mayurisjikoni

Kemcho? Avo maare gher. ( How are you? Welcome to my home)    March was when the Shhh Cooking Secretly group (started by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes ) ventured out to cook some Gujju (Gujarati) food. The general misconception is that Gujarati food is sweet. Yes we do use sugar and jaggery but it has to be a balance of both sweet and sour. Modern times with much health awareness, many Gujarati homes do not use sugar or jaggery in their daily cooking.     The land of Lions and Legends has countless varieties of dishes. As a Gujarati I can make out from which region the food has originated. For example kadhi made by Patel Community maybe so different in taste and texture from the one made by a Shah. Besides the slight variations, Gujaratis are so proud of their ever popular snacks. Some snacks prepared are steamed like dhokra , muthias , arvi na paan, khichdi to name a few. Khandvi batter is cooked with no oil. Oil is used to smear on the surface to spread ...

MOTHERHOOD   We live where there are numerous apartments in one compound. So no doubt we have a mixture of cultures and religions.Evening time comes alive as mothers and kids are all out walking, talking playing etc. A few days ago I overheard a conversation between young mums. As usual the talk was on how each one's child is performing in school, their manners, what they eat etc. What I noticed was that the conversation was turning into a competition as to whose child was better. On my way to the apartment I couldn't help thinking why these mums and their kids think they are in sort of a race. As our children grow up, we really don't remember if they did better than their classmates in sports or in the class. What we remember are the times we spent with them, holidays, at home, when they are sick, precious moments etc. Marks, degrees, trophies all become irrelevant. I wanted to go up to the mums and tell them to let their children live a life and not a life of comparison. ...

Something to die for I simply love dokhras and can finish loads of it by myself. Some devotees from the ISKCON temples in India came to visit us. One of the devotees was from the Juhu temple and other from the Bangalore temple.The world is small. What are the chances of meeting someone from Bangalore in Mombasa? Pretty slim. For all those who have not visited the Bangalore ISKCON temple, do so.... its really beautiful.  After much thought I decided to make some dokhras to serve to them as a snack. I am glad both the devotees loved them and commented on how soft they were. This is a never fail recipe. You may feel that its quite a laborious task but its worth all the effort. They definitely do not get stuck in your throat like most ready made dokhras do and are not overly sweet and oily. The softness and texture of this dokhra recipe is much better than the instant dokhra recipe I have blogged earlier. I make them using moong dal as Ajay is allergic to chickpeas. If you need to make...

 spongy and light Dokhras a gujarati snack, is usually made with chickpea lentils and rice which are soaked overnight, ground to a paste and then steamed. Or dokhra flour is soaked overnight in warm water and sour yogurt. However, what do you do when someone wants dokhras for snack and you don't have any soaked lentils ready or dokhra flour? You make instant dokhras like the way my sister Sapna does. Her daughter Krishna, loves dokhras especially for breakfast on Sundays. Not one to wake up early on Sundays even though we would make a lot of noise, the moment she would get a whiff of dokhras steaming, Krishna would be up ready to have breakfast. I learnt how to make instant dokhras from my little sister. Have made a slight change to the recipe. If guests call that they are popping in in sometime, this dish can be cooked up in a jiffy. I have made instant dokhras umpteen of times for Nami's friends as they all loved them. INSTANT DOKHRAS Serves about 4 as a snack For the dokhras...