Warm chicken corn soup stills my soul as rain gushes in waterfalls down the woody roots of the banyan tree outside my balcony. Few things offer succour and sustenance like a bowl of homemade chicken soup, during these days of incessant downpours. This bowl, is a lemon and chilli-infused, Mexican-style chicken soup rather than the ubiquitous Chinese creamed corn version that we see dished out in melamine bowls by street…
If you think a healthy dessert is an oxymoron, this post is for you. I’m always looking for mildly sweet, relatively low-cal desserts; probably because I don’t have a hankering for the saccharine. Don’t get me wrong, I savour chocolates and cheesecake as much as the next person but prefer just a kiss of sugar and a smidgen of cream to an overload of both. The mango season is winding…
Trying a traditional kimchi recipe given to me by a Korean friend was long overdue. For the 3 years that we spent living in the same city, she would drop off a generous box of kimchi ever so often. We were hooked on the stuff. So when we bade each other farewell, she bartered her kimchi recipe for kulfi and fish moily recipes from me. …
Shakshuka – rolls off the tongue nicely, doesn’t it? There’s much to relish in the name as well as in the dish – softly set eggs nesting in a saucy, savoury-sweet nest with a smidgen of heat .Originally from Tunisia, but popular all over North and West Africa as well as some parts of the Middle East, this breakfast dish has caught the fancy of the world. You’ll find many…
Mango season is upon us and this Almond Mango Curd Cake represents my intention to indulge in all things mango. Buttery, with a delicate crumb mimicking a pound cake, this almond mango cake is not too sweet and is baked with generous spoonfuls of mango curd heaped on top. Homey with a rustic soul, it’s nothing fancy but it is one of the most pleasing cakes I’ve baked. It just…
Meaty. That’s how we all like our burgers. Even the veggie burger has to have that deeply savoury, umami quality of meat to be truly satisfying. The challenge of making a flavour-packed veggie burger for my meat-loving boys made me experiment with everything from tofu to a variety of beans and whole grains. And, in the process I discovered that veggie burgers can be incredibly versatile; even more so than…
A shrimp salad came to mind when I spotted a box of glistening green tomatoes at the vegetable store. Don’t know why, but the idea of fat, crispy shrimps nestling in a big bowl loaded with a tumble of fresh, emerald tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers and fragrant herbs set off my imagination. Then I thought, a big bowl of that doused with an Asian-style dressing, all salty and lemony would make…
What does a hummus recipe have in common with high school exams? When exam fever hits my 16-year old and he’s buried in his books all day, I need to stock up on healthy snacks that he can attack at any time morning, noon or night when he takes his refuelling breaks. And I’ve found that a couple or more bowls of different hummus in the fridge goes a long…
Consider a warm bowl of spiced breakfast quinoa on a chilly winter morning. It reaches inside you and touches your soul, warmly hugs you and makes you smile at the world. Quinoa,the “gold of the Incas” is all the rage and what they call a ‘pseudocereal’ – a non-grain masquerading as one. A chai-spiced quinoa lightly tumbled in honey is an easy enough recipe to put together in time for…
Eggplant, aubergine, brinjal, whatever the name, my boys don’t dig it. Not really. I’ve tried eggplant recipes of all kinds; fried, baked, grilled, roasted, they eat it but reluctantly. All this changed when I tried Maggie Zhu’s Chinese-style eggplant recipe from her beautiful site https://omnivorescookbook.com Her fried eggplants in a syrupy soy sauce inspired me to try my own version of the eggplant recipe. …