Cooking of the Maharajas: The Royal Recipes of India Hardcover – September 26, 1975

I am so happy to have this first-edition in my hands.

What I find most frustrating are books that authoritatively state facts which are totally incorrect. Recently I came across Cooking of the Maharajas by Shivaji Rao and Shalini Devi Holkar. From the title one would assume that the recipes are from the various palace kitchens in India. The book published in 1975 is divided into four sections- Rajasthan, Central India, North India and South India. By 1947 the princely states of India had already joined the Indian Union when India gained independence.I started with the small segment on south India (around twenty pages). This segment is about the cuisines of two royal houses – Travancore Cochin and Mysore. To begin with, there is no Royal house by the name Travancore-Cochin. The short-lived Travancore Cochin State was formed combining the land holdings of two princely states; there was no combining of two royal households and both these families observed a strict vegetarian diet. But the recipes in this segment are for a pork vindaloo, Kele ka raita made with mashed bananas and a lassi masalendar (also titled the original curry).The third paragraph of the segment’s introduction said “South India, the oldest India, is almost un-Indian. It has remained apart, a world unto itself, immune to Mughal influence…” Does this mean what was before Mughal India is un-Indian?Then, the segment begins with a story; supposedly from an Indian folk tale – In summary, it says that the shores of Travancore were covered with flour for making bread and whoever wanted to eat bread could go to the shore and collect flour as needed. But the rule was one could take only what is needed. One day a woman brought back excess flour and the next time she went to the shore all the flour had changed into sand. Now the moral of the tale- “And that is how the west coast of Travancore came to be a long sandy beach and how all the people came to base their diet on rice.” It is incredible how stories like this are accepted as facts. Several varieties of rice were grown in south India and rice was a main component of south Indian meal centuries ago.

I was given this book sometime in 2005, as a present from my stepfather, who acquired it from a second hand book dealer. Since then I have cooked regularly from it, centering around the mutton/lamb recipes. This is literally the best collection of Indian recipes. Each one is completely authentic and as it should be. The results come out smelling and tasting like heaven. The pomegranate meat is one of my favourites. Western cooks might find the recipes fiddly and requiring a lot of prep and hard to get hold of spices but it is totally worth it! The book comes with not just recipes but little stories relating to the recipes that are traditional to India, which is super awesome. I am Indian and I didn't know any of these! If you ever wanted to spend close to $400 on a cookbook, get this one. You'll not regret it.