10-minute Rasmalai
This is barely a recipe–and worse, it’s not the kind I really advocate considering all the canned stuff it’s made from. But. I will make…
This is barely a recipe–and worse, it’s not the kind I really advocate considering all the canned stuff it’s made from. But. I will make…
If you have a food blogger for a wife, chances are she won’t ask you get her a Louis Vuitton bag or Jimmy Choo shoes…
As grandmothers go, she fit the bill perfectly. Her softly starched, block printed or sheer woven Chanderi sarees would whisper as she walked slowly around…
A few weeks ago, Sir Knife, or Kalyan of Finely Chopped fame, announced his second Food Walk–this time, he was going to Fort. I had…
It’s really hot in this part of the world right now. Metabolisms are sluggish, and kitchens are too hot to cook anything in. I have…
I just realized I hadn’t put up any pictures from Avanee’s first birthday. Considering I write a food blog, it’s quite a shame I don’…
When a Birdy’s outlet opened up bang opposite my house, I did a little jig to celebrate easy access to decent bread. (In this area…
The original, Marathi version of this article appeared in Loksatta on November 10, 2012 and can be read here. I got married on Dassera, and…
Give me a roomful of chocolate desserts and one miniscule piece of baked lemon cheesecake, and you know what I’ll choose. That I love cheesecake…
No, I’m still not coming to terms with the fact that Indian stores do not carry ready rolled pastry. Surely you remember this rant? I’m…
Basic. Brown bread. Most times, that means bread made from unrefined, wholemeal wheat flour. In India, that usually means bread made from regular flour with…
I’m not particularly fond of chocolate. Did I ever tell you that? I don’t remember throwing tantrums for chocolate or chocolate-y things. Except once. When…
If you bake a decadent chocolate cake for my birthday, I will probably be a tad bit disappointed. I know. “80% ” means little to…
MK loves munchies—with chivdas and bhadangs topping the list. No matter how large a batch of chivda you make, it gets over in no time….
When down, eat rice. I always go by that. Nothing can comfort you like a good serving of carbohydrates. This Bisi Bele Bhath (BBB) or…
One of the foods Amma offered me when I was ill or generally low, was a fruit bun and a mug of hot Bournvita. It…
For quite some time now, I have been complaining about the lack of baking material in India–especially the complete absence of ready-to-use pastry. You know…
It’s the end of the year, and it’s time to look back. I’ve been lucky. For starters, the year opened with some very interesting offers…
Almost every corner kirana (grocery) store in Mumbai stores little plastic packs of Idli, Khaman (Yellow dhokla), Dhokla (the white kind), and Theplas, each with…
Avanee likes cookies, and thankfully, she is equally excited about savory crackers. I try to bake them as often as I can because then I…
I’m a sucker for all things seasonal–strawberries top my list because they come for only a while, and I love them. In season, there is…
My dear friend, Rhea Mitra-Dalal loves her coffee. It’s so easy to please her–a good cup of unpretentious coffee and loads of gupshup is usually…
A few days ago, a journalist from a popular daily called to ask if I could help her with some information for a story on…
A few weeks ago, when someone posted a picture of a Ciabatta loaf on one of the social media forums I follow, I was very…
I am not a big fan of dried coconut. Dessicated coconut, at least the kind we get here is probably worse—it is dry and tastes…
Every Thursday, when the family would fast for the family deity, my great grandma would make naralachi vadi or coconut fudge squares for prasad or…
The original, Marathi version of this article appeared in Loksatta on October 6, 2012. When I was a kid, a middle-aged, tall, bearded, slightly annoyed…
It’s been breads, breads, and breads for a while now. Let me start with the highlights: 1. I did a feature for BBC Good Food…
When my brother and I decided to start our recipe video channel, we were greatly influenced by food shows from abroad–the extreme close ups showing…
It’s been a while since I posted a recipe for cake. The truth is, the overload of frostings, fondants, and other forms of “perfect” cakes…
Two days ago, my nieces, Shreya and Ananya, kicked up a racket when their grandma came over to pick them up from my place. They…
There are some things I absolutely must, always have in my fridge–cilantro, coconut, yogurt, lemons, and dosa batter. If even one of these is absent,…
I thought it would be a good idea to compile all my easy bread recipes in one post. Hope you find something you’d like to…
A trip to Mahabaleshwar, a hill station in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, has become an annual tradition of sorts. Of course, it gets cool…
My local fruit vendor told me recently that he can now procure “egg-jotic” fruits for me at a day’s notice. These exotic fruits being my favourite…
Choux pastry. I made it last when I was studying Confectionery in college. That was gods knows how many decades ago. Then, last week, I…
We’re a dunk family. I love immersing long, crisp khaari biscuits or rusk toasts in masala chai or filter coffee. MK will happily let…
Every so often, I get the urge to bake something, and fast. Remember this? And this? Usually, this urge comes-a-calling when I am chasing the…
Long, long before Betty Crocker’s red boxes made their way to India, my nine-yard-saree-clad great grandmother was busy experimenting in her kitchen with a pancake…
One of the staple dishes I always insisted Amma made for my birthday was this–Eggplant in Chili Garlic Sauce. It is a decidedly Indo-Chinese dish,…
Turns out, the last post I wrote was my 100th. This little jhola of mine has been with me through so much–I started writing the…
What happens when… …1. The party is long over 2. You have a weekend getaway coming up 3. You have a fridge stocked with odds…
You know how, as children, we never liked grown-up cookies? Spiced, low sugar, bitter-ish cookies that looked so unappetizing? I mean, at least compared to…
If you’ve been following this blog lately, you’ll know that I’m participating in Aparna’s fantastic year-long festival, We Knead to Bake. Breads are my Achille’s…
I read Justin’s post on Slippery Shrimp when I came back from Kaivalyadhama, a Yoga and naturopathy farm on the outskirts of Mumbai. After a…
Shortly after the release of Crumbs!, the Centre for Science and Environment (Delhi), published a report that laid bared the fact that commercial breads contained…
I’ve always talked about how this blog gives back to me much more than I give it–over the years, I have benefited in terms of…
Blueberries are rather rare here in Mumbai. Thanks to some exotic food stores, however, we’ve been getting an occasional supply of good blueberries without having…
I did a course in Bakery and Confectionery. Did I tell you that? Long ago. Two years. Of which, we did only breads one whole…
I don’t exactly remember when I first tasted lemon curd although it could easily have been at Radha Kaku’s Radha kaku was my great grand…
When we were children, WIT (Women’s India Trust) would rent our school’s prayer hall for their exhibitions. On sale were beautifully block printed aprons, bedspreads,…
I am not one to write posts about a year gone by. Reflections are lessons of a personal nature, and resolutions are best kept secret,…
Here’s the latest on the Pavlova scene! These were made this last strawberry season: Since the TV debut, a lot of people have been writing…
It all started with a craving for Tiramisu. I had gathered all the ingredients the day before–went all the way to the supermarket to buy…
So. I did a workshop this Saturday. It was my first real workshop (I mean I charged fees) after this dry run. 10 women, 3…
Apart from the fact that Naarali Poornima is the day Coastal Maharashtra celebrates the coconut and that fisherfolk offer coconuts to the sea on this…
I have always loved cheesecake—baked or chilled, I have always loved the sharpness of this otherwise delicately flavored dessert. However, I have, at the same…
When I was little, and there were no supermarkets around, we would buy our stock of weekly fruit (which was usually a lot) from Amitabh…
I use peanut butter for cooking; but somehow, I can’t bring myself to slap it in between slices of bread. MK likes his bit of…
There are some things that you must have when you’re entertaining. For me, it is this salsa. It is a ridiculously easy thing that you…
Once Diwali is over and the ingredients for your Christmas cake have been soaked in copious amounts of alcohol, you are left with huge amounts…
I’ve got a lot of feedback on my Baguette post–readers telling me they loved the recipe and that they are slowly warming up to the…
I share my mum’s love for Roulades. Swiss Rolls, as they are known in bakeries here. When we were kids, my mum would make a…
I love upside downs. I think they make for pretty tea cakes, and they look gorgeous with very little effort. I’m always on the lookout…
It was in the dark space under the main staircase. The chapel was right next to it but who cared about god other than during…
MK can’t stand my fisherwoman. I don’t blame him. She’s kind of…insistent. Unfortunately, when she comes in every other morning, I’m usually attending to Avanee’s…
Being born into a Maharashtrian Brahmin family usually means eating chincha-gulachi aamti (tamarind and jaggery based lentils) at least thrice a week. We have tongues…
This is something I first made a year ago, at least and have been making and teaching a lot ever since. It’s a simple bread…
Way back in the 1970s, my maternal grandmother picked up a copy of one of Tarla Dalal’s first cookbooks—The Delights of Vegetarian Cooking. A lot…
On a busy day, I turn to eggs. You know that from here, don’t you? I can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and…
My mum insists she hates cooking. She’s an artist, a dreamer. She says she’s rather spend a day at the art gallery or reading a…
This is a perfect cake or those sudden cake and chocolate cravings. It is a lovely moist cake with the aromas of orange coming through…
Every Thursday (like many other Indians on many other days of the week), my staunchly non-vegetarian, whiskey-loving grandfather would decide to please the gods and…
I generally prefer local fruits over imported ones. I cannot tell you how much juicier and tastier our Indian plums are over the “Chinese” ones…
These past few days, I’ve seen a jaw too many drop promptly to the floor every time I say anything about baking bread at home….
It’s been a while since I posted a recipe video. A few days ago, we finally got down to shooting a casual one as we…
Every year, we celebrate Christmas with as much (if not more) enthusiasm than we celebrate Diwali. We put up the tree and do gifts. I…
I hope you’re having a lovely Diwali–surrounded by loved ones and so drunk on happiness that the diyas and lanterns are all dimmed by the…
I know, this makes it two rice recipes back-to-back. But it’s one of those things–those modes one tends to fly into. You know, like when…
I treasure my utensils and kitchen appliances with more love than my wedding ring. And if I were to choose between my Kerala-style clay pots…
Remember this? A lot of people wrote in and oohed and aahed at the possibility of making pita bread at home. And because my determination…
When I first started cooking, my mum introduced me to this recipe and I made it for every little party that happened. I made a…
The last time I wrote about Undhiyu (albeit with a different spelling), I promised you better pictures. This season, I am back with something even…
I love this time of the year because it brings in my favorite fruits. I never mourn the end of the mango season because it…
After all these years of having grandmas scream down our ears that seasonal, local produce is good for the body, we now have bomb-charging nutritionists…
As kids, my brother and I would satisfy mid-meal hunger pangs by pulling out a juicy red, plump tomato from the fridge and eating it…
Finding fresh herbs in the suburbs may have become easier than before, but supply continues to be unreliable. So, when one does discover an innocent…
The original, Marathi version of this article appeared in Loksatta on December 22, 2012 and can be viewed here. Mumbai has never really had a…
The market is flooded with color (who needed Holi and its painful issues with water and chemical color?). There are greens in a zillion shades,…
I’d been trying to clear out my fridge for the past three days with a good success rate in preparation for the Amritsar-Dharamshala trip. (Yes,…
When the first real showers of the Mumbai monsoon finally strike, I go into one-dish-meal mode. I cannot, cannot, cannot bring myself to make or…
Early summer is when the cashew trees bear fruit. And nut. All along the rich, fertile coastline of India, cashew trees are laden with a…
{Scroll down for the giveaway winners!} All of last year, I spent in wrapping some projects up, writing my book, being pregnant, and then of…
As a foodie, any excuse for cooking is welcome–one goes all out of the way to cook the best recipes, confident of the oohing and…
I have always advocated freshly cooked food. If you open my freezer or pantry cupboard, you will not find even one tray of ready to…
Every day, I have at least one e-mail or comment asking for a cake recipe. Turns out, I post cake pictures often enough to prompt…
As I watch the rain crashing down from my little suburban window and sip on lemongrass tea (freshly picked lemongrass from a rain washed window),…
I’m just back from a quick weekend getaway in Jodhpur, where I was invited to the launch of a book on the Temple Food of…
Every year, when the first tart green raw mangoes make their appearance in the market, I start planning the dishes I want to make. I…
The original, Marathi version of this article appeared in Loksatta on September 1, 2012 and can be read here. In the swanky, heavily air conditioned…
Last month, I wrote my first Marathi food article for a leading Marathi daily, Loksatta. For those of you who wrote in and called with…
This article appeared in Chaturanga, the magazine section of Loksatta on June 2, 2012. View the original article here. Iced Kaleidoscopes If you grew up…
The original, Marathi version of this article appeared in Loksatta on Saturday, August 4, 2012. Click here to read the Marathi version. We never bought…
For many weeks now, I have been looking at this Cupcake goddess’s blog in sincere awe. The course I took in bakery and confectionery back…
Every year, a day before the Hindu month of Shravan, Mrs. B takes the day off, no matter what (she takes a lot of other…
First, a big, big thank you to everyone that’s subscribed to our YouTube channel and offered us help, advice, props, ideas, and humour. What started…
Amma learned how to make dinner rolls from a Tarla Dalal book. They used to be pretty but a tad yeasty–thanks to the substandard domestic…