I've got in possession, a 'photocopied photocopy' copy of a Pakistan cookbook, Joy of Cooking in Pakistan by Zainab Currimbhoy (6th edn, 1974) - given to me by my MIL, she got her copy from a cooking seminar. Varieties include Pakistani, European, Chinese, Burmese, Irani and Parsi recipes.
I lurrrrrve cookbooks, I really do. Just skimming through the pages, looking at mouthwatering pictures and cooking up a storm in my head.
Now, in the 5th edn (1971) it had 132 pages of cookery, whereas, the photocopied 6th edn which I currently hold has 44 pages wth 145 recipes. In my one, there is no table of contents or index...so I can't really see what is meant to be there. But one thing for sure, 1) this cooking seminar sucks, if they are only giving 1/3 of a cookbook or 2) the person who photocopied the original book is just a pure lazya$$.
Getting to the point, this is the mostest unorganised and collated cookbook (or book for that matter) EVER!!!! I'm no professional editor or writer but this is one heck of a messy cookbook. I literally have to go through all the pages to find a recipe. For example, I was looking for an (Atta) Chapatti recipe to make for lunch...skimmed through 44 pages to find 3 recipes - puri, potato puri and parathas. Not to mention, the recipes are neither in alphabetical, categorical or topical order - it's desserts, curries, soup, pastries etc all jumbled up.
Here's an example of the exact recipe order from pages 1-10:
❀scotch eggs
❀lemon meringue pie
❀short pastry for the meringue pie
❀fish baskets
❀check cake
❀boti kabab
❀walnut chocolate cake
❀fish in banana leaves
❀chocolate eclairs
❀chocolate icing
❀chicken pie
❀white sauce
❀walnut fudge
❀cheese balls
❀peach trifle
❀sweet & sour prawns
❀fish pie
❀coconut macarooms (yes, macarooms)
❀fruit cake
❀ginger snaps
❀dahiwada
❀puri
❀sweet chutney
❀falooda
❀ice cream
❀syrup
❀fish mayonnaise
❀mayonnaise sauce
❀mixed grill
❀orange jelly
❀sandwich loaf
❀chutney
❀guava jelly
❀guava cheese
❀cheese souffle
❀gulab jamun
❀chicken corn soup
The writer claims, "If you are trying to interest the teenagers in cooking, the practical and easy to prepare dishes will help hold their interest" and "...with easy to prepare deserts to impress your friends and guests". Imagine preparing a desert..... (-_-)"
Here's an extract - recipe for kofta curry:
p.s. Does anyone know the amount of onions to use? cinimam(?!?)? pepper? garlic? green chillies? haldi? chilly powder? I certainly don't...
If I was a teenager going through that recipe, I would made a paruppu mess of that kofta curry.
I don't know much about Pakistan history, so according to my trusty wikipedia source....only two events occurred in 1974 - 1) a massive and violent Anti-Ahmadiyya movement was instigated by the Islamist group Jamaat-i-Islami resulting in many casualties of Ahmadiya Muslim Community members and destruction to Ahmadiyya property; and 2) Pakistan recognised Bangladesh, three years after the secession of East Pakistan. In 1973, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave up his post as Pakistan's president to become their prime minister instead.
So anyway, Pakistan was going through some hard times but that doesn't give anyone an excuse to gather recipes and randomly bind pages and turn it into a so called 'cook book' to impress guests and hold interests of teenagers....
Oh..Good luck and enjoy the recipe!
No comments:
Post a Comment