EVENT:FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #167 ROOTING FOR ROOTS Mondays come so fast and disappear equally fast. Imagine we’re over and done with Navratri, soon Diwali will be knocking on our doors and we’ll have barely just finished our Diwali celebrations and Christmas will be round the corner. And then the year ends. As fast as it came it will disappear just as fast and will only then be mentioned as history. What will I remember this year for? Well, so far its been an exciting year of meeting up with family and enjoying short holidays with them. In March had a great beach holiday with my side of the family, my dad, kaka, kaki, my fois, my brothers, bhabhis, niece. Then came the amazing albeit short holiday…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #162 LEMON AFFAIR The popular saying goes “When Life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Well this does not mean that in the literal sense. It’s believed that the phrase was coined by a writer Elbert Hubbard in 1915. The reference to the lemon is in regard to its sourness or difficulty in life and basically indicates to overcome it and get on with life, to have a hopeful and optimistic outlook towards life. When Sasmita who blogs at First Timer Cook suggested lemons as our #162nd theme she didn’t want use to make lemonade. She wanted us to put on our thinking caps and make something different using lemons. For me that’s not a problem at all as I love lemon, the fragrance…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #152 ASIAN CUISINE When Amrita who blogs at The Food Samaritan suggested Asian cuisine, we immediately knew that she wanted to challenge us to some south East Asian cooking and not the Sub Continent cuisine we all are so comfortable with. I jumped for joy as I immediately knew what I wanted to make. I had been eyeing the rice paper ever since I had seen it at the supermarket in Montreal. Its ingredients like these that excite me the most as I don’t get them back home in Mombasa. So when did I see them? Last year! When did I get a chance to use them? For the #152nd FoodieMonday theme, all thanks to Amrita. Yesterday hubby, my son, his girlfriend…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: BLOGGING MARATHON #89 WEEK 3 DAY 3 THEME: CONDIMENTS ON THE SIDE Another passion fruit condiment you may think and no I didn’t get a sackful of passion fruit. I made this sauce to take for my son. As you read along, you’ll get to know how versatile this sauce is. Passion fruit, passionfruit, grenadille as the the fruit is called, grows on vines. The fruit can be yellow or dark purple. The pulp will be either light yellow to dark orange. There are two main types of passion fruits, the sour and tangy ones or the sweet ones. The pulp of the sweet ones is usually light grey in colour. Kenya grows all three varieties of passion fruit in abundance. While modern chefs…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: BLOGGING MARATHON #89 – WEEK 3 DAY 2 THEME: CONDIMENTS ON THE SIDE Whenever I’m going to visit my kids, or for that matter any of my family members, I tend to carry food stuff for them. Be it cookies, cakes, pickles, snacks, nuts, condiments, tea or coffee…the list is endless. When my relatives come down to Mombasa, they bring lots of food stuff for me. I use to think that its only Indians who travel to any corner of the world with half their suitcase full of food stuff. Its only when bags open at the airports you realize that everyone, literally everyone travels with food stuff for their friends and families. OK, I rest my case, the younger lot, though they will…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: BLOGGING MARATHON #89 WEEK 3 DAY 1 THEME: CONDIMENTS ON THE SIDE For Week 3 of the BM #89 I chose condiments on the side as I wanted to try some chutneys and masala powders that I’ve bookmarked for quite a while now. However, as the week came closer, I was preparing my list of what I need to take for my son in Montreal. The usual things like Kenyan tea, coffee, macadamia nuts, cashew nuts, homemade cookies, chevdo. Then I remembered that during our last trip he had mentioned that he misses the Kenyan apple mango and passion fruit. Now if you live in Dubai, you get mangoes from all over the world. My son in Montreal gets the Mexican mangoes. Not saying…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: SUMMER SALADS RECIPE : PESTO ROASTED POTATO SALAD A bit about the group: Members of this group give their partners two secret ingredients according to the theme decided and prepare a dish. Once the dish is ready we add the photo only and other members try and guess the secret ingredients. Towards the end of the month the secret is revealed when we share the recipe link. This month’s theme is SUMMER SALAD. My Partner My partner for this theme Shobana Vijay, blogs at Shoba’s Delight. Shobana gave me potato and any herbs.With these ingredients in mind I decided to prepare Pesto Roasted Potato Salad. With the ingredients I gave her, pasta and mango, Shobana prepared a delicious Mango Avocado…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #44 INDIAN SPICES SORTED Badshahi Khichdi is a humble khichdi that is turned into a more satisfying and delicious dish that is fit for a king. Not that the simple khichdi is not tasty. Basically this khichdi is made using split pigeon pea (toor, tuvar dal) and rice. The khichdi has some added vegetables mainly potatoes and brinjals(eggplants) and is tempered using onion, garlic, ginger, chillis and spices. However, I made this khichdi my way. I have tried to give it a more ‘royal’ appeal by stuffing the potatoes and brinjals with spices, chickpea flour and peanuts. This khichdi is usually served with spiced up yogurt, but since my preparation already has quite a few spices, I decided to serve it with…
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Continue ReadingBLOGGING MARATHON #89 WEEK 4 DAY 3 THEME : REDO OLD POSTS Now that the festivities are over, its nice to get back to routine. Don’t get me wrong, I love Diwali. However, I tend to get so busy like everyone else and sometimes it seems that I am not going to be able to cope. Preparing mithai, full lunches, presents, treats, decorating the house, rangoli, diyas. The list is endless. I get so overwhelmed by the endless bookmarked recipes, that I want to prepare everything. Next Diwali I am going to make a list and stick to it. No stress and no fretting. The hot weather also does not help. By afternoon I am exhausted. This hot weather will now last till February. This…
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Continue Readingchatpata delight My all time favourite pickles are chundo and lemon. Chundo goes well with theplas, parathas, left over rotis, masala puris, plain puris and even as a spread for a sandwich. I find Tarla Dalal’s recipe for chundo absolutely perfect. However, I have made very small changes to by using a raw apple mango. I like using apple mango because firstly its not a stringy mango and because even when it is raw its not overtly sour. This means that I use a little less sugar than required. So whenever the mango season begins (we are lucky to have two seasons in a year), I make chundo. Small quantities remain fresh and I store it in the fridge for freshness. CHUNDO (SWEET MANGO PICKLE)…
