I adore spinach (palak) based curries and, fortunately, there are so many in Punjabi cuisine. We love our chicken palak, mutton palak, palak paneer, saag aloo, and the mother of them all, sarson da saag, which is traditionally made from mustard greens (sarson) blended with a little spinach, but also tastes delicious when made purely from spinach. My mum was More →
We went out for dinner a couple of weeks ago to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The restaurant was Thalassa, named after a primordial sea goddess in Greek Mythology. It is situated on the beautiful Mombasa creek and is the perfect location for a private party, it is beautifully designed and decorated. The menu is varied, with an extensive range of Greek, Lebanese, Italian and French fare, More →
I was so happy to complete the first draft of the Cook to Jhoom book (we are going with that, rather than Cook2Jhoom) last week. All the recipes have been tested and re-tested, the photos are done, the introduction has been drafted, there is just enough nutrition information to enlighten you and not overwhelm you and Shalini has even written More →
A few days ago, I posted a picture of the Besan Dhokla I had made. Dhokla is a steamed cake which can be made from a variety of flours including chickpea or gram flour (besan), semolina (rawa), or a combination of lentil and rice flours and it usually involves several hours or overnight fermentation. It is a Gujarati snack food More →
Here goes Part II of my lessons in food styling and photography, though I suspect the lessons will never cease as I learn something new every time I style a shoot (oooooh, look at me, styling a photo shoot! And being the photographer! This was never even on the horizon a year ago, but now that it’s a part of More →
About five years ago I was approached to be a judge on a dance competition for the British Red Cross. Back then, Dance for Life, was a small event in Hampshire with a few local groups of young people taking part and a low-key final in Romsey. The event raised £500. This year 5000 young people competed for a place More →
Apologies for the tardiness my friends! What can I say, I’ve practically camped out in the kitchen for the last 3 weeks. The clock is ticking, we are due to publish in September and I have been cooking everything again for the photos. Also – my sister Winnie is here on holiday and we have been catching up over cups More →
As I write this, it is a beautifully sunny and breezy Sunday in Mombasa and I am eating a sweet corn, coconut and red pepper soup as part of the on-going recipe testing for the Cook2Jhoom book. This recipe started out very differently. It was inspired by my mum’s corn in coconut and peanut sauce, which is a very tasty More →