Enter our giveaway below open to US/UK members to win a copy of Dishoom: From Bombay with Love: Cookery Book and Highly Subjective Guide to Bombay with Map by Shamil and Kavi Thakrar and Naved Nasir.

Dishoom is a small group of Indian restaurants initially based in London, England. The first cafe opened in Covent Garden in 2010. The owners state their quirky restaurants are “inspired by the original Bombay café’s – the old Irani cafés of Bombay that have almost all disappeared."

Today, there are eight cafes open around the United Kingdom, with locations in London, Edinburgh, and Manchester. The restaurants serve a menu of Bombay comfort food with dishes cooked in Parsi, Muslim, Hindu and Christian traditions and award-winning drinks. Each restaurant has a unique story and for every meal served, Dishroom donates a meal to charity - now with 6.5 million meals donated.

In case you were wondering why dishoom? The word can have two meanings. One being the old Bollywood sound effect produced when a hero lands a good punch, or when a bullet flies through the air. The second being similar to popular slang usage of the expression “mojo”; e.g. “He’s got that dishoom”. From some research I conducted, "delivered with speed" is why the restaurant was named Dishoom.

At long last, Dishoom: From Bombay with Love, the cookbook has been published to great critical acclaim. Gorgeous photography, maps, stories, and recipes fill this book that made many top books of 2019 lists. The attention to detail and thoughtfulness is staggering. Pages devoted to biryani alone with several recipe variations.

Dishoom is as much a cookbook as a deep dive into the love of Bombay that the authors share. Time spent in its pages will have you falling in love with Bombay, as I have. When and if I have to a purge of cookbooks, this one will surely remain as it is a gift to my spirit and palate.

Special thanks to the publisher, Bloomsbury for sharing a recipe with our members below.

Breakfast lassi 
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Lassis are a very common drink in India, although, admittedly, not often seen at breakfast. The classic flavour choice is sweet or salted. In the Punjab, you can enjoy a full-fat milk yoghurt lassi – served in a big glass and topped up with freshly churned butter. It’s unsurprisingly rich, and lovely and frothy when served over crushed ice.

This breakfast lassi is not dissimilar to a smoothie, with plenty of bananas and oats.

Serves 2

  • 1 very ripe banana, peeled
  • 100ml coconut milk
  • 140g full-fat Greek yoghurt
  • 50ml mango purée (fresh
    or tinned)
  • 2 tsp steel-cut oats
  • 3 tsp runny honey
  • A large pinch of cumin seeds
  • A pinch of fine sea salt
  • 4 ice cubes
               

1.  Put all of the ingredients into a blender, add 160ml water and blitz until completely smooth.

2.  Pour into glasses and serve, with straws.

Thanks to the publisher for providing three copies of the above-referenced title in our giveaway open to EYB Members in the US and UK. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Which recipe in the index would you try first?

Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won’t be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post and this forum post. Once you log in and enter your member name you will be directed to the next entry option – the blog comment. After that, there are additional options that you can complete for more entries. Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on August 11th, 2020.

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Recipe excerpt used with permission of Bloomsbury Publishing from Dishoom, 2019. Photography by Haarala Hamilton.