mayurisjikoni

Happy Diwali    For most Gujaratis the Diwali celebrations began from yesterday with  Rama Ekadashi, whereby if you fast on this day, all your sins are forgiven and you attain salvation. However, in typical Gujarati style, fasting food or agyaras food is prepared. No grains or beans, onion, garlic, many vegetables are not allowed. However sabudana khichdi, moriyo, potatoes, etc are prepared.      Today is Vagh Baras or Vase Baras. On this day the cow and calf are worshipped. Vagh means debt and today all debts are cleared and new transactions are done in new ledger books after Labh Pancham. The word Vaak Baras is mispronounced as Vagh Baras. Vaak or Vani means  Goddess Saraswati, the one who blesses us with language and knowledge. On this day Goddess Saraswati is worshipped. It is believed that Goddess Lakshmi only comes to bless our homes if before we worship her, we worship Goddess Saraswati. One must worship Goddess Saraswati on this 12th dark day o...

Let's break bread internationally    What is bread? Bread is basically flour and water mixed together and then either baked, roasted or fried. Different parts of the world use different flours and different ingredients are added to make it soft, with crumbs, with flavor and to give it a required texture. Most part of the world considers some form of bread as their staple diet except for East Asia where the stable is rice and some African countries where the staple is cornmeal cooked into a porridge like consistency. We have the more famous brioche, baguettes, rye breads,naans, parathas to less heard of breads like dorayaki, kaya,lahoh. The list of different breads all over the world is endless.    For the month of September, our host Wendy who blogs at A Day in the Life on the Farm suggested we make International Breads, preferably from another country and not your own. Wendy thanks for the exciting theme. It was really diffic...

A Healthy Ramadan    The holy month of Ramadan is observed by Muslims all over the world.It is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar.Its the month when the Holy Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammed. During this month the Muslims fast for the whole month from sunrise to sunset. The holy month of Ramadan is much more about purifying the soul, focusing attention on God and about self discipline and sacrifice rather than focusing on food and drink.    After sunset the fast is broken by taking a few sips of water and a few dates during Iftar or the evening meal. Suhoor is the meal served before sunrise. This meal is usually hearty and healthy meal to provide one with energy.    Keeping in mind my intention of preparing healthy recipes (well, at least trying to) I decided not to make a rich fried snack but a healthy, replenishing, hydrating soup. Shorbat Adas is a Middle Eastern soup usually served at the beginning of Iftar...

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...

Happy Mother's Day   It's Monday (don't they come fast) and our 39th theme for      #FoodieMonday#Bloghop is #MothersDaySpecial . For this theme we were allowed to make something special for our mums or prepare one of their recipes. I chose to prepare one of my mum's all time famous and popular dish, her maida parothas. She would make these simple and yet so so so delicious parothas for breakfast. She always prepared hot ones for all of us. It was an absolute treat to have these parothas with masala tea and pickle. When she became too sick to cook, I had on occasions prepared these parothas for her and she enjoyed them.My mum mostly made Gujarati style food. Her secret was to keep it simple, using simple fresh ingredients. Part of the reason for starting my blog was to note down some of her famous recipes before they just got lost. Its a pity she never got to see how many of her recipes I have made. I've made her favourite dishes and her specialities. She loved idl...

A Persian bread       I recently joined the group We Knead to Bake . Komaj (#18) was the bread given by the Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen , the initiator of the group. Komaj is a Persian sweet savoury bread from south east Iran where cumin grows in abundance. No wonder this bread has cumin and turmeric as one of its main ingredients. When Aparna posted the recipe for the members to bake, I was initially intrigued by the combination of cumin, turmeric, dates and cardamom. I was wondering how the combination of all four would taste.      I baked the bread a few days ago and it was a big challenge. No don't get me wrong, the bread is pretty easy to make... the challenge was the continuous power cut that we are experiencing at the moment in Mombasa. Saturday the dough was proven twice as required by the recipe but I couldn't bake it. The dough went into the fridge. Sunday, I filled the dough with dates and the power went off. Waited impatiently, cursing the Keny...