My New Year’s resolution this year is to have more leisure time for myself and therefore, I am hoping that most of the food I cook will be quick and easy to make without losing any of the taste. Here’s my first quick and easy dish for this year. … Continue reading
Samosas are available in most places in the world as little triangle pastries filled with a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian fillings. They can be eaten as a snack with a cup of tea or served as a starter with any meal. Gujarati samosas are usually smaller and … Continue reading
A lot of Indian restaurants and take away places serve complimentary green chutney which is usually eaten as a dip with pakora, samosa, kachoris etc. Having worked in a restaurant and knowing the secrets of some their cooking, I never eat these chutneys as I am never too sure how … Continue reading
Ladoos/ladus are a name for a lot of ball shaped Indian sweets. Most ladoos are made from either a mixture of flours such as chick pea flour, wheat flour or semolina , sugar and nuts. Boondi/Bundi na ladoo (ladu) or besan ke ladoo(ladu) are one of the most popular sweets … Continue reading
Crispy Tunisian style stuffed semolina bread with a spicy vegetarian harissa filling. Preparation time 30 minutes Dough Resting time 1.5 hours Cooking time -25 minutes Makes 5 Ingredients: 240 g / 8 oz fine semolina 1 teaspoon fast acting yeast 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1 tablespoon oil 1/2 … Continue reading
Ingredients: Mixed Nuts (Almonds, Pistachios, Cashew nuts) – 1 Cup Poppy Seeds / Khus Khus – 2 tbsp Cardamoms – 4 -5 Sugar – 1 Cup Ghee Clarified Butter ( ghee)- 1 tbsp Method: 1. Slice all mixed nuts. Powder the Cardamom seeds. 2. In a heavy bottomed pan, add … Continue reading
APPLE TART The final result of the tart was worth all the time spent in mixing and chopping and waiting !! Do not look for too many shortcuts to reduce the time to make a flaky and delicious apple tart but the entire process is actually a real stress buster! … Continue reading
Think ‘Italy’ and you are instantly your mind is flooded with images of well dressed Italians, the Collosseum, the gondola and of course – pasta! What are the reasons that make Italian cuisine so popular and acceptable worldwide – the liberal use of olive oil? the freshly plucked tomatoes? the … Continue reading
A “crescendo” of mangoes takes place every year in India between the months of March and July. They roll into the markets in small numbers at the start of the season, being quite expensive. By the time the harvest peaks they are all over the place, playfully cheap and ready … Continue reading
Since my teenage days I have had a habit to scribble down any recipes that I like. I am not shy or afraid of asking people if I like their dish. I have many notebooks which I have filled with written recipes, rather than bought books. Most of the time … Continue reading
A few weeks ago my husband wanted to have some choley bhathure for the weekend and so I prepared it for him. While I was preparing the dough I started thinking about my childhood trip to Delhi and my mind was flooded with old memories (read here if you want to know more). … Continue reading
Today I will present to you Chana Rice, a delicious rice with chick peas. You will need : 1 cup basmati rice 1 cup chickpeas boiled (can use tinned chickpeas) 2-3 tsp oil 4-5 slit green chillies 1 big onion finely chopped 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes 1 tsp cumin seeds salt … Continue reading
Today I would like to share with you a new dish, that was novel to me too until a few weeks ago. Many people have a certain mental image of daal when they hear the word. When I saw the recipe for this daal on TV, I was itching to … Continue reading
Just when you think the weather is about to take a turn for the better, it ends up getting colder again. The cold weather can cause health problems. Cases of cold, flu and fever spread across the country, and now my daughter got ill, too! She is off school, and at … Continue reading
Before I got interested in cooking, I used to order Malai Kofta Curry whenever we ate out as I used to think that this must be a very complicated dish to make. But believe me it’s not! Not only is it easy to make, it’s not too time consuming either. It’s a … Continue reading
Did you remember the recent hose pipe ban in the United Kingdom? It was rather strange that our country faced one of the driest periods on record. So the government issued a ban that effected almost 20 million people, introducing fines of up to £1000 if used. The government urged … Continue reading
A few weeks ago myself and my friend Nayna went to a cupcake decoration class in London. We both had a very great time there. On the way back Nayna invited me to her house for lunch. She really spoiled me with an elaborate lunch and she cooked Methi Poodla, and Rice Khichee … Continue reading
For me any type of muthiya and a hot cup of masala tea is a welcome treat any time of the day! For us this perfect spicy snack is always very satisfying! What more can one ask for in life than a cup of tea, a bowl of dudhi na muthiya and a book to … Continue reading
Today’s recipe is a very easy and versatile dish using Aubergines. Aubergines come in all shapes and colours ranging from light green to purple to almost black. You get small aubergines, long ones and the most popular are the big fat aubergines sold in all western supermarkets. In India, aubergines … Continue reading
It was Sunday morning and I wanted to make a quick and easy brunch. I got introduced to couscous by my son. He told me that he often takes a mixture of couscous and boiled vegetables for his lunch when he is at Uni but finds it quite bland so … Continue reading
Chick peas are really Garbanzos beans and are a good source of proteins. They come in several varieties such as the white Kabuli ones or the dark brown ones. This recipe works for all varieties of chick peas. Ingredients for 4 servings: 2 cups of boiled chick peas 2 medium … Continue reading
I was going to have mashed potatoes with beans and other various toppings for my meal but changed it to this dish to make it a bit more interesting and made this dish which I have named Beans & Mash Bake but it could be called Pizza with a Difference too!! Let … Continue reading
I meet a lot of people who love eating Indian food but don’t feel confident about making it at home. Most of them including my children used to end up buying curry, rice and naan bread from a take away. That’s when I decided to start sharing my … Continue reading
City Connect brings you another instalment of our popular cookery series, Taste of India with Mina Joshi. This time Mina shares her easy-to-follow recipe for gulab jamun with us. Gulab jamun is an Indian sweet traditionally made out of powdered or evaporated milk blended with plain flour, fried & soaked in sugar … Continue reading
This chutney is often referred to as the sweet chutney or Imbli/Ambli Chutney. It’s made using dates which are sweet and tamarind which is sharp and sour so I would say that this is a sweet and sour chutney. No Indian snack is complete without this chutney and the green … Continue reading
I had these rolls at a friends place and couldn’t resist asking her for the recipe. I followed her recipe mostly but as my aim this year is to have more leisure time – I used a store bought bread mix with yeast to save time. Hope that you will … Continue reading