Happy Breakfasts

Book excerpt: Happy Breakfasts is all about delicious breakfasts and my culinary musings on making smart, sustainable and interesting morning meals. Decadent parathas and pancakes and delectable scones and stews share space with healthy paya and pesarattu. Traditional recipes like sheermal and Bakar Khani, much loved and even revered Belgian waffles and blueberry muffins feature here in abundance. Unusual delicacies such as lentils with winter vegetables and eggs (sabji wali dal aur anda), bread stuffed with greens (hare bhare parathe), amaranth porridge and even a healthy pav bhaji, that work wonderfully well in the mornings, are my commitment to make all things, breakfast. Rare gems like black rice porridge are celebrated as is the sattu. Leftover Kerala chicken roast is transformed into a sumptuous sandwich, rice from dinner made into a fun fried rice with eggs, and mince cooked earlier into a wholesome filling for bread. The unique ridge gourd chutney to pair with idiappam, kefir milk smoothies to make the day just that bit healthy and an endless array of beautiful egg dishes to savour on special days—Happy Breakfasts is a tribute to my favourite meal of the day. Peppered with the recipes are, The Coucal’s Call, Food for Thought, It Takes Two to Tango and, Nesting Dolls in My Kitchen, my thoughts on clever and conscious culinary practices. Happy Breakfasts is a collection of recipes and choices we must make — for beautiful homemade meals and memorable mornings.