Picture this: it’s the late 1980s, and an Indian mother is standing in a small Michigan kitchen. She’s holding a box of Bisquick in one hand and a bowl of milk powder in the other, trying to recreate gulab jamun, a dessert that demands khoya — a slow-cooked, reduced milk that’s impossible to find in America. So, she adapts. The result? A fluffy, sweet treat that might just be better than the original. This moment of improvisation wasn’t just a hack — it was part of a quiet culinary reclamation that millions of Indian immigrants were leading across the U.S.

Enter Khushbu Shah, daughter of that Michigan mother, and author of Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian American Diaspora. Shah’s new cookbook is a love letter to the resilience, ingenuity, and creativity of Indian-American cooks who took on the challenge of preserving their culture while navigating the unknown territory of American grocery stores. Through Amrikan, Shah celebrates this delicate balancing act of staying true to one’s roots while embracing a new world.

For Shah, food is more than sustenance — it’s a symbol of cultural survival. Growing up in Michigan, she witnessed her mother and other women in the Indian-American community transform everyday American ingredients into dishes that reminded them of home. These kitchen improvisations weren’t mere compromises, they became culinary innovations.

Take, for instance, Shah’s mother’s chevvdo, a snack traditionally made with fried lentils and flattened rice. Unable to find those ingredients, her mother swapped in Rice Chex and Froot Loops — a move that might sound strange but worked brilliantly.

It’s this spirit of adaptation that runs through the recipes in Amrikan. Shah recalls her mother fashioning samosas out of tortillas and sandwich bread and making upma with Cream of Wheat. Shah herself continues this tradition with modern creations like masala chai Basque cheesecake and tandoori vegetable pizza. These recipes, which fuse American staples with Indian spices, form the heart of Amrikan and the soul of the Indian-American culinary journey.

But Amrikan isn’t just a nostalgic look at Indian kitchens of the past — it’s a bold leap into the future of Indian-American cuisine. Shah’s recipes embody a spirit of play, unshackled from rigid tradition. Take her saag paneer lasagna, for example. In a moment of inspiration, Shah realized that the spinach-based saag sauce was just a few steps away from the creamy béchamel sauce used in Italian lasagna. After an extensive internet search revealed that no one had thought of this combination before, Shah did what any creative cook would: she made it herself.

“I wonder why no one has done this. So I did a three-day internet deep dive — Pinterest, TikTok…I could not find any version of it, which was crazy to me,” she tells Gastro Obscura. The lasagna became a hit at her dinner parties and now has a place in her cookbook, where it stands as a perfect example of Indian-American fusion — something both new and familiar. 

Though Amrikan is filled with delightful, inventive recipes, its heart lies in Shah’s personal connection to the food. The book is filled with family stories and photos, most notably her parents, who play a starring role both in her life and her cookbook. This familial connection underscores the emotional core of Amrikan. It’s a cookbook that’s as much about storytelling as it is about food, weaving together personal anecdotes with recipes that capture the flavors of a diaspora in constant flux.

But Amrikan is also a story about a broader movement. Indian-American cuisine is more than just the sum of its substitutions and clever ingredient swaps — it’s a reflection of the immigrant experience, a fusion born out of necessity that has now become a celebration of identity. Shah’s cookbook stands at the intersection of past and future, paying tribute to the earlier generations who paved the way, while also embracing the boundless possibilities of the present. “People think ‘fusion’ is such a dirty word, but it’s just the evolution of cuisine, the intersections of cultures,” she tells Eater. When you live between two cultures, your food reflects that — how could it not?

Khushbu Shah’s Amrikan is a celebration of what happens when cultures meet, mix, and cook. It’s a reminder that the best food isn’t always about authenticity — it’s about heart, creativity, and the joy of making something new from whatever’s in front of you. From necessity to invention, Shah’s recipes tell the story of a community that learned to thrive by transforming what was unfamiliar into something deeply personal.