Cookery Book Review
There is always room for one more book about food especially recipes from Pakistan and India. I love that sense of anticipation. Will I find a recipe that I will cook many times? What ingredients will I need? Will I discover what makes a chef tick?
This month, I’ve been reading about desserts from Pakistan, healthy food from India and a fascinating glimpse of how a Michelin starred chef creates his dishes.
Join me on my journey. There are two recipes to try too, Parsi Wedding Custard and Whole Mung Bean Curry.
A Kind of Love Story – Tom Sellers
Tom Sellers is chef patron of Restaurant Story in London which has held a Michelin star since 2013. Tom was just 26 at the time. It’s not a recipe book. The photographs are all black and white. At first glance it may not look compelling. But I assure you, if you’d like to understand how a very driven chef thinks, this is the book for you.
Tom is brutally honest about his background and how he came to develop his restaurant and how Tom Aitkens influenced his cheffing skills. It’s a love story about food.
There are comments from his staff and from others (of course including Tom Aitkens). You’ll have a fascinating insight into how some of his signature dishes were created and a glimpse of the man who is continually striving for perfection.
I loved the book, his world feels very alien to me, very bloke-y even, but I certainly want to eat his food.
Restaurant Story is available from Amazon as a book or on Kindle. Follow Restaurant Story on Instagram.
Mountain Berries and Dessert Spice – Sumayya Usmani
Sumayya Usmani’s 2016 book “Summers Under the Tamarind Tree: Recipes and memories from Pakistan” was a wonderful introduction to a cuisine that is little known. I was lucky enough to taste some of her dishes in Edinburgh when she was promoting the book. The flavours were gorgeous and complex and different. Now a year later, she’s written a book that is about desserts “sweet inspiration from the Hunza Valley to the Arabian Sea: Mountain Berries and Dessert Spice.”
I always try out the recipes in books I review and there are usually some ingredients you have to buy in. Who knew it would be difficult to track down semolina? Perhaps not “in” ingredient at the moment. I eventually found it in a large Sainsbury’s with some help!
I define many of the recipes as comfort food. I love rice pudding, my husband doesn’t, yet Sumayya’s recipes are made with basmati rather than pudding rice. The saffron infused zarda was delicious. Sweet rice topped with nuts and candied fruit. The texture of the resulting dish was so different from our standard rice pudding that he loved it. At last a chance to include rice pudding on our menu.
I also tried the Malpura semolina pancakes. If you make Scotch pancakes, these are similar in texture. The semolina, buttermilk, flour and spice mixture is left overnight before adding bicarbonate of soda. I did find these stuck to the pan rather, but eventually got the technique.
Definitely a book to dip into. The descriptions that accompany each chapter are fascinating. My tip? You might want to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipes and go easy on the saffron.
Mountain Berries and Dessert Spice is available from Amazon in both Kindle and Printed versions. Follow Sumayya on Instagram.
Saffron Soul – Health vegetarian heritage recipes from India – Mira Manek
Do you think of vegetarian recipes from India as aiding health? Mira Manek grew up with Gujerati cooking, But it took her quite some time to realise how many of the seeds and grains now promoted as healthy were ones her grandmother used in ages old recipes. This book is Mira’s interpretation of these recipes, some close to the original, others updated. I loved the favourite ingredients section introducing both familiar and unfamiliar ingredients. This leads on to key pastes and garnishes. The recipes are for two people rather than four throughout.
Apparently most of us eat the same breakfast, day in day out. Here is the chance to try something different. The suggestions for breakfast are wide. Homemade chai or a smoothie or quinoa and coconut upma?
For supper one night, I tried the Whole Mung Bean Curry and Mixed Flour Rotis. I had all the ingredients except fresh turmeric. The many spices blended to give a subtle flavour – definitely one I’ll be cooking again. (See the recipe below). I’d not made rotis before. Mira’s version is less fatty than the original and includes wholemeal, quinoa and chickpea flour. I ground up some quinoa in the coffee grinder which worked well. It’s an easy recipe and fun – especially rolling out the rotis.
Gujerati and Mira’s cooking is full of subtle flavours. I agree with Cyrus Toddiwala of Cafe Spice Namaste “I can safely say that Mira’s book will sit by the side of my desk and will get opened very often”,
Saffron Soul is available on Amazon. Follow Mira Manek on Instagram.
Recipes
Many thanks to the authors for their permission to include the following recipes.
Sumayya Usmani’s Bejewelled Parsi Wedding Custard
Sumayya Usmani’s Bejewelled Parsi Wedding Custard
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 litres 2 pints/6 cups whole milk
- 200 ml 7 oz/scant 1 cup condensed milk
- 200 g /7 oz/generous 1 cup caster sugar
- 4 eggs small
- 3 to 4 cardamom pods seeds removed and ground
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- ghee or butter for greasing
To Decorate
- A handful each of whole cashews, blanched almonds, nely chopped pistachios, raisins, dried apricots and dried rose petals
Instructions
Method
- Bring the milk to the boil in a non-stick heavy-based saucepan. As soon as it is boiling turn the heat down to low and add the condensed milk and sugar. Stir for 15 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the milk is thick and sticky. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 110°C/220°F/gas mark 1 and grease a 20 x 15cm/8 x 6-inch baking dish. Using a balloon whisk, beat the eggs, vanilla, nutmeg and ground cardamom in a steel bowl until frothy.
- The milk should be tepid before you attempt to stir in the eggs. Slowly stir the eggs in and once it is all combined, pour into the prepared baking dish and bake in the oven for about 1 hour, or until the custard is set and the top is brown.
- Allow to cool a little, then chill in the fridge for about 2 to 4 hours. Decorate with nuts, raisins, and rose petals to serve.
Notes
Mira Manek’s Whole Mung Bean Curry
Mung Bean Curry from Mira Manek’s Saffron Soul
Ingredients
Brown Rice
- 200 g brown rice
- 1 litre water
Mung Beans
- 200 g mung beans
- 1 litre water
Curry
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds optional
- ¼ teaspoon asafoetida
- 10 to 12 fresh curry leaves
- 2 dried red chillies optional
- 2 onions finely chopped
- Garlic
- 1 handful coriander cilantro leaves, chopped
- 2 teaspoons Himalayan salt or sea salt
- 4 tomatoes chopped
- 1 tablespoon passata or tomato puree
- 1/2 lime, juiced
Ginger, Chilli and Turmeric Paste
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon jaggery or coconutsugar
To service
- Sliced cucumber, carrots and radishes, lime wedges and chillies
Instructions
- Place the mung beans and measured water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Simmer over a low heat for about 30 minutes or until the mung beans are soft.
- Meanwhile, make the base mixture of the curry. Melt the coconut oil in a large frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat, then add the mustard and cumin seeds and the fenugreek seeds, if using. Once the mustard seeds are popping, add the asafoetida, curry leaves and dried red chillies, if using, then immediately add the onions.
- Cook the onions over a medium heat until slightly browned, then add the Garlic, Ginger, Chilli & Turmeric Paste, ground turmeric, cumin and coriander, salt and jaggery. Stir together for 1 minute and then add the coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped tomatoes and passata.
- Add the mung beans, once cooked, and the cooking water, to the curry base. Mix together and add a little more water if needed to create a soup-like consistency. Leave to simmer over a low heat for around 10 minutes, then squeeze in the lime and serve with the brown rice, sliced vegetables, lime wedges and chillies.
Notes
Many thanks to Quarto for review copies of Saffron Soul and Mountain Berries and Desert Spice and for featured photos.