BREADS AND BREAKFAST BY SHAIL THOSANI – BOOK REVIEW

 

When a lawyer needs to relax and makes cooking her hobby, the result is bound to be mouthwatering. Shail Thosani began cooking after her 12^th Board Exams, and as she puts it, there was no looking back.

This book titled ‘Breads and Breakfast’ is divided into two sections, the first one dealing in bread recipes and the second in breakfast recipes. For a person who loves bread, this book is a godsend, for there are many tempting bread recipes with equally enticing pictures as well.

However, there is also much beyond bread, as has been proven in the second section of the book.

Potato and cheese are the heroes in the first section of Bread Recipes that has sandwiches with different fillings. Whether it is an aloo-tikki sandwich served with pudina chutney, pav bhaji toast or potato cheese chilly sandwich, the accompanying picture makes one’s mouth water.

Bread besan chilla, paneer chilly sandwich and veg tomato omelette sandwich remind one of Mumbai street food, which is so popular that people across the country make special trips to savour it. What could be better than making these, sitting snugly in your own kitchen?

And for those with exotic taste buds, the double cheese bread pizza, corn toast and focaccia bread make a tempting meal.  As the author, Shail Thosani, says, “Being from an all-foodie family, experimenting has been my hobby; even classic recipes go through my experimentation.” She believes that the journey is always more exciting than the destination, and so it is in the case of food too.

Section two opens with Breakfast Recipes. Whether it is the South Indian appam, the oats idli, podi idli or ragi dosa, there is something for every palate. Besides, there are also recipes that are effective for weight reduction like the wheat jaggery chilla, yellow moong dal chilla, and the mixed vegetable pancakes. The cheesy moonglet looks different and sounds delicious too.

It is said that food needs to look good as well as taste good. Today, chefs take pains to present their dishes in a way that makes them first palatable to the eye, and then the tongue. There is no doubt that a beautifully presented dish is a sight for sore eyes. The pictures of the dishes in this book are eye-catching and colourful, having been taken by the author herself. An even bigger advantage is the fact that not only does she use easy-to-obtain ingredients to create her recipes, but that every recipe of hers is one that has been tried and tested.

A book that could be a keepsake for those who want easy, delicious and time-tested recipes!

 This post is part of #BlogchatterHalfMarathon