Literary

Book review: Sourabh Angarkar tells you all about the 'Importance of Slow Cooking' in his latest book

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 26 Jan 2021, 12:46 pm

Bored of how your everyday meals taste? Or, you just cant manage enough time to cook a healthy yet delicious meal? If your answer is yes, then this book by Chef Sourabh Angarkar is just for you.

The cookbook, ‘Importance of Slow Cooking’, consisting of irresistible recipes, lets you step up your cooking game, helping you out with flavour, diet, nutrition, and time management, all at the same time.

Slow cooking is different from traditional cooking, in which the food is destroyed and drained of its nutritional values.

For example, while cooking steak on a pan, the heat goes to the periphery first and not directly to the core of the steak.
So by the time the heat reaches the core of the meat, it has already hardened the periphery, made it chewy and denatured all the protein in the meat.

An excess amount of heat always destroys the protein in the meat.

While if this same meat was cooked on a slow flame, while proving conditions where the heat was distributed evenly throughout the meat, the meat would have been softer, juicier retaining all its natural flavors.

The same goes while cooking vegetables.

Cooking vegetables in the traditional way draws out all the essential vitamins and minerals present in them.
 

But you may ask, won't it take a lot of time for cooking slowly, in a scenario where you don’t even have time to sit and enjoy your food?

To solve the above problem, this book comes with recipes which can be made with the brilliant technique of cooking called, Sous Vide, where water is used to provide an equal amount of heat to the food while cooking it steadily for hours.

You can even cook your steak overnight, or while you shop your grocery or pick up your child from school, even without worrying about burning the steak or overcooking your meals.

The lucid way of explanation and unique recipes are definitely the strengths of the book.

Angarkar also keeps in mind the concerns of the contemporary world regarding oils and fats.

The recipes help you eliminate the addition of fat or oil while cooking, without compromising on the taste which makes its recipes a brilliant option for those with severe health complications or on a diet.

This book is, thus, not only a cookbook, it is a book for the modern people looking to take care of their greatest temple, their own bodies.

(Reviewed by Sayantani Sengupta)