The Delice of Cooking

Description“I believe that “good food” always comes from the heart. If you love what you are cooking, there’s no way you can not get a delicious treat out of it. Specially when you are inspired by someone around you, who loves cooking or cooks with love. The most vivid memories of my childhood are standing besides my sisters while they were in the kitchen, preparing something sweet for the family. At that time, i remember we used to have a small kitchen but the excitement of watching something being prepared, always resisted me to leave the kitchen. I was really amazed how my sisters cured some really simple ingredients into something so delicious. These are some of the golden memories I have, these are the moments that inspired me to learn this amazing art of cooking.The first recipe l ever tried was the butter cake my sister Sadia used to make. I always wondered how something as simple as a butter cake could taste so divine. Time made me understand, it was her love for food. Some things I’ve learnt from her about cooking are;Keep it simple, do not indulge in complicated processes if you are a beginnerAlways try to use fresh produce, you will be delighted to see how it turns outNever get afraid of experiments, use your own creativity and create something differentBe precise with the base ingredients and temperatures, when you bakeWhen she left us in 2001, the kitchen felt empty and sad without her. Watching that passion die, that we always had in our kitchen for cooking and baking was a very painful thing for me. That gave me the sort of incentive I needed to keep going with my journey of cooking. Every other day I used to make her recipes. Her hand-written recipe books and diaries had helped me a lot to learn many things. In these many years my passion for cooking has never declined.Sadia’s diaries and recipe books inspired me to write a cookbook. In this book you will find many basic or rather pedestrian recipes. These are the recipes that she used to make for us. I am simply in love with these recipes, I couldn’t resist myself from adding them to this book. In a sense, this is a book for home-cooks who love to feed their families with their delicious food. This book gives you everything from appetizers, snacks, curries, rice, breads and pasta to sweets like desserts, cakes, cookies and some delicious chutneys and jams.I have tried my best to keep the recipes as simple as possible because complicated processes and ingredients take a lot of your time and money and doesn’t give you the desired results. You will find some super-easy recipes that you can prepare within no time and with easily accessible ingredients, or if you are planning a sweet treat for your family on a weekend or for a party, you will find some delicious recipes here. I hope everyone will get the desired results out of these recipes, and will get appreciated by their loved ones.Last, but not the least, I request everyone who reads this book, do pray for my sister. May the Almighty Allah bless her soul with peace.”Enjoy! Maria Khan