Baguette | Mushroom and Bell Pepper Bruschetta| Black and White Wednesday No. 6
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…
Basic Brown Bread
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…
Bhadang
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….
Bisi bele bhath: Sambar rice
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…
Cabbage, Orange, and Spring Onion Salad
My mum and I are salad freaks—we love a good salad any time of the day. This is a salad that she’d make back when…
Cheat’s Haandvo Recipe (Baked!)
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…
Chivda
MK loves his munchies, as you know from here. It’s been a while since I made any. And because we’re just recovering from a tiff,…
Creamed Corn (Maharashtrian style)
When we were kids, the only kind of corn we got in the markets was the white corn. Like a string of the best pearls,…
Digestive aftermint
When it rains, I feel like eating. Something hot, something carb-heavy, something very inappropriate. Like spicy batata vadas and chhole-bature, like cheesy gratins and smoky…
Dosas: South Indian Rice and Lentil Crepes
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,…
Eggless wholewheat pancakes
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…
Fried rice from leftovers
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…
Hot and Sweet Veggies with Sticky Brown Rice
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…
How to make Ghee
Ghee. That quintessential Indian fat that must make an appearance as a cooking medium or condiment at every authentic Indian meal. I don’t know what…
In Defense of Yeast
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…
Maharashtrian Goda Masala Recipe
My great-grandmother was the world’s best cook. I know everyone says this about their mums and grans and aunts and other members of the maternal…
Mango chutney
My maternal grandmother always had some chutney or other in her refrigerator. It’s a tradition I try to maintain. Not half because I like to…
Metkoot Recipe (and a Metkoot-based Salad)
My daughter has a stomach infection. Why? Because she’s teething at the speed of light and is tempted to help herself to whatever she finds…
Olive, Basil, Sundried Tomato and Garlic Bread
No story this time. Just the simple desire to bake a good home-style bread. Ingredients: 225 gms. all purpose flour 2 tsp. dried yeast 1…
Pan-grilled prawns
I don’t own a barbecue. I don’t even own one of those fancy stove-top grills. What I do have, however, is my trusty old cast…
Pan-grilled Tandoori Chicken and Spinach Raita
I was craving for some tandoori flavors but the thought of all the grease was scaring me. With cuz Ashish’s wedding barely a week away,…
Peach and Cherry Cake Squares
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…
Pineapple, Tomato and Onion Salsa
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…
Pita bread and Hummus
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…
Pull-apart bread rolls
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…
Quesadilla
When I got home yesterday, hungry and tired, I wanted to sink my teeth in something substantial and satisfying. I had asked Mrs. B to…
Recipe video: How to make Grilled Chicken
It’s October, and the air conditioners and fans are working overtime here in Mumbai. With the change in weather, there have been a few changes…
Recipe video: How to make Pita Bread
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…
Recipe video: How to make Tomato Saar or Tempered Tomato and Coconut Soup
No matter what part of the world you grew up in, I’m sure a teeny bit of your childhood memory store is occupied by tomato…
Recipe Video: Sol Kadhi
Of the few Marathi-Goan dishes that appeal to a universal audience, is Sol Kadhi. It is typically served with indulgent fried seafood and other spicy…
Recipe video:How to make Nut chikki/Brittle
Lonavla. That tiny spot on Maharashtra’s map that looks like a piece of broken chikki. The entire town is perennially wafting with the aroma of…
Roasted Baby Carrots with Sea Salt and Thyme
Many, many years ago, on a trip to Mahabaleshwar, I ate baby carrots for the first time. Slender little things with their greens still on….
Roasted corn on the cob
If you’re from Bombay, you’re probably also up right now, wondering what happened to the city. Wondering why, out of the blue, our beloved city…
Saffron and Cardamom Lemonade
On Ranade Road in Dadar, there once sat a man who sold lemonade. Limbu Sarbat, actually—the Maharashtrian version of lemonade. On a crowded corner of…
Sesame Cookies (and memories of Sankranti)
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…
Sharing mediocrity
Over the past few days, I’ve had some not-so-successful kitchen sessions. Edible; yummy even, but not exactly blog show offs. Nevertheless, I enjoyed making them…
Sun Tea with Mandarins and Citron
The Internet has been carrying a lot of buzz about Sun Tea. It seemed like something I would like to do (if and when I…
Surmai curry: Kingfish in spicy coconut curry
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,…
Tagine-inspired Chicken with Root Vegetables and Saffron Couscous
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…
Trikaya Farm visit
On the drive back home from the Trikaya farm in Talegaon, I felt deprived. Of fruit and vegetables. Not that I live in a desert….
Vaatli Daal
It would be incorrect for me to say that some of the traditional Indian recipes I have here are of tremendous archival value. They’re not–they’re…
Vegan, Gluten-free Granola Bars
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…
Veggie wraps
It’s funny how the day I decide to write my second ever blog post also happens to be the day Mrs. B has taken off…
Wholewheat and Bran Bread with Sundried Tomato, Garlic, and Rosemary
Sometimes, in the summer, I like to slip into the shoes of those old aunts and grannies who would climb up to their terraces in…
Window Garden and Black and White Wednesday No. 4
Like most people in Bombay, who have no access to backyards or dainty vegetable patches, I live my herb garden dream through my wrought iron…