How sweet it is!

The Diabetic’s Cookbook by Frenny Billimoria. Published in 2004 by Penguin Books India Private Limited, 11, Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110017. Pp: 112. Price: Rs 250.

Frenny Billimoria has excelled herself in The Diabetic’s Cook­book. I can appreciate it all the more as I am a very bad diabe­tic and get tired of eating spinach all the time. Her book gives hope to people like me for a better life.

This book is not only for diabetics although it is dedi­cated to Billimoria’s daughter Niloufer who succumbed to diabetes in her youth. It is for all obese people who want to make their health and their lives better. As Billimoria mentions in the author’s note, "The reason I have written this book is because so many of my friends are either ‘border-line’ diabetics or outright diabetics. Of the 150 million diabetics estimated in the world, India has 35 million, according to the estimate of the World Health Organization (WHO)... Most cookbooks for diabetics dole out recipes which do not exactly titillate the taste buds. So I have compiled recipes, mostly Indian but sprinkled with a few international ones, for daily use and for entertaining diabetics. All the ingredients used in the recipes are indigenous and easily available, and the recipes are varied in flavor and texture...

"Remember that diabetes is preventable. From a young age, go slow on fatty and starchy food. Eating habits when you are young decide your health in middle age.”

Billimoria: hope to diabetics

Calcutta born, Billimoria had earlier authored The Party Cookbook. A graduate from Loreto House, Calcutta University, she trained and worked at J. Walter Thompson as a copywriter. Subse­quently, she worked as a columnist for Straits Times, Singapore and as a freelance writer in Jakarta and Hong Kong. Currently, she is a member of the governing body of several organizations including HelpAge India and Delhi School of Music. She is also a reputed potter and painter.

The introduction to The Diabetic’s Cookbook by Surinder Wadhawan, senior dietician of New Delhi’s Safdar­jung Hospital is simple and full of good information as to the different types of diabetes and how it develops. It alerts people to the possibility of their having diabetes without realizing it and has given 12 reasons which lead to diabetes. All diabetics are warned by their doctors what to eat and drink, but, when it’s put down in black and white, it has a stronger effect.

The fearful aspects of diabetes — gangrene, retinopathy, numbness in toes and fingers, itchiness and infection of the skin and the bladder, fungal and bacterial infections — are all dealt in a matter of fact way.

What I liked best was the list of ‘Do’s and ‘Don’t’s. How to eat so your insulin can cope better with the glucose produced. It ends with advice not to get "paranoid” if you exceed your food limits. "Make it up at the next meal,” we are advised.

Billimoria’s dessert recipes will make life sweeter for diabetics. I especially liked the Oat and Strawberry Crum­ble, Parsi Style Ravo, Bottle­gourd Dessert and the Avocado Chiffon Pudding. All these are simple to make with sugar substitutes.

A variety of simple and delicious salads such as Green Papaya Salad, Aubergine and Carrot Salad and Bean Sprouts and Chicken Salad are unused items for diabetics and would enhance their dull, stodgy, everyday menus. The snacks and chutney sec­tion would liven up tea-times, especially the Mushroom Toast, Mushroom Rolls, Aubergine Dip, with curd dips and coriander chutney. Parsi Bhaji Per Idoo and Hard Boiled Eggs with Assorted Fillings are an eye-opener, appealing to non-diabetics as well.

The four brinjal recipes are all delicious and so are the Avial, Spicy Soya Nuggets, Frenchbean Kababs and Broccoli with Black Mushrooms. But the best vege­table recipes are Mushrooms Floren­tine, Stir-Fried Vegetables with cracked Black Pepper and Romanian Bell Peppers.

Amongst the fish recipes Fish Goa Style, Tamarind Fish and Fish with Spinach are old favorites, all cooked with minimum oil. Cheesy Fish Pie seems more adventurous and interesting in per­spective.

Chicken Chettinad Style, Murgh Josh, Spinach Chicken are easy and interesting to make.

Seeing Masala Chops in the color plate, my daughter Freny immediately said, "Ma, make them.”

Here’s to happy eating for all diabetics and non-diabet­ics too.

KATY DALAL