Ten Thousand Tongues: the companion cookbook

Book excerpt: Ten Thousand Tongues: the companion cookbook This book serves as a companion to the upcoming biographical fiction by the same author, titled: Ten Thousand Tongues: secrets of a layered kitchen (December 2018) About: Comfort foods have the power to seep straight to our innermost core: the strength emanating from a hearty breakfast on a cold winter’s morning, the beverage that fosters a long-lasting friendship, the reverence and reassurance that wafts from a religious offering, the giddy excitement that seasons a wedding feast, a soup that becomes a salve for incurable homesickness or that imperfect dessert that only reinforces our belief a sense of eternal happiness. Unassuming, ordinary, simple and familiar, comfort foods offer the recipes for solace, strength, and nourishment, facilitating an escape into the soft creases of contentment. Comfort food, for life. This cookbook is a companion to ‘Ten Thousand Tongues: secrets of a layered kitchen’, a biographical fiction about eight matriarchs and their many contributions to the authors' repertoire. The cookbook includes many iconic dishes from the regional cuisines of India: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, from the Bene Israel Jewish traditions, as well as streeteats from Mumbai to those adapted to a suburban American kitchen. The book has more than seventy dishes from the kitchens of eight women, the food reflecting an intersection of time and place. The dishes have crossed borders, survived adversity, and adapted, sustaining the power to soothe spirits. They continue to energize the mind, body, and soul. The kitchen becomes a Zen-like space where ones’ senses are centered, validated and nurtured.