Here is a recipe to a saucy, spicy Indian classic to riff on at home – Pav Bhaji

Khushbu Shah s first cookbook Amrikan is a paean to the cooking of the Indian diaspora that defined her upbringing in Michigan. I grew up eating qu...

Khushbu Shah’s first cookbook ‘Amrikan’ is a paean to the cooking of the Indian diaspora that defined her upbringing in Michigan. "I grew up eating quesadillas, but I also grew up eating aloo paratha and stir-fried cabbage and things with a lot of turmeric and Kashmiri red chili powder,” she said. "All of these foods feel equally of my upbringing, of my palate. And so it makes sense for those to start to intersect, and not just on my palate but also on the plates of other people who are part of this diaspora.”

Shah’s book reflects her personality: vibrant, creative, outspoken, thoughtful, fun-loving. She grew up in a vegetarian household, so the book is mostly vegetarian, but it includes some meat as a reflection of the "complicated and complex relationship with meat” Indians have historically had.

Before she left Food & Wine magazine, Shah was the first person of color to be a national restaurant critic, so she spent years crisscrossing the country in search of the best places of all types to eat. And along the way, she tried Indian restaurants everywhere she could. That research, along with nostalgia about her childhood, informs the wide range of recipes, including such classics as dal makhani and chana masala and such inventions as saag paneer lasagna, green chutney pizza and jalapeño popper samosas.

Pav bhaji, meanwhile, is one of the classics in the book, treated traditionally because that’s how people in the diaspora tend to still make it. And it’s already the product of fusion; it was born, Shah writes, when Portuguese colonization brought pav, a soft bread roll, to India’s western coast. Shah uses grilled potato rolls or hamburger buns for ease.

The dish is refreshingly flexible in other ways; while it usually includes potatoes and peas, it’s perfectly acceptable to use whatever vegetables you have on hand, as long as they’re mashable. Shah includes cauliflower in hers, but the first time I made it, I took it as part of a meal train to a friend who can’t stand the crucifer, so I doubled up on the peas instead. At home, where my husband is an avowed pea hater, I doubled up on the cauliflower.