mayurisjikoni

A quick dessert fix Theme: No Bake Desserts BM#78 Week 3 Day 2    I must admit its all these theme based cooking that is motivating me to either prepare bookmarked recipes or try out new recipes. I've come across so many mug cakes but never really bothered to try them out. For the No Bake Desserts theme, we are suppose to make a dessert which we would normally bake in a convectional oven but not bake it in an oven...confused?? Basically no using a convectional oven.     Taking advantage of the abundance of berries available in the markets in Montreal, I decided to make a mug cake in the microwave oven instead of using the convectional oven. I must admit I still love my 'properly' baked cakes but as a quick dessert treat... and I mean really quick, mug cakes are not a bad option at all. Even my sone was surprised that I could bake a cake so quickly. Last week when we went to the supermarket, I was looking for brownies to prepare my other no bake dessert and ...

Spread the Fragrance     Did you that flowers have been used world wide as a part of cooking? Usage of edible flowers can be traced all the way back to the Roman times, its a major part in the Middle Eastern, Indian Sub Continent and Chinese culture. Use of edible flowers became a vogue during the Victorian period usually used to decorate cakes and desserts.         Flower culinary is fast coming back into 'fashion' with high end flowers and fine dining restaurants are now using fresh flowers right from making starters, in soups and salads to main dishes and desserts. And not forgetting infused teas and drinks. The options are endless.         Growing up I'd seen my mum and aunts use rose petals to decorate shrikhand, kheer and gulab jamun. We would pluck the flowers of the fennel plant and eat them as they tasted like fennel seeds.  Rose jam(gulkand), rose essence and fresh petals are used in a lot of Indian sweets, biryanis a...

BULOCHKI#BREADBAKERS   Appetite comes at mealtime - Russian Proverb      #Breadbakers theme for the month of May 2016 was decided by Deepti of Baking Yummies . She suggested that we bake rolls. It took me a whole week to decide whether I wanted to bake some sweet or savoury rolls. My sweet tooth ruled and I decided to bake sweet rolls, Bulochki. While most bakeries use the term rolls and buns as they wish, the general rule is that rolls are usually stuffed or rolled with a sweet or savoury filling whereas buns are generally plain and not filled. However, there are no strict rules. Hard crusted breads are included in rolls like French rolls or Kaiser rolls whereas Hot Cross Buns are classified as buns.         Bulochki is a Russian sweet filled roll. Usually they are filled with apple, sometimes cherries, apricots,poppy seeds or other fruits. The apple can be stewed, made into butter or jam and then filled in the rolls before baking. I decided to f...

Baklava Bread Rolls #Bread Bakers Happy Diwali   Diwali or Deepawali literally means a row of lights. For Hindus, it is one of the most important festival of the year. It is a time filled with light, love and joy. Rows of diya were lit after Lord Ram returned from his 14 year exile. Diwali has many significant meanings for the Hindus.In the true sense Diwali celebration lasts for 5 days beginning from Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj day.  Diwali means triumph over evil, light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance.Lighting diyas signifies light, a gift from God. Homes are cleaned, decorated, new clothes are bought, delicious food is prepared all to celebrate Diwali. Dhanteras is the first day of Diwali when when families and friends get together to worship the Goddess of Wealth Laxmi. They not only ask for material but spiritual wealth, love, harmony and humility. Second day is Naraka Chaturdashi or Kali Chaudas. It is believed that the demon Narakasura was killed by Lord Krishna on ...

Its time to jam     One of my hubby's friend owns a farm. He often comes to supply the surplus produce to the greengrocer that I usually go to if I don't go to the market. He gives me either vegetables or papayas whenever I go there. Last week he insisted that I take 3 huge papayas. They all ripened at the same time. Now there is so much papaya one can eat. So the next option was smoothie or a jam. Smoothie didn't sound too exciting, especially when the tummy is full. I am glad I made the jam. Its so easy to make it. I should stop buying the local jam as there is no fruit in it, its too sweet, full of colour and citric acid taste. I used less sugar, but it tastes just right. You may wonder why I have added cumin powder. Papaya for our family means papaya, a pinch of salt on top and a liberal helping of the cumin powder... yum! I have used a recycled jar. I usually keep all the glass jars. So I have a variety of them, coffee jars, olive jars, etc. I just dip the clean jar in...