A Brownian Walk Through Life...

This weekend was the last weekend of Persimmon season in our farmer's market around here. Generally Persimmons are all over by end of December but this year winter has been mild and so we have persimmons for much longer as a delicious side effect of that :) But, sooner or later I suppose the persimmons need to give way to juicy oranges and then to spring berries. We devour persimmons when in season. The Fuyu variety in particular is our favorite. Persimmons are perfect for after dinner fruits - when ripe they are so sweet like candy that you won't miss desserts! However the fruit can be overripe soon if you don't finish it off quickly - when that happens this yummy persimmon smoothie comes to rescue. It is super simple and takes only 2 minutes to make.  Blend together: 3 ripe persimmons chopped into cubes (we keep the skin but feel free to remove skin if you prefer that way). 1C almond milk (or regular milk or soy milk etc) adjust t…

Ukadiche Modak is basically steamed modak, think of it like sweet dumpling made with rice flour wrapper and sweet coconut stuffing - they are more popular lately because they are a healthier alternative to traditional modak which are deep fried in ghee or butter. I have always loved Ukadiche Modak more than the traditional one -- I think if you are a dumpling fan in general, this is right up your alley!! In Maharashtra where I come from there is a saying that you can gauge the quality of a home cook by their Ukadiche Modak, it is supposed to be a very tricky recipe - however I did not really have any trouble with it; I am guessing because of all the practice I have had making vegetable dumplings at home - and these are a very close cousins. I followed this recipe to proportions. I found that kneading the dough really well matters a lot; as well as letting it rest a bit before working. Frozen coconut works just as well and is a huge time saver. We rece…

At our home winter means lots and lots of soups and stews. One of the best perks of braving cold and rainy winter days is you can look forward to coming back to warm home and dig in through a bowl of your favorite hot comforting soup right in your PJs!  We make lots of soups and stews at our home, particularly in winter and mostly all vegetarian. And when we make soups, they are not starters or sides.. they get the place of the main dish! You can pair a hearty bowl of soup with nice crusty french bread broiled with olive oil and it can be a meal to remember. You can also pair with a protein or a salad if you wish, but I think bowl of hearty soup and bread can be a fine meal in it's own right. Here are our top 5 favorite winter vegetarian soups which often make appearance on our table. They all use seasonal vegetables and almost all of them are quite forgiving and adaptable so feel free to experiment and suite to your taste. One of the healthiest…

Bulgar wheat or cracked wheat is packed with vitamins, minerals and lots of fiber and it's very delicious. It has a slightly crunchy and nutty taste which I love. Cracked wheat being a thick and more substantial grain has the advantage of standing up really well to spices. As part of adding more different grains to our meals, I have been stocking up on cracked wheat, couscous, quinoa, wild rice and cornmeal - all of which make usual rotation appearances on the dinner table. Bob's red mills is generally a well trusted and readily available brand which carriers many different grains, but if not you can always find them online.  This recipe is a healthy make-over of a beloved classic. It is also part of my fast 20-minutes or less weeknight dinner collection. It is very adaptable to different vegetables and herbs - feel free to use whatever you have at hand or tucked away in that forgotten corner of the fridge. For every cup of dried cracked wheat, …

At our home we don't have many traditions, but one tradition which we love to follow year over year every year is our mother & daughter Christmas baking day. Every year we set aside a whole afternoon to bake and decorate many batches of cookies and share with teachers, household help and family friends. It's a wonderful time doing what we love and cherishing the time together making holiday memories. This year I had big plans to attempt some new cookies - mainly my eyes were on a particular chocolate chip mint thins with candy cane crunch from nytimes.com and a recipe I found online for gingerbread swirl fudge which simply looked delicious. We couldn't quite make the time to bake chocolate dipped mint thins; but we did put together gingerbread swirl fudge which was very easy to put together and looked great but we found it too sweet and didn't enjoy as much. So we stuck with our usuals - which in our house is this trusted recipe of sug…

I love to read. Fiction, non-fiction, history, memoir, tech books.. as long as a book is put in front of me, I read! It's like the Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter series -- I totally get her reading addiction and empathize with it too :) Unfortunately I don't get as much time as I would like to read now a days what with work and daily grind, but my insomnia ensures at least 20-30 mins of quiet reading baked into the day before turning off the lights. It's like a silver lining to my nightly sleeping ritual. 2019, I am happy to report, was an excellent year when it came to bedside reading. I was able to work in a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. By the end of the year as December rolled in, all I wanted were light beach fiction reads to put me in the mood for holidays and our warm beach vacation - and that's just how I ended the year, with some feel good easy to read fiction! Non-fiction: Image Source: goodreads.com In the non-f…

This is one of the super healthy, super quick recipes which we often cook for weekday dinners but never posted. I think it's because we make it mostly on days when we are starving and dinner is over within minutes of being out of oven leaving no time for photos! Whatever may be the reason the recipe is a sure keeper! It allows for endless variations. I recommend keeping the lemon slices and juice, but switch it up with herbs (rosemary, thyme, mint, even Indian cilantro-mint chutney works excellently as top coat!). The fish will be moist and super juicy and it's a true delight to eat. We serve it with a green salad or a Mediterranean salad on the side. Enjoy! Source:  adapted from this wellplated recipe . Ingredients: 1 medium sized piece of boneless salmon filet 1 lemon (half thinly sliced; half juiced) 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 3 cloves of garlic - thinly chopped salt & pepper 1/2 tsp herbs de Provence - crushed few springs of fresh…