Since Om gifted me the icecream maker on my birthday last year, I have been obsessed with making icecreams! It seems like a natural extension to my love for working with sugar and on Indian desserts. The problem with Indian icecream brands is while there are some stellar one when it comes to texture and…
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Continue ReadingThose who know me, know that I have a love of cooking eggs. A perfect poach, sunny side up or a spicy curry is deceptively tricky to get right but they are also extremely satisfying and comforting. No wonder then that most parts of the world have great breakfast egg recipes that provide just the…
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Continue ReadingDark Chocolate and Orange Tart topped with caramel shards, dehydrated oranges, caramelised walnuts and sea salt I have been suffering from depression and what can be described loosely as something close to survivor’s guilt. This is owing to nothing personal but yet, something that means a world and more to a lot of us. It…
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Continue ReadingI have been making a home remedy for allergic and persistent coughs based on basic principles of Ayurveda since I was in school. Over the years I calibrated and balanced it, using spices and other ingredients found commonly at home. I now turn it into these lozenges for Om, who likes the sweetness alongside the…
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Continue ReadingThe word fusion has been taken to a point where it almost a swear word in the food world. Even more scary is the term ‘deconstructed’. It takes a discussion with a few from the side of the fence which doesn’t have the banner ‘foodies’ hanging from it but camps those who love food and…
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Continue ReadingI had been tinkering with millets, of late, in my kitchen. My fascination wasn’t so much about their recent fad status as super grains but started with their place of pride as ancient grains and the production process, which is more climate sustainable than rice or wheat. However, the nutritional benefits that they bring on…
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Continue ReadingPujo is a spider web of memories and longings for people who enveloped my life in love. The love stayed behind as a lot of these people exited the realms of tangible. Baba, Dadumoni, Thamma, Dadubhai, Bimalanghu Jethu, Jethimoni…there are so many memories that these wonderful people made with their ready wit, zest for life…
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Continue ReadingA Bengalis love for sweet is legendary, and why shouldn’t it be so. After all, the 5th century physician Charaka argued that the word ‘gur’ for jaggery in many Indian languages comes from the word ‘Gaud’, the ancient name of Bengal. That says a thing or two about the antiquity of Bengal’s love for gur.…
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Continue ReadingRed Sandalwood, known as Raktachandana, doesn’t come from the sandalwood tree but from an entirely different species (Pterocarpus Santalinus), related to the legume family, and grows in India, the Caribbean and Indonesia. In Ayurveda, it is used to balance pita dosha, digestion and skin health, and also helps aids purification through the sweat glands…
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Continue ReadingI have a strangely sentimental memory around paan. As kids, we were prohibited from having paan, well, too much of paan. The only time we were allowed to have it was when we got little shares from elders. Ma would have a paan once in a while, especially after a heavy meal. And I had…