mayurisjikoni

Antipasti          Italian meals are usually served with a starter. Starters or antipasti (singular antipasto) usually consist of cured meat, pickled vegetables, mushrooms, cheeses, olives, peperocini, pickled meats etc. These are suppose to be colourful, attractive and usually should be able to change the mood of  people or gathering who will dine together. Anti means before and pastus means meal. Therefore its the starter or appetizer. Antipasti is usually served in individual plates or as bite size where diners pick it and enjoy it. It can be cold or warm or hot.                  There is much confusion between the crostini and the bruschetta. Crostini are usually made from small bread slices like an Italian baguette.The bread is toasted and the topping are more rich.                 Bruschetta is usually served on more rustic Italian bread slices that are slightly ...

Healthy Seeds    Our 85th theme for #FoodieMonday#Bloghop group is #Nigellaseeds . Nigella seeds, kalonji, black cumin, balck caraway,fennel flower,charnushka, onion seeds, Roman Coriander as they are called taste like a cross between onion, oregano and black pepper. It however has no relation to onion, cumin, fennel or caraway. They are seeds from the plant Nigella Sativa.Its widely used by the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East including Turkey. Nigella seeds are roasted and ground and used in curries, vegetable preparations. As whole seeds they are used in pickles, flat breads and  other breads. Use the roasted seeds in salads, sprinkle them on egg dishes, add a few seeds to relishes or chutneys. The famous panch phoran spice mixture from Bengal is a mixture of kalonji, fennel, cumin, fenugreek and mustard. Goes well with cheese dishes or cheese breads. I have tasted a cheese and nigella bagel and the earthy, slightly pungent taste complimented the cheese taste p...

Summer Treat  When the Shhh Cooking Secretly Group decided on the theme Summer Treats at the beginning of June, it was pretty hot, not only in the Indian Sub Continent but also in Mombasa. A few days later and the weather changed. I hear its raining in many parts of India, France was flooded and though we don't have any rain, its become a little cooler here. My partner Anu Kollon, blogger at Ente Thattukada  gave me orange and cucumber as my secret ingredients.Check out her blog for some lovely Kerala dishes. The options with those two ingredients were to make a smoothie, ice lolly or a healthy salad. I decided to make the latter. I served the salad for dinner with home made flat bread. Absolutely delicious and healthy. I love adding freshly roasted and ground cumin seed powder to oranges. I think is a lovely tasteful combination. I used cumin powder in the dressing and also sprinkled a bit more on the salad.    Yesterday was Canada Day. We decided to make a day trip...

Toothache :(     Since mid January, I have been having some teeth problems. Can I blame my 50+ age, approaching menopause or genes? Since childhood I have been pretty regular with brushing, flossing, mouth washes etc. By the way after all these years of bombarding people with adverts of the benefits of mouth washes, some health gurus claim that mouth washes are actually bad for our teeth. Whatever, its just given me an excuse to stop buying those expensive, coloured, gum burning liquids and go back to the salted water gargle. So during my umpteen visit to the dentist, I came across a recipe of bread with feta,olives and basil in a home living magazine. Mentally noted what the filling was all about and went to sit on the dental chair. Yesterday, I thought I must bake the bread before I forget about it. In spite of the extremely hot weather, I kneaded the dough for  12 minutes non stop.... yes good workout for the arms (though my arms still appear as though I am a sumo wres...

beat the heat        Salads are much welcome as a light meal or for lunch during the hot season. Hot weather means yummy sweet watermelons and cooling cucumbers. I love combining both cooling agents to create a delicious, filling and friendly on the tummy salad. Balsamic vinegar brings out the flavour of the watermelon and the feta cheese compliments the cucumber perfectly. I read in one of those health blogs that when one eats watermelon after a meal, it makes you burp but eaten on an empty stomach it prevents burps. The reason given is that other foods and fruit in the stomach is a bad idea as it creates gas. Well, how true this is I don't know, but having this salad as a light dinner was perfect for me. Ideal for hot humid days. Go on try this recipe out. updated 8/12/2015 WATERMELON CUCUMBER SALAD For 2 as a light meal otherwise for 4 1 cup watermelon cubes 1 cup slices of cucumber ¼ cup thin slices of white onion 10 to 12 olives, slice them ½ cup feta cheese c...

healthy, healthy, healthy It has been a while since I have posted a salad recipe. I am at the moment in the process of closing down my house for 6 weeks. For all those who have been following my blog, remember all the hassle we went through to get our Canadian visa, we finally are travelling on Saturday. Since Mombasa is a hot and humid place, things do not stay too good and fresh for a long time, so things like powdered spices, flours etc have to be stored in the fridge. While going through my kitchen cupboards I came across quinoa (keenwah) which I must have bought a while ago to try. Quinoa is not grain but edible seeds which have originated from the Andean region. I know of two types of quinoa, red and white. I used the white one. Quinoa is rich in amino acids and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iron. Its cooked like rice and used as a salad, in place of rice and as a base for many dishes. Any type of vegetable, fruit and a dressing can be added to cooked quinoa to make an ex...