mayurisjikoni

Blank mind    Today is one of those days when I have no idea what I want to write about. Usually before I go into the recipe, I have something to write about, family events, news, thoughts etc. There is a lot happening in this world but I have no inclination to write about it.        So today I'll just straight go to the recipe. #FoodieMonday #Bloghop team decided on a hot or cold rice recipe as our 81st theme . Taking rice as the main ingredient, we were suppose to make a piping hot dish or a cold dish. I didn't want to make anything piping hot as its just too hot here in Mombasa. So for cold I had options of kheer, phirni, rice pudding. My family didn't want anything sweet so I decided to make a cold rice salad, full of vegetables, fruits and nuts. This was our lunch, just the right sort of meal to beat the heat. Surprisingly, after having the salad we didn't feel lethargic because of the rice. I guess because the quantity of rice used is less and the salad had more l

Guest No.4 on the Blog   My guest this week is my charming niece Pooja. Young, energetic, caring and always smiling. Pooja loves helping people, it just comes very naturally to her. Born in Kenya, partially brought up in Kenya and then in US, she is pretty much a very down to earth sort of girl. She would come to spend her holidays in Mombasa when she was very young. She loved to be around my mother in law or me when we worked in the kitchen.It seemed that she was observing how we were preparing the food. Trips to the beach was like an ultimate dream come true for her. She simply loved the sand and the sea. I remember as a toddler she was not a fussy eater and loved exploring her environment. After they moved to US, we were not able to spend much time together but keep in touch through emails, phone calls and messages. Recently she attended my daughter's, it was like my second daughter arriving. Any job that needed any attention I just dropped it in her lap and she took care of it.

Cooking from a cookbook     The 80th theme for #FoodieMonday #Bloghop is Cookbook Cooking . Now I certainly do not have a shortage of cookery books, they line a whole shelf in the kitchen. I've left some in Bangalore and have a few in Montreal. So when my friends from FoodieMonday decided on cookbook cooking, I didn't know which one to choose. I could have played it safe and selected my favourite Tarla Dalal. However,I remembered the cookbook that my son and daughter in law had given to me as a Christmas present 2 years ago. I'd drooled over the pictures and wowed all the recipes, closed it and put it on the shelf.         So I thought its time to dust it and actually make something from that book. Which book you may ask? Well its a thick and heavy vibrant vegetable cooking from London's Ottolenghi called Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi . Vibrant it definitely is. He uses such exotic combinations to create drool worthy, exotic, healthy concoctions. Yotam Ottolenghi is

GUEST NO.3 ON THE BLOG          My 3rd guest on the blog is my middle foi (fupi, paternal aunt) Manjulaben. I was really surprised when her daughter in law Heni said 'mum's going to send a recipe for your blog.' When I heard that I was surprised because I thought the old generation would not really bother to measure the ingredients and do all the writing. Ok she got her daughter in law to write down the recipe as she narrated it to her. After the surprised moment, I was grinning from ear to ear because my foi or Manju aunty as we all call her is such a sport.          My memories about her...well when she was living in Mombasa, every school holiday she would come down to Nairobi with my cousins. I remember she had this mustard sweater with black design on it. The moment she would arrive into Nairobi (back then people travelled by train), she would put on her famous sweater. She claimed that she was feeling cold. Whether it was raining or shining she had her sweater on. Dece

Kabalagala (Ugandan Pancakes)#BreadBakers So many different types its unbelievable    I didn't have any theme in mind when I volunteered to host the month of February for the Bread Bakers group.As Christmas got over and the year was ending I knew I had to think of a theme pretty soon. I went back to the rules for participants and there the word pancake kept staring at me. The only pancakes I know are the usual Indian ones like dosas, uttappams, chilas etc and of course the typical fluffy American style ones dripping with melted butter and honey or maple syrup. Did a bit of research (what would we do without Google?) and hey presto the world opened up to me with a variety of pancakes I'd never heard of. So I challenged the members to the theme of pancakes from different parts of the world, to venture out to pancakes they've not made before.       I am so grateful that the members took time to research and have come up with different pancakes. Check the list below and please