mayurisjikoni

Cocktail or Cock tail???     We Knead to Bake's #38 bake for the month of April are Coconut Buns or Chinese Cocktail Buns or Gai Mei Bao. These buns were supposedly created in the 1950s in Hong Kong. The owners of a local bakery were left with unsold buns and instead of throwing them away they decided to ground the buns, added sugar and used it as a filling for new buns. These days left over bread has been replaced by a sweet buttery coconut filling. There are two meaning to the cocktail buns. One is that the exotic mixture of filling deserved the name cocktail much like the cocktails created in bars and pubs. The second is that Gai Mei Bao literally means cock's(chicken) tail bun. The buns are soft and slightly sweet filled with a buttery sweet coconut filling. These buns are typical Hong Kong style buns. The topping, a mixture of flour, butter and sugar is usually piped, 2 lines, on the buns before baking.     Try out this tasty, delicious buns and a must for coconut lovers.

What is Indo Chinese?     The 37th #FoodieMonday#bloghop theme is #Indo-Chinese. What is Indo-Chinese? Indo-Chinese dishes feature in most Indian restaurants that serve fast food, Indian cuisine and you will find it as street food too. Indo-Chinese is one of the most favourite cuisine for Indians. The Indo Chinese mania has spread as far as America, Europe, Australia, Africa, basically to all the the continents. Basically its Chinese food with Indian flavours and ingredients that are popularly available in India. It is nothing like the authentic Chinese food that uses bok choy, choi sum, watercress, chinese broccoli,chinese water spinach, chinese amaranth, napa cabbage, ji cai, tofu, Sichuan pepper. Indo-Chinese cuisine uses bell pepper, cabbage, corn, baby corn, carrots,cauliflower etc. Indo-Chinese cuisine uses sweet and sour sauce, oyster, sauce, soy sauce, black bean sauce, hoisin sauce, szechwan and manchurian sauce just to name a few.   How was India introduced to this cuisine? W

Some exciting salads Its really hot and the last thing one wants to have is a heavy meal. Salads make a good and healthy option. However, they don't have to be boring. Add fruits, nuts, meat, fish, a variety of vegetables, dress it. Make it exciting. Check out some salads. 1. Beetroot Orange Salad 2. Quinoa Tangerine Salad 3. Strawberry Mango Mesclun Salad 4. Eggplant Yogurt Salad (Baigan raita) 5. Spicy Cucumber and Carrot Salad 6. Butternut Squash and Apple Salad 7 . Lettuce Cups/ Wraps

MULTI GRAIN GARLIC NAAN#BREAD BAKERS       A healthy take on naan   As much as we all love naan with our curries, naan is made from refined flour (plain flour, all purpose flour) which is not that healthy. During the process of refining the flour, the husk and bran, the most nutritious part of the wheat grain and rich in fiber is removed. What is left the white part which is carbohydrate, without any vitamins or minerals. Bleaching chemicals are used to make the flour more white. Consuming white flour on a regular basis along with sugar is bad for the body. Weight gain, insulin resistance and diabetes may result in over consumption of white flour. In order to enjoy naan but in a more healthy way, I make it using multi grain flour. I make my own mixture at home as we don't get it in the shops here. I use about 8 different grains to make my multi grained flour. I use this flour daily for rotis and parathas. The recipe for the multi grain is given below . When Karen of Karen's Kit

Happy Chaitra Navratri     The 35th theme for #FoodieMonday #bloghop was #NavrathriSpecial.  I was in a dilemma as to how I will get this post ready in a day as I was travelling on Sunday. I've already posted many fasting recipes . I'm glad this theme was chosen as I've learnt something new. Did you know that Navratri is celebrated 5 times in a year? I didn't know that. The first is Vasanta/Chaitra Navratri (around March or April), Ashad Navratri (around June or July), Sharad Navratri (around Sept or Oct),Pausha Navratri (around Dec or Jan) and Magha Navratri (around Jan or Feb). Our family celebrates the Sharad Navratri.     Chaitra Navratri begins on the first day of the Chaitra month(this year 8th April) and ends on Ram Navmi Day. During this period Goddess Durga is worshipped, prayers are offered and people fast. During the fasting period, some take only fruit, milk and water, others fast by eating one meal only and others do not eat any grains or pulses during this

There's a leopard in my kitchen!         When Aparna suggested a leopard patch or leopard spots bread for our March challenge in We Knead to Bake group, I felt right at home. Leopards are not new to me, as I have seen them in the National Parks and at the Animals Orphanage in Nairobi. Years ago it was pretty easy to spot these animals in the parks but these days its pretty difficult because of poaching. Leopards are different from cheetahs. Leopards are nocturnal cats while cheetahs are diurnal. Leopards have shorter legs and more stockier whereas cheetahs have long legs and are slender to enable them to run fast. Now coming to the spots, cheetahs have black spots all over. Leopards have spots that are brown in the middle and black at the edges and are always in clusters, more like rosettes.                                    This monkey thought the Leopard's spots                                    Were pasted on for polka dots.                                    He asked how

Beautiful Nature           This evening just as the sun was setting, the sky was just so beautiful. Blue sky as though its daytime. I was busy in the kitchen when hubby shouted out "come quickly, look out of the window." I had to reach out for my iphone and take a photo. Nature is amazing and pleasures us with so many different colours in all shades imaginable. Its important that we take time to observe and enjoy nature. Its brings immense joy and peace to our mind and soul. When you don't stop to admire nature you miss out on the wonders of world.      Today's recipe is Farali Uttapams.  My partner Ramya of Lemon Kurry  gave me the ingredients little millet and yogurt. Our theme for March 2016 for the shhh cooking secretly was whole grains. Fellow members have come up with some really delicious, innovative recipes following this theme - right from soups to energy bites. I decided to make farali uttapams using little millet and sabudana (tapioca, sago balls). Millet