Saffron and Pearls by Doreen Hassan

Saffron and Pearls by Doreen Hassan is a food memoir doubles up as a recipe book, that captures the vibrant soul of Hyderabadi cuisine in addition to some beautiful food photography. This is a collection also documents Doreen’s own journey from not knowing how to cook to being ‘the host with the most’

and also captures the vibrant soul of Hyderabadi cuisine in addition to some beautiful food photography.

For the Hassan family, Hyderabad is not just where their roots lie. It is also the city that informs the way they lead their lives. They are known and loved for their legendary hospitality. For over four decades, Doreen and Peter Hassan have preserved a way of life, a culture and a cuisine with great affection and pride.

There is little doubt that everyone who buys this book will add to their culinary expertise. In addition to some mouth watering food photography.

Like generations before them, the Hassan’s continue to honour Hyderabadi traditions in their cosmopolitan home in Delhi.

Central to this is the fact that Doreen Hassan has, over the decades, archived priceless family recipes from both her husband’s storied Hyderabadi family and her own traditional Goan one. Hyderabadi cuisine at its best.

The result is an astonishingly rich record of culinary history. This speaks of a city that absorbed influences from across the world and made them its own. It is this treasure of recipes that forms the heart of this book. This is not a collection of Hyderabadi recipes that stops at the biryani, kababs or saalan’s.

An invitation to dine at the Hassans’ involves not just the finest wines and a spread of food that would make any connoisseur happy.

One comes back from their home with a full stomach, an engaged, recharged mind and new perspectives. Above all, first-time visitors to the Hassans’ become friends for life with Peter, Doreen and the rest of the family.

In conclusion, Saffron and Pearls is a personal story – a tribute to the city that the Hassan’s call home.

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