Mom's Kitchen

By Satyabrata Dam

Mouth watering traditional and authentic recipes from an Indian mother's kitchen. Most of the Indian food that has been introduced in the west are not the real home made Indian food. This book offers genuine home made Indian food recipes that Indian's eat at home using little spice or oil and includes many original recipes from the author's own kitchen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Satyabrata Dam
• Release date: Mar 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370443543

Book preview

Mom’s Kitchen

A culinary compilation from an Indian mother’s kitchen

Published by Satyabrata Dam at Smashwords

Copyright © 2014 Sabita Dam

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form

By any electronic or mechanical means, including

Information storage or retrieval systems,

Without permission in writing from the copyright

Owner of this book

Table of Contents

About the Author

Foreword

Acknowledgement

Vegetarian Delights

Non Vegetarian Indulgences

Rice and Shine

Snacks to Savor

Dessert Dreams

Chutney and Raita

About the Author

Sabita is 73 with a zest of someone half her age. Despite her severe ill health and age related ailments she simply refuses to say ‘no’ to life. With a globetrotting adventurer for a son, Sabita spends most of the year by herself in her house in the suburbs of Delhi. Rather than seeking help or the company of others, she keeps herself busy with several pursuits, Braille literature being one of her major activities. She has been translating books in Braille for many years and has also been working with blind children; all her books are donated to blind libraries. She does social service and counseling for children and adults alike. She is also the author of several novels and a compilation of poems in Bengali and has also written and composed many songs in Bengali. Sabita practiced classical Hindustani Vocal music past her 70th year, till a throat infection put a hold to her lifelong pursuit for music. Sabita has always been a nature lover and gardener, and has an enviable collection of botanical samples of rare leaves and roots that her son gathers from around the world. This collection has been lauded by the Botanical Survey of India. Sabita also has a blog where she showcases many of her pursuits including collage collections, poems and puzzle games like Rebus.

Sabita cooks whenever she can, and whenever her son’s friends pile into her house from around the world. Her cooking is an extension of her motto in life – live simply, do good and share what you have.

Please visit Sabita’s Blog to know more about her.

Foreword

No matter who we are, where we go, or what we eat, no one cooks like mom. And we always long to get back to mom’s kitchen, to the fragrances and memories of our childhood and the love that only a mother can pour into her cooking. Like every mother, mine too has been churning out mouth watering delicacies as far back as I can remember. I was always drawn to her kitchen to learn the secrets of her ingredients, the source of the aromas and the delectable cuisines. My friends from around the world would visit and she would cook for each with the same love and care that she bestowed upon me. Everyone praised her cooking and wanted more. To take her cooking to the distant shores of our planet I learned my mom’s recipes, and discovered that at the very heart of good and wholesome cooking lies the same ingredients to living a good and wholesome life – keep it simple, keep it creative and keep it full of love.

As I traveled around the world so did my mom’s recipes. I cooked in the cities and also in the mountains, using my mom’s secret - simplicity, creativity and filled with love. Not only did people want more of her recipes but her approach also helped redefine Indian cooking for many abroad - from the Indian stereotype of spicy oily rich food; while here I was making lip smacking food with barely any oil or spices. Nearly everywhere people asked me for the recipes so they could replicate the dishes I prepared. And that is the genesis of ‘Mom’s Kitchen’.

My mother’s recipes run into more than a thousand. Selecting just 105 was as much a challenge for me as it was for her. I selected those with international appeal, most of which I had prepared for friends and had been appreciated. And of course, they had to be easy and simple to prepare but equally, gentle on the stomach and heart - and full of a mother’s love. It was a herculean effort for my mother to write the recipes in longhand on paper despite her failing eyesight, and to write it authentically in terms of culinary and cookery terminologies and phrases that would be easily understood by an international audience. In her era, recipes were taught by mother to mother, and then passed on through word of mouth. So writing this was an entirely new way of sharing her cooking. Yet she persevered day and night, ending up with several hundred recipes. Then it was left to me to transcribe.

The book is divided into sections that sum up the gamut of Indian cooking; you’ll find sections for the main course, non-vegetarian and vegetarian, sections for snacks and savories, for rice dishes and for desserts - no Indian meal is complete without dessert! Plus those famous chutneys and raitas, which are everyday accompaniments.

Open the book anywhere and indulge your taste buds, my friends. Be creative while cooking and eating! As my mother says, ‘never forget to add love in ample quantity for the ones you cook’, and you will never go wrong. My mother would be delighted to hear back from you on your culinary adventures and any suggestions or ideas that you may like to share with her on her first book in a series of her kitchen offerings. Please write to her at [e-mail] and she will be happy to reply.

With that I can only add that I have been extremely fortunate to have the mother that I do; not only is she a great cook, but also a human being with great love for everyone. No one has ever