An easy and super versatile salad ‘Honey Mint Pineapple’, proved to be an instant hit with visitors at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2019. Dishing out this simple salad was Raham Sithara from Sharjah, who only took 10 minutes to toss it up, which is perfect as light lunch or paired with main dishes. 

As she chopped up a bunch of fresh ingredients, chef Sithara noted that the vibrant salad is perfect to cool off on warmer days, and can be prepared the family’s favourite seasonal summer fruits.

“I moved to Saudi Arabia after getting married, and couldn’t even make a cup of tea even!”, she exclaimed saying she would often miss her mother’s cooking. “So, I called her often to get these recipes, until I realised with time, that my mother was losing her memory. That’s when my brother suggested that I should start taking notes. Those notes became a blog and I eventually started working on my book, which took me three years to finish. It was released in English and then in Malayalam”, said the friendly cook.

Raham feels the 49 heirloom recipes in her book Sithara’s Delicious Dilemma that she learnt from her mother, needs to be handed down from one generation to the other, which for her often brought back memories of a simple time.

While many cookbooks have been published focusing on recipes from years past, this cookbook is a mother’s legacy with cherished family traditions and nostalgia that keep the family connected.