mayurisjikoni

Dusting The Cobwebs Off The Cookbooks   When Poonam, who blogs at Annapurna  suggested Cook from a Cook Book as our #135 theme for FoodieMonday/Bloghop group, it was definitely time to get those books off the shelf. As fellow member Amrita commented, it gives us the opportunity to do some serious reading. I have so many cookbooks but majority are by Tarla Dalal. I was so tempted to just open one of the books and cook from her collection.However, I had to deviate from my comfort zone.     As I was going through the books, I came across Hamlyn All Colour Cook Book. How could I forget this book? It was one of the first cookbooks I had  from my family which had International dishes. At 18 I would stare at the beautiful pictures (modern cookbooks have better photos these days) of the dishes prepared. Some names I had heard for the first time and some were familiar. Can you imagine the joy of owning an International Cook Book back then? When I got married, the bo...

A simple dish of boiled pasta can be made into a tasty, delicious, satisfying meal with the addition of different sauces. FoodieMonday/Bloghop group members made 9 different lip smacking pasta sauces for the their #134th theme which was PASTA SAUCES. Click on the name of the pasta sauce and it will take you directly to the recipe. Spinach Sauce  Spinach Basil Almond Pesto Basil Pumpkin Seed Pesto and Tomato Sauce Roasted Pepper Sauce Three Cheese Sauce Lentil Bolognese Coriander Mint and Cashew Nut Pesto Marinara Sauce Alfredo Sauce

Exotic Name, Exotic Dish    Diwali week is ever so busy in general, but more so for me this year as my maid decided not to come to work and to top it up came down with a bad flu and fever. So I nearly sat out this theme. What am I talking about? Its the FoodieMonday/Bloghop day. The #115th theme - Awadhi Cuisine was decided by Kriti who blogs at Krispy Kadhai.      I was really in no mood or didn't have the energy to really do any research on that cuisine. However, eat we all must whether sick or not and I had a huge slab of paneer staring at me whenever I opened the fridge. So, do you get those days when with much vigor and power you want to tackle all the jobs from top to bottom and from side to side? Well, I had one of those days...with a runny nose and a heavy head, tackled the house work, cooked lunch and baked a batch of cookies to give away as presents. I finally managed to turn the slab of paneer into an exotic sabji. Paneer Kundan Kaliya...just the nam...

Guest No.9        My guest this week is my sister in law Arti. She is my hubby's sister and the youngest.Yes we have two Arti's in the family... my brother's wife and my hubby's sister. When I got married, Arti was very thin.I thought that if somebody huffed and puffed and blew her away, she would probably fly away.  Her friends became my friends as I didn't know anyone in Mombasa(except for my aunt's family). At social gatherings she would make sure that I was not left alone. We didn't spend that many years together as after my marriage she went off to UK to complete her beautician course. She came back and that's when her training in the kitchen began under my mother in law. At breakfast time Nunu would explain to her how the dish she was supposed to cook is prepared. I too would have my ears open.               When I had my twins, she was a great help to me. My daughter Nami would cry in the evenings and the only perso...

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...

Vasant Panchami/Basant Panchami/ Saraswati Puja Om Hreem Saraswatyai Namah Saraswati Ma.(source Google)      It is believed that the celebration of this auspicious day which falls on the 5th day of the Magh month (Gregorian calendar month of February) marks the beginning of spring season. Punjab region celebrates this festival by flying kites.The mustard plants begins to flower during this time, creating stretches of fields into bright yellow carpets.The blooming mustard plants symbolise youth, freshness, procreation,love, change and life itself. Its a day when people wear yellow clothes and celebrate with sweets that are yellow in colour. In Uttarkashi, its a farmers festival. Doors of homes are decorated with yellow flowers to welcome spring and the sowing season. In Bihar people wears yellow clothes and yellow tilaks of turmeric on their foreheads and perform prayers early in the morning to the Sun, Ganga and  the Earth.     At this juncture I must share...