The essential marathi cookbook: Kaumudi Marathe

At a time when Maharashtrian leaders are hellbent on proving right is might, cooking up a controversy has become synonymous with the community

The essential marathi cookbook: Kaumudi Marathe
Rating: 3/5
For: Rs 350

At a time when Maharashtrian leaders are hellbent on proving right is might, cooking up a controversy has become synonymous with the community. That they can also stir up a cuisine that fires the appetite, has taken a backseat. With recipes that shock, appease, pamper the senses, Marathe strives, if only by sitting in America, to introduce non-Marathas to the kaleidoscopic kitchens of Konkanastha Brahmans (Pune), Saraswat Brahmans (Nagpur-Pune), East Indian Christians (Vasai), Malvanis (Konkan/Muslim), Marathas (Kolhapur), Deshastha Brahmans (Western Maharashtrian), Kurunwads (Sangli) and Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus (Mumbai).

Making sense of traditional masalas, indigenous ingredients, eating habits and peculiar terms, Kaumudi unhurriedly spills her secret recipes, splitting the spread into Breakfast, Snacks, Vegetables, Meat and Seafood, Drinks, Chutneys, Relishes, Pickles, Preserves, Desserts and Sweets.

My mother is no Kylie Wong, but she acknowledges the importance of presentation skills when she rearranges a kothambir (coriander) stem to garnish a piping hot bowl of Mutton Rassa. She'd show zero tolerance towards the author's lack of interest. The book cover carries an unappetising image of a gooey paste resembling a beetroot salad. The content pages are devoid of finger-licking good visuals and recipes lie orphaned in the middle of pages hardly a tease for a community of hot-headed ghatis.

What drags this compilation further away from traditional reality is the use of an accent mark on all the 'e's. So, you have Sabudanyache Vade, Kande Pohe and Masale Bhaat from the kitchens of Ms Marathe. Insipid exotica.