Sanding down chairs last week, I discovered exquisitely-grained wood beneath layers of paint and decided to keep them unpainted. I also chose to retain weather-beaten wooden beams instead of plastic beams (masquerading as wood), that promised to give my garden benches a low-maintenance makeover. The contractor was disappointed with my choices but thinking about them later, it struck me that in both cases, I chose the wood for its honesty.…
Grasses stand tall and cosmos congregate alongside our car, waving summer farewell. On the road, we drive past farm stalls beckoning us with their green roofs and white porches. Crates of avocado, mango and squash conspire with homemade honey and fresh cheese to lure us in. Not surprisingly, I succumb. And loaded up with a couple of golden butternut squash, a boxful of avos and a block of cheese, continue…
Bread and wine, cheese and fruit, a picnic under the trees, bare feet, lush grass, eyes squinting at the sun, a slow and happy drowsiness spreading through me as I see the world with new, hopeful and mellow eyes. Sometimes I manage to slip away, other times I inhabit my daydreams and often when the real world gets heavy, cooking the food to suit my reveries is escape enough.…
Baking is therapy. It cures heartbreak, stress, loneliness, homesickness and many more blue-hued maladies. Like Panadol for your heart, its quick, foolproof and offers deliciousness as a welcome side-effect. Right from choosing a recipe to measuring the ingredients, mixing them, waiting for their transformation in the oven, the satisfaction of beholding and finally tasting the results, is a simple yet effective process that helps lift my sagging spirits whenever I need…
It even drives my experiments in the kitchen and many, in fact, most of my food-related ideas are born from it. I’m always seeking to discover unlikely ingredients that work magic together and bring out the best in the other. My attempts at baking bread are a part of this journey. I have been baking bread on and off for some years now and I admit my failures outnumber my…
Yes it’s true, everything that celebrity chefs say on TV, and all the superlatives penned in cookbooks on the satisfaction of baking the perfect loaf of bread. After suffering many failed attempts at making bread, and ending up with stodgy blocks that could only be used in the construction of a building, I need a new dictionary of words to describe the warm glow of achievement that spread through my…
Since avos are buttery and rich, I thought why not use them in place of butter in a cake or muffin. Since this was going to be an experiment, I decided to go the whole hog and cut out the sugar and make savoury healthy muffins. To underline the health quotient, I opted for an equal mix of rolled oats and flour. And so having decided my key ingredients, and…