mayurisjikoni

remembering Mangalore A few days ago Beena a food blogger like me, posted vegetable cutlets and immediately it brought back some fond memories of Mangalore. Ajay went to Mangalore for his post grad course and I stayed back in Mombasa with my in laws. During my short visit to the coastal town, Ajay took me to all the famous food places that students frequent in Mangalore, dosa place, ice cream place and a small restaurant where they made the yummiest vegetable cutlets. Unfortunately, we both cannot remember the name of the place. So when I showed him Beena's post, he insisted I make some of the cutlets and with a coating of semolina instead of bread crumbs just like the restaurant. Beena thanks for the guideline and bringing back fond memories. I made a few changes to the recipe to suit our taste buds and I had some boiled beetroot ready in the fridge. The cutlets turned out good and it will be on my menu when I have guests over next time. As for those of you who love cooking non ...

Happy birthday tweenies My twins, Neel and Nami celebrated their birthday yesterday. All my 3 kids are growing up so fast. I remember the parties we use to hold at home and when they were a bit older they wanted parties at a restaurant. Usually we would celebrate their birthdays together, all 3 as the birthdays are  in the same month. Cost saving for me but they probably felt bad sharing the party. Nami and Neel had no choice, they are twins but am sure Niku would have loved a separate party. My tweenies as I call them are poles apart.... one is quiet the other talkative, one is serious, the other very friendly, one is happy with books and play station, the other loves having loads of friends. But what is common in both is that they both are caring, loving and considerate adults and I love them so much. Before Nami left for India, she left a little message for me on my phone, to call her everyday. A few days ago I found a little note from her in my diary stating "bake a cake for N...

Happy Easter Easter reminds me of so many things. I remember the time we all would want to go for midnight mass at the local church in Mt. Abu. It was not for any religious reason, but it gave us an opportunity to be out of school at midnight and that was a cool thing to do. Easter meant loads of craft things to make when I was teaching, Easter eggs, bunnies, flowers etc. It made the classroom very cheerful. Easter means egg hunting at school, fun and the best part was we got to eat what we found. Easter in UK means huge chocolate egg filled with more tiny chocolates. Easter meant the rains would arrive soon in Kenya and this year too it rained a lot in Mombasa during the night. Years back Easter meant the the Safari Rally, but unfortunately for the past many years it comes and goes without anyone actually realising it. Safari Rally during Easter meant that a lot of people could watch it because of the holidays. Since they changed it, (don't even know when its held!) hardly anyone ...

Happy Holi   I got up early today as I wanted to make the batter for malpua. Many communities in India prepare gujiyas on Holi but Gujaratis prefer to make them for Diwali. I decided to make some malpua. I did not manage to get some khoya or mawa so I googled for alternatives. I came across some malpuas made with mashed banana. I thought that the recipe would be good as it meant less sugar. So, as required I let the batter rest for 4 to 5 hours before attempting the task of frying the malpuas. Unfortunately, they were a disaster. The batter kept on sticking to the bottom of the pan and refused to come up. Instead of wasting oil, I just stopped after 2 attempts. I made pancakes with the rest of the batter but was really disappointed. What is it that some bloggers forget to tell us in their recipes? The consistency was right, the oil was heated to the required temperature, so what went wrong? That means that for this Holi I cannot blog a sweet dish. The best malpuas I have ever had a...

chinese indian fusion Any fast food restaurant, road side carts, chowpatty beach, in India will have a variety of machurian to offer to its patrons. I remember the supermarket, Multiplex, opposite Nami's college would set up a small stall every evening just outside its entrance and make all sorts of machurian dishes right from mushroom, paneer to chicken machurian. They made the yummiest machurian. You can have it as a meal on its own or even eat it with some rice or noodles. Many people in India have it as a starter with or without beer. A few days ago,I felt like having machurian so decided to try out the baby corn one. No one serves good machurian in Mombasa. Turned out pretty good, but it could have been better with a little bit more chillis. As I mentioned above, its a chinese indian fusion. As you may have noticed, green pepper and spring onions are missing from my photo. I didn't get any spring onions and Ajay is allergic to sweet peppers. As I got only 1 packet of baby ...

refreshing The stomach demands light meals automatically during the hot season and it is extremely hot in Mombasa. So I am back to salads and besides tossing up the already blogged recipes, I have tried a few new ones too. It seems that most of my followers tend to visit the salad recipes less frequently. I hope this colourful salad tempts you to try it out again and again. Deep orange and light orange colour is pleasing to the eye. Okay, I am getting down to the recipe instead of creating too much mystery. Enjoy my carrot and orange salad. CARROT ORANGE SALAD 4 servings, 2 if having it as a meal 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced with a peeler or mandolin 2 large oranges ¼ cup thinly sliced white onion 1 cupful of mixed green leaves or 4 to 5 iceberg lettuce leaves 1 tsp fennel seeds (valiyari) 1 tsp sesame seeds (tal) 1 tsp thinly cut orange peel Dressing : 3 tbsp fresh orange juice 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp honey 3 tbsp olive oil ½ tsp salt ½ tsp coarse pepper powder Peel the oranges....

Not like Open House Open House, an Indian restaurant in Nairobi makes the best chilli paneer. It is so famous that the chilli paneer has landed up on the dining tables all the way in UK. Quite a few restaurants in India get the chilli paneer just right, perfect, delicious etc. To get decent chilli paneer in Mombasa is like looking for a needle in a haystack. A few days ago, we had chilli paneer as a starter during our Lions meeting. It was bland and without any appealing factor to it. Most of us ate it because we were hungry.My friend requested that I try out the recipe at home and blog it. So I have tried out the recipe at home and realized that to make it tasty, you just need to use a lot of the fresh ingredients.... loads of chillis, ginger, garlic and you get a tasty starter. Still, mine is nothing near to the one at Open House. Some day will actually try and get the secret recipe from my sister in law who is the co owner of Open House. As the name suggests, it has to be slightly c...

spinach and paneer rule the day What would we do without those nifty sandwich makers? Combine a few vegetables, add meat or paneer or fish or anything, stuff it between two slices of bread and hey presto a quick meal is on the table. A few days ago our mama mboga who comes to our compound brought some very fresh palak (spinach). Instead of the usual vegetable I decided to make some sandwiches. I miss the spinach and corn sandwiches that are sold practically in all the coffee places in India. So had to make my own with a few additions. Kids will love these sandwiches as they are filled with corn and paneer (cottage cheese) and how much of the spinach can they really pick out? SPINACH PANEER CORN SANDWICH Makes 12 triangles 2to 2½ cups chopped spinach (palak) ½ cup finely chopped onion ½ cup cooked sweet corn or white corn ½ cup tiny cubes of paneer (cottage cheese) 1 tsp ginger paste 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped 1 to 2 green chillis finely chopped or 1 tsp paste 2 tbsp oil 1 tsp cu...

a cooling down remedy At the moment it is so hot that either a cold dessert or a nice cool salad is all I want to eat. I wish I could just eat ice lollies, ice creams, sorbets and nothing else. However, bearing in mind all the calories I would add on the the already excessive ones, I opt for the salads. Not that I am complaining as I love salads. A few days ago I made a huge bowl of greek salad for dinner. Healthy, crunchy and believe it or not got most of the ingredients in spite of the hot weather and shortage of vegetables. GREEK SALAD for 4 or 2 as a meal 2 medium tomatoes cut into chunks 1 cupful of cucumber chunks ½ cup sliced sweet pepper of any colour ½ cup feta cheese cubes 2 cups lightly packed mixed salad leaves or 2 to 3 leaves of iceberg lettuce 1 small onion sliced, white or red 12 olives of any kind either left whole or halved Dressing : 3 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp  vinegar, either cider or balsamic or any good vinegar ½ tsp salt ½ tsp sugar or 1 tsp honey 1 tsp coarse p...