Welcome to Food with Mark Bitman. I'm Kate Bitman. Thanks for being here.

We know how many of you are loyal listeners and we appreciate that so much. If you'd like to hear more from

Mark and me and our small but mighty team, check us out on bitmanproject.com. When you subscribe there,

you'll get access to our recipe database,

which now has thousands of recipes, with more added weekly. If you prefer a substack experience,

we're on there, too, bitmanproject.substack.com. Reach out to us with any questions, comments,

or stuff you think should be featured on the podcast, on our site, food at markbitman.com. I have a confession.

I'm drawn to parent-child collaborative projects.

Surprising, right?

My parent, Mark, and I found out about Heartland Masala, a cookbook by Mother's Son team Jothi and

Oyan Mukerjee months and months ago. But due to our terrible scheduling skills, we didn't

manage to get them on the podcast until now. I'm so glad we stayed the course. This was a joyful

interview, and I think the first,

maybe the second, that actually made me tear up a bit. Oyan is actually a musician by trade.

He's a member of the four-person indie folk band Darlingside, and my dad met him a few months

ago through a mutual friend, just because they all love music so much. Joti,

Oyan's mom, has been teaching Indian cooking in America for around 15 years now, and happily

for all of us, she decided to get a lot of what she's learned and cooked during those years

down on paper. Heartland Masala is the result,

and she and Oyan worked on it together. Heartland Masala is a beautiful and cheerful cookbook.

The illustrations, the commentary, the easy family rapport, and of course the recipes, all come together to make it really unique.

I'm excited to cook from it. As Jothi said to us, we really walk you through every single recipe.

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