A Cooked up Story

  Hello Folks!!! Travel and great food is an integral part of African life. Like a ritual, all the weekends, are dedicated for travel. From Friday evening till Monday morning, people prefer to stay somewhere far away from their homes. This time we were travelling to Kasane. Kasane is a town lying in the north-eastern corner of Botswana, touching the borders of Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The place is known for its diverse wildlife, safaris and boating in dangerous waters with hippos and crocodiles. Anyone who loves adventures and seeks thrill should definitely drop in here. After reaching Kasane, we drove to the Chobe National park, met a number of wild elephants, giraffes and kudus on the way, went for a safari and saw numerous lions and cubs, giant crocodiles and so much more. After an eventful day and  a campfire dinner, we slept peacefully. The next morning, we decided to go back home. On our way back, we stopped at Nata, close to the well known Nata Bird Sanctuary...

Hello Folks!!! I'm going to share with you the happiest accident I ever had. It was just another fun packed day. My sister and I were rummaging through the bookshelves to find our long seen Famous Five book- a three in one combo. Finally, we found it. We got so immersed in the book and realized the hunger pangs only when the passage came to talk about food.  Ann and Georgina busy nibbling hot brownies melting with chocolate... After a boring lunch, we decided to make our own hot brownies, just as beautiful as the one in the story. Yes, there was Chef Zumbo's, recipe from TLC. His show has so many participants competing to make the best as well as mind-blowing dessert. I still can't believe how they managed to make, the cake that defies gravity. Zumbo emphasizes on creativity and intricate details, while reminding that food has its own chemistry. Oops! not just chemistry, physics as well. Whether Newton liked Zumbo's concepts or not, I'm sure he'll not be able to...

 Hello Folks!!! Who can say no to a fluffy, soft, juicy and crisp doughnut? Well, I'm sure no one can.   Two summers back, my sister and  I thoroughly enjoyed our vacation. Experimenting, creating and inventing new dishes and more than anything, baking beautiful memories day after day. The best part was that, we were left alone at home, while our parents went for work. The 'Home Alone' kids with a big home at our disposal.. hurrah! Our daily routine was to get up at whatever time we felt, have a quick breakfast and then sing songs and dance, make fun of each other's mistakes and lie exhausted on the sofa to watch TLC. Our favourite programs are 'Say Yes to the Dress', 'Cake Boss' and 'Zumbo's Just Desserts'. We love eating food and watching these programs simultaneously, maybe because we love rule-breaking when left alone at home.  It feels great to cook food with your little sibling, your partner in crime. We usually get creative around the ...

  Hello Folks!!! Happy Dussehra to you. Dussehra is a festival celebrated all over India to mark the victory of   Lord Ram over Ravana, the ten-headed demon king. The word Dussehra is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘dasha-hara’, literally meaning removal of ten. The festival is celebrated after the nine day long festival of Navaratri, and is also known as Vijayadashami.These are days filled with celebration and festive dishes. Since there aren’t any fixed recipes to be followed while preparing the gala titbits, you are free to make anything you love to enjoy with your family and friends. My most favourite part of the festivities is the dance my friends and I perform – Dandia. It is always our much awaited time to go on stage and enjoy ourselves and our joy only keeps increasing with more dancers joining us from the crowd. The lovely patterns, formations and the huge circles we form while dancing to those melodious tunes along with the graceful movements using the dand...

Hello Folks!!! Last week was simply marvelous and I am excited to narrate it to you. Tuesday, we went out for a long drive, quite far, in the outskirts of the city. It was a much needed break from the busy schedule: vast greenery, far stretching water bodies...What a treat!!! The quiet whispers of the wind, the busy chirping of the birds, the happy grasshoppers on the dewy grass and the little fishes swimming in the lake was such a merry sight. This was like those Friday evenings when Dad would go fishing with his friends  and sometimes take me as well to enjoy the peace and serenity of nature. I always enjoy fishing -  only the catch and release. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying my favourite delicacies. Something fishy is a temptation I can never say no to. To complement the beautiful picnic, we had our lunch basket ready with some juicy apples,  tuna sandwich, cheesy macaroni, and chilled  coke 😁 Tuna sandwich was one every-day lunch time favourite of m...

 Hello Folks!!! " [ bread  crackles] Oh, symphony of crackle. Only great  bread sound  this way. I didn't have to help you! If I looked out only for myself, I would have let you drown!" This line from the movie Ratatouille never fails to make you feel hungry. In this cooked up story, I will help you to make  such  warming, cotton soft and fluffy bread, encasing a juicy sausage. The buttery, float away texture of these home-made rolls remind me of the ones that were the pride of several grey-haired ladies who baked for all the school breaks of my childhood. Neatly aproned, and hair braided in a bun, they would stand behind the tuck-shop, selling dozens of rolls, which were whisked straight from the ovens and eaten up quickly by eagerly waiting children. For me what matters is not just the smell of those golden kissed rolls, but the celebration we had every 9 am at school- to run and buy ourselves a roll before the bell rings again for the next hour. How do y...

  Hello Folks!!! Yesterday I was arranging my bookshelf and I found one of my favourite nursery stories- Mr Wolf’s Pancakes lying on the bottom rack with all the other books that were meant to be given away. As I turned the pages filled with drawings, colours and huge letters, I could feel myself once more sitting on my little chair and asking my mother to read it to me. The story is about a wolf who is very hungry and wants to eat some pancakes, but because wolves can’t read from a recipe book, or make a shopping list, he asks for help from his neighbours – the ginger bread man and the three little pigs, but they were so rude to him and finally, he had to manage everything all on his own! This story made me imagine I was Mr Wolf whenever we had pancakes for breakfast or at tea time. But now, the story repeats with a different hero. My sister’s favourite cartoon is Doraemon, a cat robot (not a raccoon) who is crazy for his pancake, the Dorayaki cake and falls for any trap inv...

  Hello Folks!!! “Travelling leaves you speechless, and then it turns you into a story-teller” -Ibn Battuta This sweet is so luscious that a small diamond or even two can take you to realms unknown. Its perfumed, sweet and tender layers soaked in honey and crowned in nuts is a delight for the soul. Whenever I have travelled with my family to Dubai, we always break at a beautiful sweet shop to enjoy those delicate baklavas. It’s best to eat them as soon as you buy them since, they will be warm and crispy and secondly, its tempting aroma won’t allow you to wait a second more. My love for this sweet has a very long story and since the first bite until now, I never miss a chance to grab one as soon as I spot it. I remember, as a child, I would fill my plate with as many different Middle Eastern deserts as it could accommodate, one among my favourites  being the baklava. When I was abroad, I had very beautiful Egyptian friends- ‘Didi’ and ‘Caroline’, two sisters who use...