Book review: Manju's Cookbook by Manju Patel

Manju's Cookbook is filled with the familial warmth that permeates the Brighton restaurant that takes its author's name

The restaurant was launched by Manju Patel's sons in their mother's honour and the family matriarch, now 86, can still be found at the stove alongside her daughters-in-law Dipali and Kirti. With her sons running front of house and grandchildren helping out at weekends, there's little wonder it is regarded with so much affection in the city.

Manju grew up in Uganda and learned to cook at her mother's side, preparing 35 tiffins a day by the age of 14 to help make ends meet. When East African Asians were exiled from the country in 1972 she came to London with her young family and worked in a factory until her retirement, but had always longed to open a restaurant serving Gujarati cuisine, hoping to change the British perception of Indian food from chicken tikka and vindaloo to the "symphony of delicate tastes, textures and fragrances" of regional dishes.

Gujarati cuisine is vegetarian and the recipes feature helpful tips, with visual prompts in the preparation of dishes such as dhebra flatbreads. The book features sharing dishes such as methi na gota (fenugreek leaf fritters), crispy bhinda fries (okra fries) and handvo (a lentil cake filled with vegetables and spices and topped with sesame seeds). Recipes for curries and dals include a dal palak a moong dal and spinach curry, the gleaming yellow dal and wilted green leaves looking exceptionally comforting on an early winter evening. A chapter on street food includes recipes for chaat in various forms as well as delectable looking dish of vada pav (potato fritters in a bun with chutneys).

The recipes may be traditional dishes handed down through generations, but that vada pav would be at home on the trendiest of street food stands and, as Manju herself demonstrates through her presentation of a samosa chaat in a martini glass, there is plenty of scope for interpretation and innovation.

*Manju's Cookbook by Manju Patel** (Ryland Peters & Small, £22)