The decision to write this book came from the moment I began to tidy up the multitude of hand-written recipes I had floating all over the house. There were scribbles on old till receipts, notes on top of newspaper cuttings – not to mention the numerous ink-soaked napkins in my kitchen drawers.

Grouped together, they marked my life as a wife and mother to my three children. Every recipe tells a story.

And so I began the painstaking task of typing up each and every one, archiving them in colour co-ordinated files. Unfortunately, I had typed them up in jargon that only I could understand! At around this time my daughters, who were both living abroad, would phone me every so often wanting a recipe or asking how I cooked their favourite dishes. So, once again, I found myself re-working those same bitty recipes in a more orderly fashion – thus sparking the desire to publish a cook book for my children and future generations.

This is no ordinary recipe book, however. Each dish is the result of everything that I have learned or been taught over the years from family and friends. Many of the techniques used are unique to those
of my mother and mother-in-law – passed down to them from their mothers, too. Being born a Punjabi and married to a Gujarati, I continue to have the best of both cuisines, and my cooking is an amazing fusion of the two distinct styles. I hope they will work just as beautifully for you.

Delight in food is delight in life.

Happy cooking.