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Cooking up a treat
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Do you cook up a storm instead of delectable meals? Here's a new cookery book to take solace in.
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IF YOU are holed up in the kitchen by will or by mother, and as a nerd cook find yourself in a soup, stop floundering. You can swim through the hot water clutching a copy of "India with Passion", Manju Malhi's latest cookery book distributed by Research Press. It might be the second one on your kitchen shelf if you have already been introduced to her through "Brit Spice", published in 2002. In her current glossy-finish 256-page book, this Indian origin, British born and bred author has brought together a delectable array of Indian dishes from different regions. Born to a Maharashtrian mother and a North Indian father, capturing the western and northern style of cooking was easy for her. To master the art of eastern and southern cooking, she stayed in those parts of the country and researched.
Feels Manju about her assorted recipes, "This is just a drop in the ocean, there is so much still to learn. The dishes are simple and swift to make. The book, published by Mitchell Beazley, encompasses recipes from a simple masala chai to chilli coriander chicken of the East, pickled prawns of the West, sambar from the South and a host of other dishes cooked in Indian homes." Manju's first serious brush with cookery began when she beat hundreds of contestants to secure a guest cookery slot on BBC2's Food and Drink in 1999.
Reminisces the author-cum-voiceover artiste, "I had to send the tape for the contest. My kitchen was being renovated at the time, and so on that freezing, windy day in my garden I prepared coriander chutney. I did not do any cooking but prepared the chutney."
Great comparisons
The Guardian hailed her as the next Madhur Jaffery. How does it feel to be compared with her and Delia Smith, the British cook icon?
"It is an honour to be compared to them. Madhur Jaffery got people cooking Indian food in Britain. What I do now is to try to update it by trying to make things more simple and use the kind of ingredients used today," beams Manju.
She also had her share of disaster cooking. "Once I added some mirch masala to the readymade fish fingers and tried to fry them, but they started to disintegrate, turning into a ball of mush. I had sleepless nights over it but I will go back to fish fingers some day," says a determined Manju.
She is known as "not an obsessive purist" who "will allow butter instead of ghee". Does she not feel her leniency threatens the authenticity of the taste?
"The taste is only slightly different. Cheese is an acquired taste. If you cannot get cheese, use butter, and if there is no mustard oil, use any vegetable oil or even olive oil," avers Manju.
The author, who addresses online queries, plans to introduce English food to Indians and maybe set up an English restaurant in the Capital. Her latest book is sure to get the attention of the non-Indian community, cross-region audiences and naive cooks.
URMILA RAO
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