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...

Making it after eons        Keri nu shaak was an all time family favourite when I was growing up. My mum would make a huge huge amount of this curry and we all would relish it with some parathas. We all would fight for the mango seed (or gotalo as its called in Gujarati). It was fun to suck out all the gravy from the mango seed and then dip it again in the thick gravy and suck on it again. Its one of the simplest and yet the most tastiest curry. Is it childhood nostalgia or the curry itself, don't know but I love it. It goes well with parathas and even khichdi. Every time mango season would start, family members would pester my mum to make it and we were a huge family. Some people add sun dried vadi to it, some add onion and garlic.       I prefer it just the way my mum made it. My daughter loves it too and had requested me put up the recipe on my blog. I forgot about it till the next theme on #FoodieMonday#Bloghop was decided. Our 51st theme is #...

Happy Mother's Day   It's Monday (don't they come fast) and our 39th theme for      #FoodieMonday#Bloghop is #MothersDaySpecial . For this theme we were allowed to make something special for our mums or prepare one of their recipes. I chose to prepare one of my mum's all time famous and popular dish, her maida parothas. She would make these simple and yet so so so delicious parothas for breakfast. She always prepared hot ones for all of us. It was an absolute treat to have these parothas with masala tea and pickle. When she became too sick to cook, I had on occasions prepared these parothas for her and she enjoyed them.My mum mostly made Gujarati style food. Her secret was to keep it simple, using simple fresh ingredients. Part of the reason for starting my blog was to note down some of her famous recipes before they just got lost. Its a pity she never got to see how many of her recipes I have made. I've made her favourite dishes and her specialities. She loved idl...

very simple      Nairobi Show for many years was a big event for our family. Every year we would have a stall there displaying the huge train layout and selling mainly toys and hobby stuff like trains, balsam wood, airplane kits,scalextric, meccano, playpex etc. During this time, whoever looked after the stall could not come home for lunch so my mum would pack lunch from home. It had to be something simple yet filling. One of the things I remember she would pack was a simple vegetable soup with very simple cucumber and tomato sandwiches. At that time there were no fancy spreads or hardly anyone in our family had heard of mayonnaise. It was buttered bread, with cucumber and tomato slices, along with this no fuss simple soup. Over the years I have made this soup whenever anyone is recovering from an illness or as a simple quick meal. Mum didn't add any fancy herbs or stock but it was the most yummiest soup. I have tried out this soup adding leek, zucchini, mushrooms, cabbag...

Mother's day         My mum didn't know how to make pasta at all. She probably had never heard of pasta, spaghetti, etc when she was growing up in the village of Koyali near Vadodara. But how she managed to make this pasta dish for us still baffles me. I remember reading the instructions for cooking the pasta for her but the rest she did on her own. There is nothing italian about this dish yet it was the yummiest pasta I've ever had. My mum would make this dish for my brother, sister and me on most Saturdays. Come to think of it, it was probably her way of treating us to something special as every Saturday my dad and her would go to watch an Indian movie and we would be left at home with our grandmother. There is no name for this dish so I take the liberty of naming it mum's buitoni. Buitoni because at that time that was the only brand of pasta we could buy from Uchumi. There was no Nakumatt then and no endless companies making or selling pasta in Kenya. My mum would...

remembering my mum      My mum was a very good cook where traditional gujarati dishes were concerned. I can't remember her ever wanting to try out the new western dishes like pizza, tacos, burgers etc. I think she left that to my kaki and me to try out during the weekends. I will at a later stage include recipes that I learnt from my mum but for today I have to mention her most famous dish.... vaghareli rotli. My mum made the best vaghareli rotli. This  simple dish is a popular meal in our household. All of us have tried to make it like mum's but there is still something missing. I think its simply the love that she added. Everyone from us siblings to my cousins loved it when my mum made it. Vaghareli rotli can be a snack time meal tasting yummy when sprinkled with a bit of chevdo, bhusu or sev or it can be a wholesome but light dinner meal. The following recipe  is for 2 as a meal, for 4 as a snack and God save you if you have to share it with my brother, Nimes...