It may be easy to cook from a recipe off the Internet, or cook watching a YouTube video. But how do you know, for example, which biryani recipe to pick from the hundreds that pop up?
And therein lies the charm of a cookbook — you will go for the recipe that comes from a person you know, or whose food you are familiar with or are a fan of.
That is the logic that drove Bengaluru’s Shazia Khan, runner-up at the Masterchef India 2 series a few years ago to write What’s On The Menu? “When I started cooking, I was an amateur. I learnt from cookbooks. I wanted to write my own after Masterchef, which would feature cuisines of the world, and use easy ingredients — something that a beginner or an expert could cook from,” says Shazia smiling the smile that she was noted to flash, even under all the pressure of the TV show. “I also wanted generation-old recipes to be treasured. I wanted it to be a pictorial because it is only when you see good food that you feel like cooking.” Shazia’s food has been made more gorgeous looking by photographer Saina Jaipal.
She agrees the book is a “hotchpotch” of recipes. The book takes you through salads, soups, and sections dedicated to vegetarian, chicken, mutton, seafood, and desserts. An introductory section teaches you how to put together masalas and chilli oil and other such ingredients necessary for the dishes.
Food is something that always brought people together in her large joint family where Shazia grew up as one among seven siblings.
“Food was always a celebration and it spread a lot of happiness — something that rarely happens today among people.”
Shazia admits that food has taken on new avatars. “There is surely a food revolution. With the Masterchef craze, awareness is high. With everyone Instagram-ing food pictures, food has gone viral. People are more confident now to try new recipes. It has gone beyond being just a three-time meal. It is about being more creative and food presentation is gaining more importance.” Exposure is huge, as is availability. “When I started cooking, I didn’t even know what zucchini was. Today you will get three colours of bell peppers in your neighbourhood market.”
Having all along cooked for family and friends, it was her sons who egged her on to try for the Masterchef series. “It has almost been four years since, and I’ve done a couple of TV shows, YouTube videos and demos. I take private classes for individuals. I run summer camps,” she says, talking of the endless possibilities of what one can do these days in the food business. Shazia, who is also involved in the family-run education business, is a member of the board of management at Delhi Public School (Bengaluru/Mysuru). She hopes to start a culinary school, because “going abroad to study culinary arts is very expensive. I want to make it a finishing school for women, so they can get employment opportunities and placements as home cooks using their training. I mean who wouldn’t love to have a trained cook at home!” she says.
Kitchen talk
* Three things you will find in my kitchen: Cheese for sure! Cooking chocolate, and eggs.
* What I love eating: Thai, because it bursts with flavours.
* What I love cooking: Modern Indian food — not twisting its taste but presenting it in a different way. My tandoori chicken roulade is a good twist to the whole grilled chicken, using the French technique to make it more healthy. My grilled semolina with mushroom is nothing but the uppit presented to look like breadsticks, with mushrooms thrown in for a twist.
* When I eat out: My husband is not a big foodie. He loves Indian or Chinese. But when we are travelling, I love to experiment, try local cuisine, learn dishes and pick up recipes.
Pumpkin and peanut subzi
Shazia shares this recipe of a subzi from her book What’s On The Menu that her father-in-law enjoys, made in his village near Mandya, in Karnataka:
(Serves: 4 to 5 )
Ingredients
Vegetable oil - quarter cup
Onion - 2, (finely diced)
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Tomato - 2,
( finely diced)
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - half tsp
Fresh coriander leaves - 3 tbsp,
Pumpkin - 600 gms,
(peeled, chopped &
cubed)
Salt to taste
For the Peanut Masala
Peanuts - 100 gms, (dry roasted & skin removed)
Garlic - 10 cloves
Long, dry red chilli (Kashmiri) -- 8 (dry roasted)
In a pan, heat oil. Add onions and fry till golden brown. Add ginger-garlic pastes and fry for a minute. Add tomatoes, chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, coriander leaves and fry till the tomatoes become so. Add the pumpkin cubes and sauté. Add salt and cook till the pumpkin is so and done. Coarsely grind the peanut masala ingredients and add to the cooked pumpkin. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with hot akki rotis and ghee.
