Suvir

The art of letting go - Slice of Life/Indian Express

When I was 20 I fell in love with an Australian artist in NYC. He moved in with me, and five months later I came home to an empty apartment. I began looking for clues to his disappearance and soon realised my student loan and any meagre savings had vanished with him. He left me broken, betrayed, and full of anger and regret. New emotions for me. He also left me with a choice. Would I allow this one person and one moment in time to become the lens through which I observed life and love? Would I opt to live in a body and mind drowning in a cesspool of depressive emotions? Or would I choose to let go of the hurt and move on to love again?

What Will Be, Will Be

My Slice of Life column from Mail Today by India Today for April 18th, 2020. 

Read by following LINK here or keep reading below.

Raquel & Jenn's Strawberry Cake

This recipe comes my way from Raquel Pelzel, one of my closest friends and co-author of my books American Masala and Masala Farm. She got the recipe from Jenn Segal of Once Upon A Chef. 

 

It is an easy cake to make and a fun one to have one hand. Forgiving in its ease of baking and how it stays. While Jenn uses the batter to make muffins, I have used a strawberry red Emile Henry deep pie dish to make it into a cake. 

 

Enjoy!

Sweet-Sour-Spicy Pumpkin (Khatta Meetha Hara Kaddu)

 

All three of my cookbooks have a recipe for Kaddu (pumpkin). In the US I love using butternut squash for the recipe. You can use green pumpkin or sweet ripe pumpkin. They are both used in India. This recipe/video is made using green kaddu (green pumpkin).

Covid-19 Leading to Harsh Awakening

Read my April 4th Slice of Life column in Mail Today, or continue here.

Mushroom Biryani for Vani

It isn't every day that my friend Vani Tripathi Tikoo asks for something. Hers is a personality that gets glues to ones heart and being. She is what one calls "good people". Hers is an inclusive world in a world where we are all being torn apart into isms. She lives and loves with open arms and table. She gives herself with boundless empathy and a large heart. 

This biryani, a recipe from American Masala, is also bold, beautiful and soulfully flavorful. 

When Vani asked for its recipe just by looking at the photo, I had to oblige, and was fascinated at how similar. this dish was to Vani's own journey. Global and inspired. Inspiring and comforting. All at once.

Vani, this one is shared with you on my mind, my dear. Enjoy it! 

Soul Kitchen: Birbal Ki Khitcheree

Locked in, with grim scenarios spelled out across television screens and mobile apps, no place to run or hide? Under these circumstances, it almost seems facetious to say, don't worry, so we won't. But what we can do is bring you a series of comfort food recipes put together by some of the most celebrated Indian chefs in the world. These may qualify as comfort food, but it's definitely not ordinary. Our star chefs will tell you the magic ingredient that will nudge it up a notch to qualify as gourmet. 

This recipe of mine is the first of a series. Follow the series here and the recipe below. 

Floyd Cardoz: The Mensch is in the detail

Floyd Cardoz, an international restaurateur and the first chef to bring the sweep and balance of his native Indian cooking to fine dining in the United States, died on Tuesday at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, N.J. He was 59.

The cause was the coronavirus, his family said. Read full Obituary here from the NYT here.

An Untoward Journey Towards Life

Click here to read my Slice of Life column in Mail Today for India Today for March 21, 2020. Or read below.

Life: A Loot of discoveries

Click here to read my Slice of Life column in Mail Today for India Today for March 7, 2020. Or read below.

Faith, hope, courage & love

My column for 25th January from Mail Today by India Today.