mayurisjikoni

masala chai, handvo, drive-in theme: Redo Old Posts BM#85 Week 4 Day 1  updated 23/02/2018      I remember my mum would make handvo (Indian savoury cake) nearly every Sunday. If we were going to Drive In to watch a movie or having a meal at home, Sunday would be handvo day. She would make it on a jiko (sigri) with more hot coal on top of the pan or sufuria. That handvo always tasted yummy and soft. Modern times and the charcoal stoves are out and in come the ovens. Not the same as the jiko one but I still make handvo as its one of my favourite snack. I never made handvo on my own when I got married as Nunu, my mother in law would bake it. She would add onion, carrots, cabbage, doodhi (bottle gourd) and so many other ingredients. My bhabhi adds cooked peas. Any version and they all taste good. Make a thin layer or a thick layer, the choice is yours. Add whatever vegetable you like. The more the merrier! Ready made handvo flour is available in most shops but I prefer t...

have your oats I have spoilt my husband. How you all may be wondering. If I make soup for dinner, which happens at least thrice a week, he wants home baked bread as he finds the normal Supa bread tasteless. I have made oatmeal bread quite a few times with different options and all have turned out pretty good. Make it into a normal loaf, make it round, plait it or shape into rolls. Enjoy the smell of a freshly  baked loaf . It is very therapeutic. OATMEAL BREAD 2-2½ cups plain flour 1 cup wheat flour 1 cup rolled oats 2 tbsp melted butter or olive oil 2 tbsp honey or brown sugar 2¼ tsp instant active dry yeast 1 tsp salt 1-1¼ cups warm milk 2 tbsps milk or honey for brushing on top 2 tbsps rolled oats for topping extra oil for greasing extra flour for kneading Sieve both the flours together. Add salt and oats and mix well. Add sugar or honey to the warm milk. Mix till the sugar dissolves. Add yeast to the flour and mix well. If you are not using instant yeast, then let it activate i...

happy birthday Meera      My niece, Meera loves baking. Whenever I go her place, we try and bake something together and in the process get to bond as well. She works with a lot of patience and joy. During school holidays she is busy baking goodies for her numerous cousins and large families. I am sure she gets loads of praises from them. Some years back Meera and I baked some eclairs for my dad, her grandfather and we were not too proud of the end result. The eclairs became a bit hard, but got consumed anyway within a few hours. Meera, this time when dada was here I tried out another recipe and they came out perfect. So do try them out again. Updated 23/01/2017     Eclairs are long French pastries that are made from choux (shoo) dough, baked and then filled with cream and topped with glace icing or melted chocolate. However, they can be filled with custard too and dipped in fondant icing. Frozen ones are served filled with ice cream and topped with melted chocol...

POWER PACKED TUBER Theme: Redo Old Posts BM#81 Week 4 Day 1    Sweet potatoes are pretty much in season all year round. Bake it, roast it, boil it, puree it. Whichever way you may prefer but have it. Sweet potatoes contain twice the amount of dietary fibers compared to a normal potato. It is rich in beta carotene, contains large amounts of Vitamin B6 which is beneficial in breaking down homocysteine (which contributes in  hardening the arteries and blood vessels). It contains a great amount of manganese and also is rich in Vitamin C and E. This humble, staple root is easy to cook and tastes great with a drizzle of lemon, salt, pepper or chilli powder.     My injured foot has stopped my trip to the market for a few days but Simon, the veggie guy bought some sweet potatoes from the market a few days ago. He kept on insisting I buy them, trying to convince me that its really good for health but his intention was to get rid of the huge quantity that he had boug...

a never fail combination A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to get nice tender fresh white corn. White corn tastes different from the the sweet corn. Before sweet corn made an appearance in the market here, white corn was used for everything right from sabjis to fillings and even boiled to eat with nice melted butter. I decided to use the corn to make parathas. The recipe has been in my book for years but never got down to trying it out. Instead of the usual pickles or raitas to go with the paratha, I made some tomato chutney. Replace it with sweet corn if you don't find any white one. CORN PANEER PARATHAS Makes 6 For the dough : 2 cups wheat flour (atta) ¾ cup water ½ tsp salt 3 tbsp oil ½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi) For the filling : 2 cups white corn kernels 1 cup grated paneer ½ cup finely chopped fresh coriander ¼ cup finely chopped onion 1 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp chilli paste or 2 chillis finely chopped 2 tbsps oil 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) 1 to 1½ tsp salt 1 tsp sugar ½ tsp...

a sure winner Once again the hot season has begun with a vengeance. It has become extremely hot and humid in Mombasa. At the same the traffic jam towards Miritini is causing havoc where small businesses are concerned. Every time I go to my favourite green grocer shop, the owner complains about vegetables and fruits not reaching Mombasa on time because of the traffic. Till all these problems somehow get sorted, I have to get very innovative in the kitchen, cooking up the humble potato in numerous ways. Thankfully the small bunches of not so bitter fenugreek are grown locally. So here is an easy but delicious recipe of bateta methi shaak ( potato fenugreek vegetable). Serve it with hot rotis. METHI BATETA NU SHAAK (POTATO FENUGREEK VEGETABLE) 4 servings 5 medium potatoes (about 3 cups of  tiny cubed potatoes) 2 cups finely chopped fresh fenugreek (methi) 3 tbsp oil ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds (methi) 1 tsp mustard seeds (rai) Pinch of asafoetida (hing) ½ tsp ginger paste ½ tsp chilli paste...

Over ripe bananas !  I love banana bread and whenever there are a couple of over ripe bananas, its baking time for me. I have made it umpteen number of times but the egg version. Nunu, my mother in law loves banana bread but I had to find an egg less version. The hunt began on the cyberspace and somehow the recipe by 4th sense cooking seemed the right one. And lo behold it was the one! It turned out perfect the first time and after that I made some and sent it off with Ajay all the way to India for Nunu. I love the texture, the colour and obviously the taste. All food fanatics, visit 4th sense cooking.com for exciting photos and recipes. The blog has amazing photos and you straight away get tempted to try out the recipes. I am going to share her lovely egg less banana walnut bread recipe with you. I have made slight changes to the original recipe. I prefer adding a bit of salt to cakes and muffins to balance out the sweet taste. I also added 1 tsp of orange zest instead of vanilla ...