EVENT: A- Z RECIPE CHALLENGE THEME : A DISH BEGINNING WITH THE LETTER I What is the A- Z Challenge? Well, we’re a Facebook group and every alternate month the participants make a dish with the relevant letter. The group was started in May 2018 by Jolly Makkar and Vidya Narayan. This month we’ve got to think of an ingredient which begins with I, and it has to be the English name. Now that seriously doesn’t give anyone much choice, does it? A lot of discussion on the group took place about how to tackle this issue. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate actively in the discussion as I was traveling. This letter wise cooking sometimes allows one to think ahead, like I had the…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #196 IT’S PICKLE TIME My mum use to make huge quantities of lemon pickle and other pickles and store it in those old fashioned ceramic brown and cream jars. The pickle would be served every Sunday along with khichdi and kadhi. As for the lemon pickle which I love so much,she would leave the lemon pieces in a container, covered with muslin cloth for days in the sun till the lemon peel would become soft. I never learnt how to make the pickle from her. A few years back Vibha bhabhi made the pickle and shared the recipe with me. Tips like leaving the lemon pieces to marinate in the fridge was my kaki’s valuable tip. I have tasted lemon pickle that…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: NAGALAND CUISINE Nagaland, one of the seven sister state is mountainous state bordering Myanmar in the east, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to the north, Assam to the west and Manipur to the south. Home to diverse indigenous tribes, their markets and festivals celebrate diverse cultures. I had no idea that the capital city of the state, Kohima, suffered heavy fighting during World War 2. Nagaland is one of the smallest states of India, but by no means backward. Literacy rate is 79.55% and the official language is English. Though the 16 different tribes may have different cultures, ethnic dresses and different languages, the official language unifies them as one. Majority of the people from Nagaland are Christians by faith. 20%…
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Continue ReadingRECIPE: GINGERBREAD CRINKLE COOKIES Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies are slightly soft, a bit chewy, warm with spices and a must during Christmas or the Holiday Season. Sugar coated cookies with cracks or crinkles look so festive. What are Crinkle Cookies? Crinkle cookies are cookies with cracks in them. They are intentionally baked in a particular manner to get the cracks or wrinkles. The crack effect with the sugar coating makes them look very festive. The sugared parts reminds one of snow capped mountains. There are so many varieties of crinkle cookies, chocolate, lemon, strawberry, peanut butter, red velvet, pumpkin, sweet yam, coffee and so many more. Why I baked Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies? I love baking ginger cookies during Christmas time. Reminds me of the…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: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…
