Ashia’s Table: Family Recipes from India and beyond

Migrants often bring with them their culture, language, and of course their cuisine. These evolve as they adapt to their new home. This book showcases how the cuisine of one migrant evolved and adopted as the author blends culinary traditions from Malawi, Britain and New Zealand into Indian cuisine, and sometimes blends Indian culinary traditions into local cuisines.

Recipes are divided into five main sections: Grazing and Bites (twelve recipes) contains essentially appetizers, Light Lunches (thirteen recipes) contains smaller portions which can be scaled up, The Main Even (twenty-six recipes) are primarily dinner recipes, On The Side (twelve recipes and six chutneys) are sides, and A Touch of Sweetness (nineteen recipes and three beverages) contain primarily desserts. Each recipe takes two pages with the recipe on one side and a picture of the finished product on the other. This helps provide a visual for what the end product should look like. In the case of breads (naan, roti, and paratha) pictures of intermediate steps are also provided.

The recipes tend to be straight forward for readers with medium cooking skills. Some of the ingredients may be harder to obtain, but not anything difficult if there are stores that cater to providing ingredients for ethnic or Indian cuisines. Overall, an excellent book for those willing to try fusion Indian cuisine.