Eggplant

Eggplants:

8 eggplants

2 1/2 table spoon oil

1 tea spoon mustard

1/2 tea spoon cumin seeds

1/2 cup chopped onions

2 tea spoon minced garlic

1 tea spoon minced ginger

1 tea spoon jaggary

lime size ball of tamarine

salt to taste

cilantro

oil for deep frying eggplants.

(for Paste):

3 table spoon peanuts

2 table spoon sesame seeds

1 inch stick of cinnamon

2 cloves

1 black cardamom

1 tea spoon cumin seeds

2 tea spoon coriander seeds

2 tea spoon fennel

7 dried chiles

3 table spoon dried coconut.

Make smooth paste adding little water.and keep on the side.

Slit the eggplant into quarters and deep fry ( keep on the side)

mix the jiggery and tamarind make paste keep on the side.

In a pan add oil and  mustard seeds,cumin seed  when it starts to crackle add  chopped anions let  it cook add garlic and ginger paste stir until its cooked or golden brown.  Add the above paste.Mix well  When it starts to boil add fried eggplants. Cover the pot let it cook for about 5 min.

Enjoy this with hot rotis or naan.

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mongo mousse

Delicious Mongo mousse!!

Mango Mousse:

16oz cool whip

1 can mango pulp

3 packages jello (unflavored)

3 cups water

1 cup sugar

16oz cream cheese

Boil water, then add sugar and unflavored jello. Once mixed, add in other ingredients. Set in plate, and place in fridge to cool. 

Biscuits

As my youngest son Akash got engaged this weekend, we had a houseful of guests and there was much dhamal going on.  Celebrations in a Gujarati home is generally accompanied by food, lots and lots of  delicious food.

The guests from Kajal’s side of the family and ours all arrived on the Friday.  Everyone got together at the Jikoni for chai nashto around 5pm.  Chai nashto is basically tea and snacks. My sister in law who arrived from North Carolina  kindly offered brought some snacks with her and I made some biscuits (sugar cookies) at home from a recipe that belonged to Manu’s mom, my mother in law, or Ba as we called her.

Ba was a very good cook and the biscuits she made were a firm family favourite.  She would make as many as 5 kilos, filling up several containers that were emptied out just as quickly.  In Ba’s time, there were no electric ovens.  She baked the biscuits in a make shift, coal fired oven.  Her trick was to get the family involved.  Ba and my elder sister in law  would be the one who would be nearest to the oven, taking out the baked goods and putting in fresh batches.   The kids would sit nearby, cutting out the shapes and putting the biscuits on the baking tray.  Since we moved to Charleston, I had lost Ba’s recipe so when my niece Krupa called me once and mentioned the home made biscuits, I asked her to share the recipe.  Oh my, this is sheer nostalgia, taking us all back to Mwanza and our time at my in-law’s house where every meal was a feast and every family member a foodie.

Here is the recipe.  I urge you to try it out and taste for yourself.

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INGREDIENTS 1kg white flour 1/2kg butter 1 and 1/2 bowl sugar (taste for sweetness and alter as needed) 1/2 bowl sooji 3/4 bowl milk (room temperature) 1 and 1/4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp soda bicarb 2 tbsp custard powder a few drops of vanilla essence

DIRECTIONS 1. Mix and knead the sugar into the butter 2. Add the milk 3. Add soda bicarb, baking powder, custard powder and mix well 4. Slowly add the flour and shoji, continue kneading the dough 5. Pre-heat the oven for 25 mins at 250 degrees celcius 6. Using a rolling pin and extra white flour, roll out dough 7. Using a biscuit making stencil, cut out biscuits 8. Place on well buttered tray and into the oven until biscuits turn visibly golden/brown 9. Repeat steps 6-8

 

 

 

As my youngest son Akash got engaged this weekend, we had a houseful of guests and there was much dhamal going on.  Celebrations in a Gujarati home is generally accompanied by food, lots and lots of  delicious food.

The guests from Kajal’s side of the family and ours all arrived on the Friday.  Everyone got together at the Jikoni for chai nashto around 5pm.  Chai nashto is basically tea and snacks. My sister in law who arrived from North Carolina  kindly offered brought some snacks with her and I made some biscuits (sugar cookies) at home from a recipe that belonged to Manu’s mom, my mother in law, or Ba as we called her.

Ba was a very good cook and the biscuits she made were a firm family favourite.  She would make as many as 5 kilos, filling up several containers that were emptied out just as quickly.  In Ba’s time, there were no electric ovens.  She baked the biscuits in a make shift, coal fired oven.  Her trick was to get the family involved.  Ba and my elder sister in law  would be the one who would be nearest to the oven, taking out the baked goods and putting in fresh batches.   The kids would sit nearby, cutting out the shapes and putting the biscuits on the baking tray.  Since we moved to Charleston, I had lost Ba’s recipe so when my niece Krupa called me once and mentioned the home made biscuits, I asked her to share the recipe.  Oh my, this is sheer nostalgia, taking us all back to Mwanza and our time at my in-law’s house where every meal was a feast and every family member a foodie.

Here is the recipe.  I urge you to try it out and taste for yourself.