Pumpkin & potato are tempered with nigella seeds and slow-cooked in mustard oil for a dish that heroes the pumpkin’s sweetness. Calling all home cooks looking for quick and healthy weekday/weeknight meal ideas – add this pumpkin & potato in mustard oil dish to your repertoire! It’s the kind that comes together in a jiffy, requires just one spice (coz salt and…
A succulent, slightly spicy dish that comes together when sheekh kebabs and some veggies are simmered in a simple curry. Pair it with rice, roti or naan for a delicious meal. Frozen food, especially premade non-vegetarian food, has always been frowned upon in our household. The packets of readymade chicken tikkas and frozen mutton cutlets were only meant to be…
Elevate your mashed potatoes with the sweet earthiness of green garlic for a flavourful version that’s velvety smooth and unique; it works great as a side with meat/fish mains or as stuffing in parathas and sandwiches. Winters mean a variety of greens and brown-paper bags filled with crisp greens, especially green garlic and spring onion. The spring onion bulbs often…
We are a family of bitter gourd lovers. Give us bitter gourd in any form and we will love it, especially if it has retained that light bitter taste – boiled, mashed and seasoned with mustard oil and salt; crispy fried; stuffed with spices; stir-fried – we heart this green. So much so that each time I am about to…
What’s the weather like in your part of the world? Down here, the temperature has touched 42°C in what is just the beginning of summer. Local newspapers have reported this to be a heatwave that will likely continue until next week.
I can vouch for the heat – I was felled by a heat stroke on Friday (or was it Saturday?) that saw me moaning and groaning through the weekend. Baking a birthday cake for my father – he completed a glorious 73 years on March 25 – was nothing short of a challenge. It took two botched attempts before I could produce a Lemon Cake with Chocolate Filling & Frosting. Other than that, I was a complete failure at assisting Maa as she whipped up a light vegetarian meal for friends and family who dropped in to help us celebrate.
That was Sunday. Then Monday and Tuesday happened. And being housebound, the days were spent working and organising external hard disks. This led to the rediscovery of photographs from the college years. Days when I had better hair, was chirpier, thinner, had more energy and less acne. Oh yes! I am the poster girl for ‘acne in the 30s’.
But skin woes apart, what struck me was that several of these photographs had been clicked on festive days when I should have been home but was in the hostel.
Exam time was the worst.
The finals would always be in April and I would miss out on celebrating Poila Boishakh, the first day of the lunisolar Bengali calendar – the first day is Poila and the first month is Boishakh.
How I would wish a good soul would invite me home for some yummylicious Bengali food and let me be a part of family time on a festive day. Sigh… that did not happen to me but it did prompt me to ensure wherever I am, a party to celebrate the Poila Boishakh on April 14/15th is a must.
Would you be a Good Samaritan and invite a lone friend home for dinner on April 15 and celebrate their New Year. On that weekend, several communities from India celebrate their New Year so you don’t need to go hunting for your Bengali friend.