Indian-ish: June Cookbook of the Month

Over the past few weeks, I have been inundated with media about the release of our June cookbook, Indian-Ish by Priya Krishna and her mother, Ritu. Priya is a semi-regular cook on the Bon Appetit youtube channel, and with her cookbook coming out, they’ve featured her on their podcast and had her do recipes from her book through the youtube channel for promotion. I tried one of these recipes, Saag Feta, which is an adaptation of Saag Paneer with the more readily available feta cheese found here in the U.S.A. For that reason, I ordered Indian-ish a few weeks ago to get ready.

Earlier this year, I checked out a vintage cookbook: Thai Cooking in American Kitchens. From my first look at Indian-ish, it’s in a similar vein of adapting comfort foods to a new environment. Many of the ingredients that might be hard to find in a normal supermarket have been substituted, much in the same vein as feta to replace paneer. It appears to be a good stepping off point for home cooks wanting to expand their horizons into a new type of cooking.

From the first, it is a love letter from daughter to mother, and I enjoy that about this book very much. Most of the recipes are from Ritu's repertoire, and for that matter, almost all of them are vegetarian! I heard this impressive statistic on The Final Table where 30% of the 1.3 billion people in India are vegetarians. This cookbook supports that statistic, as far as I'm concerned. It comes into my life at a good time: I'm trying to eat healthier again.

We'll start cooking out of this the last week of May, and I will do my best to update you on my findings as June unwinds. Happy Memorial Day!

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