It’s rare that food and cook both look delectable, but Top Chef Padma Lakshmi manages the feat effortlessly. Long known as Salman Rushdie’s muse — to whom this book is dedicated —
Padma came into her own following her divorce from Rushdie and the television show that has catapulted her into cult status. Up until then, no one had taken serious note of her culinary skills, but suddenly Padma is the new Madhur Jaffrey.
Padma’s repertoire may not be Indian, nor regional, in fact, to any part of the world, but reflects, she writes in her Introduction to this book, “how my generation eats: a little of this and a little of that. It spans many... food traditions because that’s who we are, today, as a culture. We want simple recipes for complex flavours.”
Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet is that, a lovely book with beautiful pictures (of the food and of Padma), tips, nostalgia — and lots of eclectic recipes that are easily assembled and cater to the now generation — my favourite sections are the starters and appetisers, and the salads: lobster bruschetta (where did she get that from?), tea sandwiches with goat cheese, warm peanut salad, spinach and black plum salad, basil and blood orange salad…mmm!
TANGY TART HOT & SWEET
Author: Padma Lakshmi
Publisher: Collins
Pages: 267
Price: Rs 1,495
Soul fry
Cookbooks look and read good, and purvey gastronomic pornography. Cookbook lovers can’t resist buying them, lusting for every new title that hits the bookshelves, but Vidhu Mittal’s Pure and Simple will hold a special place for stunning photography.
For once, the pictures are not about fiery red curries shot in ethnic bowls, against backgrounds of brocade and silk. This is Indian food at its most elegant, served in contemporary dishes and bowls. The effect created by photographer Sanjay Ramchandran is understated and international.
Bangalore-based Mittal runs culinary classes based, mostly, on her home recipes from Uttar Pradesh. Oriented for the lay cook, Indian or NRI or indeed foreign, it is comprehensive in its detailing, explaining everything from the spices used to the utensils required.
There are many in this office who belong to the school of thought that if it’s vegetarian, it can’t be worth eating: Mittal’s book is unlikely to convert them, but for the converted this is gastronomic heaven: besides the sabzis and dals and pilafs of Indian home cooking, there are such innovative additions as corn on toast, crispy baby corn, toasted garden sandwiches, sesame potatoes, even a chickpea soup — but why on earth would you call a samosa by the impossible name of spicy potato prisms?
PURE & SIMPLE — HOMEMADE INDIAN VEGETARIAN CUISINE
Author: Vidhu Mittal
Publisher: Lustre/Roli
Pages: 207
Price: Rs 795
Bottoms up
This one may be less pretty to look, but it’s likely to become popular with hostesses (and, these days, hosts) wanting to put together a party without having to call in caterers. Asha Khatau is that answer that plagues almost everyone: what am I going to serve?
The award-winning Khatau has scores of appetiser recipes to offer — wraps, cups, spreads, dips, rings, puffs, pinwheels, fondues, pies, sticks, bites, platters, pancakes… She teams these with an extensive variety of cocktails and, it must be said, mocktails. I might not be as excited by the mocktails — and no, they aren’t cocktails minus the alcohol — but that’s why I need to refer to them: the mocktail-drinking guest is likely to be as fussy as the cocktail-swilling one. Sigh! But I have the recipe for strawberry-kiwi sangria to disarm the most exacting guest.
EPICURE'S APPETISERS, MOCKTAILS & COCKTAILS
Author: Asha Khatau
Publisher: Popular Prakashan
Pages: 304
Price: Rs 345
