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 ...

Merry Berries    Berries in true sense are not the berries we all know... strawberries, mulberries, raspberries, blackberries etc. These in the botanical world are known as aggregate fruits. Berries are fruits produced from a single ovary. So in botanical sense tomatoes, cucumber, eggplants, bananas, pumpkins, melons are berries. Did you know that grapes too are berries? Yes they are.    However for our FoodieMonday/Bloghop #123rd theme, Berries we meant berries that we normally know. We had to prepare something using berries. Berries are small pulpy and often edible fruits. Before food was cultivated, berries were gathered by primitive men as a source of food, many animals feed on berries. It's probably presumed that during prehistoric time men may have sampled berries that animals consumed to supplement their diet.    Berries are considered power food, having the highest amount of antioxidants. Blackberries, goji berries and Indian Gooseberries (amla) to...

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...

MEGA BLOGGING MARATHON -SEPT 2017 #80TH BLOGGING MARATHON THEME: PROTEIN RICH DISHES DAY:13    Plastic is becoming a mega concern world over as the land and oceans are getting littered with this 'we love to use it so much' product. Low production cost, easy to manufacture, versatile,impervious to water, easily moldable, has made this product so popular world over that its used right from pins heads to space ships. Its replaced wood, metal, glass, ceramic, paper, stone, leather etc. However, misuse of plastic has caused it to become as one of the major environmental threats to the world. Its alarming that minute particles are making their way to our food. Both land and sea animals are ingesting plastic and this in turn is landing up on our plates.    You might be wondering why am I talking about plastic here instead of food. Well, as some of my ardent followers know, my blog is not just for recipes but its also where I share news, my experiences ...

MEGA BLOGGING MARATHON -SEPT 2017 #80TH BLOGGING MARATHON THEME: PROTEIN RICH DISHES DAY:3    The whole world jokes about how Gujaratis need to carry their food wherever they travel  in the world. Some joke that one would probably find theplas, dokhlas, muthias, fafda, patra, etc even on the moon if a Gujju lived there. Well, okay I don't carry these things with me when I travel but I do take the handvo flour to Canada or Bangalore. This time round I forgot to carry some handvo flour  to Montreal. Soaking the rice and lentils overnight and then making handvo is easy. But coming to muthia, I required just a small amount and I really didn't want to go through the whole process of soaking the rice and dal, drying it and then grinding it. And also all I could think of is how to make muthias protein rich. Obviously the big bag of green mung or moong kept of beckoning me.    When I soaked the whole moong beans in warm water, I seriously had no id...