the most traditional meals of the Kutchi Bhatias aside from the classic Jowar and bajra rotis served with lehsun Chutney are Chutti Khichdi and Osaman – Unlike normal khichdi, Chutti Khichdi made by cooking the daal and rice separately. The daal is cooked in extra water till it splits, the water is then drained and reserved, and meanwhile rice is added to the daal and cooked to a khichdi consistency. The reserved water is then spiced, and made into a Rassam-like Osaman, light, delicate, fragrant with Coriander and Curry leaves and tender coconut. Another classic meal is Khara and Mitha Chavda - fermented wheat pancakes that are salty and sweetened with gur and usually served together.

Interview with Author of Iconic Parsi cookbooks, Jamva Chaloji ,Katy Dalal and her son Kurush Dalal

 

A few years ago, I connected with Kurush Dalal and later his wife Rhea. We hit it off from our first conversation on the phone and today they have come to be very important to the fabric of my life, foodie and otherwise. All that time ago, I had called to ask if I may meet his mother to talk about Parsi food for my book. I never did get to meet her (she passed on in March 2010) and that is a regret right up there with the one I have about not documenting my Dadi’s recipes. But what I did manage was a very insightful email interview of Katy and Kurush that was never published by the magazine that commissioned it. I just saw on Facebook that today would have been Katy Dalal’s birthday. So here is the interview, as a tribute to her and a thank you to Kurush and Rhea for being part of my life. You both truly bring joy to my heart and the lives of everyone you meet. May we meet and eat a whole lot more in 2012 and the years to come!

The name Katy Dalal is well known amongst culinary circles. Famous for her stellar cookbooks on Parsi cuisine (Jamva Chaloji 1 an 2), the fascinating book on Pulaos and Biryanis the delicious Seafood Fiesta, Dr Katy Dalal is  also distinguished in academic circles, having won many awards and completed a Ph.D on Archaeology from Pune University. A specialist on Achaemenion history, she has also taught Ancient Indian Culture in different Mumbai Colleges. Her rich legacy has been very ably shouldered by her son Kurush Dalal who is an archeologist by training and a caterer by profession. As a caterer he specializes in (but does not limit himself to) Parsi Cuisine while juggling a teaching career at the Mumbai University and at the Jhunjhunwala Colleges. 

Katy Dalal on her Career and Kurush

Tell us a bit about your background.

Katy Dalal - I was born and brought up in Bandra which was then a peaceful, green suburb of Mumbai. I attended St. Joseph’s Convent over there and after passing my S.S.C. with a first class, I joined the DNH National College, Bandra. I was extremely interested in History and I secured the highest total of marks in World History in the Intermediate Arts exams conducted by the University of Bombay for which the University conferred a prize and a Scholarship and my college awarded me a gold medal. I was very happy because I felt this was my first step to Egypt in whose ancient history, religion and culture I was extremely interested then. I joined the St. Xavier’s college for my B.A. degree and enrolled at the Heras Institute of Ancient Indian Culture and History. There I met an extremely sympathetic vice-principal father John Correia Afonso who advised me that the first step would be to go meet Dr. H. D. Sankalia (the premiere Archaeologist in India) at the Deccan College, Pune. Dr. Sankalia advised me that it would be preferable for me to first learn all that Indian Archaeology had to entail before I went to another country to study there. He also advised me to join his M.A. classes, which I did.  At that time I was the only female student at Deccan college.

I did my M.A. from Deccan College with a First Class First and then wrote a Ph.D. Thesis titled “Prehistoric Pottery Industries along the (lost) Saraswati River of the Great Indian Desert”. I explored the Ghaghar riverbed from Nohar almost upto the Indo-Pak border in Bikaner. I was fantastically lucky as I managed to find pre-Harappan material at several sites. In India pre-Harrapan material had only been found by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1946 below the ramparts at Harappa. My finds were exact copies of his. I had also found a strange ware excised internally and externally and another type of ware which was later on told to be 3000 to 4000 B.C. old. After this Egypt took a back-seat to India. I became totally involved in exploring the pre-Harappan culture and the thesis took me ten years to complete.

Your career is so far away from cooking, when and how did food and its exploration become important?

Katy Dalal -  By the time I completed my thesis, I had fallen in love with and married an extremely clever young Merchant Marine Officer. I taught Ancient Indian Arts and Culture at various Mumbai Colleges - S.I.E.S., Wilson, St. Xavier's & K.C. I used to travel with my husband on Merchant Liners and all the Officers used to want me to cook special meals for them which they thoroughly enjoyed. On one trip I suffered a retinal detachment and that put paid to my teaching in college. As I was at home, people would request me to cook for their parties. One fine day I realised that instead of twiddling my thumbs at home, I could make a business out of my cooking I developed a large Tiffin business. I took catering contracts at the Free Masons Hall, the P.V.M. Gymkhana and the Ripon Club and thus began to learn more about cooking different dishes. I used to love decorating the food and always felt that food looked and tasted better when arranged properly. 

What made you decide to write your first cookbook? How did you go about working on your books?  Did you travel, meet people?  Spend hours in your own kitchen? 

Katy Dalal - Ideas for a book had been hovering in my head since before marriage. I was appalled when I heard young girls say that they couldn't boil eggs or make rice. I decided that the young women of the community were becoming too westernized in their food habits and so I wrote a book on Parsi cuisine titled "Jamva Chaloji". It contained everything a woman should know when she first goes to her husband's house. It was a thumping success and every copy was sold within the first six months! The publishers reprinted the book several times. This was followed by five other cookery books. Writing the book was very simple. I am descended from a long line of excellent cooks. The first being my great grandmother Soonamai, who lived in Gujarat, the second my paternal grandmother, Cooverbai followed by her two daughters Hilla and Khorshed and my mother Piroja. I had observed all that they were doing during my childhood and would jot down some recipes on pieces of paper. In fact I distinctly remember discussing an unusual sauce to be had with mutton cutlets once - we were discussing how to make a papaya sauce which I had never eaten before. As the years passed I developed a great interest in writing (academically) and cooking (professionally). The logical culmination of this was my first cookbook, Jamva Chaloji. Among the many other reasons were the loss of Parsi culinary traditions due to modernisation and the creation of nuclear families, the lack of a simple, authentic Parsi cookbook, and the needs of young Parsi brides in India and abroad.  

Would you share some of your most pleasurable moments during writing your cookbooks?

Katy Dalal - Forming the recipes in my head and watching in pleasure as they turned out quite exactly as I remembered them to have tasted. 

What about YOU, the cook? What are your favorite foods to cook with?

Katy Dalal - Coloured peppers, Rawas (Indian Salmon), jumbo prawns, Pomfrets- which Parsis love, French herbs, and cream.

What's your favorite recipe to cook? 

Katy Dalal - Golden Pepper Prawn Pulao which is my own creation. This is a pulao which has yellow peppers stuffed with prawns in them and looks lavish and tastes quite delicious. It is a great hit with my guests and my family likes it too. This is something I make at home. Of the dishes that I have served at weddings and large functions is a beautiful salad made with deboned Rawas, butter, pineapple pieces, herbs, and other condiments. This salad is served reconstructed in the shape of the fish with its head and fins (boiled, of course) and covered in 'scales' made from sliced cucumbers. The base for the salad is a sumptuous Russian salad laid on a mirror and with carved decorative vegetables, etc. It looks absolutely superb!!! 

Do you have any favorite cooking gadgets or utensils?

Katy Dalal - My kitchen is choc a bloc with gadgets collected from all over the world, some I have bought, some my darling husband brought back for me from his travels and many more are gifts from family and friends. However, the my two most indispensible gadgets are a little electric chopper which chops just one onion if I need it, and my moule legume. Of course my ‘masala pata’ is something I cannot imagine my kitchen without.

What is the most memorable dish you have ever eaten?

Katy Dalal - The Camembert Dariole at the Zodiac Grill at the Taj hotel in Mumbai is something I will never forget the taste of. Another unforgettable meal was at the Grand Hotel in Kao Hsuing (Taiwan) where I ate the best Chinese food ever.

Do you have an amusing kitchen incident to share with us? One unforgettable Kitchen blunder?

Katy Dalal - Many years ago my cook was making Machchhi no sahs, a typical fish preparation of the Parsis. I, of course, was not there while she was cooking. Later as I was heating up the meal before we all gathered for it, I noticed that the sauce was frothing quite strangely and even exuberantly! A little questioning revealed that the silly woman had used detergent powder (Nirma) instead of the flour she was supposed to have done. She mistook the yellow detergent powder for besan!

What is your best cooking tip for a novice cook?

Katy Dalal - Always read a recipe twice. Collect all the ingredients in front of you in order of use. Use your own instinct to adjust the recipe to your family’s taste, And of course, use your own judgement too while adding salt, spices, cooking oils, etc.

Are you happy that Kurush has carried on your legacy ?

Katy Dalal - I am enormously happy that he turned out to be such a good cook who could, at a glance would tell us how many people could eat out of a certain portion of rice or mutton or whatever ingredient was at hand. This judgement has never failed him. Academically he is extremely sound. He is a good explorer, excavator and has also done a PhD on the Iron Age in India.  

What is your favourite dish cooked by Kurush?

Katy Dalal -Pork Chops which we had very recently at his house for lunch.  He had also once done an entire leg of ham boiled in beer (with spices) and roasted with honey.   

What is your best cooking tip for a novice cook?

Katy Dalal -Always read a recipe twice. Collect all the ingredients in front of you in order of use. Use your own instinct to adjust the recipe to your family's taste, And of course, use your own judgement too while adding salt, spices, cooking oils, etc. 

Kurush Dalal on his legacy and Katy Dalal

Kurush, Tell us a bit more about yourself

Kurush Dalal - I am an archeologist by training and a caterer by profession. I grew up in a house filled with books and the flavours of myriad foods both Indian and Western. I spent four years boarding in Panchgani, did my HSC in Science, my BA in AIC & History from Mumbai University, my MA (in Archaeology) and PhD from Deccan College, Pune University. In the course of my studies I saw the real India of the small towns and villages as I travelled its length and breadth on Archaeological trips. I lived and ate with people at all these places and truly imbibed the flavours of India not just the feast-day preparations but the day to day sustenance of the people on whose backs India stands. On the way I met and married my wife and finally met my match in the kitchen.

Did you always plan to follow in your mothers footsteps and choose a career in gastronomy?

Kurush Dalal - No, when I was little I wanted to be an astronaut and as I grew up and went to school and college I was  fascinated by both Astrophysics and Nuclear physics, sadly I failed my HSC in Physics (of all things) and changed streams to Ancient Indian History. I was always a part of Mum's catering business and had been helping with all aspects since I was 11. When I first evinced an interest she made me a waiter's uniform and put me to work at the lowest rung of the ladder at the Freemason's Hall. Right through my college days (11^th and 12^th) I helped with purchase and spent almost  5 mornings every week in the fish, meat and vegetable markets, evenings were often spent on the job – catering at various venues.

So, which is you  favourite cookbook by your mother?

Kurush Dalal  - The first one - 'Jamva Chaloji'.  Not only because the title was my suggestion but because it was a terrible need of the hour and has almost resurrected Parsi gastronomy in Parsi homes both in India and abroad.

Would you share some of your most pleasurable moments with your mother in the kitchen?

Kurush Dalal - Though I picked up a lot of my cooking skills in my mother's kitchen I seldom cooked with her. Watching mum cook is often like watching a very complicated stage performance. She is more often than not an intuitive cook and I still remember the time when she taught a bunch of the Taj's chefs Parsi cooking. They were flummoxed by 'a pinch' of this and 'a handful' of that and would make her stop in mid-move and actually weigh the various spices as she scooped them out of the jars.

What about YOU, the cook? What are your favorite foods to cook with?

Kurush Dalal - I’m a very moody cook. At home I like to cook all those things that I rarely get to cook at work like pork, pork chops, hams, veal, and simple dals. At work my main interests are sauces, dressings and starters since I feel these are often ignored in India. I’m also a bit picky about my ingredients and like a kitchen filled with complex, myriad and weird spices, condiments, vinegars, oils, etc.

What's your favorite recipe to cook? 

Kurush Dalal  - Pork Chops marinated in a red wine vinegar with whole spices and demerara sugar, grilled in olive oil and served with herbed cheesy mashed potatoes.

What is your favourite dish cooked by your mom?

Kurush Dalal - It's got to be her Dhan Dal and Kolmi no Patiao with Parsi style Fried Fish and green coconut chutney.

Do you have any favorite cooking gadgets or utensils?

Kurush Dalal - My wooden spatulas, especially my hand carved bamboo spatula from Nagaland, and my knives and steel.

What is the most memorable dish you have ever eaten?

Kurush Dalal - This is a difficult one.  There are 4 dishes actually: my dad’s prawn and tomato omlette, my  mum’s dhan dal and kolmi no patio, my wife’s Bengali maangshor jhol and the fried eggs my grandma (mum’s mum) used to make.

Do you have an amusing kitchen incident to share with us? One unforgettable Kitchen blunder?

Kurush Dalal -During our courtship days my wife (to be) once made a favourite dish (baked potato and onions in cheesy white sauce) of her hostel days. Halfway through she realised we had run out of milk so she merrily substituted it with diluted condensed milk …… little realizing its sugar content. The resultant dish was part main course and part dessert. It was weird, strange and quite peculiar but we (a friend and I)quietly polished it off. Nothing since has ever managed to top this.

Tell us some of the most important cooking tips you learned from your mom?

Kurush Dalal -Two main things actually, patience with food and the selection of only the finest ingredients, preferably personally gathered/prepared/bought.

Is there a cookbook in you as well? Can we look forward to something along those lines from your kitchen/pen? Anything else you want to share with us?

Kurush Dalal -Most definitely, more than one, more than writing a cookbook I feel a great need to collect recipes from specific geographical zones and from specific religious groups and castes. There is a crying need to put this down on paper and to record these traditions before they completely die out due to our modern food habits. So my first book(s) will probably be edited volumes or collections more than books filled with my own original recipes, that I think will come later. In the last 15 years or so there have been major upheavals in the eating patterns and the food availability scenario in urban India. Whilst its really nice to have non-Indian foods available in our restaurants this is sadly at the cost of many a traditional style, the Irani Cafes, the Chilliya restaurants and the Udipis are disappearing and with them is disappearing an entire chapter in the food history of our country.

Gratitude, gyaan and LINKS

Thank you Saee Koranne Khandekar of the blog Myjhola for allowing me to use the Pictures you took of Kurush and Rhea. 

For more on Katy Dalal’s books. 

For more on Dalal enterprises and to order from them visit the Dalal Enterprises Facebook Page (be sure to order from them, you will not regret it!)  or Email Kurush at kurushdalal@gmail.com or call +919820136511

Review of Battle for Bittora by Anuja Chauhan matched with a recipe for Halwa

For those of you who only know my food side, I LOVE to read in general, in fact I devour non food books as well. No matter how late I go to bed, I HAVE to read before I sleep. Occasionally The Cook - shelf talks about non food books as well. Zoya Factor was one such... And now it is Battle for Bittora by the smae author - Anuja Chauhan.

I resisted Zoya Factor (Anuja Chauhan's first book) for a long time because it had a cricket theme. But I finally gave in and bought it in a fey moment because the back cover snuck up on me. I loved it! So much so that I actually took to accosting innocent UNKNOWN people that even looked at the book in passing at bookstores, and made them buy it! So when I heard she was working on her next book, I was really looking forward to it.


I almost missed that the book was out! In fact if I hadn’t seen a listing in Times of India I would not have known it had been published! Anyways to cut a long story short, I did what I had to, to get my hands on the book, rushed home, forgot everything else I had to do (ALOT) and begun reading!


The story starts out engagingly with 25 year old Jinni (Sarojini to her eternal disgust) who lives and works in Mumbai as a Kitaanu animator (who dreams of animating superheroes). She is perfectly happy doing so and exchanging clever repartee with her gay and rather colourful colleague Rumi until the arrival of her grandmother, at her office in Mumbai in the middle of said repartee, at midnight, demanding in broken English that Jinni “campaign for her and her Pragati party in Bittora. Here is about when the reader realises that daal mein kush kala hai, this is not just an era gera story.


Jinni ditches haute couture for frumpy khadi and accompanies her granny home - at which point the reader needs to set aside questions like “Just like that?” and leave their brains at the proverbial door - arrives in Bittora. Only to literally run slap bang into the lean, taut chiselled, honey gold chest (and this is where female readers begun to be reeled in) of Zak aka Zain Altaf Khan (to our eternal lust) who is an ex-Royal of Bittora that has converted his family seat into a Heritage hotel in partnership with the Taj AND most importantly is Jinni’s childhood friend and love interrupted.


And here is where the twist happen. It turns out that Jinni is not to be a frumpy salwar suit clad campaigner for her grandmother but a cotton sari clad wannabe MP CANDIDATE for the Pragati party in Bittora. AND her rival in the election is none other than her friend from childhood Zain Altaf Khan who is a candidate of the opposing IJP, a pro-hindu party, that by fielding him, a Muslim candidate, is trying to signal a change of its party ideologies.


For the first 150-60 pages things move along engagingly, around page 80 or so the reader lets out her first chuckle when Our Pappu makes an appearance and by about page 125, when Jinni is served Bhainscafe, coffee made with “straight-from-the-tit-bhains-ka-doodh” because homogenised milk has not made it to Bittora, the reader realises that there are good books, great books, even memorable books. But there are few books that make you laugh do hard that the bed shakes and your sleeping husband sits up and gives you a blearily disgusted look!



And so Jinni dons her armour of cotton saris and frumpy blouses and prepares to uphold the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh battling prickly heat, accusations of nymphomania and corruption even as Zain distracts her with glimpses of lean, taut, chiselled, honey gold flesh from chest his array of kurtas and cool tshirts and his oh so rock-solid, knight-in-shinig-armour personality that Jinni keeps disregarding. And so ensues a battle royale that plays backdrop to a steamy love story that plays itself out over facebook and chance meetings on rural backroads.

Peppered with hinglish and hindi words like kitaanu animator, Saakshaat fart, with Ammaji’s philosophies delivered in typical Pavit Pradesh accent and no marks for guessing the place that Pavit Pradesh refers to or which parties are being spoofed as Pragati and IJP. B4B - as the book is being affectionately referred to already - is a laughathon through and through that this reader did not stop reading till the end (which came at about 4 am in the morning, by which time her husband had turned away, covered his head with a blanket and resigned himself to fate).


Thank you Anuja Chauhan, you set the mark high with Zoya Factor, and more than met it with Battle for Bittora! And now to get back to the pile of work I have been shirking!

Halwa (Time: 30-45 mins, Serves 2-4)

While their origins are lost in time Halwas, are sticky sweets that would be classified as puddings in the West and are made from one predominant ingredient like a flour, lentil, fruit or vegetable that is cooked with Ghee (clarified butter) and Sugar. Halwa cooked further could also be set, cut into shapes and served. Come the winter and all over the North of India one is tempted by the aroma of Gajjar ka Halwa, (Carrot Halwa) lingering as it does on the cold winter air. Heavy monsoon rains will often have my North Indian husband asking for Atte Ka Halwa (Halwa made from unbleached flour) a treat his mother used to cook up for him and his siblings when the rain cooped them indoors but that is a home-style preparation, rarely served to guests. The Halwa that is served to guests and cooked for Poojas as offerings to the Gods all over India is the Suji/Sooji or Semolina Halwa. Halwa Puri is a popular offering throughout the book so I thought it would be a great accompaniment to the book when you read it.


Suji/Sooji ka Halwa

1 c Sooji (semolina)
1 c Sugar
2.5 c water
2 tsp ghee
Lots of Raisins (you can add other dry fruit, I like my Halwa with just raisins)
2-3 Cardamom, coarsely powdered


Add the sugar to the water mix well a d bring to a boil. Reserve. In a Kadai or wok add the ghee and sooji and cook, stirring constantly for 15-20 minutes till the sooji darkens to a light brown. Add Cardamom powder and mix well. Add still warm water-sugar solution slowly, stirring with a spoon. Allow to cook stirring constantly until all the water has been absorbed (about 5-10 minutes). Garnish with chopped nuts and serve hot.

Launch of book The Food Trail of Punjab by Yashbir Sharma (a food travelogue).

The Cookshelf from A Perfect Bite was proud to host the launch of Yashbir Sharma’s new book The Food trails of Punjab on the 27th of September over a fabulous dinner of Punjabi food generously catered by the Legacy of Punjab restaurant. We were also honored to have some of the foodiest of foodies of Mumbai join us for the happy occasion.
 

I started Cookshelf  because, thanks to my friend foodwriter Vikram Doctor I have acquired an addiction to books on food and I wanted to create a repository of information of foodwriting and food books from around the world but most specifically from Indian. It is a work in progress, that I am adding to slowly. An objective of this blog is also to help good food books get attention. Having tried, rather unsuccessfully to sell my book on Uttaranchali cuisine to publishers for the last five years, I know how frustrating it is to have a good book and not find a publisher. And there are many brave foodwriters out there who believe in their books enough to put their money behind their passion and self publish books. One such man is Yashbir Sharma.

Yashbir Sharma

I first heard about Yashbir uncle and his first book The Dhabas of Amritsar through one of Vikram’s columns on restaurant cookbooks in ET, but never actually found a copy to look at. And then as serendipity would have it, I happened to meet his nephew, Manish. After that it was just a matter of me nagging Manish until he introduced me! When I finally met Yashbir Sharma, at his home in Delhi a few months ago  I was disappointed to hear that he did not have any copies of his book left BUT was quickly heartened to hear that he was soon to release a new book! I even got to see the dummy version of the book that he was self publishing; The Food Trail of Punjab. 

The Book - The food trail of Punjab

I decided right there that I would do whatever I could to help spread the word on the book. And when Yashbir Uuncle called last week to say he was bringing me some of the first copies of the book, I was thrilled. I worked against time, (even emailing from my phone of the deck of a houseboat on Kerela’s backwaters) to pull together the launch. Before I go on about the evening and the book, I would like to thank Varun Dhingra of the Legacy of Punjab restaurant, without which this evening could not have been as delicious. To launch a food book you need good food at the event and my big concern was what to serve for dinner. I am a good cook but for a book on Punjab I needed good Punjabi food, an area in which my repertoire is small. But luck favoured me again and as I was discussing things with my friend Pooja of Le 15 Patisserie, she told me that her brother Varun ran a Punjabi restaurant that had Amritsari cooks in the kitchen and would be happy to help with this. And so the table was set for The food Trail of Punjab to take off.

Varun Dhingra of the Legacy of Punjab restaurant

Amritsari Tikkis from Legacy of Punjab

As we dug into Amritsari Tikkis slathered in lashings of chutneys and Mooli salad, Yashbir Uncle told us about this book that was two years and several trips to Punjab in the making. 

"It all started when I was in Amritsar, I had an upset stomach  and decided to have some Trotters soup in Amritsar. Before you know it I was fine. The water of Amritsar is very good for the digestion. It allows one to eat the local food without getting sick." he said and the thought struck him to document the food of Punjab. And so he embarked on a happy trip through the state, pen and camera at the ready. 

“I have travelled the length and breadth of Punjab and found its people amazingly simple in their eating habits. Yet, they don’t compromise on their food. It is nutritious and delicious, with no frills attached to it. The recipes are simple, the Masallas do not number more than 7-8” 

The fertile state of Punjab in North India has always been considered the “bread basket” of the country. Famous for its vast rolling plains, endless fields of wheat, corn, millet and rice and the food! For the hardworking people of Punjab, every meal is little celebration and wherever you eat in this part of India, be it at restaurant, a roadside dhabba (as local street-side food vending stalls are referred to) or in a Punjabi home, quantity is definitely a measure of quality partly because Punjabis like to eat well but also because they love to lay a laden table.

And it is this legacy that the Food trail of Punjab brings us through recipes and the unforgettable stories behind them, culled from the owners of iconic eateries across Punjab. Featured in it’s pages are such hearty iconic delights as Kara Prasad, Dal Makhani, Amritsar Da Mutton, Gajjar da Murraba Meen Punjabi-Chinni Ishtyle Chicken and winding its way between these recipes, in the best tradition of the food travelogue are stories, vignettes of history, stories of iconic establishments and the people that run them. Full of candid photographs, charming commentary impassioned memories of the people and food of Punjab. The Food Trail of Punjab is a delicious romp of a book guaranteed to get you craving for a Punjabi meal.

It is a book that any food lover - but especially those who are afficionados of indian food and Indian culinary history - should aspire to own, because it celebrates an era of food - the kind that loved simple flavours, oodles of ghee and lots of deep frying - that is an iconic part of Indian cuisine and needs to preserved. 

Fabulous stuffed Kulchas!

Tandoori Rotis

Shanky and Lotsoffood!

Shanky

Feast of Food and friends

The French connection? Food writer Mangal Dalal and Pooja Dhingra of Le 15

Chole

Mini Rasmalai

The book and the food!  

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GYAN

The Food Trail of Punjab is widely available at bookstores all over India. For more information you can get in touch with Mr. Sharma at mryashbirsharma(at)gmail(dot)com. 

‘Legacy of Punjab’ Asli Punjab Da Tashan as a grade 1 restaurant on the Mumbai – Nashik / Shirdi highway, 3km from Shangrila Waterpark. A spacious restaurant, that recreates the ambiance of a Punjabi farm house, Legacy of Punjab, uses solar energy fas its primary power source and growis most of ithe produce it uses on the 10,000 sq feet farm attached to the restaurant where vegetables like cauliflower, okra, brinjals, sugar cane, corn, papayas, radish flourish. For further enquiries please call +91 93231 07555 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +91 93231 07555      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email legacyofpunjab@gmail.com, or look for them Facebook under Legacy of Punjab.