This young mother is passionate about cooking. “You need not slog in the kitchen to create a delicious meal,” says Minneapolis-based Ria Mary Mathews over the phone. Ria, who recently launched a cookbook, Five Ways (Locksley Hall Publishing) is not a big fan of cleaning up after cooking.
Five Ways highlights the five methods of cooking — baking, frying, steaming, chilling and stirring. “There are 75 recipes across appetisers, drinks, salads, main dishes and desserts.
“The recipes range from an American malted milk pie, English lemon posset to an Italian mushroom and eggplant lasagna.” Ria, who hails from the Malabar region, has included some recipes from home as well.
Passionate about food and cooking, Ria has a blog and YouTube channel where she shares “tips and easy-to-make recipes.” Ask her why she thought of releasing a cook book when we can access recipes online and Ria says, I have hand-written recipes that I will pass on to my children. I am sure there must be many people out there who prefer having a cook book to virtual recipes.”
Ria says her cookbook has recipes makes cooking “convenient. “Over the years I have developed my own style of cooking with many short cuts. I have included recipes that need just three ingredients and so on.”
According to Ria, the greatest challenge while pitching her book was to kill the mindset that there was more to Indian cuisine than just butter chicken.
Five Ways was launched on November 29 virtually and is available online for ₹599.
