mayurisjikoni

It's sooo cooling   For the month of March, the Shhh Cooking Secretly group decided to make #SummerCoolers as summer is already here. I hear its really really hot in India. It's hot in Mombasa too and slaving over a hot stove is becoming a very sweaty task.     I am grateful that my partner Shobana Vijay gave me such cool ingredients, watermelon and mint. So no boiling milk or making custard or anything of that sort on the stove. All I needed was a blender and the cold fridge. Years back when I had gone for a movie in Ahmedabad with my guardians I had tasted a soda float for the first time. It was ice cream served in what was then available Gold Spot. Remember the so orangy and sickly sweet drink! Well, back then I loved it perhaps because I tasted it for the first time, or because it was a cool satisfying drink for the really hot May month... I don't know. After that I tasted a coke float, which my kaki loved and I wasn't too huge a fan of.      ...

GUEST NO.6 ON THE BLOG     This week my guest on the blog is my sister in law (hubby's sister) Varaharupa. When I got married, she was a vision of a modern ISKCON devotee with short hair cut, loved dressing up and never saw her without any jewellery. Things changed when she got married, it was only saris and her jewellery. After my marriage, obviously friends and families of my in laws would invite us for dinner or lunch to their place. As most newly weds would want to, I'd want to wear my saris but didn't know how to drape them well. Varaha would help me to drape them.             Her stay in Canada and Vrindavan temples meant that she would meet a lot of foreign devotees who brought with them foreign cuisine, the vegetarian version. When she would come home to visit, she'd want to try some of the dishes and some of them we had tasted for the first time.One such variety she had made was piroshki but with a veg filling. It was so yummy and we...

Healthy Seeds    Our 85th theme for #FoodieMonday#Bloghop group is #Nigellaseeds . Nigella seeds, kalonji, black cumin, balck caraway,fennel flower,charnushka, onion seeds, Roman Coriander as they are called taste like a cross between onion, oregano and black pepper. It however has no relation to onion, cumin, fennel or caraway. They are seeds from the plant Nigella Sativa.Its widely used by the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East including Turkey. Nigella seeds are roasted and ground and used in curries, vegetable preparations. As whole seeds they are used in pickles, flat breads and  other breads. Use the roasted seeds in salads, sprinkle them on egg dishes, add a few seeds to relishes or chutneys. The famous panch phoran spice mixture from Bengal is a mixture of kalonji, fennel, cumin, fenugreek and mustard. Goes well with cheese dishes or cheese breads. I have tasted a cheese and nigella bagel and the earthy, slightly pungent taste complimented the cheese taste p...

Drought--A national disaster          2016 did not bring enough rains to many parts of Kenya. Fast forward to 2017 and out of 47 counties 23 which are arid or semi arid parts of Kenya are facing drought. Rivers have dried up, animals and humans are dying without food. A National and International appeal has been sent out to help these areas with food and water. NGOs, Charity organisations, Private companies all have sent out foodstuff, but that is not enough. If the long rains do not arrive by April, then many more will die without food.                   Nakumatt has put a huge box near its exit if anyone would wish to buy some foodstuff to be donated. Every time I pass the box its empty! People cannot afford to buy foodstuff to give away as they themselves are barely making ends meet with the high cost of basic food stuff. The basic 2 kg maizemeal packet which is required to make the staple food ugali or sima is sel...

GUEST NO. 5 ON THE BLOG   I'm trying to feature my family and friends on my blog weekly. However, last week I couldn't feature any guest as I was down with a bad flu and fever. Still getting over the nasty cough, its very persistent.      This week my guest is my sister in law Arti (my brother's wife). When I asked her to write a recipe for the blog, her immediate reaction was 'ahahhaa that's not me Mayuriben that is something you do! I don't measure and cook, I don't know what to make' and the excuses kept on coming. I suggested that she should make her famous cranberry pickle but immediately realized that its not cranberry season. (shhh we'll get her to give us the recipe when cranberries are in season ;)) Anyway I left it up to her to decide what she would like to make and of course measure (she hates that). After a few weeks, my whatsapp is busy "toinking" away. I check my mobile to see who is persistently sending me messages and its Ar...

Peanut and Fruit Salad(Chaat) #Fantastical Food Fight Trying to eat healthy        When you're a food blogger and food is your passion, its pretty difficult to stay away from all those tempting recipes out there in the cyber world and cook books. I get tempted to try out so many recipes and the more calories it has the temptation level is that much higher!          Recently I joined this group called Fantastical Food Fight . I got tempted to join after I saw the absolutely tempting cookies made by Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories . After I oooooogled at the photos till I was drooling, she suggested that we should check out what other members of the group had made. I scrolled down and recipes had me salivating.      Just when I joined, the theme for March happen to be PB&J (peanut butter and jelly).And I thought oh no here goes out the healthy eating... but as I read on further, Sarah Ellis (host of the group) mentioned that...

IRISH FRECKLE BREAD#BREADBAKERS HAPPY ST.PATRICK'S DAY       Isn't it wonderful to be part of cooking groups where one can learn not only about cooking about also about different cultures and festivals. So,though I've heard about St. Patrick's Day and know that the Irish celebrate it, I've till today never really bothered to find out what the festival is all about. So there I was sitting at the computer and asking Mr. Google all the hows and whys of this festival.      So my understanding is that St.Patrick's Day is celebrated by the Irish world over on 17th March every year.St.Patrick the patron saint of Ireland died on 17th March.He was not Irish but came from Britain. He was kidnapped by Irish raiders and lived in captivity for 6 years. He went back to Britain and came back to Ireland to preach Christianity.What began as a religious feast day in the 17th Century has evolved into a celebration of the Irish culture globally with parades, special music...