Shortlisted for Fortnum & Mason Cookery Writer of the Year - Ravinder Bhogal for work in FT Weekend Magazine --------------- Vegetables are the soul of the kitchen. Comfort and Joy is a fresh take on vegetarian and vegan cooking; not geared towards health or denial but indulging all the senses with a decadent global larder. This is a cookbook of great bounty, promising fortifying curries and stews, the warm embrace of aromatic fried bhajis and rich, satisfying desserts. For Ravinder Bhogal, food should be made and shared with abundance in mind, and this sense of pleasure is conveyed on every page. From Mango and Golden Coin Curry, Shiro Miso Udon Mushroom and Kale Carbonara to Strawberry Falooda Milk Cake, this is food as pursuit of pleasure. Ravinder is one of the best food writers in Britain today, and interwoven throughout these recipes are stories of a life led by the feel-good, life-enhancing power of vegetarian food. Raw, modern and sensual, Comfort and Joy applies Ravinder's creative ingenuity to approachable veg-centric recipes for home cooks. The vegetarian option will never again be relegated to second choice. ------------------ 'Nothing less than the most original cookery writer in Britain today' - Sathnam Sanghera ‘A gorgeous and enticing marriage of styles and flavours that is uniquely Ravinder’s’ - Claudia Roden 'A revelation-you will never look at "the vegetarian option” in the same way after diving into her inventive, bewitching and mouth watering book ' - Meera Syal 'Never has a book been so aptly named. Ravinder Bhogal is a sorceress with vegetables. You’ll find the unexpected and the startling on every page' - Diana Henry

Jikoni means 'kitchen' in Kiswahili, a word that perfectly captures Ravinder Bhogal's approach to food. Ravinder was born in Kenya to Indian parents; when she moved to London as a child, the cooking of her new home collided with a heritage that crossed continents. What materialised was a playful approach to the world's larder, and Ravinder's recipes do indeed have a rebellious soul. They are lawless concoctions that draw their influences from one tradition and then another - Cauliflower Popcorn with Black Vinegar Dipping Sauce; Spicy Aubergine Salad with Peanuts, Herbs and Jaggery Fox Nuts; Skate with Lime Pickle Brown Butter; Tempura Samphire and Nori; Lamb and Aubergine Fatteh; or utterly irresistible Banana Cake accompanied by Miso Butterscotch and Ovaltine Kulfi. These proudly inauthentic recipes are what you might loosely call 'immigrant cuisine', with evocative stories from a past that illustrates the powerful relationship between food, people, place and identity. The tastes and smells of this brazen new world are sophisticated, welcoming, fresh, exciting and bold.