mayurisjikoni

Mother and daughter in the kitchen I celebrated my birthday yesterday and the first thing I did was thank God for such a wonderful life. I remembered my mum a lot and of course missed having my family here. My daughter however made the day very special for me. We baked a cake together, she created a lovely ecard and gifted me a miniature painting done by her.Wishes and blessings from friends and family brought a huge smile on my face. It is so great to feel wanted and loved by so many. My dear hubby gifted me with an airline ticket to Dubai. I am excited as I  get to spend another week with my daughter and also get to spend time with my older son and his girlfriend. I have been a transit passenger thrice at the Dubai airport and now finally I will actually get out to explore the   maya nagri as its called.... fantasy city.  A lot has happened since the time I decided last year to make my 50th special. Happy and sad events occurred during the year but life has to carry on. I am glad I d

an excuse to have some extra cheese Whenever I want to make some soup for dinner, Nami doesn't want to have any of the creamy smooth type of soups. She prefers the wholesome, full of vegetable types and so had to hunt for recipes to fit that category. Some with lentils are perhaps like making dal without the masala. But, I have got to share this recipe with you as the soup was delicious, wholesome and satisfying.  MEXICAN VEGETABLE SOUP 4 servings 1 cup cooked red kidney beans 1 cup cooked yellow corn kernels 1 medium onion, diced (approx ½ cup) 1 medium tomato, diced (approx ½ cup) ½ cup diced zucchini ½ cup diced sweet pepper, any colour of your choice 2 cups tomato puree 2 to 2½ cups water or stock 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp garlic paste 1 tbsp chilli sauce 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper powder 3 tbsps fresh coriander or cilantro 4 to 6 tbsp grated cheddar cheese for topping Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook till they are slightly soft. Add garlic and stir fry fo

softy soft I had some cottage cheese (paneer) sitting in the fridge. I know there are many ways one can use paneer, but I didn't want to use it the conventional way... making a sandwich, palak paneer sabji or even in rice. I decided to use it to make some bread. Most recipes of cottage cheese bread that I browsed through had eggs. However that did not stop me from making a slightly indianised version of the bread. I was pleased with the result. The whole idea of replacing some of the ingredients comes about when you cannot find the required ingredient. I couldn't find any fresh dill at the market or at the greengrocers because it is really hot here. So jogged my memory and thought of other herbs. Some of you may think but she has already used coriander , rosemary , mixed herbs in the other bread recipes. So there staring right at my face was fenugreek. Yes fresh methi as we call it and I love the one grown locally in Mombasa because it does not taste very bitter. A bit of cho

tickle your tongue Whenever I use to make a Chinese meal for my family, we always had to have the famous red chilli sauce to go with everything from spring rolls to the rice. The red chilli sauce became quite famous as it started appearing on the table for other snacks right from dokhras to pudlas . My husband and I rarely have the red chilli sauce at home and I can't remember the last time I actually prepared a whole Chinese meal at home. Whenever we feel like having Chinese we go to the famous Galaxy Restaurant. I miss the Chinese restaurants in India. Anyway getting back to the red chilli sauce, I use a teeny weeny bit of it to spice up soups, mix it with butter for a sandwich or to go with any of the gujju snacks. The sauce stays for over a month in the fridge. RED CHILLI SAUCE Makes about a cup 12 to 15 (about 200g) fresh red chillis  4 to 5 tbsps good vinegar ½ cup oil ½ tsp carom seeds (ajwain) ½ to ¾ tsp salt 2 tsps red chilli powder Wash the chillis. Cut off the stalk and

happy valentine's day Valentine's day has been hyped up over the years. When I was growing up in Kenya, Valentine's day came and went without anyone really noticing. Instead secret love messages were sent among boyfriends and girlfriends and nothing much. Nowadays a person can receive many love messages, gifts etc but which one is the true one? Isn't it better to have just one special person to love and care for than so many false relationships?  However, for me its basically just an excuse to indulge in something chocolatey. With a chocoholic daughter and husband I decided to bake some chocolate cookies for Valentine's day. I don't have any fancy heart shaped cookie cutters so for now the round ones will do. Perhaps we should add more meaning to Valentine's day by remembering what Mother Teresa said : " love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand." Spreading love, peace and happiness is our basic duty. CHOCOLATE THUMBPRIN

  a different kind of pesto  Most Italian restaurants serve a basket of bread before the starters and main dish. To cater for the Indian taste buds most restaurants  have chilli oil or chillis in olive oil served with the bread. For the not so chilli taste buds they serve a dip which I have been trying figure out what it contains. Not that its a big secret but most restaurants refuse to name the ingredients let alone hand out the recipe. The first time I had the dip at La Veranda in Mombasa, it tantalized my taste buds. Some would mislead us by saying oh there are too many things that are put together, one even mentioned corn. But finally I have figured out what it is..... its not just a dip but it is a sweet pepper pesto. I made some a few days ago to go with the home baked bread and thought to myself... its so easy and why why didn't I figure out what the ingredients were long time ago. Oh well, I guess things happen when they are meant to happen... at the right moment. For a few

Patuda no lot (patuda dough) is another gujarati quick snack prepared in most homes. The Patels are famous for making patuda no lot just as the Shahs are famous for their khichi. I haven't the foggiest idea as to why its called patuda no lot. Its basically handvo or dokhra flour cooked in spicy water with yogurt till you get a mass of dough very much like ugali. Its the quickest and yummiest snack. Very famous in UK as its made for lunch, unexpected guests, as a snack.... basically anytime. The tricky part of making this dish is to avoid the flour from getting all lumpy. Over the years I tried out many tricks told to me by my huge clan of relatives but none really worked as I still landed up with raw lumps of dough. Some of the tricks were, to rub the flour with oil, add oil in the boiling water, take the pan off the heat when flour is added etc etc. I still landed up whizzing the dough with a hand blender to get rid of the lumps. What I really have not understood is how mixing the

yet another gujju snack   Whenever any of my blog followers want a recipe, they just write to me and I am glad that I get all these requests. It gives me the opportunity to bring out the old recipes and wipe out the cobwebs. Fried snacks are hardly ever made in my house considering we are just 2. Its only when I have guests that I make fried snacks. My cousin requested for the dhebra recipe and sorry it took a while. I had the recipe but had to make it to photo the end product. Now that took a while. In the meantime the maize flour, millet flour were all patiently sitting on my kitchen counter. Finally got down to making them yesterday and they brought back a lot of memories especially of my mum. She would make tonnes of dhebras for our huge family all by herself. Its my favourite snack, but then I love all fried snacks or farsan as we call it. Some gujarati communities call them vada but we Patels call them dhebra. How do you distinguish them from the other methi dhebras we make.... w

down memory lane When my siblings and I were young, our parents would usually take us to the City Park in the afternoon, followed by a walk round Kimathi Street and then the best part of the evening.... a plateful of maru bhajias or a whole bag of hot hot chips. We usually preferred the bhajias. There were 2 places we would go to, Maru Cafe or a small cafe opposite the Khoja Mosque  (unfortunately cannot remember the name). The hot bhajias were absolutely yummy and along with the really spicy chutney we would get a whole bottle ( tree top bottle re used) of tamarind chutney. We usually returned an empty bottle to the waiter. It wasn't a fancy restaurant at all, we would sit in the car and have the bhajias. Imagine car service! We still have the van but the place no longer exists. I think the owner moved to UK and now there is a famous Maru Bhajia House in Wembley. In the meantime, newer places opened up offering Maru bhajia as they are called in Kenya but none actually match the or