mayurisjikoni

Happy New Year A simple healthy Indian style parfait    For the month of December, the Shhh Cooking Secretly group (initiated by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes ) is visiting the state of Bihar. Bihar is in the East of India bordering Nepal. The Ganges flows through this state roughly dividing it into two parts, the east and the west. The three main districts of Bihar are Mithila, Magadh and Bhojpur. Famous for Bhojpuri films, birth place of Goddess Sita (Mithila), Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment in the famous Bodh Gaya and the birth place of the Mahavir and Vasupujya Tirthankaras of Jainism.    Bihari Cuisine is mainly divided into 3 - Bhojpuri, Maithil and Magahi Cuisine. Traditionally a predominantly vegetarian cuisine because of Hindu, Jainism and Buddhist influence. However, meat dishes are common in the Mithila region.Though present day cuisine is influenced by the neighboring states, Bihar is well known for its sattu . Its used to make cool drinks in summer, as a fi

Merry Christmas Everyone   This Christmas I'm celebrating it in the Exotic Tropical Island of Bali... yes the Bali where Julia Roberts finds inner peace and balance of love in the movie Eat, Pray and Love. Spending this holiday season with my eldest son, his wife and her parents. The #124th theme Christmas for FoodieMonday/ Bloghop group has come just at the right time. Last week before traveling I baked an Easy Christmas Cake and some Cookies. So for this post was contemplating whether I should post the cake first or the cookies. The cake won and the cookies will be posted a bit later.    The last time we spent Christmas with my daughter in law and her parents was in Dubai. Family time together is fun and makes any festival more meaningful. My family is spread all over the world and for us to get together as one becomes very difficult because of jobs and number of days they can take off. For quite a while we were planning that the whole family gets together in Bali for Christmas.

Merry Berries    Berries in true sense are not the berries we all know... strawberries, mulberries, raspberries, blackberries etc. These in the botanical world are known as aggregate fruits. Berries are fruits produced from a single ovary. So in botanical sense tomatoes, cucumber, eggplants, bananas, pumpkins, melons are berries. Did you know that grapes too are berries? Yes they are.    However for our FoodieMonday/Bloghop #123rd theme, Berries we meant berries that we normally know. We had to prepare something using berries. Berries are small pulpy and often edible fruits. Before food was cultivated, berries were gathered by primitive men as a source of food, many animals feed on berries. It's probably presumed that during prehistoric time men may have sampled berries that animals consumed to supplement their diet.    Berries are considered power food, having the highest amount of antioxidants. Blackberries, goji berries and Indian Gooseberries (amla) tops the list. Antioxidants

Gingerbread and Oatmeal Bread#BreadBakers Theme: Whole Grained Holiday Breads    Whether people would like to admit it or not, December brings about an air of festivities for all. The celebrations begin with ThanksGiving and will end with New Year celebrations. Shops are decorated, Christmas sales are on, friends and relatives share decorated streets, trees, homes photos. One cannot help but get drawn to this seasonal celebration. I consider myself very lucky that I get to enjoy Diwali, Eid and Christmas. As a Hindu living in a predominantly Christian Country and a strong Muslim part of Kenya, I get drawn into celebrating all three festivals.    When Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds suggested Whole Grained Holiday Breads, I tried looking for recipes where I could use whole grains. There are many recipes out there using spelt and rye flour. I don't get either in Kenya or India. Kalyani suggested that we try and use whole grain as much as possible. I was nearly going to sit this one out

Those Tiny Spices Make All The Difference    It's really amazing how addition of small amounts of spices can make a dish taste so different. Every Indian household has it own spice (masala) box or dabba (tin) which we use for our everyday cooking. Some spices like turmeric powder and red chili powder will be standard in any spice box. The variations come with the other spices. Don't get me wrong, all the spices are used all over India but in some cuisine some spices are used in a larger quantity than others. My spice box has the typical  spices that will be found in the masala dabba of most Gujaratis. Mustard seeds(rai), Cumin seeds (jeeru), fenugreek seeds (methi), carom seeds (ajmo), turmeric powder (hardar), red chili powder (lal marchu) and coriander cumin powder (dhana jiru). The latter we tend to use in almost all the curry/ shaak dishes we prepare.    Why am I talking about spices? Well, I discovered a whole new combination of flavors when I made Santula for our Sunday

Team Love     For the past few days the weather has completely changed in Bangalore...its chilly cold and rainy. It could be due to the cyclone Ockhi that hit Kerala.Unlike homes in the western world, there is no central heating system so one has to wrap up pretty warm. I hate wearing a sweater as I find them too itchy so come evening and I wrapped myself in a shawl and topped with a thick bed sheet. After that didn't want to budge even a millimeter. Hot water and hot milk becomes one's best friend. It also meant that I didn't want to have my usual smoothie for breakfast. I wanted something hot that would warm up the body. What better breakfast treat is there than hot parathas and masala tea.      The #121st theme for FoodieMonday/Bloghop is Pushpita's recipes. Who is Pushpita? She is one of the members of the FoodieMonday group. In all we are 15 members. We usually take turns to decide on the theme. The 121st theme was to be decided by Pushpita. However, she has not b