mayurisjikoni

It's great spending time with my son      It's a week since we arrived in Montreal. The weather is really hot. Good for the people of Montreal, after the long winter. People sun tanning in their balconies, in the parks, children playing under the water fountains, pet owners out with their pets, cold beers, barbecues even in the smallest balconies, alfresco dining, beautiful flowers, greenery, street festivals, people riding on their bikes, walking, hiking, an endless list of ice cream flavours. The whole city is bustling with activities. For me its just too hot (I get too much sun anyway in Mombasa). So I really don't want to get out of the house till after 4pm when the heat is a bit bearable. However, sometimes we have to get out when the sun is beating on our heads. I then walk around with ice cold water. Talking about heat, couldn't believe that the chocolate was melting so fast in my hands when I was preparing the chocolate medallions.        Our 4...

Flatbreads are fun to bake     Our We Knead to Bake group has taken a new turn. Aparna, the starter of the group, suggested that members take turns to decide on the type of bread the rest can bake. I hosted the #40th bake. Barbari had been on my long list of bakes for a long time. Since we hadn't baked a flatbread for eons,I decided to challenge the group with Iranian Barbari Bread.        Barbari or barberi means our fathers ‘of or related to the Barbars' in Persian language. The Barbars live in the Khorasan region, near the eastern border of Iran. The word Barbar means uncivilized, foreign, barbarian) . The Barbars hated being referred to by such a name and Reza Shah granted them the name Khavari (Easterners). However, the name of the bread remains. It’s a very popular bread baked in Iran. It’s made in traditional brick ovens. The bakers make it about 70-80cm long and 30-45 cm wide. It’s usually served with tea and a soft cheese called lighvan cheese whi...

Belated Happy Father's Day     In between airports and rushing around like zombies with red shot eyes, I didn't get to wish my dad on Father's Day. I belong to the generation that takes hours to figure out how to access the free wifi at airports and by the time I do, its time to board the flight. There was a lot drama involved in catching our flight to Montreal. Our flight was on Friday 17 June to Doha and from there to Montreal. So the whole schedule was stuck in my head as leaving Friday night and reaching Montreal on Sat afternoon. By Thur night we are packed, planned Friday lunch in such a way that I would use up the last bits of veggies left. Thursday night after midnight my hubby's phone rings. Its one of those basic Nokia ones so the longer it rings the louder it gets. Hubby was snoring away to dreamland, and unable to sleep,I was reading. Initially, I just wanted to ignore the call and then several unpleasant thoughts flashed in a second in my mind... is it from...

Summer Treat  When the Shhh Cooking Secretly Group decided on the theme Summer Treats at the beginning of June, it was pretty hot, not only in the Indian Sub Continent but also in Mombasa. A few days later and the weather changed. I hear its raining in many parts of India, France was flooded and though we don't have any rain, its become a little cooler here. My partner Anu Kollon, blogger at Ente Thattukada  gave me orange and cucumber as my secret ingredients.Check out her blog for some lovely Kerala dishes. The options with those two ingredients were to make a smoothie, ice lolly or a healthy salad. I decided to make the latter. I served the salad for dinner with home made flat bread. Absolutely delicious and healthy. I love adding freshly roasted and ground cumin seed powder to oranges. I think is a lovely tasteful combination. I used cumin powder in the dressing and also sprinkled a bit more on the salad.    Yesterday was Canada Day. We decided to make a day trip...

Mango and Passion Fruit Yeast Bread#BreadBakers A very tropical bread       For the month of June 2016, Mireille Roc of Schizo Chef challenged the members of Bread Bakers to use any stone fruit as a part of their baking in any form---juice, dried fruit, fresh fruit, jam etc. I love following Mireille's blog as she comes up with recipes from all over the world.       Living in Kenya means we don't get many of the usual stone fruits like cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines etc. However, we get mango and coconut which are stone fruits or drupes. Stone fruits or drupes are fruits which have their outer fleshy skin(exocarp) and the flesh(mesocarp) surrounding a shell, pit or stone which has a hardened endocarp with a seed inside. Did you know that almonds, pistachios, jujube, coffee, dates are also drupes.      I decided to bake a yeast bread using mango, passion fruit, coconut and cashew nuts. These ingredients are considered so trop...