Swayampurna Mishra - My Indian Kitchen: 75+ Authentic, Easy and Nourishing Recipes for Your Family

MY INDIAN
KITCHEN

75+ Authentic, Easy and Nourishing
Recipes for Your Family

Recipes and Photography by

SWAYAMPURNA MISHRA

Founder of Lapetitchef

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher at: http://us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

MA AND BAPA, Dl AND PIYUSHTHIS ONES FOR YOU.

Family, food and love are the foundation upon which self-taught home cook Swayampurna proudly stands.

Lifes a bittersweet journey, and the one thing that brings comfort and joy are fond memoriesmoments of our childhood, casual or intimate gatherings with friends and family. Moments like these are especially captured through taste and smell. My Indian Kitchen transports you back to a place of warmth and comfort by blending traditional recipes with global techniques, which all flow and connect effortlessly with nostalgic family stories, value, great tips and inspiration. Swayampurna is an enthusiastic storyteller who openly invites you into her kitchen and heart.

Our meeting was a gentle love affair via social media. I instantly connected with the charm and honesty she expresses through her writing. She draws upon her vast experience as a mother, daughter, wife, host and cook, thus creating tender and sweet moments full of joy and happiness.

In this book, youll find a mouth-watering collection of simple and quick recipes that suit a fast-paced lifestyle, but also ones that find the magic in the ordinary. Fill your kitchen with the heavenly sweet aromas from recipes like saffron kulfi made with almonds and peanut butter, Chai-Spiced Cinnamon Roll () or classic roti, pulaos, chutneys or a delicious selection of thirst quenchers.

I also enjoy the therapeutic way this book takes you to the traditional heart and theater of Indian cooking without any complicated recipes or techniques. A book for all occasions, moods and celebrations and one I know you will continue to learn from, love and trust. The essence of My Indian Kitchen is to teach and deepen your understanding of Swayampurnas colorful culture and world through eating, feeding and sharing.

Writer, Supper Club Host and Author of Indian Made Easy

I realized very early the power of food to evoke memory, to bring people together, to transport you to other places, and I wanted to be a part of that.

Jos Andrs

I learned the power of food early in life, maybe even before I learned to see colors. Even when I was a baby, I knew I loved food. It hardly mattered that I ate pureed lentils and fruits for the most part. The truth is I still licked my spoon clean. In fact, even before I could see colors, food was the thing that made my face dimple with delight. My love for food obviously stems from having a father whos quite the gourmand with distinctive tastes. And my love for cooking comes from having an extremely patient mother who single-handedly cooked five-dish meals for us (she does this even today). As clichs go, I was to the manor born: a foodie at birth who derived such pleasure from a bottle of warm milk that its hardly any wonder Ive today chosen a career in food. For me, there is hardly anything else I would rather be doing than cooking up delicious dinners and sharing these stories with you.

Content. Happy. Calm. Dedicated. Total whirlwind in the kitchen. These are the words that sum me up best. I wasnt always this way. My second stint in the kitchen proved to be a happy marriage instead of the fling I had with it when I was eleven. Now, cooking and food are my mantra, my kitchen is my yoga retreat and my camera is my best friend. No offense to the actual best friends here! I will reassure them with plates of delicious lamb chops cooked in red wine sauce and some paneer jalebis later. And they will forgive me everything. Such is the power of truly good food.

Good food makes one instantly happy and content. It might take you back in time to a moment thats already sepia-toned or it might make you wish for a vacation to Tuscany, but foodtruly good foodwill always leave a story and longing in its wake. And long after the food is finished, second and third helpings had, dessert spoons licked clean and pants unbuttoned, people will still keep sitting and chatting. There is a certain magical glow about a leisurely and deliciously wanton lunch. It dulls the senses and fills you with a sense of contentment lost elsewhere. It washes away the pain and calms the mind. And when you are a self-proclaimed foodie who lives to feed others, it makes you smile in the same satiated manner only a day of languid lovemaking or a superb meal can produce. After all, is there anything more relaxing than the sight of a beautifully set table boasting tureens filled with aromatic dishes and glasses of sweet wine?

This is what I was feeling when I got the email from my editor, Sarah. I had just finished throwing what can only be called a rather successful lunch for my friends. We ate to our hearts content and then some. The skies were gray with rolling clouds by the time we finished cleaning up and we were getting ready for rounds of Uno and coffee. Ding, rang my laptop. There it was. An email from Sarah, basically handing me my dream on a platter. From then on I have waited to write this for you, dear reader, to have you join me in my kitchen as I take you through some of my favorite dishes and we begin walking along together, without any evident haste.

But before we even begin I must tell you something: This isnt a diet book or a book on so-called clean eating. It isnt a book that deals with history on how a certain dish came into being. It is not that. No. It is quite simply a memoir of sorts, written through plate after plate of delicious, homely, yet absolutely mouthwatering food. Food that will comfort you when you are alone at home. Food that will make you want to invite friends over, open up bottles of bubbly and laugh the blues away. Food that you will want to cook for your child when she is ailing. Food for bad days. Food to turn your everyday into a celebration.