This weekend I share my fourth book, Instamatic in my column.
I share the backstory to the book. A book that is equal parts Instasaying, Instapics, and Instawisdom. A deeper more thoughtful look into our Instaworld.
As a teaser I share the brilliance of the sun and clouds as I learned at our farm in Hebron, NY. Also share what I learned while visiting the remarkable nation that is Rwanda.
Read the column on Mail Today, or below.
Continue reading "The Story of Instamatic & Crispy Okra Salad" »
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!
As tricky as these times are, there is nothing remotely tedious about the enjoyment of comforting foods. It is most natural to feed ones cravings and find deeply satisfying satiety.
Nothing brings Charlie and me more pleasure than a bowl or two, or even a pint of delicious ice cream.
Real ice cream isn't easily found anywhere today. New Delhi is no better than New York it seems. Might only be worse.
Hence it ought to be no surprise that I have hoarded up on 10 plus kilos of deliciously indulgent and brilliantly crafted Cold Love ice cream. Ice cream that is all natural. A rarity in our times. Made with the finest of ingredients, and with painstaking care given to every detail, in small batches, labeled and marked personally.
This is ice cream fit to be intimate and in contact with during #SocialDistancing.
Continue reading "Cold Love In The Time Of Corona & Social Distancing" »
Strawberries-and-Cream Ice Cream - Recipe from Masala Farm
Half-and-half from the Battenkill Valley Creamery along with eggs from our chickens and strawberries from our favorite strawberry farmer, Brian Talmadge of Black Lab Farm combine to produce the richest, "goldest", and creamiest strawberries-and-cream ice cream you can imagine.
And just like that, the lovely gent helping me at the store in Khan Market, decided the weight of how many pounds of marmalade I would be canning. Thirteen pounds of citrus of four varieties.
Mosambi (sweet lime), Keenu (Kinnow, a hybrid first develop in California mixing two cultivars), Malta (Tangerine) and Chakotra (Ruby Red Grapefruit).
Armed with four more hands at our disposal, Smita and I decided to make even more marmalade. Marmalade that I was determined to make with hand-cut juliennes.
It took us a good four hours to process the fruit. Shama and Kamal were wonderful abut learning quickly and then steadily going at the citrus till it was all done.
Smita and I made an apple cake as they readied the fruit to marmalade. Life was beautiful in more ways than one.
Preserving seasons through canning is not unlike preserving precious moments of our lives in our brains canning jar.
Fruits we preserve, like memories and moments we save in our heads, ought to be chosen with utmost care. Only the best preserved. The mediocre, best let go, allowed to fade, removed where possible, forgotten over time, even better never committed to memory.
Just as rotten fruit robs a jarful of preserve its goodness, so do a few low moments rob our lives of peace of mind. Robbing us respect for self, trust in fellow man, and worst of all, hope for the future.
As I began making Mandarin Marmalade with my darling cousin-in-law Smita, I was thrilled to be at the side of a person, who if humans could be preserved, is worthy of canonized canning. Hers is beauty not skin deep. It stems from a deep well of mindful caring, and seemingly ancestral respect for fellow man. Veneration for tradition and honored values.
Lucky me to have found a wonderful fellow jammer and beautiful Mandarin oranges from the gardens of three incredible women - Dr. Kavita Chaudhary, Smita and mom.
The flavors Iliana De La Vega shares at her "humble" food truck in Austin, TX, are far from HUMBLE. There is NOTHING Humble or modest about what Iliana does. I say that in a good way. Her food has a personality that SHINES. A taste that SINGS Clearly, with HIGH Notes, deep LOW gut-pleasing tastes and pleasurable middle, side and any and all notes, flavors and sensations that come together bringing forth a culinary discovery, that speaks of a kitchen alchemy that needs to be savored, shared, celebrated and perpetuated. The only thing Humble about the experience Iliana shared with me last night, was perhaps the concept of savoring Haute cuisine around a food truck.
Mark Bittman does a wonderful job inviting us back into the kitchen to live a greener and richer life in this article in the New York Times.
Here I share photos of some wonderful dishes that enrich my life and make it pleasurable and fun for Charlie and myself to host endless dinners at our home.
Continue reading "Sustainably from New Delhi - Utterly Vegetably Delicious!" »
“Follow the sunflowers! That’s where we’ll be. Just look for the howitzer across the street that pointing right at us!,” says Juanita Tool, market manager of the Purcellville Community Market.
Continue reading "Farmers markets are all about the people…guest post by Bonnie Deahl" »
