mayurisjikoni

Happy Valentine's Day    What is Valentine's Day without roses, chocolates and all things cute? Hope hubby is reading this and gets a hint;). People could be selling Valentine's paraphernalia right under his nose and he'd still not get the hint. Sighhhh! Perhaps I should treat myself to roses.     Getting down to today's theme for FoodieMonday/Bloghop group , we unanimously decided on Valentine Rose as our 131st theme . For this theme one could either prepare something that has rose flavor or which is in the shape of a rose. I really love rose flavor so I chose to make a healthy but romantic dessert. Though I served to hubby dear a few days before Valentine's, he thoroughly enjoyed the early treat. That means I will either make something else for Valentine's Day, repeat this recipe, or perhaps like him just pretend that Valentine's Day does not exist.     Roses and other edible flowers have been used for centuries in cooking. Many Indian sweet dis...

It's an Honour    Last Saturday was an exciting day for me. I was installed as the 19th President of my very hardworking and active Club, Lions Club of Mombasa Bahari. Since the Club was chartered, I have been a part of it. First as a spouse and then as a Lion. The best part was that one of my good friend Lion Tasneem Dar, performed the ceremony of installing me along with my board members. My best friend Daxa and Jitu were there to share the milestone in my life along with my brother in law and sister in law. The surprise moment was when my hubby Ajay, sang a song for me. I was feeling shy, happy and loved all at the same time. Was I nervous? Yes, had butterflies in my stomach the whole afternoon. Its a big responsibility to run such a fine Club, but then we have wonderful members, helpful and active. Right from medical to educational to donations, some activity or the other takes places practically every month. The Club climbs to greater heights under each President. For my...

my 400th recipe    Hot weather means cold treats. Celebration time means sweet treat. Pamper me time means indulgence. Usually one cannot indulge in a curry or roti or rice. It usually means a sweet treat.... chocolates, ice cream, dessert etc. Whatever the reason, sweets and desserts are always a welcome treat. This recipe didn't get blogged when it was suppose to but better late than never. I made the mousse when I was writing out the wedding invitations. Instead of a typical indian sweet treat like ladoos, barfi etc I decided to make a mousse with a bit of all the goodness of typical Indian spices. This gave me the opportunity to try the recipe I had bookmarked for ages, Tarla Dalal's thandai mousse.   There definitely was a good reason why this recipe never got blogged before I went off to London for the wedding preparation. The reason is very clear today.    Also this is my 400th recipe on my blog and its fitting that I honour my favourite Indian cook,chef ...

light and refreshing    The weather is pretty weird at the moment, sometimes rain, sometimes hot and most times very humid. However, I should not complain too much as this weather is nothing compared the Typhoon Haiyan that has hit Philippines. People are pleading for basic needs and that is water and food.     I was entertaining family over the weekend for lunch and wanted to make a light dessert. I decided to fish through my 'to try recipes' file and it seemed that the watermelon was blinking, flashing, popping ...whatever you call it in front of my eyes. Watermelons are available in abundance and are naturally sweet. I was somewhat pleased with the result. Next time perhaps I will add mint or fresh ginger for added flavour. But overall its a quick, easy and totally vegetarian dessert. No eggs, no gelatin. However, if you do want to use gelatin, read the tips at the bottom. WATERMELON MOUSSE  Serves 8 to 10 4½ cups watermelon juice 6 tbsp agar agar flakes...

Pina colada in Spanish means strained pineapple. Pina colada is a cocktail made from pineapple juice, coconut cream and rum. Pina Colada is very famous in Puerto Rico. After the famous cocktail many versions have been formulated in the form of a drink, dessert, salad or cake. I am not going to blog the recipe for the cocktail but a dessert.  My nephew came down from Nairobi on Sunday and I wanted to make some dessert for him. I really didn't want to wait in the long queue at Nakumatt for the ingredients so decided to figure out if I could make something from the ingredients I already had in my kitchen. So out came a tin of pineapple titbits, coconut milk and jelly. That reminded me that I was suppose to try out the recipe for the pina colada mousse eons ago. That saved me a trip to the supermarket and early Sunday morning I got busy making the dessert and lemon poppy seed muffins . Feeling pretty pleased with myself for getting up so early on a Sunday, after all the preparation, I ...

a pink treat I got tempted to buy some pomegranate last week but they were not sweet and the inner part of all those nice dark red pearls was a bit hard. Hubby dear refused to have it with his cereal in the mornings as he said the hard bit was getting stuck in between his teeth. So there was no question of using it up in salads too. I juiced the seeds thinking that I will mix it with something else to make a nice smoothie. The smoothie never happened but instead I made a nice refreshing mousse. So when will I get another batch of sour and hard pomegranates? An excellent dessert for pure vegetarians as I have used agar agar instead of gelatine. If you get the pale pink variety, then the mousse turns out a very pale colour, almost colorless. To add more appeal, add a tbsp of rose syrup to it to get the light pink colour and a slightly different taste. I prefer using the dabur rose syrup as it has a rose flavour and is not just sugar and colour like the local variety we get here. However,...