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…
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…
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’…
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….
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 struck me as I was throwing out a ziplock bag full of once-frozen strawberries that had now turned a bag of red liquid with…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
When my great grandmother passed away and the family started sorting her things, they found a great deal of writing—diaries full of the family’s…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
One of my favorite things in the vegetable market, to look at and shop for, is the variety of chilies/peppers. I love the hotness and…
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,…
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…
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…
Nothing can get fresher than a bunch of recently cut greens. A bundle of un-torn, fresh-as-the-morning greens tied up in string or with a blade…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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 love this time of the year because it brings in my favorite fruits. I never mourn the end of the mango season because it…
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…
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…
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…
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 Internet has been carrying a lot of buzz about Sun Tea. It seemed like something I would like to do (if and when I…
{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…
My current favorite snack is a couple of crackers dipped into or topped with something. Non fussy, easy to put together, enjoyable, and filling. That’s…
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…
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…
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…