Mumbai Modern: Vegetarian Recipes Inspired by Indian Roots and California Cuisine

by Amisha Dodhia Gurbani

Overview

Discover a world of spice and color in this celebration of Indian cuisine made for the American kitchen.

Indian cooks are masters of flavor. Enjoyed and revered worldwide, the best Indian food offers comfort, wonder, and beauty. In Mumbai Modern, Amisha Dodhia Gurbani delivers a marriage of traditional Gujarati cuisine, Mumbai street food, and modern innovation inspired by the bountiful fresh ingredients on offer in her adopted home of California.

Mumbai Modern offers more than 100 vegetarian recipes, complete with Gurbani’s stunning photographs, including breakfasts (Pear and Chai Masala Cinnamon Rolls); appetizers and salads (Dahi Papdi Chaat); mains (Ultimate Mumbai-California Veggie Burger); bread (Wild Mushroom and Green Garlic Kulcha), rice, and snacks (Cornflakes Chevdo); sauces, dips, and jams (Blood Orange and Rosemary Marmalade); desserts (Masala Chai Tiramisu with Rose Mascarpone, Whipped Cream, and Pistachio Sprinkle); and drinks (Nectarine, Star Anise, and Ginger Shrub).

Alongside family stories, history, culture and more, this vibrant cookbook is a triumph of Indian-American culinary brilliance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682686294
Publisher:	Countryman Press, The
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	242 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Amisha Dodhia Gurbani is a computer engineer, recipe developer, photographer, food blogger, and the creator of The Jam Lab. Born in Mumbai, she moved to the United States in 1999. She lives in the Bay Area with her family.

Editorial Reviews

10/18/2021

JamLab blogger Gurbani takes readers from Mumbai to California and back in this enticing if clunky collection of recipes inspired by her heritage. Gurbani effortlessly melds cuisines and flavors in such dishes as homemade Pop-Tarts with apple, fennel, and cardamom, and a dahi papdi chaat where tortillas replace puri. Main dishes such as vegetable kofta in cashew sauce are complex and layered, while Gurbani’s talent as a baker is made apparent in a stunning black sesame Bundt cake decorated with slices of candied kumquats, and colorful “peacock” macarons with apricot buttercream. Mumbai street food such as lentil fritters, and a beet, potato, and mint chutney sandwich stand out among the numerous delicious dishes on offer. Indeed, no fault can be found with the fare. The trap Gurbani falls into is information overload; many headnotes fill an entire page, while the tips set off in callout boxes are often unnecessary: one suggests eating potato curry with flatbread, advice repeated in the three-paragraph headnote two pages earlier. Snacks and salads, such as mung bean salad, appear in a chapter on appetizers, but a later chapter on “accompaniments and snacks,” contains more snacks and another salad. This stylish collection bursts with ideas—occasionally to its detriment. Agent: Leigh Eisenman, Wolf Literary. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"This is a book that pulls at your heartstrings and makes you want to read more and then stock your pantry with everything Indian; sharpen your knives and put on your comfortable shoes because you’re going to want to cook from cover to cover. Every sensuous recipe has a little twist that gives you an ‘ah-ha’ moment like the Chickpea Flour Crepes with Carrot and Purple Cabbage Salad and the Iced Masala Chai Latte with Lavender Foam, to name a few. Amisha has a real hit with Mumbai Modern. This is the cookbook I want on my cookbook shelf and the one I will go to again and again."

Joanne Weir

"Amisha's cooking makes me insanely jealous. Her recipes effortlessly weave together the exquisite vegetarian food of Gujarat, the cosmopolitan excitement of Mumbai's eateries, and the freshness and vibrancy of California cuisine. She's a cook's cook, distilling generations of knowledge, instinct, and craft into each dish that ends up always being the best version of it I've ever tried. There are a handful of trusted cookbooks in my collection that I go back to over and over again, and Mumbai Modern will easily join that list."

Chef Meherwan Irani

"I love Amisha’s plant-based Indian dishes with her unique and fresh California spin. Not only are they a feast for the eyes, but a kaleidoscope of amazing flavors, too!"

Michelle Tam

"Exquisite flavors from her Indian heritage and exceptional produce from her adopted Californian home inform Amisha’s recipes in this glorious book. Vegetables are made vibrant with numerous spices, stories are told of family and migration, and above all, love is communicated in each and every recipe. A terrific achievement. This is cooking where the heart is."

Helen Goh

"Few cooks bring such pure joy and fluency of flavor to their food as Amisha Gurbani. She has absolutely no fear as she crosses cultures, finding surprising combinations of ingredients that just seem born to be together. Amisha has a rare gift, and I'm so glad she's sharing it with us."

Margo True

"[Mumbai Modern] is full of fun twists on Indian home cooking, utilizing bright flavors and comforting ingredients in delicious ways. . . . Think pear and chai masala cinnamon rolls, paneer skewers in a cilantro-peanut pesto, and what Gurbani calls the ‘Ultimate Mumbai-California Veggie Burger,’ which, wow, sign me up."

Bon Appétit - Kendra Vaculin

11/01/2021

In this debut collection, food blogger and recipe developer Gurbani (creator of The Jam Lab) makes fun, approachable Indian cuisine with a California flair. The Mumbai-born author focuses primarily on vegetarian food from the northwestern state of Gujarat, but also includes dishes more heavily influenced by her current home in Northern California; the recipes are categorized as breakfast dishes, appetizers, mains, snacks, desserts, or drinks. Some recipes are lengthy, with sub-recipes and lots of steps—partly due to Gurbani's careful instructions clarifying each part of the process. Many of the recipes for spice mixes and chutneys are used in more than one of the Gurbani's dishes, which adds an element of practicality to the cookbook. As on her popular blog, recipes such as three-lentil daal are accompanied by the chef's beautiful photographs, along with notes on equipment and storing leftovers. There's also a pantry section detailing the recipe's spices and Indian ingredients. VERDICT For home cooks looking to get started recreating innovative Indian and Indian-American-fusion dishes, this accessible collection will set them well on their way.—Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Library Journal