Rachel Gurjar’s first cookbook, East to East: Recipes and Stories from Mumbai to New York, was published October 13 by Chronicle Books. The Mumbai-raised, Brooklyn-based chef brings together 101 Indian-inspired recipes and stories about making a life between cultures.
The publisher’s examples include Spicy Butter Masala Pasta and Paneer with Sungold Tomatoes and Basil. Those combinations give familiar ingredients a different place at the table. They make an intriguing starting point if your dinner rotation has begun to feel narrow.
There’s a useful detail in Gurjar’s Vogue interview, published October 14: she says the book identifies its longer projects honestly. A recipe that needs a couple of hours should tell you so.
That’s a good rule for any cookbook, especially when the person choosing dinner is also fitting it around work, pickups and everything else. Curiosity deserves some room on the calendar.
Try this: give one new dinner a real slot.
Pick a recipe you want to cook and read the whole method before assigning it a night. Count marinating, chilling or resting alongside hands-on work. Check the equipment, then look in the pantry before writing the shopping list. If the recipe needs an unfamiliar ingredient, give what remains a second use in the week.
Keep the other dinners familiar while you learn this one. The point is to make space for something you’re genuinely curious to cook.
Plan it alongside the rest of your week in Foodoodle. Our new, free Three Dinners One Grocery List sample also includes a combined shopping list and two-person quantities. Its original recipes are desk-reviewed and haven’t been kitchen-tested.