Sunchoke Soup

I still remember how excited I was on my first day at the culinary school. Me and 19 others just like me were wearing our new white coats, white hats, with the new knife sets we had just bought on our shoulders. Surely, we were all subconsciously feeling like the contestants on Top Chef, ready to amaze everyone else with our skills! So our instructor walked in the kitchen, gave us all a smile, and asked us a question: How many players are there on a football team? A couple of enthusiastic students answered in unison: 11 players on each team, Chef! Instructor continued: So out of the 22 players on the football field, how many handle the ball at any given time? One player, Chef! So … [Read more...]

Quinoa Paella – A Healthy Vegetarian Paella Recipe

There is something sexy about men cooking! Every culture has festivals or traditions where a group of men come together and cook out under the sky, generally on an open fire - be it the American barbecue, Indian biryani, or Spanish paella. As family stories flow over drinks in the open air, and men take charge of everything - from building the fire to the actual cooking, the whole experience truly is a food lover's paradise. I have worked with some amazing male chefs, and I personally know guys who absolutely enjoy cooking at home. But there are some men who lack the patience to work in the kitchen! Even these reluctant cooks light up when they see an open fire. Give them a couple of … [Read more...]

Gluten Free Muffins – Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

I don't think there is any dispute about which is the best part of a muffin - its the muffin top! You can tell a lot about a person based on how they eat their muffin. The calm and heedful carefully detach the top of the muffin and put it aside to savor later. They want to end their muffin eating experience on a high note; these are the people who believe in delayed gratification. The impulsive on the other hand, lack the patience and take a big bite out of the muffin top! A muffin can also be used to test the bond of a relationship, just ask a couple to share a muffin. You certainly hope to see two happy people beaming with joy a few moments later, but do cross your … [Read more...]

Roasted Root Vegetable Salad with Millet

"Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food". -Hippocrates Growing up as a kid in India, my daily diet reflected this simple philosophy. We ate our food according to the needs of our bodies. Eating seasonal food automatically took care of the body's nutritional requirements for that season. I also remember a number of my mom's home remedies to common ailments - Sore throat? Honey with turmeric. Upset stomach? Bitter green juice. Food was indeed our medicine. From what I read and hear about the food culture in the western world a few decades ago, it wasn't much different from India. It can not be a coincidence then, how the "factory food" culture has dragged in the same … [Read more...]

Gluten Free Snack – Healthy Amaranth Flour Crackers with Cauliflower Dip

May be it is just Vancouver, but I feel like everyone around me is turning into a foodie! Vancouver has always been a foodie town, but lately, I find people here are super conscious about where they buy their produce, what they cook and what restaurants they frequent. Being a food blogger is like being a drug dealer in a town of addicts. May be that's not the best example, but you get the idea - it is good to be a food blogger in Vancouver! When I am not cooking or eating, I like to research and read up about ingredients I can use in my recipes. I recently came across a super food I had never cooked with before - Amaranth seeds. The more I read about this ingredient, the more excited I … [Read more...]

Mushroom Risotto – Brown Rice Risotto with Wild Mushrooms

I started my culinary school program in the winter of 2012, along with 15 others chef wannabes. We spent one month to learn one specific skill set - from knife skills, butchery, baking to classical sauces - and then moved on to the next block. There are chefs who have dedicated their entire lives exploring just one of the skills on this list. So trying to even learn the basics of so many different aspects of the culinary world was just mind numbing. When my sister visited us here in Vancouver, I was nearing the end of my training. Lopa and her husband Nikhil spent about a month with us, and I was so excited to cook all the different dishes I had learned at the culinary school. Lopa and … [Read more...]