Chef at Large

I travel to Bakewell nearly every day of the week to work at a client’s premises. Try as I did, I finally succumbed to the smell of freshly baked Bakewell puddings.
As per Wikipedia: The tale told to tourists is that this dish is an accidental invention of the 1860s, which occurred when a nobleman visiting [...]

We were at Swagatas house recently and found her making this for her daughter, niece and nephew.
Swagata is a Bharatanatayam dancer, choreographer, writer and more (see some photos here) a good friend who is also instructing my daughter in the art.
Semolina or suji halwa is quite easy to make and tastes delicious when hot. First [...]

Did you know chickpea sprouts are much healthier than the original chickpea itself? I guess so. Do you know why?
Sprouts are very nutritious because they contain all elements a plant needs for life and growth. The endosperm of the seed is the storehouse of carbohydrates, protein, and oil. When the seed germinates, these become predigested [...]

Hello and welcome to another Mothers Day. Its May 11 and time to put in place the things you’ve thought of for your mum, hand over the baubles you’ve purchased or post that card you picked up.
Some of the things I can remember most vividly is the food I’ve grown up with. An army officers [...]

My mother had always been very fond of cooking. My father on the other hand loved to eat good food and was a voracious eater. (Very early in life I learnt that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.) As for me, I intensely disliked food and the dining table was a [...]

I’m not much into deserts - never have been and probably never will be. The attractions of a nice, juicy cut of meat and the things you can do with it are just too much for my cromagnon mentality.The day before however, was a revelation of how addictive deserts can be - I was introduced [...]

Meringue is a type of dessert plasma made from whipped egg whites and caster sugar. Some meringue recipes call for adding a binding agent such as cream of tartar or the cornstarch found in confectioner’s sugar. Meringues are often flavoured with vanilla and a small amount of almond or coconut extract. They are very light [...]

The mutton stew I wrote about earlier may be eaten with bread or chapattis but they taste best with Valle-appams or Hoppers. Here is the recipe for Vellappams, the way my grandmother made them. However I have introduced one variation from the original. My grandma used toddy, tapped fresh from the bark of the coconut [...]

My love for cooking arose from the kitchens of ‘East End’, in Cannanore, where my grandmother stirred and shook and whipped up the most delicious delicacies. The kitchen was old fashioned. Wood fires burned throughout the day and my grandmother who was called Mammu, by all her grandchildren, had to blow frequently through a long [...]

Here’s a contribution from my mother:
There’s nothing more invigorating than a hearty breakfast. There was a time when breakfasts in my mother’s home were huge and wholesome. Fried, poached or boiled eggs, thick slices of toast, butter, marmalade, chutney, rashers of bacon, fried tomatoes and thick slices of roast potatoes and that wasn’t all! There [...]