2-minute Microwave Chocolate Mug Cake
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…
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…
Baking in India is a challenge. It is highly upsetting to walk into the best of markets and not find all the gorgeous bakeware and…
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…
Avanee Khandekar, born April 28, 2010–baked to perfection.
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…
Few things go well with coffee–any form of fresh bread slathered with butter, khaari biscuits (an Indian flaky pastry), and cake–no frills cake. So when…
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…
I had been reading about the Arusuvai chain on Indian blogs for a while and watching everything like a silent passerby when I realized I…
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…
Phew. This one took a lot out of me. Two hexagon-shaped chocolate walnut cakes, one cut into triangles and glued to the other, the whole…
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…
Ever since this little thing came out of the oven, I have been dreaming of practicing things from this baker superwoman’s blog. One of the…
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…
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to the Mumbai launch of Café Coffee Day’s new premium coffee, Mysore Royal. I have…
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…
Writing a book is a long, laborious and very deeply isolated exercise. I have been at it for a while now (and that’s an understatement)…
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…
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…
Harini is one of the first food bloggers I met in Mumbai, and we instantly became friends. It’s not very difficult to make friends with Harini–she’s…
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…
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…
The ever-so-kind gadget guru dad has gifted me a brand new, kickass camera. The Canon 500D. Everything I wanted and more. The obsession with photography…
I had never picked up samosa strips from the supermarket’s frozen food section, shuddering at the thought of deep frying. I’m kinda slow that way….
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…
If you’ve been following this blog long enough, you’d know that I don’t do too many (if at all) promotions. I’m making an exception this…
I usually soak fruit for my fruitcake the moment we enter into the new year, just days after I make cake for Christmas. The fruit…
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’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 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…
My father is a simple man. He has few needs—three mobile phones, two laptops, and god knows how many cameras and music players; a good…
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,…
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…
Having a 7-month-old who wants to master her standing and walking skills every second of her waking time can leave you with little time to…
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…
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…
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…
Is it just me or is the weather really horrible? It makes me want to do warm, fuzzy things–things like orange cake. So that’s what…
When AK went off to film school a few weeks ago, I cried. Well, almost. I had a lump in my throat that called upon…
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…
One of my favorite tea-time treats is the classic pineapple upside-down cake. Place a platter containing the de-molded cake next to a steaming hot cup…
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…
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…
I think Marathi cookery shows are a disgrace. The sets are ghastly. The props are mediocre. The photography is ridiculous. The cooks are downright untalented….
It’s that part of the year again, when the stone fruits have gone and the berries have yet to come. There’s pears and apples galore…
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…
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…
When I saw this video on Nags’ blog, I knew that I had found the easiest way to convince my filmmaker brother to make a…
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…
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…
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…
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….
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…
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…
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…
As a result of diligently following the chef’s recipe for the Pineapple upside-down cake, I was left with a good dollop of the butter and…
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,…
Arguably the sweetest of all my bros-in-law, PDP got engaged to PAJ last weekend in an elegant ceremony with family and friends. When I first…
{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…
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…
In the 8 years that I have been blogging, I have worn many hats—I have taught cooking, manufactured food products for sale, designed food products…
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…
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…
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…
There are some days when you wake up in the morning thinking of cheesecake. Well, at least some days when you’re pregnant. Several hours into…
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…
I was so fascinated by the painting that Ashok did on his wall at home that I talked him into painting one for me this…
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…
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…