Fabulous Feasts Fables and Family

Tabinda Jalil-Burney is a writer translator and doctor working in the National Health Service in the UK. She is the author of a cookbook called <i>How to Feed your Child (and Enjoy it!)</i> and the winner of Gourmand award for best writing for childcare also published in Hindi. She has also translated numerous Urdu short stories into English as part of various published anthologies. Her keen interest in Urdu poetry her nostalgia for her family’s food and culture and a desire to delve into the family’s history have inspired her to write this book. <p>Deeply personal and intimate this absolutely magical culinary memoir by Tabinda Jalil-Burney combines recipes and memories from the idyllic summers of her childhood which she spent with her grandparents in Aligarh. There presided over by Amma—her formidable grandmother—the extended clan gathered and as the women concocted delicious dishes they exchanged family stories and lore embroidered knitted and crocheted while the children played games free of distractions.<br><br>Family entertainment included <i>bait bazi</i> involving people reciting couplets in a chain. Some family dishes were prepared by talented home cooks and some by the women from extended family. Over the years recipes began to be associated with a particular aunt or grand aunt. No one used a recipe book or measured quantities when cooking. They cooked with the seasonal produce available at home and measurements were by <i>andaaza</i>. Everyone would eat sitting cross-legged by a courtyard with tamarind and guava trees and the large thorny bushes of the sour <i>kakronda</i> berries.<br><br>In here are family secrets for the best shami kebabs qormas chuquandar gosht and desserts. This richly textured densely peopled memoir conjures the vanished world of an Aligarh family in the sixties and seventies through food and cooking and of India long gone.</p> This book is a precious insight into a household and its unique cuisine; the food reminds me of my own childhood. Beautifully written the recipes are of family favourites—dishes packed with layers and stories This is a captivating book that takes readers on an enchanting journey through a world filled with magical feasts ancient fables and extraordinary characters In my mind I have visited this home a rambling old house in Aligarh at least half a dozen times sometimes listening to family gossip over a handful of intensely sour kakronda berries in the courtyard. At other times huddled beneath a velvet quilt with a profusion of cousins listening to ghost stories after a two-hour dinner during which kebabs saalans and qormas disappeared in no time at all. That is the immediacy of Tabinda’s fascinating narrative. Tabinda works at her magic loom weaving a gossamer-like fabric that catches glints of light from different angles and shimmers casting a mesmerising spell. This memoir reminds us that food alone doesn't a feast make. It's the shared excitement effort and laughter in the family that memories are made of. Luminous words resonate with echoes of forgotten folk songs and nonsense lyrics as the author takes a zig-zag slow and scenic route to mouthwatering recipes. Digressions on hand hemmed costumes are mini dissertations -- rare sparkling gems. A fabulous feast -- this book of many delights. Tabinda Jalil Burney’s new culinary memoir is as much a cultural and linguistic history as it is a tribute to a family’s food heroes.