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Big Bee's Secret Honey Recipes

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BIG BEE'S SECRET HONEY RECIPES
By Komal Taneja
Publisher: Undercover Utopia
112 pages
USD 25
**** (four stars out of 5)

Of the four primary tastes of sweet, bitter, sour and salty; if one was asked to choose one taste, most people would choose `sweet' because it appeals the most to the taste buds. And if asked the source of sweet, most people would reply that it's derived from sugar. Sugar however isn't a healthy option for adding a sweet flavor to your dishes as it causes diabetes, cholesterol, obesity, tooth decay and a variety of other diseases. `Sugar free' brands of sugar aren't safe either as side-effects like headaches, insomnia, neurological problems, memory loss and even cancer have been associated with it. The one and only natural source of sweetness is from honey. Honey is the only sweetening agent that has medicinal and therapeutic values and no side-effects.
Big Bee's Secret Honey Recipes provides a diverse array of 89 honey based recipes penned by Master Chef Komal Taneja.
Launched by Amitabh Bachchan who says he loves these recipes, it provides a healthy alternative to sugar to sweeten your dishes. Indeed honey is sweeter than sugar but doesn't add to your body mass like sugar does. Especially for diabetic and heart patients, honey is a safer alternative to sugar any day. Honey is regarded as a super food as it is an anti-oxidant, is rich on Vitamin B and calcium, provides energy, is sodium free, lowers bad cholesterol, builds haemoglobin and is very good for the digestive and circulatory system.
Honey, termed as `the nectar of the Gods' has been found in the tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs. However in the contemporary times, honey as an ingredient has been grossly neglected which is why Big Bee's Secret Honey Recipes is a boon for those with a sweet tooth but want to avoid the adverse health impacts of sugar.
The layman may think that honey can only be an ingredient of sweet dishes, desserts and beverages. Chef Komal Taneja however has been innovative enough to come up with 89 multi-cuisine recipes with honey with ranges from appetizers, main course meals to desserts and energy drinks. The appetizers and main course dishes with honey don't taste saccharine sweet but just sweetly tantalize your taste buds. The health benefit of every dish is mentioned and a yet healthier or different way of preparing each and every dish is stated.
The book is beautifully illustrated. Viscid, saccharine, yellowish-brown semi-translucent flowing honey catches your eye. Each recipe is accompanied by an A4 sized glossy photograph.
The honeylicious recipes in the Indian Cuisine includes: Kashmiri, Punjabi, Mughlai, Rajasthani, Maharashtrian, Goan and Bengali recipes. South Indian and North East Indian dishes with honey are sadly missing. The international honeylicious recipes include Chinese, Mexican, Italian and Thai. Maybe an exotic honey recipe from the continents of Africa or South America would have given a uniquely offbeat touch to the book.
The 89 dishes are however easy to make and the ingredients are easy to find. If you can use fresh and pure honey directly excavated from the bee hives the dishes might have even a better honeylicious flavor. However let's remember that fresh honey isn't easy to source and that Dabur honey is a reputed honey brand confirming the PFA requirements. Also if the book had more interesting anecdotal references to honey and its historic usage, the book would be even more interesting to read. Nevertheless the book surely provides unique recipes, each of which is worth trying out!