mayurisjikoni

Buckwheat savoury pancakes#Bread Bakers Starting a healthy year   The Bread Bakers theme for January is Ancient Grains hosted by Robin Beck of  A Shaggy Dough Story . I'll be honest, had a slight idea about ancient grains but never actually paid much attention to it. I have used some of them not knowing that they are classed as ancient grains. My research began on the internet as to what really are ancient grains(heritage grains). All the grains we know are somewhat ancient as they have existed for years. However ancient grains are ones that have not changed over the last hundred years i.e have not been hybridized. They have not been modified over the years.Ancient grains have more robust texture thriving without much pesticides and fertilizers.Some of the most common ancient grains are quinoa, millet, spelt, teff, sorghum, farro(emmer), kamut(khorasan), chia, freekeh,amaranth, buckwheat,barley, wild rice. I realised that the Indian cuisine uses quite a few of these ancient gr...

another Gujarati dish   The first time I had rasiya muthia was when my mother in law (Nunu) made them. I fell in love with the dish. Nunu would make them quite often as even my father in law loved them. The first time she made them in a huge huge pan, I was baffled. I thought why is she making so much. Little did I know till we sat to have our lunch, that rasiya muthia was a family favourite and that everyone enjoyed making a meal out of it. After Nunu left for India I tried the recipe twice but the first time, the muthias all broke up and I was left with one very thick kadhi. The second time round the muthias were very hard. I had watched Nunu make rasiya muthia so many times but never thought that it would be difficult. She had made me write down the method but I didn't have exact measurements. It was like "so you take a bit of that and a bit of this and make the muthias. So for many years I gave up on making them and would ask her to make them whenever we would visit her in...

Happy Independence Day It is said that one will come across an Indian in any part of the world so rest assured if you ever get invited to their home, you will be served some form of Indian cuisine. Where ever they may be living, Indians do become very nostalgic about their own country India, especially during Independence day. Today while I was cooking, I got to listen to a lot of patriotic songs on our local hindi station and was really amazed at the talent India has. I know of many Indians born and brought up outside India and do not have a strong connection with India. However our story is different. My husband studied in Manipal and Mangalore, I did my secondary education in Mt. Abu and my children too completed their IB in Kodaikanal. So yes, we all do have a very strong love hate relationship with India. When ever we visit India, we love the food, shopping, entertainment, people etc. After a few days the rubbish around, the traffic, the sheer number of people and smell get to us ...

healthy gujarati snack I simply love all gujarati snacks. Whenever my grandfather brought loads of doodhi (lauki) from his friend's farm or some grew in our garden, my mum would make either handvo or muthias. Muthias taste lovely with a  cup of hot spicy tea or milk. I love dunking  muthias in milk. The reason I love making muthias is because number one they are healthy as I add a lot of vegetables to it and secondly I can prepare them way ahead and just heat them up again before eating. We usually make muthias as a light dinner option. The proportions of different flours used varies from recipe to recipe and so does the amount of vegetables. I find this recipe works best for me. Its an ideal tiffin meal, carry it for lunches and picnics. Yes picnics. If mum didn't carry handvo to the drive in cinema it would be either muthias or dhebras . Yes, such a typical gujju feast, but who is complaining.  There are to types of muthias, one steamed and the other fried. The fried o...

rich and creamy  A few days ago my sister in law Rakshabhabhi sent a few pieces of the granola bars she tried out and a very tender and fresh bottle gourd. The granola bars were yummy and tasted different from mine as she had added dried apricots and dried dates (khajur) to the mixture. As for the bottle gourd, doodhi or lauki, it probably landed up at my house for a specific reason. The reason was a kofta curry. twice I had bought doodhi or lauki from the market and twice it was a bit seedy so it was used up in dangellas and theplas . This time, the lauki was really nice with no seeds and very tender. So today, I gathered rest of the ingredients and made a very delicious, rich and creamy kofta curry for lunch. Rich and creamy it was as Ajay has just informed me that he doesn't need any dinner, only fruits. An ideal dish to make when you have guests around and you need to make a vegetable with gravy. Kids will love this curry as they will never guess that its made from lauki. Upda...

masala chai, handvo, drive-in theme: Redo Old Posts BM#85 Week 4 Day 1  updated 23/02/2018      I remember my mum would make handvo (Indian savoury cake) nearly every Sunday. If we were going to Drive In to watch a movie or having a meal at home, Sunday would be handvo day. She would make it on a jiko (sigri) with more hot coal on top of the pan or sufuria. That handvo always tasted yummy and soft. Modern times and the charcoal stoves are out and in come the ovens. Not the same as the jiko one but I still make handvo as its one of my favourite snack. I never made handvo on my own when I got married as Nunu, my mother in law would bake it. She would add onion, carrots, cabbage, doodhi (bottle gourd) and so many other ingredients. My bhabhi adds cooked peas. Any version and they all taste good. Make a thin layer or a thick layer, the choice is yours. Add whatever vegetable you like. The more the merrier! Ready made handvo flour is available in most shops but I prefer t...