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Book Name:Indian Recipes Under 30 Minutes, Contributed by the Master Chefs of India Publisher: Roli Books Pages: 96 Year 2005 Price: Rs. 295 ISBN: 8174363505

Dishing up a gourmet meal in 30 minutes is all very well as a concept goes. The problem is, who is going to sit and time it and make sure that it works? My mother who normally handles all the household chores had the book shoved into her lap the other day. "Here," I said, "here’s the answer to your ‘I don’t know what to order for dinner problems’." It was well published shiny covered and advertised its half an hour message across all the pages. Cooking Time: 30 minutes. The 70 recipes had been compiled by some of India’s finest chefs, names like Bina Parasramka, Prima Kurien, Sujit Bose, and Vijaylakshmi Baig, who had all sat with their timers and ensured that the whole thing was possible within 30 minutes.

Which is all very well if you take your do-it-yourself householder and executive wife on the run into account. That’s the kind of woman who has so little time that she practices vacuuming in a chiffon to give time management a new dimension – at least, if the TV adverts are to be believed. However, if the person in question is your faithful Jeeves, the 30-minute principle simply does not hold good. Firstly, the 30-minute chef has to ensure that the pantry has an ample stock of saunf, asafoetida, raisins, saffron and other luxurious cookery condiments. These are not dishes that one can whip up on the spur of the moment – you have to plan for them. Which means that shopping lists and planning ahead eat into the 30 minutes. The Jeeves or whoever does your shopping has to be accordingly inducted into the ins and outs of the recipe beforehand so that he or she can stock up from the bazaar.

The next step is getting everything chopped and ready. If you happen to be presiding over the kitchen book in hand and there is nothing else impending, then fine. You can concentrate on the one dish in question. However, in most Indian kitchens where the chopping and the grinding is done all together and the respective masalas presented in a lump, a lot of dishes are cut and chopped for in advance and then used dish by dish. You can’t time that, obviously.

If your Jeeves has understood the recipe thoroughly, you may of course leave him alone to serve up the entire meal by himself, in which case, his time is his own. Ours of course comes running to say he forgot to get the pudina, so could he substitute something else and when he substitutes the whole thing comes to the table tasting totally different. Yes, you have the pleasure of knowing that you have a selection of recipes ranging from north to south India which you can whip up for your guests. They are rare enough in some cases to earn you a reputation for gourmet cooking – even though the lagan na tarkari per eda did come to the table somewhat short of tomato. "How much more tomato do you expect?" my mother demanded. "We put in three like the recipe said!"

Economy is perhaps not an important part of the cookbook either – and that has nothing do to with the Jeeves. The recipes are exotic enough to require laying on stocks of cinnamon, ginger and other spices that are not normally kept in the kitchen. However, if you set the expense and the Jeeves factor aside and decide to impress your friends and family with some exotic cooking, this is the book for you.

Though we never did get to time the recipes. I must get hold of a do it yourself friend one day and try it out…

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