The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Served with a Recipe for Peas and Potatoes Cooked in a Bihari Style

I'm so happy to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda as she has become a favorite author of mine. Accompanying my review is a recipe for a  simple and tasty Peas and Potatoes Cooked in a Bihari Style by Madhur Jaffrey, inspired by my reading.

Publisher's Blurb:

The Olander family embodies the modern American Dream in a globalized world. Jaya, the cultured daughter of an Indian diplomat and Keith, an ambitious banker from middle-class Philadelphia, meet in a London pub in 1988 and make a life together in suburban California. Their strong marriage is built on shared beliefs and love for their two children: headstrong teenager Karina and young son Prem, the light of their home.

But love and prosperity cannot protect them from sudden, unspeakable tragedy, and the family’s foundation cracks as each member struggles to seek a way forward. Jaya finds solace in spirituality. Keith wagers on his high-powered career. Karina focuses relentlessly on her future and independence. And Prem watches helplessly as his once close-knit family drifts apart.

When Karina heads off to college for a fresh start, her search for identity and belonging leads her down a dark path, forcing her and her family to reckon with the past, the secrets they’ve held and the weight of their choices.

The Shape of Family is an intimate portrayal of four individuals as they grapple with what it means to be a family and how to move from a painful past into a hopeful future. It is a profoundly moving exploration of the ways we all seek belonging—in our families, our communities and ultimately, within ourselves.

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (March 17, 2020)

My Review:

Shilpi Somaya Gowda writes books that are about family in all of its complexities, joys, and sorrows, and tells stories that tug at the heart. I picked up her first book, The Secret Daughter and loved it, and was equally as fond of her second book, The Golden Son (see my book tour review here). Her books are smart, poignant without being maudlin, and so easy to get absorbed in. The Shape of Family tells of the Olanders, parents Jaya and Keith and their children Karina and Prem. Jaya grew up around the world with a diplomat father and a dancer mother, and Keith, an investment banker, was raised in Philadelphia. They now live in California with their two children; Karina is your typical teenager, and Prem a precocious young boy. We meet them before a tragedy strikes and when it does, this seemingly close family breaks apart from each other in their grief. Jaya finds comfort in the religious teachings of a Guru while Keith focuses on his work and the couple separates. Karina goes to college but has trouble feeling like she fits in the world and struggles with her guilt and pain, while Prem is there to watch each of them spin off and away from each other. The book is about grief and loss, and the choices made by each of the characters in absorbing an unthinkable tragedy and trying to move on. The story is beautifully and compassionately written, and it made me care about this family completely. We spend the most time with Karina, which means we get less of the other family members but I was most interested in her story, so that worked for me. I don't want to give too much away but there is a touch of magical realism that may connect with some readers more than others, but that I found gave the story a strong feeling of peace and hope. The Shape of Family touched me and I look forward to reading Gowda's next book.   

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Author Notes: Shilpi Somaya Gowda was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Her previous novels, Secret Daughter and The Golden Son became international bestsellers, selling over one million copies worldwide. She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead-Cain scholar. She lives in California with her husband and children.


Find out more about Shilpi at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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Food Inspiration: 

There is so much food in The Shape of Family, it almost reads like a foodie novel. Mentions included: rice and vegetable curry, dosas, lamb curries, cabbage and kale, cake and ice cream, strawberries, garlic fries, beer, champagne, single malt whiskey, paan, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream sandwiches, cold cereal, hardboiled eggs seasoned with salt and red chili pepper, buttered wheat toast  and a sliced banana, chocolate chip pancakes and waffles, linguini with tomato sauce, ahi dipped in soy sauce, basil on a slice of buffalo mozzarella, aged balsamic on strawberries, slow simmered Bolognese, coq au vin, linguine with clams, Thai coconut curry and jasmine rice, heal tea, frozen yogurt, crackers, pizza, salad, ginger ale, popcorn, green beans, cheese toast, dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets dipped in ketchup, apples, pears, grapes, chapatis, dal, Chinese buffet, turkey or peanut butter sandwiches, a picnic of cheese, bread, grapes and wine, roasted tomatoes blended into a rice sauce, asparagus, rhubarb, romaine lettuce, rainbow chard, roots zucchini, poblanos and other veggies, creamy mashed potatoes with chives, port-wine gravy, haricots vets with toasted almonds, candy cane beets, an eclectic Thanksgiving meal with traditional and multi-cultural dishes, burritos, roasted chicken with lemon and thyme served with carrots, parsnips, turnips, and wild rice, soft scrambled eggs and toast, grilled lamb chops, guacamole and chips, Greek yogurt with homemade spicy cinnamon granola, carrot-ginger juice, jicama slaw, vanilla milkshake, Mexican-style corn, coconut water, pan-seared halibut with a lemon-herb crust, wilted greens, and French lentils, spinach and cheese omelets, salmon, apple pie, vegetarian meals: lentil stews, tofu curries and cauliflower steaks, pepperoni pizza, and mashed potatoes with mole. Whew--that wasn't even all of it!

For my bookish dish, I wanted a quick and simple recipe with ingredients I had at home due to the state of things and limited grocery runs. I found Madhur Jaffrey's Peas and Potatoes online. I thought it was a good example of a simple dish that Jaya might cook (although it did say in the book that she wasn't using garlic, chilies, and onion based on the teachings of the Guru she follows that "they are not good for her spiritual being.") Yikes! I think those things are very good for my spiritual being. ;-) I had a 5 lb bag of Yukon Gold potatoes in my pantry (potatoes are my love language), ginger, onion and a chili in my veggie drawer, and frozen peas in my pantry so I was all set to make it.

Peas and Potatoes Cooked in a Bihari Style

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey via NationalPost.com

(Serves 4)

2 tbsp olive, peanut or mustard oil
½ tsp whole cumin seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp peeled, finely grated, fresh ginger root
1 to 3 fresh, hot green chilies, finely chopped (I used 1 jalapeño)
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
2-1/3 cups green peas, parboiled and drained if fresh, defrosted if frozen
1 medium waxy potato, boiled, peeled, diced (I used 2 large Yukon Gold Potatoes)
1 tsp salt or to taste
freshly ground pepper

In a medium non-stick frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add cumin seeds and let them sizzle for 10 seconds. Add onions and stir and fry them for about five minutes, or until just softened.

Add ginger, green chilies, and turmeric and cook, stirring, for a minute. Then add peas, potatoes, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for two to three minutes. If mixture dries out, add a little water, heat and serve

Notes/Results: A very simple but tasty dish that I used for my main dish, but would also be great as a side. The bright colors and delicious flavors made me happy. I only had one jalapeño in my veggie drawer but I left in some of the seeds and it was a good level of spice for me. The recipe says it serves 4, but I used two potatoes and had two servings as a main course. You could serve it with rice or a salad to round it out more as a meal but I was content with a bowl for dinner and another bowl for breakfast/lunch. I will happily make this again.

Linking up this Madhur Jaffrey dish with I Heart Cooking Clubs where it is Potluck this week. Actually due to the difficulty in readily finding some ingredients and making due with what you have, we at IHCC are making all of our themes in April (after we welcome our newest featured chef Julia Child next week) a "Needs, Must" theme. Just like a month of Potlucks--any recipe from any of the 20 featured chefs (some are pictured below) making due with what you have in your pantry to cook with. Stop in and join us!

I'm also sharing it at the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Note: A review copy of "The Shape of Family" was provided to me by the author and the publisher Harper Collins via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.  You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here
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The Book Tour Stops here: A Review of "The Sea of Lost Girls" by Carol Goodman, Served with a Recipe for Butter Cauliflower and Basmati Rice

With all of COVID-19 madness lately I'm happy today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for The Sea of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman. There truly is no better distraction from reality than an absorbing book and good food, so accompanying my review is a recipe for Butter Cauliflower with Basmati Rice inspired by the book.

Publisher's Blurb:
 
In the tradition of Daphne du Maurier, Shari Lapena, and Michelle Richmond comes a new thriller from the bestselling author of The Lake of Dead Languages—a twisty, harrowing story set at a prestigious prep school in which one woman’s carefully hidden past might destroy her future.

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried, where it belongs. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her seventeen-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving: he has a lead role in the school play and a smart and ambitious girlfriend. Tess tries not to think about the mistakes she made eighteen years ago, and mostly, she succeeds.

And then one more morning she gets a text at 2:50 AM: it’s Rudy, asking for help. When Tess picks him up she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess gets a phone call from the Haywood school headmistress: Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where Tess found Rudy just hours before.

As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister, and not only is Tess’s son a suspect but her husband is a person of interest too. But Lila’s death isn’t the first blemish on Haywood’s record, and the more Tess learns about Haywood’s fabled history, the more she realizes that not all skeletons will stay safely locked in the closet.
  

 

Paperback: 320 pages  
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (March 3, 2020)

My Review:

The Sea of Lost Girls is the first book I have tried from author Carol Goodman which seems odd since she has written fourteen novels. I was drawn to the book's description and to the gorgeous cover and I stayed for the absorbing story and mystery which has a slightly mythical and magical feel to it. There are plenty of secrets from the prep school and coastal setting to the layers of family drama, and Goodman's writing pulled me into the story. I didn't always agree with the main character Tess and some of her choices (OK, I may have lectured her in my head while reading several times...and possibly yelled at her at least once!), but Goodman had me caring about her and I wanted things to work out for her and her troubled son Rudy, and their fractious relationship. I am a sucker for boarding/prep school settings and especially when there is something slightly foreboding about them, so the Maine coast and the school's and community's legends of missing and drowned girls was appealingly creepy. The Sea of Lost Girls is a fast read although it moved a bit slow in the beginning. Once the pace picked up I read it in just a couple of sittings, wanting to know what happened and to see if my guesses were correct. There are several twists and turns in the book, a few I saw coming and some I didn't. All in all, I enjoyed my time with this book and I will look for more of Goodman's work.

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Author Notes: Carol Goodman is the critically acclaimed author of fourteen novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages and The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family, and teaches writing and literature at the New School and SUNY New Paltz.
Find out more about Carol on her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.

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Food Inspiration:

Food isn't a big presence in The Sea of Lost Girls but there were some mentions including almond milk and tofu, cumin for a curry for dinner, orange juice, coffee, granola bars, hot chocolate and cookies, Coke, fresh fish and blueberries, s'mores, berry wine, Pancake Sundays, Chili Night. beef stew, Malbec, loose tea and English biscuits, donuts, blueberry muffins, "messy vegan casseroles," carrots, cereal, and Gin-and-Tonics. 

For my bookish dish, I decided to make a vegetarian curry inspired by Lila cooking curry at Rudy's house & asking Tess for cumin. Back when I ate meat and poultry, I was a big fan of Butter Chicken and ordered it and made it often. I was going to make a Butter Tofu but because the I Heart Cooking Clubs theme is Cauliflower Everything this week, I decided to do a twofer and swap in cauliflower florets for the chicken in Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken in Butter Sauce, making it a vegetarian dinner. I have made this simple recipe before and substituted shrimp for the chicken (see post) so I knew the sauce would work well with mild cauliflower.  

Butter Cauliflower
Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey
(Makes 4 Servings)

For Sauce:
4 Tbsp tomato puree
2.5 cm (1-inch) cube fresh ginger, peeled and grated very finely to a pulp
300 ml (1/2 pint) single cream
1 tsp garam masala
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1 fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
4 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds

For Chicken Cauliflower:
100 g (4 oz) unsalted butter (I used Earth Balance buttery stick)
1 quantity of Tandori Chicken or other cooked chicken (I subbed in about a pound of frozen cauliflower florets, thawed.)

First prepare the sauce. Put the tomato puree in a large clear measuring jug. Slowly add water, mixing as you go to make up 250 ml (8 oz) of tomato sauce. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and mix well.

Heat the butter in a wide saute pan or a large frying pan. When the butter has melted, add the spiced sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook on medium heat for a minute, mixing in the butter as you do so. Add the (pre-cooked) Tandori chicken pieces cauliflower. Stir once and put the chicken on a warm serving platter, spooning the extra sauce over the top. (Instead, I added the sauce to the butter and stirred to mix, then added the thawed frozen cauliflower and cooked about 8 minutes, until flavors melded and cauliflower was cooked through.)

Notes/Results: Rich and velvety, butter sauce is delicious no matter what you put in it. Cauliflower makes a surprisingly satisfying substitute for chicken and tofu would be equally good. Since I have already tried it with shrimp, I know that's good, and I think fish would work equally well. You could make this vegan by using coconut milk and nondairy butter substitute but I had cream and butter on hand already. I used frozen cauliflower florets, making sure to defrost and drain them thoroughly before cooking them in the butter, which worked well. You could serve it with cauliflower rice if you wanted to go full on cauliflower but I like the nuttiness of the basmati rice. Quick and easy to make, I'll happily make it again.

I'm linking up this Madhur Jaffrey cauliflower dish to I Heart Cooking Clubs where our theme this week is Cauliflower Everything!

And I'm sharing it at the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Note: A review copy of "The Sea of Lost Girls" was provided to me by the author and the publisher Harper Collins via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.  

You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.

 

Creamy Red Lentil Soup: Combining Two Madhur Jaffrey Recipes for Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays

I wanted to cook with Madhur Jaffrey and I wanted lentil soup of which she has multiple recipes. I didn't get a chance to go through my cookbooks before I ran my Saturday errands so standing at the grocery store, I pulled some up online.

Liking two especially, I ended up combining the flavors, ingredients and prep style of this one from Lambeth Larder and this one from Lisa's Kitchen. My combo recipe is below.

Creamy Lentil Soup 
Adapted from Madhur Jaffery
(Makes 4 -5Servings)

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp Aleppo pepper or two taste
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed
1 can chopped fire-roasted tomatoes with juices
6 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 cups red lentils (masoor dal), washed  & drained
sea salt & black pepper to taste

In a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot and fry, stirring occasionally, until quite soft and the pieces start to brown around the edges. Lower the heat and add the spices and stir for about one minute until spices are fragrant.  

Add the potatoes, tomatoes, broth and lentils bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through and lentils are softened. Add salt and black pepper. Place about 1/3 of the sup into a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Stir back into the soup pot. Taste and add additional seasoning as desired.

Serve, garnished with fried onions (my favorite is the garlic and black pepper kind) or cilantro. Enjoy!

Notes/Results: This is a flavorful soup, warm and comforting and really good. In fact it smells so good cooking, I could hardly wait to eat it.I like how creamy the soup became from blending the cooked potatoes and lentils, while still retaining a satisfying chunky texture. Eating a bowl (while reading this new fantasy novel I got for a song on a sale and with a giftcard on Amazon) felt like fall. Now if I could only get our humid weather to cooperate with my inner "ready for autumn vibe." ;-) I would happily make this soup again.

Linking up with IHCC for this week's theme, I Never Cook With...

Now let's look into the Souper Sundays kitchen and see who is here.

 
Judee of Gluten Free A - Z Blog shared a delicious-looking Golden Lentil Soup (we were on the same page this week) and said, "I have quite a stash of lentil soup recipes, but this one is special. Why? It's made with two kinds of lentils- red lentils and brown lentils. The two varieties of lentils create a unique flavor and interesting soup. In addition it's flavored with turmeric, a golden spice now recognized for its anti-inflammatory properties."
 

 
Thanks to Judee for joining in this week!

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!
 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Color of Our Sky" by Amita Trasi, Served with Masala Chai & Samosas

Today's TLC Book Tour takes us to Mumbai, India for a review of an often heartbreaking but ultimately satisfying story; The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi. Accompanying my review is Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for Masala Chai--shown with the book and also a few tastysamosas from my favorite Indian market.

Publisher's Blurb:

In the spirit of Khaled Hosseini, Nadia Hashimi and Shilpi Somaya Gowda comes this powerful debut from a talented new voice—a sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends in Mumbai, India, whose lives converge only to change forever one fateful night.

India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old village girl from the lower caste Yellama cult has come of age and must fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute, as her mother and grandmother did before her. In an attempt to escape her fate, Mukta is sent to be a house girl for an upper-middle class family in Mumbai. There she discovers a friend in the daughter of the family, high spirited eight-year-old Tara, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to an entirely different world—one of ice cream, reading, and a friendship that soon becomes a sisterhood.

But one night in 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s family home and disappears. Shortly thereafter, Tara and her father move to America. A new life in Los Angeles awaits them but Tara never recovers from the loss of her best friend, or stops wondering if she was somehow responsible for Mukta’s abduction.

Eleven years later, Tara, now an adult, returns to India determined to find Mukta. As her search takes her into the brutal underground world of human trafficking, Tara begins to uncover long-buried secrets in her own family that might explain what happened to 
Mukta—and why she came to live with Tara’s family in the first place.

Moving from a traditional Indian village to the bustling modern metropolis of Mumbai, to Los Angeles and back again, this is a heartbreaking and beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship—a story of love, betrayal, and, ultimately, redemption.

Paperback: 416 pages 

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (April 18, 2017)

My Review: 

I am always slightly leery of book blurbs that claim a new book is similar to favorite books or authors. The Color of Our Sky is said to be "in the spirit of" works by Khaled Hosseini and Shilpi Somaya Gowda and I was worried that it wouldn't live up to The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, or Secret Daughter and The Golden Son--all books I loved. It turns out that I didn't need to worry, The Color of Our Sky holds it own with these other books and is a beautifully crafted and moving story. It isn't always easy to read, delving into harsh subjects like the caste system, human trafficking and the sexual slavery of women and children, prostitution, violence, poverty, and illness. I think it walks a good balance of being heart-wrenching but hopeful and it showcases the courage and strength of two women, friends of unequal backgrounds who are torn apart but who never forget each other. 

The story is told in the alternating points of view of Tara and Mukta, from the 1980s up through 2008, and illustrating the very different paths their lives take on a fateful night in 1993, shortly after the Bombay bombings. Mukta's chapters are the hardest to read, she's born into a family of temple prostitutes in a small village and it seems she is going to be able to break away from that fate until she is kidnapped from Tara's home and sold into slavery. Tara and her father move away from India and its memories and she has an easier life in California--although neither she or her father are ever the same due to their losses. Tara holds a lot of guilt from her role in what happened that night and comes back to Mumbai as an adult to find Mukta, in part to assuage that guilt. It took me longer to warm up to her than it did Mukta and stop judging her for her childhood mistakes. There are bright moments throughout the book--mostly Tara and Mukta's memories of the times they shared and although the book is close to 400 pages, the back and forth and the tension about whether or not Mukta would be found made it move quickly. I found myself completely caught up in the story and vested in the well-drawn characters, full of hope that redemption would happen. As tough as the parts of Mukta's life in the brothels are hard to read, it is important to be aware of the enormous and shameful problem of human trafficking that is rampant all over the world and this book gives what feels like a very realistic view. Ultimately it is a beautiful book about friendship and love and although not one for the "light and breezy" pile, it is absorbing and well worth reading.

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Author Notes: Amita Trasi was born and raised in Mumbai, India. She has an MBA in human resource management, and currently lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and two cats.
 
Find out more about Amita at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.






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It's hard for me to read any book set in India and not immediately crave Indian food and although it's not a focus of the book, there was definitely food to be found--along with many cups of hot and cold chai. Food mentioned included: saffron in pulao (rice), turmeric in dal, sweet rasgulla (a dessert), golas (crushed ice pops), ice cream, and sherbet, tea and sandwiches. energy bars, rice, pickles, chutneys, curries, pakoras (fried vegetable snack) Limca (lemon lime soda), jalebi (sweet fried dessert), chapati, paratha, and roti (flat breads), dahi wadas (lentil dumplings), American finger foods at a party like cheese and crackers, chicken tenders, salami, chips and dips, and veggies like carrots, tomatoes. onions, potatoes, and brinjal (eggplant).

I ended up deciding to make chai or tea, since there was so much tea in the book and chai masala which is spiced tea, often with milk. I make masala chai frequently at home, drinking it both hot and iced but I wanted to see how my favorite Indian chef Madhur Jaffrey makes hers. I have several of her cookbooks and recipes abound but I found this great article on Food 52. that talks about how she changed her recipe to use whole spices and less milk and I wanted to try it. 

I have included Jaffrey's ingredients and outlined the basic recipe below but I encourage you to read the Food 52 article as it has all of her tips and tricks in it. 

Madhur Jaffrey's Masala Chai
Slightly Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey via Food52.com

3 cups water
4 cloves or so
4 cardamom pods
4 peppercorns
1-inch piece of cinnamon bark or cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp ground ginger (Jaffrey says fresh ginger can curdle the milk)
3 black tea bags
1 cup whole milk or milk of choice (I used coconut)
sugar or honey to taste (Jaffrey uses 4 teaspoons of sugar)

Place the 3 cups of water into a medium saucepan. Add the masala--cloves, cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon, and ginger and the three black tea bags and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the milk and sweeten to taste, bring to a gentle simmer again, then remove pan from heat and pour contents through a fine mesh strainer into your teapot or serving vessel. Discard tea bags and spices. Taste and add additional sweetener or milk if needed. Serve and enjoy.

Notes/Results: Making your own chai at home will make you wonder why you bother ordering it at Starbucks or other coffee shop. It infuses the kitchen and house with the heavenly aroma of spices and it is quick, easy and you can store any leftovers in the fridge for iced chai or heat it up (just be sure not to boil it so the milk doesn't curdle). I like Jaffrey's blend, which is fairly close to my own although I tend to work in some star anise and coriander seeds into my blend. But the beauty of it is that you can put in your favorite spices and change the amounts to your preferences. You can also use whatever kind if milk--dairy or non-dairy you prefer and adjust the sweetness. I used about 3 tablespoons of honey in my blend because I don't like mine that sweet and it was perfect. I also used Bigelow Tea's "Constant Comment" black tea which is flavored with orange rind and sweet spice as I like the touch of citrus flavor it adds. You could also add orange rind to your masala mix. I was low on cardamom pods and it gave me an excuse to stop by the Indian market on the way home from a meeting where I gabbed some of their homemade samosas. Their spicy pea and potato filling went perfectly with the tea for an afternoon snack.

This post is linking up to I Heart Cooking Clubs for Potluck week--our week to make any dish from our current or any past IHCC featured chef. You can see what everyone made by checking out the picture links.

I'm also linking this post up to the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Note: A review copy of the "The Color of Our Sky" was provided to me by the publisher, Harper Collins, and TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.

You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "A House For Happy Mothers" by Amulya Malladi, Served Up with Sambhar (South Indian Pigeon Pea & Vegetable Stew) + a Book Giveaway!

Today's TLC Book Tour stop has us journeying all the way to India to A House For Happy Mothers by Amulya Malladi. Accompanying my review of this brand-new novel from a favorite author is a simple, comforting Sambhar, a South-Indian pigeon pea and vegetable stew recipe from Madhur Jaffrey, inspired by my reading. If that isn't enough to help you over the Wednesday hump, you'll find a giveaway for a chance to win a copy of this book at the bottom of the post. 
 

Publisher's Blurb:

A stunning new novel—full of wit and warmth—from the bestselling author of The Mango Season.

In trendy Silicon Valley, Priya has everything she needs—a loving husband, a career, and a home—but the one thing she wants most is the child she’s unable to have. In a Southern Indian village, Asha doesn’t have much—raising two children in a tiny hut, she and her husband can barely keep a tin roof over their heads—but she wants a better education for her gifted son. Pressured by her family, Asha reluctantly checks into the Happy Mothers House: a baby farm where she can rent her only asset—her womb—to a childless couple overseas. To the dismay of friends and family, Priya places her faith in a woman she’s never met to make her dreams of motherhood come true.
 
Together, the two women discover the best and the worst that India’s rising surrogacy industry has to offer, bridging continents and cultures to bring a new life into the world—and renewed hope to each other.

Paperback: 314 pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (June 1, 2016)

My Review:

I am a fan of Amulya Malladi--especially her Serving Crazy with Curry and The Mango Season, so I was thrilled that she had a new book coming out (finally). Malladi has an ability to create compelling characters and her books often include the clashes that come from cultural and generational differences--which I always find interesting. A House For Happy Mothers tackles the tough subject of the surrogacy trade ("womb for rent") in India--where foreigners, often American, come to India to arrange for surrogate mothers to carry their babies for significantly less than it would cost to do the same in the States. The women who serve as surrogates do so for the money--a larger amount than their families can earn in years--but a small amount in comparison to the sums that the clinics and doctors that arrange the transactions get. It's a practice fraught with controversy due to the exploitation that can/does result. In fact regulations were recently put in place to ban foreign surrogacy clients in India (although surrogacy is still legal for heterosexual couples in India) and clinics quickly began working around it by sending Indian surrogates to other countries to give birth. (This is an interesting article if you want more background.) I have friends who several years ago went through several options to have a child, including hiring a gestational/IVF surrogate in India, before unsuccessful attempts there led them back to the states where they were finally successful with a traditional surrogacy, so I find the subject and morality around it fascinating. 

A House for Happy Mothers introduces two main characters--Priya, the only child of an Indian mother and a Caucasian father, born and raised in America, married for love to Madhu--an Americanized Indian national, and living comfortably in the Silicon Valley. Then there is Asha, born to a poor family in Southern India, married by arrangement to Pratap--a painter, constantly struggling to find enough work to support their family of four, living in their small village hut. These women could not be more different in personality, temperament, and socioeconomic status, but what brings them together is their desperation. Priya is desperate to have a child and to make a family for Madhu and Asha is desperate to earn enough money to send her young gifted son to a good school. Does that desperation make it acceptable for Priya and her husband to pay for the use of Asha's womb? Does it make it acceptable for Asha and Pratap to sell it? It's a complicated issue and Malludi does a good job of telling their stories, the reasons and the feelings behind their choices, and how they each deal with the situation without pushing or preaching about it. The characters and their reactions feel real--Asha, Priya, their families, and the women we meet in snippets from the surrogacy message board that Priya posts on and the surrogates at the Happy Mothers House that Asha stays at during the last four months of the pregnancy. (Unfortunately we learn that there are actually not many happy mothers at A House For Happy Mothers.) None of the characters are perfect but it is easy to feel for them and hope for a positive outcome for the women involved.

I imagine that this book might be tough for some to read--especially for those having  experience with fertility challenges but, regardless of your experience or feelings on the subject, A House For Happy Mothers is a book that will make you think about the issues  as well as the people behind them. It's touching, a not altogether happy read because of the empathy and emotions it brings forth, but absorbing and ultimately hopeful.

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Author Notes: Amulya Malladi is the author of six novels, including The Sound of Language and The Mango Season. Her books have been translated into several languages, including Dutch, German, Spanish, Danish, Romanian, Serbian, and Tamil. She has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in journalism. When she’s not writing, she works as a marketing executive for a global medical device company. She lives in Copenhagen with her husband and two children. Connect with Amulya on her website, blog, Facebook or Twitter. 

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Food Inspiration: 

Before I get into the food inspiration from A House For Happy Mothers, I need to give Amulya Malladi a shout out for being the author that got me into pairing books with food many, many, moons ago. Back in 2008 when I was about a month into blogging, I came across a post that lead me to a monthly virtual book club that paired books with food and the first book was Malladi's Serving Crazy with Curry. (You can check out my Baked Fish in a Spiced Broth and my REALLY BAD photos from the early days here.) At the end of the day, that book club was not very welcoming for some reason and it only lasted for one and a half rounds (although I made dishes for the first three books) before fizzling out. But, it inspired me and I hooked up with a couple of other bloggers for what came to be Cook the Books--the bi-monthly virtual foodie book club I helped found and have co-hosted for the past almost eight years. Then I joined up with TLC Book Tours where Lisa and Trish allow me to pair books and recipes to my heart's (and my reading schedule's) content. ;-) 

In A House For Happy Mothers, food is not the focus but it is certainly there in both Silicon Valley and Southern India. There is of course an emphasis on Indian cuisine like South Indian-style breakfasts of idlis, dosas, and vadas with sambhar, fried curd rice  and vegetable curry. Priya first learned about the surrogacy programs in India at a South Indian cooking class where she wanted to learn to make sambhar and coconut chutney that Madhur would drool over and wanted to ace the dosa, the "holy grail of South Indian cooking." Asha wants to have money to be able to "buy the vegetables they wanted--not just potatoes," and there is mango dal, potato fry and yogurt with thick slices of mango for daughter Mohini's second birthday and then a more plentiful meal of fried okra curry sambhar, pulao rice, payasam, and a pink cake for her third birthday. There are mentions of  fresh chakli (warm, savory treats made with graham flour and fried to a crisp in peanut oil), kachori, samosas, roti, and (my favorite dish when I ate met/poultry) butter chicken. For on-Indian fare there is coq au vin, chocolate soufflé and beef bourguignon, mini Mars bars, and catered-in sushi with inside-out crispy shrimp maki. Americanized Madhu cooks--making a breakfast of Spanish omelet with spicy tomato salsa, yogurt with muesli, and fruit salad, and a dinner of duck à l'orange.

Since sambhar (aka sambar), a lentil-based stew or chowder with a tamarind-based broth, was mentioned several times in the book and was a common dish eaten by both families, I decided to make it as my book-inspired recipe. I found a few different recipes while looking through my Indian cookbooks but I ended up with the simple version I found in Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian with sliced shallots and thinly-sliced carrot 'sticks.' Jaffrey has a recipe in the book for the sambar powder but says you can easily use store-bought powder and since I was headed to the Indian market for the fresh curry leaves, split pigeon peas, and tamarind paste anyway, I decided to take the easy route and purchase a packet of the powder.
 

Jaffrey says, “The sambars of southern India have certain things in common. They are soupy stews, made with toovar dal and seasoned with a fiery spice mixture called sambar powder, which happens to contain, among other things, fried and ground split peas and split beans. Generally they are sour and hot, the sourness contributed frequently by tamarind paste, though tomatoes may also be used. Other than that, the sky is the limit. Almost any vegetable from eggplant and radishes to kohlrabi may be added. This particular sambar is quite a simple one in which sliced shallots and carrot sticks are lightly sautéed before being added to the cooked split peas."

Toovar Dal with Sliced Shallots and Carrots (Sambar)

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian

(Serves 4)

3 Tbsp peanut or canola oil (I used coconut oil)

4 medium shallots, peeled and cut into long, thin slivers

1 small carrot, peeled and cut into thin sticks

1 batch of pigeon peas, cooked according to the recipe below

2 Tbsp sambar powder

2 Tbsp thick tamarind paste (or 1 1/2  Tbsp fresh lemon juice + a pinch of sugar)

salt, to taste, if needed

(I added 1 cup frozen green peas)

1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 dried hot red chile

10 fresh curry leaves (if unavailable, use fresh basil leaves for a different but interesting substitute)

Put 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium frying pan and set over medium heat. When hot, put in the shallots and carrot, stir and sauté until they just start to brown. Add the cooked toovar dal, sambar powder, and tamarind paste, stir and bring to a simmer. (Add Peas and) Simmer gently on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until carrot is tender. Taste for salt and add if needed.

Put the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a small frying pan and set over medium-high heat. When very hot, put in the mustard seeds and as soon as they begin to pop (a matter of seconds), put in the dried chile. When the chile darkens, add the curry leaves and stir once.  Pour the oil over the toovar dal and stir to mix.

 

 

Jaffrey says that. “In India, these split peas are always cooked with the addition of a little turmeric. Salt is added at the very end."

Basic Recipe for Hulled and Split Pigeon Peas (Toovar Dal)

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian

(Serves 4)

1 cup hulled and split pigeon peas (toovar dal), picked over, washed in several changes of water, and drained

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt or to taste

Put split peas and 4 cups of water  in a heavy-bottomed pan and bring to a boil, watching carefully to prevent boiling over and skimming off any froth that rises to the top.

Add the turmeric and stir once. Cover partially, turn heat down to low, and cook very gently for 1 hour, or until the beans are tender. (Older beans may take up to 1 1/2 hours.) Add salt and stir to mix. Set aside to use in the Sambar recipe. 

Notes/Results: I'm not going to say that this is the prettiest of curries. The bright yellow of the cooked toovar dal quickly becomes a drab brown color with the addition of the sambar powder and tamarind paste, but the flavor is excellent. It's a great mix of savory, spicy and slightly sour. I was worried how spicy the sambar powder would be--apparently there is a big variety of heat levels in the packaged sambars, but the one I bought at my local Indian market was a good level of spice for me--enough heat to feel the warmth but not a full-on burning of the mouth. ;-) My sambar wasn't as soupy as I expected from the description--the split pigeon peas cooked quickly and made the mixture pretty thick. For a pop of color in all the brown and because I am fond of green peas in curry, I added some frozen peas to the mix. The added peas and serving it in a bright red bowl help it look a bit more attractive I think. Served with plain basmati rice, this is a satisfying but not to heavy meal. I will happily make it or a  variation again. 

I'm linking up this review and recipe to the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post. 

***Book Giveaway!***

The publisher has generously offered a copy of A House For Happy Mothers to one of my readers as part of this TLC Blog Tour. (Open to US/Canada addresses)

To enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway below, leave a comment please (Because I like to read them!) ;-) telling me either what your homey comfort dish is or why you would like to win a copy of A House For Happy Mothers.

There are a couple of other optional ways to get entries: 1) Tweet about this giveaway (you can do this once per day if you like) or 2) follow me on Twitter (@DebinHawaii) and/or Author Amulya Malladi (@amulyamalladi) on Twitter. (Note: You can still get free entries even if you already follow me or Amulya Malladi  on Twitter.)

This giveaway runs until 6/15/16. Good Luck!  

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Note: A review copy of "A House For Happy Mothers" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.
 
You can see the stops for the rest of this Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.