Having learned how to cook from her mother since standard 4th, Vaishnavi started to cook great recipes by watching her family cook. She enjoys reviving long-lost traditional dishes and experimenting with fusion cuisine. Vaishnavi, originally from Mumbai, recently relocated to London. Where she misses her culture and the regional taste but she is a nonstop. To her food is therapy and on Cookbookbyvaish, you'll find anecdotes, cooking tips, and hacks in addition to recipes. Her page Cookbookbyvaish has now 50k followers on Instagram. She thinks learning never stops, and she loves it when others try her recipes and rave about them. We got a chance to get to know her food love here are some excerpts.
What is food for you?
Food! I am born and bought up in a family were all the family members cook. This is were my love for cooking inculcated. Food for me is my mental peace. I don’t hesitate or get bore for cooking even at odd hours. I focus more on holding roots but creating fusions. As simple as Sabudana vada Fondue!
When did you start cooking? What inspired you?
My relation with cooking started when I was in standard 4th. I enjoyed helping my mother during my summer holidays where she involved me in small kitchen tasks like cleaning vegetables and sautéing onions. The first thing I learnt was rice bhakri which is considered very tough to learn and therefore my mother made me learn bhakri at a nascent stage. The fact that my father and my 80-year-old grandmother enjoy cooking motivates me. I am fortunate to be married to a chef who has brilliant culinary ideas. So this is what motivates me every time.
When did you first become addicted to food and choose to create recipes?
Food addiction developed later, but the ability to create food was so ingrained that I created my page. Well, great Chefs were created during lockdown. Haha! This is true. I am a food blogger and a recipe creator with more than 50k followers on Instagram (@cookbookbyvaish) I started this page as hobby during lockdown and I really took it seriously and got an opportunity to work with renowned Chefs on their YouTube. My aim was to take basic Maharashtrian cuisine and give it a International touch. Like Pav Bhaji Bruschetta or using Kokam sharbat for Halloween Party.
Tell us something about your interest in Ghar ka Khana
All our high streets are loaded with fast food chains that comes from their central kitchens which calls for partially cooked food that requires longer shelf life and throughout this process a lot of food additives & preservatives are introduced into the food. And This is where I put GHAR KA KHANA at the top. Moving to London gave me a chance to review the lost traditional recipes and introduce them to the audience who have very limited time to spend in their kitchens so that they make it instantly (instant Kothimbir Vadi on my page) yet they will enjoy homecooked healthy food, despite they are settled anywhere globally they will still feel they are home.
What do you miss about Indian Food and How do you recreate it with ingredients available to you?
Oh, how I miss the flavour of India, especially when I cook fish fritters. Finding ingredients that can be found at home in Mumbai in London is challenging. Simple foods like garlic or coriander leaves lack the oomph that we are accustomed to in India. But I made it work by utilising workarounds like marinating the fish in garlic and putting garlic in the oil I use for frying. Coriander is used similarly; I add it to masalas while I prepare a meal and later as a garnish.
Any ingredient you can't cook without and why?
Sometimes it’s not about just the ingredients but it is also above the love you pour while making food. “Khana Banao Toh Dil Se Banao”! And I believe that food is about experimentation. You cannot master a dish in a day. Failures will teach lessons and failures will also show solutions. But yes, curry leaf and ginger are always in my pantry.
How do you amp up your basic dishes, what is that one thing you are always confident about adding to your dishes?
To me, there is nothing like a basic dish because each dish is unique and has its own flavours. I believe that every recipe calls for a different cooking technique. Like some dishes require browning of onion and some call for just sautéing, some require ginger garlic paste while others call for fine chopped garlic or ginger. So, it is important to understand what each dish requires and this only comes with experimentation and paring of food elements. Understanding pairing is very important in food.
Since Makar Sankranti is coming, we would like to know about your Sankranti celebrations both in India and abroad.
Makar Sankranti is the 1st festival of the year. Being a Maharashtrian I grew up celebrating Makar Sankranti while preparing Tilgul either in chikkis or laddoos while listening to mythological stories from my granny. Makar Sankranti is being celebrated away from my Mumbai home this year. But festivities can place everywhere, so inspired by my passion for fusion cuisine, I prepared traditional chikki using black and white sesame seeds and dipped in melted chocolate and garnished it with beautiful seasame seeds. Just by mixing two types of seeds and rolling it as thin as possible to make chips instead of chikki and to give it a twist I dipped it in chocolate.
What do you like most about the Slurrp community?
One platform does it all with Slurrp. Slurrp is the place to go if you're looking for any kind of food-related information or fresh food articles. Like an all-in-one platform, The team is doing amazing!
Fusion recipes you would love to share?
Tilgul Chocolate Chips
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Black and white Til/ Sesame seeds 1/2 cup Gul/ Jaggery
1/3 cup peanuts
1/4 tsp Elaichi/ Cardamom powder chocolate of your choice.
Method:
Dry roast white and black til till they become crisp and aromatic Dry roast peanuts and roughly chopped them.
Heat a pan and melt the Jaggery. Once it bubbles add dry roasted sesame seeds and peanuts and elaichi powder. On a piece of butter paper and the mixture, cover with another piece of paper and quickly roll it. Allow to cool down.
Break it gently and dip it melt chocolate and garnish it with between the til seeds. Allow the chocolate to cool and celebrate!
Tips you would like to share, how to add a fusion touch to your food?
My only tip for fusion food it - experiment and go bold it with your favourite food as it gives you more ideas and make your loved ones taste it! When I use to work on fusion, I asked my sister and my brother to taste it. And they would always give honest feedback.