Mistress of Spices

Ravinder Bhogal is an immigrant twice over. Her grandfather moved to Kenya from his native Punjab in the 1940s in search of better prospects. When Bhogal was seven, her family moved to England. Her memories of the small jikoni (Swahili for kitchen) in Nairobi&mdashfull of women bustling about, working their magic with their pots and pans and melange of masalas, speaking in a variety of inherited tongues&mdashare sharply etched, and steeped in the aching twang of nostalgia. Bhogal is a former journalist who started writing about food, eventually moving into private catering and then opening her own restaurant in London&rsquos Marylebone, thus fulfilling a long- nurtured dream. 

Of course, it&rsquos called 'jikoni'. A good cookbook is like a cosy hearth, which you turn to for inspiration and warmth. Bhogal embraces her culinary influences, modifying traditional recipes to ingredients available in the new land, and welcomes hitherto alien dishes into the family fold. But she makes them her own. The stodgy British kedgeree, for instance, metamorphoses into pea and mint- stuffed fishcakes served with a curry hollandaise, essentially relaying the same flavour. 

Who would have thought 

It&rsquos also a deeply personal book, laced with private memories. Every recipe is accompanied by a delicious nugget of history or a sharp observation, if not a full-course tale. The recipes themselves are part home cook, part cheffy, everything from pork scratchings to pomegranate quail and tahini ice cream.

Bhogal writes with felicity &ldquoOur recipes displayed a rebellious spirit, lawless concoctions&nbspthat drew their influences from one nation and then another. We took the traditions of our ancestors and their regional home cooking and overlaid them with the reality of our new home and whatever&nbspits various food markets, delis, canteens and multicultural supermarkets had to offer&nbspon any given day. This is what I suppose could be loosely termed &lsquoimmigrant cuisine&rsquo, proudly inauthentic recipes that span geography, ethnicity and history.&rdquo This is a cookbook you can actually read.