I fell in love with Heartland Masala while reading an early page where Auyon Mukharji talks about developing his roti rolling skills. He shares that in the time it takes him to shape one lumpy roti, his mother can make 10 perfectly round rotis with her eyes closed. But he persists in making roti, because the only way to get better at it is to do it. I annoyed my housemate by reading this section aloud to her. Because, exactly! To get better at cooking you have to do it, and pay attention to what you are doing. (There’s nothing wrong with throwing a meal together, or using prepared foods, fed is best, but if you really want to learn to cook well, you have to practice).
There’s something about Heartland Masala, an Indian Cookbook from an American Kitchen that feels like the best kind of group project. Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji bring a fun mother/son collaborative feel to the text. At the end of the book, they name and thank all of their recipe testers and I fell even more in love. I love it when a cookbook provides a foundation for their recipes and then encourages experimentation. In the “how to use this book” section, Jyoti says,
Although the recipes in this book are as specific as possible about quantitative details like ingredient measurements and cooking times, such precision is wildly foreign to most Indian home kitchens.
Jyoti’s experience as a cooking teacher really shines through. She talks about ingredients and techniques in a way that makes me feel like I could give this to people and they would turn out respectable final products. I also really enjoyed Auyon’s bits of history throughout the book. I did not know that the world wide popularity of Butter Chicken (Murgh Makani) was facilitated by the evils of The Partition, or that the families who brought it from Peshawar to the restaurant they co-founded in New Delhi are now rivals. As a side note, if you revere the British Empire, this is not the book for you. Auyon does not shy away from the harms committed by the British. It’s not a big part of the book, but I found it interesting. Food is political.
The illustrations by Olivier Kugler compliment the charm and whimsy of the text. One of my favorites is an illustration of a conversation between Jyoti and Auyon about deep frying. It ends with Jyoti turning to the reader and saying, “My son is a coward. Ignore him. Fry deeply.” Another favorite illustration is the Daal Bubble Monster (leave your lid cracked). This is a lovely cookbook and I can’t wait to have a physical copy in my hands.
I received this as an advance reader copy from The Collective Book Studio and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.