I love cranberry jelly! I love the tart yet sweet flavors that are so perfectly juxtapositioned in this dish. I always have trouble getting my cranberry mold to set. Sometimes its too watery and sometimes too firm. Make sure you lightly oil the mould before pouring the jelly in so you have an easier time un-moulding it when its time to serve.
I love theme parties and Halloween came early for us last year as my nephews were visiting from India. To celebrate we decided to throw them an-almost Halloween bash.
A great time was had by all!
Here are some of the themed foods I served. Lots of mummies and ghost were eaten that day.
The recipes are really easy and it all looked so cute! The best part was that the kids actually helped me make a fair number of the dishes.
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Pahari food, is a little known cuisine, that can be traced back to the state of Himachal Pradesh in India. My family is mostly Pahari. Our origins lie in the beautiful Kangra Valley region which is nestled in the majestic Himalayas. The word “Pahar” literally means mountains.
There is a such a wide variety of foods in this region and it is all delicious. When I was growing up, every year at Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, we would cook a traditional pahari meal. Last year ….after 14 years I made it back home for Diwali to eat my favorite meal of the year. Over the next few days, I will blog some of the recipes of this wonderful cuisine.
Here are some of dishes we make – the titles link you to the recipes.
There is nothing like eating a piping hot, fluffy puri.
We don’t make puris very often except for when we have certain ceremonies at home or when the kids demand it. My kids love it and can tuck away multiple puris with no problems. This summer I decided it was time for me to learn how to actually make puris myself. To my surprise and my kids delight I found it was actually quite easy!
Make sure the oil is really hot and that you don’t keep the puris in the oil for very long. Puris must be eaten hot and have to be made then and there. For the dough you can either knead it by hand or if you have a food processor, you could use a dough blade. Whilst kneading the dough, you do have to judge how much water to put in the dough by making sure the dough is not too wet and sticky and not too dry either.
Oshogatsu, which is the New Year, is considered the most important holiday in the Japanese tradition.
It is celebrated by spending time with friends and family and by eating Osechi-ryōri, which consists of special traditional New Years day foods. Each of these foods has a special significance and is believed to bring health, prosperity and good luck. It is considered bad luck to do any kind of work on this day, including cooking, so these traditional foods are prepared in large quantities, days before the onset of the New Year.
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In Japan, the last day of the year is called omisoka which is the second most important day in Japanese tradition.
On the eve of the new year, Japanese households eat Toshikoshi Soba, which literally translated means “year crossing soba”.
It is believed that eating these noodles before midnight, on the eve of the new year, will usher in good luck and longevity.
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Thanksgiving is one of those great American holidays that I really love.
It has got to be one of my favorite meals to cook during the year.
There is something just so nice about this holiday…the food, the family, the getting together….
It just has a wonderful energy and something I really look forward to all year long.
Here are some of the things that were on our table this year.
My mother’s friend Sweet Pasha serves a fabulous biryani! This recipe has been handed down from her royal background and has been perfected in her kitchen by her cooks Shakira and Govindamma.
This recipe makes a huge amount of biryani – enough to feed an army! Please do turn your calorie counters off because there is a lot of oil used – but its all well worth it to achieve the authentic taste of this Royal Hyderabadi dish.
You can half or third this recipe, when you make it at home. I love eating this with any kind of raita – try my recipe for a spinach raita.
I think the Thanksgiving Meal is by far one of my favorite meals of the year. It’s more like an extravaganza than a meal!! I just love everything about Thanksgiving. It’s one of those holidays that is really all about the food and getting together with loved ones. It’s a lot of effort but I love that my mother-in-law and I work together and churn out quite a spectacular array of dishes. Our meal is pretty healthy and multicultural too! We always have international dishes as part our meal. Here are the pictures of our Thanksgiving table from this past year. I promise to post recipes as and when I can. The kids were responsible for dessert this year – they baked Pumpkin Patch cookies and decorated the pumpkin pies – both were a real hit!
The 22 lb Turkey
The 14lb Turkey
Oyster Stuffing
Mushroom Stuffing
Gravy
Sweet Potato Pie ( a little burned!)
Cranberry Jelly
Avacado Egg Salad
Smoked salmon and Crab in Puff Pastry
Mushrooms stuffed with Crab
Arugala & Chicory Salad
Bitter Greens with Cannelini Beans
Asparagus
Green Beans
Mushrooms & Turnips in a Dashi Sauce
Two Kinds of Lotus Stem & Broccoli
Pickled Rutabaga
Pork Vindaloo
Pumpkin Pie decorated by the kids
Pumpkin Pie decorated by the kids
Pumpkin Patch Cookies - made by the kids
Pumpkin Patch Cookies - made by the kids
Hina Matsuri Dolls
Hina Matsuri or Girls Day is celebrated in Japan on March 3rd every year. This is the day that families pray for the happiness and prosperity of their girls to ensure that they grow up healthy and happy. Most families with girls display “hina-ningyo” (special dolls for Hinamatsuri) and dedicate them to peach blossoms. The dolls are usually arranged on a five or seven-tiered stand covered with a red carpet. Special foods, rice sweets and other candies colored in pink, white and green are usually eaten on this day.
I love good sushi and no-one makes better sushi than my mother in law. Here are some of the sushi dishes that she brought over today to celebrate Hina Matsuri.
The platter below is Nigiri sushi. According to Wikipedia, Nigiri sushi consists of an oblong mound of sushi rice that is pressed between the palms of the hands, sometimes with a speck of wasabi and a slice of fish called neta draped over it. In this platter there is tuna, yellowtail, salmon, cooked shrimp and tamago (which is a sweet egg omelette).
Nigiri Sushi
The second platter is Chirashizushi (scattered sushi). According to Wikipedia, Chirashizushi is a bowl of sushi rice with other ingredients mixed in (also refers to barazushi). It is commonly eaten in Japan because it is filling, fast and easy to make. Chirashizushi most often varies regionally because it is eaten annually as a part of the Doll Festival, celebrated only during March in Japan. Chirashizushi is sometimes interesting because the ingredients are often chef’s choice.
In this Chirashizushi, my mother in law mixed in all kind of finely chopped vegetables with the rice and then covered the rice with very finely sliced tamago ( sweet egg omelette). She topped it with shrimp and vegetables.
Chirashizushi
Here are some of the sweet that they brought to celebrate.
Japanese Sweets
