EVENT: CELEBRATING ONE YEAR OF MAYURI’S JIKONI YOUTUBE CHANNEL RECIPE: ROASTED PINEAPPLE CHEESECAKE Roasted Pineapple Cheesecake made with fresh pineapple is creamy, delicious and so easy to make. Paired with ginger cookie crumbs, it offers a burst of flavours. Perfect dessert to celebrate a milestone with. MAKING FOOD VIDEO CHALLENGES I remember quite often my family would ask me why I don’t make videos. The truth is that I had a fear. A fear that I would not be able to do it, taking shots, editing, putting the whole thing together. It has been a huge learning experience. I am still not comfortable doing the voice over videos. But now more than a scary experience, I actually enjoy making the videos. Since I posted…
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Continue ReadingEVENTS: SUNDAY FUNDAY & FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEMES: NATIONAL HOT CHOCOLATE DAY & MY BEGINNER RECIPE Mexican Hot Chocolate is so creamy, chocolatey, spicy and a comforting hot drink especially during the cold season. Usually authentic Mexican Hot Chocolate is made with tablets of rustic table chocolate. It is a tablet of dark cocoa and cinnamon. I hear that the Abuelita by Nestle is really good. Since I didn’t have the Mexican Chocolate at hand, I used Lindt 85% Cacao Dark Chocolate. Added cinnamon, cayenne powder, a bit of brown sugar and cream for a luscious, creamy dreamy hot chocolate. While Mexican Hot Chocolate is my all time favourite drink during the cold season, I sometimes like to enjoy hot chocolate without any cream. For those days, I…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SUNDAY FUNDAY THEME: BIRTHDAY PARTY POTLUCK RECIPE: MAPLE PANNA COTTA WITH ROASTED FIGS Maple Panna Cotta With Roasted Figs is a super creamy, silky, exquisite, easy to make dessert. The roasted fig adds so much flavour and texture to the overall dessert. I’ve used the light amber maple syrup which tends to be sweeter than the darker ones. Maple syrup not only adds sweetness but also adds a caramel like flavour. What Is Maple Syrup? Maple Syrup is actually made from the maple tree sap or the xylem sap. Usually maple water or maple sap is tapped from red,sugar or balck maple trees. The maple water or sap is colourless. It is collected and boiled to remove the water content. Lighter colour maple syrup…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SUNDAY FUNDAY THEME: CHRISTMAS COOKIES AROUND THE WORLD RECIPE: KARACHI BISCUITS Karachi Biscuits are soft and melt in the mouth kind of cookies or biscuits. Easy to make, they are studded with tutti frutti and flavoured with cardamom and rose essence. Generally, these cookies are enjoyed throughout the year with a cup of masala tea. However, I love to make them for Diwali and Christmas. In fact, they are perfect to gift to friends and family. Why Are They Called Karachi Biscuits? To begin with these biscuits or cookies are not at all from Karachi. They are famous biscuits from Karachi Bakery that is located in the city of Hyderabad, India. As a matter of fact, Khanchand Ramnani, a Sindhi who migrated from Karachi…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: CHRISTMAS BAKES RECIPE: CLEMENTINE COOKIES Clementine Cookies are made from the basic sugar cookie dough. These quick and easy cookies are delicately flavoured with fresh clementine juice and zest. The basic sugar cookie dough is so versatile, add flavours of your choice, roll them into balls and bake, roll them out flat and bake – whatever you prefer. With a slightly soft chewy centre these cookies are quite popular during Christmas. I baked this batch and family visiting us from US loved them. Planning to bake some more soon for Christmas to gift to neighbours and new friends we have made in the small town of Magog, Quebec. Actually, the whole idea of adding clementine juice and zest for these…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: DIWALI DHAMAKA RECIPE: KALAKAND, WITH COTTAGE CHEESE Kalakand, with cottage cheese turns out as good as the one with paneer. Moist, soft, delectable barfi, perfect for Diwali. And the sweet treat comes together within 20-25 minutes. It is allowed to set for 2-3 hours and it is ready to be enjoyed with friends and family. CAN I MAKE IT AHEAD? Yes you can. Make sure you store it in an airtight container and leave it in the fridge. I promise you it stays moist for over a week. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COTTAGE CHEESE AND PANEER? While in India we often call paneer as cottage cheese in English, it is not nearly the same. While paneer consistency can depend…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SUNDAY FUNDAY THEME: IT’S COFFEE TIME RECIPE: MOCHA MUFFINS Mocha Muffins are moist, coffee flavoured, full of walnuts and choco chips with a crusty top. Perfect muffins to enjoy with your morning coffee or as an afternoon snack. SUNDAY FUNDAY Sunday Funday is a group of Food Bloggers. Every Sunday we share some fun, traditional, hearty or easy recipes to make Sunday Family Meals a bit more exciting. To join this fun group, visit the Sunday Funday Facebook Page. Request to join in. THEME: IT’S COFFEE TIME This lovely theme is suggested by Renu. She blogs at Cook With Renu and she wanted us to share a recipe where we’ve used coffee. While, I love coffee, I realized that I really don’t…
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Continue ReadingStrawberry Rose Modak, made with semolina,sugar, strawberries, rose syrup is easy to make and a delectable sweet offering to Lord Ganesha during the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival. Basically, traditional kesari is made from semolina, sugar and saffron. Here, I’ve made strawberry kesari using fresh strawberries, rose syrup and a few nuts. As this was for Ganesh Chaturthi, I used the modak mould to shape this delicious kesari into modaks. However, you can offer and serve Strawberry Rose Kesari warm in bowls without shaping it. What is a Modak? Modak is a traditional Maharashtrian sweet. The dumplings are made from rice flour and stuffed with coconut, jaggery, spices and sometimes nuts. As with other dishes, modak has over time taken on new avatars. In fact, the…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SUNDAY FUNDAY THEME: JUST PEACHY RECIPE: MAPLE ROASTED PEACHES Maple Roasted Peaches, healthy, flavourful, so easy to make and best part – has no refined sugar. Served with some greek yogurt it makes a fruity summery light dessert. Sprinkle granola and it becomes a delightful fun breakfast. Roasted Peaches can be served with ice cream, but with a diabetic hubby, I wanted to make it without refined sugar. The dark robust maple syrup gifted to me by my son and his girlfriend is perfect for this kind of recipe, not too sweet and very tasty. From start to finish, this dish takes about 35 minutes. So it is a dessert that you can prepare while you’re enjoying your dinner. During the weekend mornings, by…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SUNDAY FUNDAY THEME: NO BAKE DESSERTS RECIPE: PINEAPPLE MOUSSE Pineapple Mousse is an easy to prepare, light, creamy, summery, vegan dessert. It is unbelievably delicious and perfect for summer parties. I usually prepare it a day ahead to save on time. You just need a few ingredients to prepare this dessert. You may use fresh pineapple to prepare the mousse but you need to cook the pineapple and cool it down before proceeding to make the mousse. Bromelain present in fresh pineapple is a protein digesting enzyme. This enzyme prevents gelatin or agar agar to set. In cooked or tinned(canned) pineapple the bromelain are de -natured and thus don’t prevent the agar agar or gelatin to set. I use both, cooked and canned pineapples…
