My mother stares down at the stash I have brought back from the market: bread slices, unsalted butter, cinnamon powder, castor sugar, ghee and rabri from Tiwari's. She gives me the look. It's the kitchen tigress marking her territory. I tell her I am test driving a recipe; will she help me? "Come on, be my sous chef," I egg her on. She takes the lead, and cuts the edges of the white bread and runs a rolling pin to flatten the slices.

In a bowl, I mix butter, cinnamon and castor sugar and slather it on the slices, rolling them into Swiss rolls and setting them in the refrigerator to cool for two hours. The book I am referring to is Sassy Spoon owner Rachel Goenka's first, and the title lives up to our kitchen experience so far: Adventures with Mithai.