Indian-ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family by Priya Krishna, feat. Ritu Krishna | 2019 | Mariner Books| Hardcover $28
A witty and irresistible celebration of one very cool and boundary-breaking mom’s “Indian-ish” cooking — with accessible and innovative Indian-American recipes.
Indian food is everyday food! This colorful, lively book is food writer Priya Krishna’s loving tribute to her mom’s “Indian-ish” cooking — a trove of one-of-a-kind Indian-American hybrids that are easy to make, clever, practical, and packed with flavor.
I first became interested in this book after the whole Bon Appétit blow-up back in 2020. In the early stages of the pandemic, that magazine’s articles and cooking videos were like a lifeline towards normalcy for many folks, including myself. But when the company’s inequitable treatment of non-white test kitchen cooks and content creators came to light, many of the big-name contributors opted to go their separate ways. Priya Krishna was one of them.
As one of the many Bon Appétit audience members who wanted to follow the further adventures of some of the test kitchen alumni, I was happy to discover that Priya Krishna had recently published a cookbook. The subject of this cookbook is, of course, Indian-American food.
I was particularly intrigued by the fact that the author had grown up in Texas, like me. In fact, her parents still live here and her mother was a major contributor to the book. This somehow made the new-to-me cuisine less intimidating. After all, at the very least I should be able to get all the ingredients for curbside pickup at my H-E-B, right?
There is a little Tex-Mex influence here; the recipe for white bean stuffed poblanos is the most obvious example. But most of the featured foods are clearly the product of a family with roots in India… and I did end up having to track down a South Asian grocery shop to explore, after all. And I have to admit that I still ended up subbing a couple of harder-to-find ingredients. Still, I’m quite glad for the experience and I’ll definitely be back at that market for more. (They had SO many interesting pickles I’m dying to try.)
From September – December last year, I tried a total of 15 recipes out of this cookbook. A few of my favorites were the saag paneer feta, tomato-cheese masala toast, and tomato rice with crispy Cheddar. I was also unreasonably proud of myself for managing to make homemade yogurt à la Mr. Krishna.
I would recommend this cookbook to anyone who is interested in trying recipes for “Indian” food that are actually super accessible to home cooks on this side of the globe. The only little caveat is that if you don’t live anywhere near a grocery store that specializes in stuff from India (or someplace that has carries a similar set of products, like a halal market), you’ll need to be prepared to order some things online. But if you do have trouble sourcing any ingredients, the book includes a handy spice guide with suggested substitutes.
If you would like to see some photos from my adventure through this book, or if you want to follow along in my continued culinary experiments, please feel free to visit my foodie Instagram:
Links:
- Official website of Priya Krishna
- “Indian-ish” articles and recipes at Bon Appétit
- “How Priya Krishna’s New Cookbook Celebrates Her Dallas Childhood” article at Texas Monthly
Publication information: Krishna, Priya. Indian-ish: Recipes and antics from a modern American family. Boston, MA: Mariner Books, 2019. Hardcover.
Source: Private library.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
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