Quick Cookbook Review/ The Ayurveda Kitchen/ Anne Heigham
I have been hanging around Ayurveda people for decades. Going to courses and conferences, reading books and integrating what I can into my life. Ayurveda is a vast vast field, and I am knowledgeable about it in only the general sense. But I have met and heard such luminaries as Vasant Lad, Robert Svoboda and Claudia Welch. I love going to Ayurvedic conferences in India - it is all way above me, the specialised stuff, but boy you hear some tales. And see remarkable stuff with your own eyes (some things Vasant Lad does, man oh man).
One of the areas that Ayurveda particularly pervades is the Kitchen. A newish (2021), delightful and simple book is on the market. It is a gentle introduction to using Ayurveda in your kitchen. It includes an extensive introduction to Ayurveda, a medicine cabinet full of herbal tonics, and recipes suitable for any experience level. And the recipes are GOOD, surprising so. They remind me a little of Maya Tiwari's recipes in her books, but they are less focused on Indian-style dishes.
It is a well laid out book, pretty indeed with its colourings. Recommended for anyone interested in learning about Ayurveda (it is much more easily consumed than Vasant's books 😄)
"Transform your kitchen into a sanctuar for health with 80 perfectly balanced recipes."
Quick Cookbook Review/ Parsi - From Persia to Bombay / Farokh Talati
I know a lovely Parsi woman in Sydney who grew up in India. She is heavily into Ayurveda, but from a different approach - using oils and body preparations, massage etc. When she was younger she ran accredited Ayurveda courses and brought some of the Indian leading practitioners out to Australia. Such as Dr Kulkani.
I met her when I was first learning about Indian food, and she gave me several of her recipes, including a Yoghurt Curry - this is the only dish I have ever seen a room of people go quiet as they ate. Totally quiet. It was THAT good.
Wikip explains: "Parsis or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of the Persian Empire in order to preserve their Zoroastrian identity."
Parsi cuisine is not vegetarian (altho my friend is). But there are awesome dishes that draw from Persian and Indian food. This book, Parsi, is a thick tome of about 450 pages, containing just recipe after recipe. The author is a chef, and it has a chef-y feel, even though the recipes are from home kitchens.
The book contains a stunning yoghurt curry (the first recipe I looked for), as well as some other favourites - a beautiful rose-scented vermicelli payasam, khichdi, stuffed eggplants, etc.
I probably wouldn't recommend this book for vegetarians, but it does contain some gorgeous vegetarian dishes. I do recommend it for anyone interested in Parsi cuisine and the wide variety of Indian food.