mayurisjikoni

Just the right time to have ice cream    It has been really hot for the past few days in Montreal. Its humid and just the kind of weather all Canadians enjoy. People are out walking, jogging, having picnics, swimming, sailing, lazing in the sun. Hubby and I want to be indoors as the sun is too much for us. My dad is here, his first visit to Canada. He is from London, so he too is enjoying the really sunny hot days. When I run for the shade, he thinks I'm mad. So I had to remind him that I get more than enough sun back home in Mombasa, so I'd rather enjoy the cool or cold weather.    Anyway, its the right theme that Sarah Ellis has chosen for this months Fantastical Food Fight . The theme is Ice Cream. I went through so many options to make the ice cream for this theme, but the abundance of berries just kept on beckoning me. A couple of weeks ago, we saw this documentary on veganism. I'm not totally convinced to give up my dairy products...love cheese and yogurt too m...

Easy dessert Theme: No Bake Desserts BM#78 Week 3 Day 1     I love making easy desserts. It usually means I get to serve it in a glass and its just a matter of putting a few ingredients together to make a satisfying dessert. Srivalli, the starter of Blogging Marathon suggested that for this theme we make desserts that normally we would bake but instead to beat the heat, make them in such a manner that we don't have to bake them in a convectional oven.      When I decided to choose the theme, the first baked dessert that came to my mind was apple crumble or as its known apple crisp. Basically, chopped apples mixed with a bit of butter, sugar and cinnamon are layered in a baking dish. Then its topped with a mixture of plain flour, butter, oats and cinnamon. The dessert is baked. At the bottom you have the soft apples and the top is crispy, crunchy. Its usually served with ice cream...a hot dessert with cold ice cream. I love this dessert.      So I ...

Summer time   It was in year 1 that I learnt that there were different seasons. Growing up in Nairobi, for us it was always hot during the day, cold at night and the occasional showers in April and October. That was pretty much what the weather was back then. Words like Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn were all new to me, seasons not experienced as yet. Postcards and pictures in books made them all seem like such refreshing and exotic seasons. When my aunt and cousins went off to UK in the 70s its then we would hear from them how windy the autumns were, umbrellas flying away and how their hands would get ice cold shovelling the snow. Mombasa's hot weather was the hottest we would ever experience when we went there for our holidays in December.    My first experience of a really scorching hot Indian Summer was when I was 12. That too in the really hot city of Ahmedabad and in May! It was unbearably hot for a girl who comes from a cool climate of Nairobi. My skin would bur...

It's sooo cooling   For the month of March, the Shhh Cooking Secretly group decided to make #SummerCoolers as summer is already here. I hear its really really hot in India. It's hot in Mombasa too and slaving over a hot stove is becoming a very sweaty task.     I am grateful that my partner Shobana Vijay gave me such cool ingredients, watermelon and mint. So no boiling milk or making custard or anything of that sort on the stove. All I needed was a blender and the cold fridge. Years back when I had gone for a movie in Ahmedabad with my guardians I had tasted a soda float for the first time. It was ice cream served in what was then available Gold Spot. Remember the so orangy and sickly sweet drink! Well, back then I loved it perhaps because I tasted it for the first time, or because it was a cool satisfying drink for the really hot May month... I don't know. After that I tasted a coke float, which my kaki loved and I wasn't too huge a fan of.      ...

Bura na mano holi hai    Its a bit early to post Holi recipes but I've just join a new  group #Foodiemonday #bloghop. Every Monday we post a recipe based on the chosen theme. The 31st theme is #Fusionthandairecipes. Its really really hot in Mombasa and the only thing I could think of was something extra extra cold. I decided to make kulfi with my thandai masala. Taking photos was not easy as the kulfi was melting too fast.               Holi, a festival of colors is celebrated by Hindus worldwide. In India its mainly celebrated by throwing, applying, drenching friends and families with different colour powders and coloured water. The true reason for celebrating is lost in all the colour throwing, drinking and partying. In reality, the eve of Holi also known as Holika is when an effigy of Holika is burnt to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. Prahlad, a devotee of Lord Vishnu did not burn in the fire while his aunt did(who ha...

salvaged    The Shhhh cooking secretly challenge was on break for a few months.The group was revived this month and I am glad. I enjoy cooking with the secret ingredients given by a selected partner. So how does it work? Well every month you are paired with a fellow member. We give each other 2 ingredients to work with. No one else in the group knows the ingredients except the partners. If we are ready with the recipe before the 16th of the month, we post the picture on the group Facebook page. Other members begin guessing what the 2 ingredients are. Its really fun because we can be left scratching our heads or we may guess them easily. Usually it is difficult. The reveal date is 16th of every month. That's when we post our recipes. Sometimes we miss the most obvious ingredient. Everyone comes up with innovative dishes right from juices to desserts. This month my partner was Niloufer of Kitchen Samraj  and she gave me lemongrass and ginger as my two ingredients. I immedi...