Memories of My Granny's Kitchen

The aroma would fill up her entire kitchen whenever she would prepare mango pickle. All the heavenly dishes that she would cook would change course with every other festival. Diwali, Holi, Navratri, Ganesh Chaturthi any many other festivals like these would mean tempting aromas of ladoos, puran polis and modaks in her kitchen. The mouth-watering delicacies that she would prepare were as luscious as their aromas were.

Getting nostalgic of those day of my childhood when all my school friends would envy me because of the yummy food that she would prepare for my school tiffin, makes me badly crave for it today.
I remember all the neighbouring aunties telling her to start her own tiffin service because of the tasty and healthy food that she could prepare. My mother would also encourage her for the same by saying, "You are a perfect chef for a tiffin service in Mumbai. Nobody can ever beat you in that!" I would also try my bit by saying, "I can help you in tiffin delivery." But she would just laugh it off and say, "I don't know about Mumbai but I am happy and content in being the perfect chef for my family."

Every time I order a tiffin, these memories come gushing back to my mind. I simply wonder that her business would have flourished had she taken up something like pure veg tiffin's services and later expanded it into a corporate catering business. I would have given a helping hand to her and we could have made it a success. But she had some other plans in her mind, plans that were limited to her family and friends, plans which did not involve money in return for her food but priceless things like smiles of contentment and happiness on our faces on having her food.

I miss her, miss that aroma, I miss that taste of the yummy food that she would cook. I wish I should have learnt some of her best recipes so as to pass them on to my kids and the next generations to come. Although my mom did manage to learn a few, there were many other which she didn't, which would have helped me prepare the kind of food I long for today, the one which brings a smile of contentment on my face.

If you have any such memories of you and your Granny then share them with me in the comment box below. I would love to hear them!

The Must Haves: Indian Vegan Kitchen

If one fine day you decide to go vegan, the first thing that would dawn on you would be to transform your kitchen into a vegan one. But then you would wonder how do you go about doing so? Hence, the next thing you would do is Google- ‘Vegan Kitchen Essentials’ and then the results that would show up would contain all sorts of item but the ones which you can actually find easily in your nearby markets.

So, I decided to compile a list of the must haves which you can easily find in your local markets. You can then stuff them into your all new Vegan Kitchen and kick start cooking vegan delicacies that can go into your breakfast tiffin’s or into your kid’s school tiffin box.

Make sure that your Kitchen never lacks any of the following:

1.       Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2.       Fresh Veggies like peas, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, leafy vegetables etc.

3.      Spices like sea salt, turmeric, black pepper, chillies, garam masala, cloves, ground coriander, cinnamon, cumin etc.

4.       Flour

5.       Ginger & garlic

6.       Lentils

7.       Fresh fruits like apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, strawberries etc.

8.       Lemons

9.       Non-dairy milk (Rice, coconut, soy, almond etc.)

10.   Nuts like walnuts, peanuts, almonds, etc.

Snoop into any regular vegan kitchen in India and you would definitely find this stuff around, especially in kitchens where food that goes into Jain Veg tiffin is cooked. You can cook your favorite salad or prepare tasty and healthy juices with the help of this list. I am sure all the vegan moms out there who every morning cook vegan dishes which go into the Veg tiffin’s of their vegan kids would give a testimony for how this list involves all the prerequisites for a vegan kitchen.

If you are a vegan mom and would like to add anything more to my list then please do drop a comment for the same. Till then keep coming back to my blog for there’s a lot more interesting stuff coming soon your way!