Puja season is around the corner and I can already feel the excitement in the air. I feel it when I go out in the mornings and the air is crisp. I can smell the dew on the grass and see the leaves changing color. Obviously these sensory cues would be different if I had…
Rooti, like rice, is a staple in Indian homes. You may just see it at every meal. It is a very simple preparation of a flat bread that does not take a lot of time or ingredients. Rooti is the Bengali word for this food item. If you hear anyone say roti, rotli, or chapati,…
Shooji (sooji), can go by a few different names. Haloowa (halwa) and Shira are a couple of others. What it is, essentially, is the Indian equivalent of Cream of Wheat. In Indian culture, this is a dessert and is often times seen made for pujas (religious ceremonies). We eat it a lot for breakfast. It…
What’s more American than a burger hot off the grill on a summer day? Not much. If not a burger, maybe a hot dog. We enjoy tandoori chicken on the grill often over the summer months, but you know what? We like burgers off the grill, too. We have seen so many ways to build…
It would start with me sitting on the kitchen counter. Baba got out a large steel pan and added the dry ingredients. I distinctly remember the box of Carnation dry milk and how it smelled and how it felt like very fine sand. This was how we started our day making golab jamun, a dessert…
There is a little guilty pleasure that comes from eating a piece of warm, soft, and chewy naan. It goes with everything. Making naan is something that has been pretty intimidating to me. It seemed like it was something that would take a long time and even with the time, did I have the…
A philosophy of food. Every chef and foodie will have one. Food to me is one of the most intimate experiences you can have. From selecting ingredients for dishes, growing your own produce and herbs, to cooking, to eating, you will be using all five of your senses; you touch it, hear it, see it,…
Before getting to the recipe today, let us first talk about what curry is. In Indian cuisine, curry is the broth, sauce, or gravy. Curries can have meat in them, vegetables, or even both. They also come in many variations with many different blends of spices depending on the dish. This past weekend, I was…
There are some Indian spices that many have heard of such as cumin, turmeric, garam masala. And then there are some Indian spices that have a mysteriousness around them. One such ingredient is amchur powder or mango powder. Amchur powder is made from unripe green mangoes and has a citrus flavor to it. Some people…
I love to cook. And I love to eat. But I think more than that, I love to cook for and eat with my family. There is something strangely intimate about sharing a meal. We go out on first date dinners, anniversary dinners, shower lunches, family reunion picnics, girls’ night out dinner and drinks, business…