A few years ago, a writer friend asked Rushina Munshaw-Ghildiyal a simple question: What makes us the cooks we are? “That one question led me to write this book,” says Ghildiyal, who shares the heirloom recipes that people in her family “have passed on to her as legacy”.

Ghildiyal believes it is the early influences that make her the cook she is today, along with being a foodie at heart. In A Pinch of This, A Handful of That, you’ll find her maternal grandmother’s Date Cake recipe, her mother’s Dudhi Nu Shaak — a typical of Gujarati cuisine dish — and even her paternal grandmother’s chai masala.

“I love my mother’s food, but even if I follow the recipe perfectly, it never tastes the same. The measure varies from person to person,” says the food blogger, who remembers her granny used to make 90 pickles, out of which, she has recipes for three or four. “No one, at that time, found the need to jot them down.

Today, whenever I meet a cook who shares a recipe with me, I consider myself having struck gold. I have a fetish for old things. Just like a grandfather clock, or a piece of old furniture, for me, an inherited recipe is an antique, too,” says Munshaw.

A Pinch of This, A Handful of That is available at all leading bookstores
Price: Rs 495

Date Cake

Ingredients
>> 2½ cups refined flour (maida)
>> 100 g butter
>> 1 tbsp baking powder
>> 1 tbsp sodium bicarbonate
>> ½ cup milk
>> 1 tsp vanilla extract
>>  kg seedless dates, chopped
>> 1 cup sugar, powdered
>> 2 tbsp walnuts, chopped


The Date Cake is a specialty of the food writer’s maternal grandmother

Method
>> Sift the flour three times into a bowl
>> Add the butter and rub it in, till it resembles breadcrumbs
>> Combine the baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl and mix till well blended
>> Add it to the flour. Mix well again. Fold in the dates, sugar and walnuts
>> Spoon the batter into a greased 12-inch round cake tin
>> Bake the cake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 45 minutes to an hour, till it rises well and is cooked
>> Test by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake; if it comes out clean, it is ready, else bake for another five minutes and test again
>> Turn out on to a wire rack and cool