mayurisjikoni

Healthy curry Theme: Healthy Weekday Lunches BM#77 Week 4 Day 1    Most of us love our rich gravies and curries. To prepare them we add a bit more oil or ghee so that the masalas fry well, we add cream, we add nuts etc etc. No doubt they turn out yummy but having a rich curry everyday for lunch or dinner is not healthy. However, that does not stop me from making the curries. I try and use very little oil, go easy on the spices and replace the cream with nut meals or coconut milk.     For the Healthy Weekday Lunches theme at Blogging Marathon I decided to make Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry. This curry is light on the stomach, healthy and one can carry it work along with some rice, paratha or rotis. My daughter loves to carry curries like these to work... tasty and light.     Did you know that sweet potato is ever so healthy? They are a good source of Vitamins A, B6. C and D.  Vitamin B6 helps reduce chemical homocysteine in our bodies. Homoc...

Drought--A national disaster          2016 did not bring enough rains to many parts of Kenya. Fast forward to 2017 and out of 47 counties 23 which are arid or semi arid parts of Kenya are facing drought. Rivers have dried up, animals and humans are dying without food. A National and International appeal has been sent out to help these areas with food and water. NGOs, Charity organisations, Private companies all have sent out foodstuff, but that is not enough. If the long rains do not arrive by April, then many more will die without food.                   Nakumatt has put a huge box near its exit if anyone would wish to buy some foodstuff to be donated. Every time I pass the box its empty! People cannot afford to buy foodstuff to give away as they themselves are barely making ends meet with the high cost of basic food stuff. The basic 2 kg maizemeal packet which is required to make the staple food ugali or sima is sel...

something different   What are brownies? No I'm not talking about the girl guides who are between the ages of seven to ten and called Brownies. I wonder if they still have brownies and girl guides in schools? I was a brownie and a girl guide when I was in school. No, my post is not on girl guides and brownies, but the brownies from the cookery world.  Brownies is a baked flat dessert that became popular in US and Canada during the first half of the 20th century.Depending on the density, it can be cakey or fudgy. They are made with chocolate, either melted chocolate or powder or both with nuts and sometimes dried fruits added to it. You can have a brownie either with tea, coffee or even milk or with a generous helping of ice cream on top to make it really 'evil'. So what is the main difference between a chocolate cake and a brownie. Well, simple... cakes have a baking agent to make the texture appear crumbly but most brownies have none or very little baking agents to make th...

Its time for garbas and dandiyas      Navratri is back and will be over before we know it. Its time for fasting, prayers and dancing (garbas and dandiyas). Many   Hindu families abstain from meat and alcohol during this period. Some fast by having only one meal without garlic or onions. Some fast omitting pulses and grains from their diet. Some have only milk and fruit. I don't fast all 9 days but do fast on the 8th day of Navratri. Nav means nine and ratri means night. During these 9 nights and 10 days the Hindus worship the nine forms of Goddess Durga. The nine forms are Durga, Bhadrakali, Amba, Annapurna, Sarvamangala,Bhairavi, Chandika, Lalita and Bhavani. Different states of India celebrate Navratri in different ways. In the northern part of India navratras are usually celebrated by holding pooja and singing bhajans(devotional songs). In Gujarat and Mumbai, its usually celebrated with garbas and dandiyas. Durga Ma is worshipped for all 9 days in the eastern part...

 Magic box cooking   Travelling is exciting but what I don't like is all the preparations I have to make before the travelling. I leave for India on Sunday. Excited that I will spend some time with my daughter. However, all these little chores that I have to get through before we travel is stressful. Clear the fridge, make sure lentils are stored away properly, must pack up all the different flours and store them in the fridge, check out the masalas, make sure no perishable stuff is left in the kitchen otherwise on my return will find a stinking kitchen! So the last few days are actually like the magic box they offer to the contestants on Masterchef.  Odd ingredients have to be put together to prepare lunch or dinner. I get so tempted to buy other ingredients but actually have to stop myself. The minute Esther or Amena (our daily veggie ladies) ring the bell, I get a wee bit excited but quickly have to come back to reality. To top it up today my househelp Julius reminds m...

yippeee got it right!         Last month Priya challenged the Home bakers Challenge group to quick breads. Carrot and zucchini, chocolate and an apple one. Chocolate and apple ones were struck off the list immediately as I have already baked those ones. So the choice was between the carrot zucchini one and the sweet potato one. Since I have not made many dishes using sweet potato I wanted to bake the sweet potato bread. Got all the ingredients ready and baked the bread. After one hour, the bread was still raw from inside. The top was beginning to brown too much. I covered with foil and lower the temperature slightly and baked it further for 15 minutes. The skewer came out clean, so I thought its all done. I let it cool for 1 hour. When I sliced it to take photos, much to my horror the texture was just too dense and it tasted as though I have steamed flour. Couldn't even see a tiny hole in the texture. Felt so disappointed and left the bread in the kitchen and sat do...