mayurisjikoni

Mum's love is never ending    People say that time heals the wound, the pain. But it really doesn't. One is never too old to need a mum. We all go on with our lives but not a single day goes by when I don't remember my mum. Missed you tonnes when my children got married, miss you when its Mother's Day, miss you when its your birthday, I don't have the heart to call dad when its your wedding anniversary, miss you when I need some advise, basically miss you every moment.      Remember how so proudly you'd bought a whole dinner set for me when I'd moved to my new home. Still use it everyday. I use and treasure your orange scarf that you had bought when you went to Japan with dad. Some your favourite saris I treasure.     My mum was not a person who liked to hug and kiss all the time, she was a practical person and really didn't know how to 'sugar coat' what needed to be said. However, that does not mean she didn't care or love us. My mum, by jus...

The saga finally ends!     I believe that certain superstitious things we do or keep do have a lot of meaning. Whenever I travel outside Mombasa, I usually take along my precious prayer beads (mala) with me. It precious because my mum had given it to me. I usually carry it in my handbag and always get the feeling that things will be alright and God is with me. However, when we went to Nairobi for our Canadian visa application, I did not carry the mala. The same happened for the subsequent two trips and I feel that all the problems we faced could have been because I broke the norm. Yes I do understand that karma was playing its part but human beings need certain assurances that all is going to be well. Its like a baby hugging its favourite teddy, a comforting blanket, a delicious thumb or like my nephew, he needed those soft labels that one has on the clothes. However, attending a Satyanarayan katha, Shiv pooja and Hanuman Chalisa all at the beginning of Shravan month did help....

Happy Father's Day Dad                     I wanted to blog the recipe for fresh tuvar (lilva)kachori yesterday, but could not do so because of internet problems. Yesterday was Father's day and I made some yummy fresh tuvar (pigeon peas) kachori as my dad simply loves farsan (indian hot snacks). Tuvar is very much in season and though my dad is not in Mombasa, I still made them with him in mind. He gets the virtual ones and we get to eat the real ones. Father's day was a bit emotional for Ajay and me. We miss dada a lot, my dad is so far away, and our kids wished Ajay, but they too are far away. Its at times like this we tend to miss our family so much. Skyping, calling and emails have made communication so much easier but we still  miss the hugs and kisses and blessings. So definitely the hot, hot kachoris was like comfort food for us. And watching Jab tak hai Jaan on dvd was even more comforting.  updated:2/06/2016 ...

Garam, garam nashto! Kachoris are an indian snack. In Rajasthan it is filled with green gram lentils and spices and is usually round and flattish. The kachoris that a lot of gujaratis make, are filled with green gram lentils, fresh peas, fresh pigeon peas or a combination of either. They are round much like a ball. The filling is put in a flour pastry and then fried. The kachoris I make is with a filling I learnt from Nunu but instead of round kachoris, I prefer making them into the crescent shape the way my mum use to. The advantage with the crescent shape is that no lumps of dough is left on top. For the round kachoris, one has to try and remove extra dough as much as you can from the top so that the kachori does not taste of raw dough. My mum loved kachoris. KACHORIS Yields about 50 pieces Filling : ½ cup yellow green gram lentils (moong dal) ½ cup water 1 cup fresh peas 2 tbsps oil 1 tsp mustard seeds (rai) 1½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera) a pinch of asafoetida (hing) ¼ tsp turmeric powd...