Healthy Baking: The Really Gingery Ragi Biscuit

Ragi, flaxseed, jaggery, ginger, sesame seeds - you might wonder what these utterly healthy ingredients are doing in a cookie! You might even think it's a complete madhouse of an idea. Ragi / nachni / mandwa / finger millets have been an Indian superfood well before everyone and their uncle started pestering relatives abroad to get them boatloads of quinoa for their daily consumption instead of rice. India, being the world's largest producer of millets, it's high time we showed some respect for our own grains, rather than scrambling after every latest food trend in the world. Ragi, like most other millets, formed a part of prehistoric Indian meals, then completely ignored and considered downmarket in the years that followed, where the rich ate rice, and now slowly the awareness of these prehistoric grains as being nutritional powerhouses is coming back. 

For those who haven't tasted ragi flour, it does have a coarse texture and wont feel as smooth as a refined flour in your mouth. The coarseness comes from the fiber content in ragi. Among all millets, ragi has the highest calcium content (370mg/100g). Its calcium content is nearly 10 times that of wheat (41mg/100g) and 35 times that of rice (10mg/100g). 

Sesame seeds, not only make these cookies look pretty, they are also rich in calcium and good fats, and with flaxseeds rich in omega-3, this is one uber-healthy recipe, perfect for your kid's lunch box treat or with your afternoon cup of tea. If you've baked cookies using traditional cookie recipes, you'd know that most of them call for 1-2 sticks of butter, upto 250 grams! Here, you get 20 biscuits with just 3 tbsp butter. You can, by all means, try substituting butter with ghee, for a richer, deeper flavour. 



Regarding flaxseeds, their nutrients are only absorbed if the seeds are powdered. You get powdered flaxseed in several supermarkets (Nilgiri's in Bangalore) and health food stores. If you don't find them, get the whole seeds, lightly toast 100 grams flaxseeds and powder it in the mixer. Keep in airtight container in the fridge. 

Recipe for Ragi - Ginger Biscuits
Makes 20
Time taken - Under 30 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup ragi flour
1/2 cup maida
2 tbsp skimmed milk powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
5 tsp powdered jaggery
1/2 cup crystal sugar
2 tsp flaxseed powder
1 tsp dried ginger powder (sonth powder)
1/2 tsp finely grated ginger*
1/2 tsp chai masala or 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
3-4 tbsp cold milk
1 tbsp black sesame seeds + 1 tbsp white sesame seeds (or entirely white)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 180 C.
2. Keep a baking tray ready, lined with silicone mat or a greased tin foil or parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except butter and milk, until well combined.
4. Add the butter pieces and with finger tips rub the mixture together until it feels like bread crumbs
5. Add milk 1 tbsp at a time and knead gently till it comes together like a dough. 
6. Divide into 20 equal balls, rolling each between lightly greased palms. Gently press each ball on the sesame seeds laid out on a plate, only on one side and place the flattened ball, sesame seeds side up, on the baking sheet, leaving a little space between each cookie, for they'll expand.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180C until the tops are browned. Cool and store in air tight container.

Tip
*To get finely grated ginger for salad dressings, tea and ginger cookies, store the cleaned ginger roots in a ziploc bag in the freezer. They stay forever, don't get soggy and when grated, give finely powdered fresh ginger. 

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Eggless Buckwheat Crepes : Health on a plate

Last Saturday, I looked at my dinner plate and I felt "Damn, it should be illegal to eat this healthy on a Saturday night." Yes it was so good that it was bad. And we were watching a brilliant brilliant series to add all the necessary wickedness and spice to this healthy plate. 

You may think food bloggers have proper weekly menus and they are always on the top of what to feed their families every single day. In my case, that's so wrong. I print out menu formats. I order my weekly produce and groceries and think of making a plan that will use them in the most systematic manner. But no, that never happens. I'm best when I'm impulsive. And sometimes there are so many bits of assorted vegetables leftover that even the most creative part of my brain wont figure out how to put them together. 

I've come up with an idea for such situations. One is to make this all forgiving Tamil dish called Poricha koottu where you throw in every possible vegetable (well, not actually, but it works), add mashed dal, a freshly ground masala and you're done. It tastes fabulous with steamed rice or broken wheat or any such grain. The other idea is if there are 3-4 leftover veggies, microwave them individually and then saute them individually in some olive oil and garlic, adding a pinch of salt and lots of pepper in the end. This is much better than 'boiling' them. Microwaving them for a short burst of time with very little water (1-2 tsp) keeps them crunchy while not keeping them raw and then everything tastes fabulous with garlic and olive oil. 

But this post is about buckwheat crepes. Having had the authentic French style buckwheat crepes (galettes) from our local pizzeria run by a French lady and her husband, I was inspired enough to buy a bag of buckwheat flour. I tried making crepes using a traditional recipe (using butter, milk, eggs). While the crepes turned out beautiful, the smell of eggs was not the most pleasant feeling for me. This is my own improvised recipe that's egg free and gluten free, because I've used rice flour along with buckwheat instead of all purpose flour. You do need a good non stick skillet / dosa pan to be successful with this. 

Recipe for Eggless Buckwheat Crepes
Makes 5-6 crepes

Ingredients
1 cup buckwheat flour*
1/3 cup rice flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vinegar
butter or oil to grease pan

Directions

1. In a mixer jar / food processor, add the flours, salt and water. Spin for 30 seconds, open the jar and bring the contents together using a spatula. Run the mixer for 30 seconds more until you get a smooth batter. Remove this into a bowl and keep covered for 30 minutes. 
2. You can refrigerate this if you plan to use this much later.
3. Just before making crepes, add baking soda, add the vinegar on top of the soda and 1-2 tsp of water and beat the mixture well. It will fizz up a bit and the batter will become light.
4. Grease a non stick skillet. Wipe off excess oil / butter with kitchen tissue. When the skillet is moderate hot, take a ladleful of batter, pour it in the centre and with back of ladle quickly make outward circles to spread the batter to an 8" thin lacy round. As soon as bubbles appear all over the crepe (around 45 seconds) turn it to the other side. Cook for 20 seconds, fold it in half and half again and keep warm.

There's another indulgent way to eat buckwheat crepes. Smear Nutella throughout the crepe and roll it up. 
Also, my other favourite way to eat these is with a filling of sautéed spinach and ricotta or feta cheese.

Buckwheat flour is  naturally gluten-free, high in iron, fiber, protein, selenium and zinc. Read about the numerous health benefits of buckwheat.

*Food Shopping Guide:
You get buckwheat flour in the Gluten Free shelf of Godrej Nature's Basket. It's also available in various organic and health food stores. The one I buy from Nature's Basket is ground along with the skins making it healthier and higher in fibre.

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Watermelon Feta Salad : Super easy and super gorgeous

Tell me this picture doesn't want to make you grab a fork and have a go at it? And let me tell you this is a picture from my iPhone 3GS (yes, I'm slowly working towards the fund for an iPhone4S). I know this is not the perfect salad for winter, but with a bunch of other spicy, hot foods on the table, it goes beautifully. Handful of ingredients, no cooking involved, can easily make a BIG batch - it doesn't get easier than that.

This is my version and there are many variations to this. Some recipes use black or green olives, sliced onions, crushed dried herbs - somehow I don't like the taste of onions paired with watermelon and I like to keep this as minimalistic as possible.

The salty feta plus sweet watermelon plus sour balsamic is a drop-dead gorgeous combination that few people can resist. 

Recipe Watermelon Feta Salad
Printable version of recipe here

Serves 5
Takes under 15 minutes

Ingredients
Half a large watermelon, cubed (roughly 5 cups)
Handful of seedless grapes (optional)
200-250 grams feta cheese
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey (optional)
handful of freshly plucked and washed (and dried) mint leaves
1 cucumber, halve lengthwise, remove seeds and cut into half moons

Directions

1. Take a large platter, scatter the watermelon chunks and grapes.
2. Spoon small chunks of feta and scatter them evenly across platter.
3. Do the same with the mint leaves and cucumber.
4. Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey* around the entire platter.
5. This is one salad that SHOULD NOT be tossed or the feta will become a paste and the salad will look all messed up. Let this sit in the fridge for 10-15 minutes and then serve as it is.

*If the watermelon is sweet, you don't need to use honey.
Also, it's not necessary to completely deseed the watermelon, which is a time consuming and next to impossible task. 


Top 4 tips for a great Watermelon-Feta salad:

1. Fresh crisp watermelon
2. Reasonably good feta and be generous with it
3. Fresh mint leaves - this makes ALL the difference
4. DO NOT TOSS

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The secret to absolutely delicious Masala Aloo

I'd first seen this recipe in a cookery show, Khana Khazana, one of the longest running cooking shows in India by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. What I remember about this one was that he was cooking some authentic Punjabi dishes with his mum. And what I remember from this recipe was one unique technique which I had never seen or read about before. To know what that is, you will have to go read through the entire post.

Potatoes, who doesn't love them? And you might think it is utterly impossible to mess up a potato dish. But look at these culinary competitions like Masterchef Australia and you realise how much thought and process goes into making a simple dish like mashed potatoes. Potatoes are the sponges of the culinary world. They absorb most flavours beautifully, go with any vegetable most amicably and you need to work really hard to make a potato taste BAD!

I think the make or break in most potato dishes is seasoning. They need adequate salt to taste good, or it's just a bland boiled chunk of a starchy vegetable.

I like to do a little teaser off and on, on my facebook page. If something turns out really delicious from the day's cooking, I'll post an Instagram pic of the dish and depending on the responses I get, it ends up featuring on the blog or not. When I posted the picture of this potato dish yesterday, it got many more oohs and aahs than I expected. This one is a recipe any beginner cook (or bachelor cook) can nail. All you need is to manage to cook the potatoes well in their skins. Pressure cooker works best here, but if you have a phobia to my favourite implement in the kitchen, you need some patience to boil the potatoes whole, in their skins, until they are well cooked right till the middle and then proceed with the recipe [Details on cooking potatoes in pressure cooker and pot given at the end of the post].

You could get more adventurous with this recipe using more spices like amchoor (dried mango powder) or crushed dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) but before you go raid the spice aisle, try making this with the basic spices. I can promise you will be wowed!

For my readers from outside India, if you are new to Indian cooking, and you want to try a simple curry recipe, this is the perfect one for you. Few ingredients, simple technique and superb results :) 

All curries are not with gravies and do not require sautéing of onions-tomatoes-ginger-garlic. In fact, in most South Indian cuisines, a curry is a dry saute of vegetables! Potatoes was one of the first things I cooked as a 10 year old girl. My grandmom would keep boiled potatoes ready and I would make a simple potato roast. 

Recipe Masala Aloo - Spice coated potatoes
Printable version here
Serves 3-4
Ready in under 30 minutes
Vegetarian / Vegan side 

Ingredients
4-5 medium potatoes
1 tbsp rice flour or corn meal
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Fat pinch of asafoetida (optional, but really elevates the taste)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 - 1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leave for garnish

Directions

1. Pressure cook* or boil potatoes until they are well cooked.
2. Once cool enough to handle, peel the skins and quarter each potato into 4 large pieces.
3. In a large bowl, toss the pieces in rice flour coating well, and keep aside.
4. In a large non-stick wok / kadai, heat the oil.
5. Add asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add the coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and SALT to the oil.
6. Stir well so that all the spice powder INCLUDING salt get cooked in oil.
7. Do this on a low flame so that none of the spices burn. Immediately, throw in the rice flour tossed potato chunks, stirring gently to coat with the spices and oil.
8. Cook them on a low flame until all the potato chunks get encrusted with spices, around 7-8 minutes, turning occasionally.
9. Garnish with finely chopped coriander.

This makes an excellent accompaniment to rotis or sliced bread.
Perfect with steamed rice and any dal.
You could easily customize this recipe for kids by omitting the red chilli powder and following all other steps.

One secret to this recipe is the rice flour (easily available in supermarkets in India or Indian stores abroad). If you cannot find this, you could substitute with corn meal or makkai atta. This is a tip used in Tamil style potato roast, where the coarse rice flour gives the final dish a nice crunch.
The second secret is adding the salt to the oil, which was shown in the Khana Khazana cookery show, by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's mum. It just makes the potatoes taste so much better seasoned!


How to pressure cook potatoes:
Place scrubbed whole potatoes in a container and place this inside a pressure cooker with an inch high water in the cooker. Do NOT add any water to the container in which the potatoes are kept.
Close pressure cooker lid with the whistle. Keep on high flame and allow two whistles, lower the flame to minimum and let this be on sim for 7 minutes or so. Keep for 10 minutes for bigger sized potatoes, or they will be raw inside.
Once pressure falls, let out excess steam by pulling up the whistle with a pair of tongs and open lid.
Insert a knife inside the potato to check if it is cooked all the way through. Peel when cool enough to handle. Do not wash with water to cool the potatoes quickly, they will become soggy.

No pressure cooker? Read this primer in The Kitchn on how to boil potatoes in a pot.

Details on my debut TV appearance in Twist of Taste / Fox Traveller this weekend here

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Yard long beans curry : Karamani curry - Garden to plate

Yard long beans (Chauli / Karamani) have not been my most favourite vegetable, because they are often tough and stringy when bought from the supermarket. Ever since I started growing these in my garden, I've changed my opinion about this vegetable. 

Seeds from Auchan (formerly SPAR) Supermarket, Bangalore

For one, it is a hardy plant, producing a good yield once it starts flowering and fruiting. It's always fun to search for the green delicate long beans among the green leaves and there are a surprise few always hiding in the middle of the foliage. You can pluck them when still tender which means they cook in no time. The overlooked beans can always be used for the mature seeds inside, which you can use in a soup or a vegetable dish. 

I may have said this before, but to avoid any confusion, I must clarify that, 'Curry' in the tamil / Tambrahm cuisine parlance means a dry saute, where boiled or raw chopped vegetables are added to a hot oil after a simple tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds, udad dal and dried red chillies. And once the vegetable is nearly cooked, a sprinkling of fresh coconut completes the dish. It is almost like a lightly cooked salad and not a gravy dish. Also, it is one of the easiest ways to prepare any vegetable, while retaining it's nutrition, taste and colour.

Karamani Curry / Yard long beans curry
Printable version here

Serves 2-3

Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp of oil ( I used organic coconut oil)

Pinch of asafoetida

2 dried red chillies, broken

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp udad dal

2 cups of chopped yard long beans

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sambar powder

2 tsp fresh coconut 

Directions

1. In a large wok / kadai, heat the oil. 
2. Add asafoetida, immediately adding red chillies, mustard seeds, udad dal. 
3. Once mustard seeds splutter and dal turns golden, add the chopped beans, salt - stir well and sprinkle water, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes on a low flame. 
4. Check on the beans every 3 minutes or so, sprinkling some water, if it is too dry or catching at the bottom of the pan.
5. Once done (tender, but still retaining some crunch), sprinkle sambar powder, stir to mix well.
6. Remove from flame and garnish with coconut.
7. Serve with rasam-rice or sambar - rice.

Useful information about growing yard long beans on the USDA site. 

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Chai Spiced Mini Pumpkin Mini Bundts with glaze - #bundtamonth

This Diwali, I didn't get down to making any of the traditional goodies. And I managed to find a valid excuse. Being down with the worst cough episode of the year during the festive season is such a dampener. But when loving neighbours get you home-made goodies, you can't help but muster some enthusiasm and make some stuff that you can share with them. 

Since I've been eyeing these pumpkin-spice loaves for quite sometime, I decided to make them into mini-Bundts with a glaze that will go with these flavours. The Wilton Mini-Bundt tray is the cutest baking accessory, generously given to me by my friend, Preethi, and it always makes the prettiest little cakes. 

Pumpkin and the spices that go into making Chai Masala make a lovely pair. The fragrance and heat from the spices like ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon add a lovely dimension to the bland sweetness of pumpkin. Use the darkest golden colour pumpkin you can find for this recipe. Remove skin, dice into small cubes and boil in some water till soft. Drain and blend in a mixer till you get a fine puree. This can be refrigerated until use. Use in cakes, muffins for moist cakes with minimal use of oil / butter. This recipe uses just 2 tbsp of oil and yet the cakes are extremely moist.

Recipe for Chai Spiced Pumpkin Mini Bundts

Makes 12 - 16 mini bundt cakes

Adapted from : An Edible Mosaic 

Ingredients

3/4 Cup pumpkin puree (explained above)

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp oil

1 1/4 C all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp dried ginger powder

For glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk plus some more if required

1/2 tsp cardamom essence or vanilla extract or orange extract

1 tsp Cointreau (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 175 C.
2. Using oil, grease the cavities of a mini-bundt pan or two mini loaf pans or a 7" round tin.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, brown sugar, eggs and oil.
4. In another bowl, with a whisk mix together all dry ingredients.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two batches. Incorporate well to make a smooth batter.
6. Fill 2 heaped teaspoonfuls per cavity or 3/4 filling each.
7. Bake mini bundts for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
8. Mini loaf pans may take around 30 minutes and round cake tin around 45-50 minutes. Once golden brown on the top and a tester comes out clean, they are ready to come out of the oven.
9. Mix all ingredients for glaze with a spoon until it is of drizzling consistency. Add a few drops more milk if required.
10. When the cakes are still warm, drizzle over them.
11. Serve warm.

Wishing you and your dear ones a very Happy Diwali

I'm sharing this with Lora and Anuradha for their #BundtAMonth challenge Spicy November.

You can check the other lovely Bundts on their blogs.

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The perfect lunchbox and recipe for Spinach Pesarattu

On my Facebook page (Saffrontrail on Facebook) I decided to do a month long series of logging my kid's lunch box and a brief recipe for each of the things. It turned out to be very well received, much more than what I had expected. Taking that cue, I did a column on lunch-boxes for my monthly column in Sunday DNA. Here, I am sharing the same for those who missed it in the papers. I shall be happy to answer your queries in the comment section. 

Whether it is for adults, or kids, the lunchbox presents many dilemmas. What to pack, how much time to spend on preparing it, what will taste good a few hours after packing, what can be made ahead – these are the top questions about packing a proper lunchbox.

A packed lunch should be a portable, less-elaborate version of a lunch you would have at home and by that I mean, well balanced, hygienic and tasty.

Carbohydrates form the base of any meal. One can choose from wholegrain bread, rotis, pita bread, cooked unpolished rice, broken wheat, semolina, pasta, potato etc. Younger kids can do with white sandwich bread as too much fibre can fill them up quickly before they can consume the required calories. Wholegrain sandwiches, stuffed pita bread, fried rice with vegetables or chicken, broken wheat patties, semolina upma, pasta tossed with vegetables or in a salad, boiled potato or potato patties are some of the ways to build the carbohydrate component.

The box needs to have a protein component too. You could choose from chicken, eggs, beans, lentils, cheese, tofu, paneer, yogurt and nuts. Shredded lean chicken can be a part of wraps, sandwiches or pasta. A whole boiled egg, sliced in half and sprinkled with a pinch of salt and pepper makes the perfect addition to a kid’s lunchbox, and the eggs can be boiled the previous night. 

Cooked beans like chickpeas, black-eyed peas, dried peas, rajma can be mashed and added to vegetable patties or made into hummus for sandwiches. Cheese cubes by themselves or in sandwiches are a most popular protein option for kids. Tofu or paneer can be added to dry vegetable curries that can be used to stuff rotis to make a roll. Yogurt can be set in one of the smaller boxes and put in the fridge overnight to be carried in the lunchbox. This makes a good accompaniment to rice and broken wheat based dishes, if the commute is not too long and the workplace / school has a refrigerator. 

Nuts are a great snacking option, rich in a variety of vital nutrients – add this to your kid’s muffins or cookies and to your salad. Taking it in the lunch box is the best way to eat nuts while exercising portion control. Nut butters are good for spreading in sandwiches.

Since both adults and kids need to get five to nine servings of vegetables and fruit, it is important that the lunchbox has a couple of servings from this group. Whatever food is going into the lunchbox, make sure it is fortified with some vegetables (other than potatoes, which are starch component) – for example, green beans and peas in rice, cucumber and carrot sticks with hummus, red bell pepper and zucchini in pasta. Add some pomegranate pearls to raita or curd-rice, grated apples and pears in muffins, sliced banana in peanut butter sandwich.

Once in a while, surprise your kid with a homemade goodie like a cookie or any other treat.

Some sample lunchboxes:

·      Egg Salad Sandwich and watermelon cubes

·      Broken wheat vegetable pulao with plain yogurt or raita

·      Pita bread stuffed with shredded chicken with salad and apple

·      Buttermilk semolina upma with peas and almonds

·      Pasta with spinach and cheese or paneer and orange

·      Vegetable idlis with tomato-onion chutney and a boiled egg

Recipe for Baby Pesarattu with spinach

1. Soak 1 cup of whole green moong overnight. 
2. Drain the soaked moong and grind it with a cup of washed and cleaned raw spinach leaves, a small piece of ginger and ½ tsp of salt. This does not require to be fermented. Pesarattu can be made immediately after the batter is ready.
3. On a lightly greased non-stick tava, spoon out tablespoon full of batter with a little space in between the pesarattu, add a few drops of ghee or oil along the sides and flip when one side is cooked. 
4. You can sprinkle sesame seeds on one side while the other is cooking. 
5. Cook the other side similarly and serve with chutney or ketchup. 
6. If this dish is for adults, you could add a couple of green chillies while grinding the batter.

[originally published in the Sunday DNA - September 23, 2012]

If you liked this post, you could follow the Saffrontrail Facebook page for more frequent updates and pictures.

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Six years and counting

It was in March 2006 that I gingerly typed out the first few words of this food blog. I had no clue what this would turn into. I wasn't even aware that what I was doing would be called 'foodblogging' - though it does seem to be the obvious term for it now.

I got connected with the other early food bloggers from India and abroad. Some of my favourite blogs in my first year of blogging were Mahanandi, Sailu's Food, One Hot Stove, Fat Free Vegan and What's For Lunch Honey. Over the last few years, food blogging became quite a phenomenon, with every home cook documenting his / her recipes (and why not?) - so much so, that at last count, our Bangalore Food Bloggers Group on Facebook has 75 members. 75 foodbloggers in Bangalore city alone (!!), and may be many more who aren't a part of the group.

I've managed to meet quite a few food bloggers in the last six years and some of them are my dearest friends today, friendship tempered by the love of food. I've gone on long blogging breaks, the audience has possibly changed but there's something that's always brought me back. It's quite impossible to abandon a baby like that.

Saffron Trail was recently nominated in the category of Best Healthy Cooking Blog in the Homies 2012 and it was an honour to be nominated with my blogger batch mates like Susan from Fat Free Vegan. Also, words of appreciation from people who try my recipes, a pat on the back from local publications, chefs and fellow foodies respecting you for the persistence in doing something you are passionate about-all of the above keeps me going in making this blog a better place for food lovers to visit.

I think I'm finally finding my blogging groove back so do keep checking back for more from my kitchen (and garden).

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About me

Hello! Welcome to my little nook on the world wide web where I open the doors of my kitchen to you. Sitting on our virtual table, over a cup of tea (or filter coffee) I share with you my food stories, recipes, some my own, some from my family and some from friends.


I started this blog on 12 March, 2006, very hesitantly, as an online diary of the stuff I cook, just so this highly impulsive cook in me can keep a record of what went into a dish she liked, in case I was asked to make it again.


A little background about me
By qualification, I'm a medical doctor and nutritionist (which is why you will find that most of the food I write about, is good for you and me). I've been writing on nutrition, health and food for over 5 years now - for magazines, newspapers and other publications. I've recently started writing for BBC Good Food since its launch in India.


As a child, I wasn't allowed much near the cooking range, except may be as an older kid to make a cup of tea for my grandparents. I started cooking only after my medical college when we were posted for rural internship and we had to cook ourselves if we had to eat something edible. And then one thing led to the other and my passion for cooking took a lead over many other hobbies and interests. A year's stay in US in 2005, exposed me to 24 hour Food TV, global cuisines and of course, the joys of baking.


A little more personal
I'm married to a foodie, who'll happily taste everything I cook (umm...except may be some members of the gourd family) and I'm mom to a three year old son, who turned out to possess gourmet tastes ever since he started eating solids.


This blog was born in Bombay (Mumbai, India), moved to Hyderabad for a while and I currently live in Bangalore. I try and grow some vegetables and herbs in my terrace garden, many of which find a mention in my present posts. 


Over the years, Saffron Trail has got a fair share of press and mentions. Some of them are listed here.


If you want to get in touch with me, check the Contact Me page or send me a line on the email id below. And, thank you for visiting my blog.

[Updated on 13 March, 2012]

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