When Indian immigrants to America want to cook dishes from their homeland, they often have to improvise with ingredients available in America, while also incorporating Indian seeds and other ingredients into traditional American recipes.
The fusion of American and Indian flavors is the focus of food writer Khushbu Shah’s new cookbook, “Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian-American Diaspora.”
The son of Indian immigrants, Shah remembers his mother using biscuits not to make pancakes but to make gulab jamun batter, and he says improvisation has seeped into his own life, too, using peanut butter to make chutney.
“I grew up eating a very global diet, and my pantry is very global. Just as curry leaves have a place, so do gochujang, Sriracha, soy sauce, and cream cheese,” Shah says. “I’ve always adapted a lot of Indian cooking using ingredients I have on hand.”
Book excerpt: Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian American Diaspora
By Khushbu Shah
Excerpted from “Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian-American Diaspora.” Copyright © 2024 Khushbu Shah. Photos © 2024 Aubrie Pick. Used with permission of the publisher, WW Norton & Company. All rights reserved.
This segment aired on June 5, 2024.
