mayurisjikoni

What is Scoville Heat Unit or Index?    Time is flying! It's already nearly the end of the month.End of the month usually means a recipe for the Shhh Cooking Secretly group .This group was started by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes. I, along with Amrita of The Food Samaritan help Priya to run it. Ever since I joined the group in 2014, I've enjoyed being a part of it. Lots of changes have taken place, some old members have left, new ones have joined. Back then partners gave each other any two random ingredients, my first one being barley and broccoli. Nowadays we give partners two ingredients according to the decided theme. This month the theme was #stuffed.Though we know all participants will have stuffed recipes we're impatient to know what each one was given to work on. My partner for the month of May was Priya of   Priya's Versatile Recipes . She initially gave me zucchini as one of the ingredients and can you believe it, I couldn't find any zucchini! Aft...

Anytime snack time       What is a snack? A snack is any sort of small amount of food eaten in between meals. It can be fruits, veggies sticks, to fried bhajias, baked goodies or even sandwiches. It all depends on individual tastes and requirements. When we were growing up, my mum would give us a glass of milk and leftover rotis with chevdo. We would put the chevdo in the middle of the roti, roll it up and it was the yummiest snack ever. In our house, bateta vada, bhajias, kachoris, samosas were mostly served at dinner time with parathas and vegetable curries.              Once a week we would walk with my mum to the Westlands shopping area.It was a day when we would go to the supermarket, go to the veggie market and a visit to the famous Oven Door Bakery was a must to buy some cookies, breads and some light yellow coloured rusks. I used to love those rusks. Back then we  were not allowed to drink tea or coffee but we would dunk the...

A big green berry       Yes you read the title correct. Botanically speaking an avocado is a berry and thus classified as a fruit. It is a single berry fruit. There is much confusion as to whether it is a summer fruit or spring and nowadays its available in winter too. However, in Kenya where we don't really have our climate divided into 3 or 4 seasons like winter, spring, summer and autumn, avocados are available mostly throughout the year. Some countries classify it as a summer fruit. So as far as I'm concerned summer fruit or not I decided to use it for our 93rd theme on FoodieMonday Bloghop group. The theme is Summer Fruits suggested by our group member Pushpita. It certainly isn't hot here as we're into the rainy season.          Basically the only locally grown fruits available in abundance during this season are watermelon, banana, papaya and avocados. Didn't want to do another watermelon recipe, the papaya is still not ripe and banana.......

Precious Cherries     For the month of May,  the Fantastical Food Fight theme was Cherry Cobbler. As I read that, I thought here's another month I'll have to sit out (last month was BLT and being a vegetarian B was certainly out for me). I asked if I could use glaced cherries and the reply was yes. However, wasn't feeling too happy about using them. So I waited practically till the last minute still deciding what to make. The charming thing about this group is that you don't have to participate monthly. Last Saturday I went to the local vegetable shop and I saw a whole big carton of cherries smiling at me. I asked the price and nearly fainted. Cherries are not tropical and so they are imported from South Africa or where ever! These days it baffles me to see Parathas from Philippines (I thought that was a rice eating nation), Oats from Turkey and just lets not get into what the Chinese are selling to Africa.   Getting back to the precious cherries, I shopped for the...

Guest No.10          I was supposed to post this last week but the whole schedule got messed up. I had some posts that had to b live on certain dates (that's what happens when you're in too many groups!) and problems with the internet. It rained a lot last week and many places in Mombasa were flooded.           My 10th Guest on the blog, its my sister in law Heni. She's married to my cousin Hiren. His mum was my 3rd guest. She had prepared Tangy Creamy Potato Curry . I've not had much opportunity to spend time with Heni, but whatever time we spend together at my dad's home, their home or an outing, its  fun. When I first met Heni, she appeared to me as a very friendly, caring, loving and warmhearted person. She is a fun loving person, always smiling and ready to help any time. She is a great cook herself and my hubby loves her non vegetarian curries.She taught me how to make farali theplas . Along with my brother's wife, they b...

Where is my dahi?     Dahi is the hindi/gujarati word for yogurt. When my kids were growing up, yogurt was a part of their meal every single day. Plain yogurt or made into lassi but mostly good old plain home made yogurt . Dollops of the thick creamy goodness was eaten with dals, rice, khichdi and vegetable curry.If anything was slightly chilli for the kids a dollop of yogurt took care of it. While the boys were not too fussed about yogurt or lassi, my daughter on the other hand would throw a tantrum if she didn't have her bowl of yogurt for lunch.She'd cry out "where is my dahi?" if we didn't serve it with her lunch.    As you may have guessed by now, the #FoodieMonday #Bloghop 92nd theme is yogurt. Preethi our group member requested us to make anything using yogurt.         Yogurt is known to have many health benefits.  Its easier to digest than milk, its rich in calcium, it has high levels of Vitamin B especially Vitamin B12.  I...