Summer Vacations and ice creams.

It is time to begin the most important countdown of the year. The countdown for summer vacations.

July stands for summer vacations and vacations mean a lot of happy things for my little chefling. Grandparents, staying up late, multiple trips to the library, splashing around in the pool, making presents for everyone, meeting old friends, movie marathons, endless rounds of dobble and scrabble and eating icecreams!

Yes, that last bit is her favourite.

Sometimes sitting alone in the balcony licking the ice lolly looking at the cars pass by, sometimes sharing a large bowl with us; three spoons clanging against each other and sometimes with all her friends; attacking the ice-cream bar and adorning the good old vanilla and chocolate ice cream with sprinkles.

Ice cream is so much more than milk and cream and sugar, isn’t it? For me it means travelling back in time to my childhood.

Growing up, mum would always make sure we had enough in the freezer. It helped that dad too wanted it all the time! He still does. My mum’s freezer can put an ice cream parlour to shame. Such was and is the quantity and variety.

There would always be the good old vanilla. In May when the markets were loaded with mangoes, it had to be mango kulfis. Watermelon ice lollies too, a big favourite with the entire family. She would always add a hint of “roohafza” to make it sweeter and give it that rose flavor. I still do the same, but like to add some mint, lime and rock salt to it as well.

I remember the day, when we got home the ice cream maker that marked the end of the “partially freeze-whisk and breakup-refreeze” rigmarole era.

This ice cream maker required a combination of ice and rock salt in a certain predefined ratio. It had a metallic canister. Once the motor was switched on, you had to keep lining the canister with both the ice and rock salt. The motor would then turn the canister. The part time help who came to our house those days would get the rock salt from a local shop only she knew about.

My sister and I would make endless rounds to the kitchen to see if more salt was needed and bring that to my mum’s attention. After the entire operation was over, we would be given some right away. Right out of the machine; semi frozen and soft.

The ice cream didn’t last very long which meant the process was repeated every other day. Mum would also buy cones for us. Ice cream in a cone was what summer vacations were made up of. Sometimes there would be very little left and mum and dad would say but hey this is for both of you, we don’t feel like having it today. It never struck us that they may have wanted it as much as we wanted to. We would start licking the scoop with mum telling us to keep rotating the cone and keep licking it from all sides. Then would be the moment when the icecream would began to melt and make the cone go all soggy and limp. The mad rush to quickly bite into it would begin. All this while our parents would be watching us with this crushing joy in their heart for seeing us happy made them happy. Seeing us have ice cream took them back to their childhood.

Summers also equal visiting grandparents for Sara and as kids it meant the same for my sister and me. Early mornings meant laid back breakfasts, climbing the mango trees, jumping up high in an attempt to reach the grape vine for fresh grapes (grape leaves too, they taste divine!) and threading the frangipani into garlands while sitting on the frangipani tree. 

Hot and lazy afternoons were spent looking through old albums that were neatly stacked in my grandfather’s study. Those albums carried within them millions of stories. The noise made by the air cooler, the smell of the “khus” he would add to the water and cold lemonade for company.

Early evenings meant kulfis! Every evening at 4 p.m. we would start looking out of the tiny window from our grandparents room; the one that faced the road. Since the noisy cooler would be on, we didn’t want to take the risk of missing the tring tring of the kulfi wala. He too was aware that May meant that the grandchildren were here and each evening without fail he would come and stop at the main gate. He would be greeted with grand children from all the neighbouring houses queuing up rather rather impatiently for their kulfis. Two not one. One in each hand and always the same, malai kulfi. There was both a certain sense of excitement and comfort in getting the familiar. I miss those days of not having any variety, sometimes.

In that mayhem there would always be one child who would accidentally drop her/his kulfi on the road. Trust me those five minutes are the worst minutes of your life. Ask any child and she/he will nod in agreement. That kulfi you waited for all day is now on the dirty road melting into this creamy puddle that you can’t save. That feeling! Two big fat tears are forming in your eyes, the world has come to an end and at that moment your grandfather comes around and buys you another one. Happiness restored. You want to hug him tight. He is your hero.

I miss those ice cream days. Do you? What are your childhood ice-cream memories?

Sara loves to have her friends over for ice cream playdates. Once the children have played enough and are really tired, they all sit down for ice-cream.

There is always vanilla and dark chocolate. With tons of toppings. Their eyes light up.

Confetti sprinkles. Chocolate swirls. Marshmallows. Toasted Walnuts. Silvered pistachios. Dried Cranberries. Dried Papaya. Sweetened Coconut. Dry Mango Slices and more.

The children get busy “decorating” their scoops. Soon the ice cream disappears under an avalanche of sprinkles and fruits.

Then I start reminding them to eat it before it melts. 

Like my mum did.

I go back to the kitchen and watch them giggling over some stories from school, licking the ice-cream, dropping some on the floor, wiping off their cream moustaches with the sleeves of their shirts and I feel this sense of crushing joy in my heart. 

Like my mum did. 

To set up an Ice cream bar:

Ingredients:

• Several naughty little children
• Two or three ice-creams of your choice (store bought or I like to follow the recipes of the Ice cream God. With children the basics seem to work each time; vanilla, chocolate and strawberry)
• Nuts for some crunch; walnuts, pistachios, almonds, peanuts, pecans
• Fruits; fresh and/or dry (papayas, mango, coconut, cherries, berries, bananas)
• Cookies, candies, marshmallows
• Sauces if your kids like (chocolate, berries, caramel)
• Ice cream cones or bowls and spoons
• Tons of napkins to wipe their little faces

Instructions:

1. Set out everything on the table. Scoop, sprinkle and slurp. 

 Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

My month in pictures: May 2015

This morning I came across Sally's month in pictures on instagram and I loved how she shared her little and big moments from May. A visual diary of sorts; just makes so much sense, doesn't it? Thank you Sally!

Taking it one step ahead I thought it would be nice to share the same here on the blog each month. I promise to try!

Looking back at May:

Row 1 :From left to right:

• I have to begin with the Food Revolution Day which we celebrated this entire month. So many happy faces. 
• So much energy. 
• I made memories to last me a lifetime. Read the full post here.
• Thank you everyone for supporting and being there. 
• Towards the end of the month Radio Mirchi invited me to talk about my work. Thank you, it was a lot of fun.

Row 2 :From left to right:

• This month Sara and I played with food. We played with salt and food colour.
• We played with lentils.
• We also played with vegetables.
• And we played with spices. We promise to share our little creations with you here pretty soon.
• We also made some triple chocolate chip cookies!

Row 3 :From left to right:

• I had zillions of cups of coffee to help me stay awake this crazy month.
• We tried the burgers at Moylos and loved it. 
• I was invited to the Seven Sands and loved the interiors as much as the food.
• Instagram shared my work with all of their followers and I am still pinching myself.
• I had the pleasure of meeting Dianne Jacob once again. Thank you for your advice, Dianne.

Row 4 :From left to right:

• Sara made a menu for her fairies. 
• We learnt about the edibles parts of plants.
• I came across some of my old artwork (we are talking 15 years!) and pledged to get back to sketching.
• Sara made us super proud at her violin concert.
• I decided to go back to some of favourite food memoirs; revisiting The Settler's Cookbook by Yasmin AliBhai Brown.

Row 5 :From left to right:

• Sometimes I share with Sara some of the images I really like on Instagram. symmetrybreakfast and wkass are her favorite. She made us her version of symmetry breakfast and it made me grin.
• Summer Vacations are almost a month away but that isn't stopping her from making presents for her grandparents. She painted this for them.
• She has been bookmarking recipes from her Pink Princess Cookbook.
• She made me this and left it on my bedside table. 
• The Monster Diner is making her laugh these days.

Goodbye May. Hello June.

Want to see more of May? Come and say hi to me on instagram.

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

Looking back at Food Revolution Day 2015

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller.

A little more than a week since the Food Revolution Day and though a part of me is happy and content that everything went off well (finally I can put up my legs on the coffee table and ponder about the beautiful memories we created together); if you were to ask me to be really really honest I am terribly missing all those days (read the last five months).

Endless planning, organizing, exchanging hundreds of emails, eating up each other heads, agreeing, disagreeing, sleepless nights because I was too excited to sleep before each of the events and those happy faces of all the little ones who made Food Revolution Day 2015 so very special.

Yes, I am missing it all. More importantly I am just missing being around all the wonderfully generous people who came together, who went out of their way and made this happen. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much said Helen Keller. So true. None of this would have happened without them.

Thank you for being part of Food Revolution Day 2015. 

Thank you for going the extra mile.

Come with me for I want to take you with me through my Food Revolution Month 2015 which is what we did here at Dubai. We celebrated the entire month and we had a blast. This is going to be a long post so I suggest you sit down with a cup of coffee :)

3rd May 2015: We began the month with 100 tiny chefs from the Indian High School dancing to the Wiggles on the 3^rd of May. We squashed, we took a pledge and we asked lots of questions on why we need to eat healthy food. Finally we ate our squash it sandwiches and we loved it. 

These children were all part of the Young Chef Club at the school and some of them were even food inspectors (you read it right!) These little guys go around the junior school checking their friends’ lunch boxes!! So I decided to make these chefs/leaders in the making my partners and not just participants. They are now telling everyone about Food Revolution and have this huge responsibility on their tiny but very strong shoulders to spread the love of real food and cooking. I am so proud of them.

Thank you Principal, Indian High School for joining hands and for food educating the students. Thank you Ruby for doing this with me and thank you team Jamie’s Italian for waking up much before your work hours and becoming a part of this event.

See the full album here.

9th May 2015: Next up were the subscribers of DinnerTime. Each month I work on a menu for their subscribers as a DinnerTime Chef but the menu in the week of 10^th-16^th  was super special for through this menu I shared with them another part of my life; the Food Revolution part of my life. We invited everyone to cook Jamie Oliver’s Squash it Sandwich along with us so we included that as the vegetarian recipe in the box that week. It was a great feeling to see the subscribers joining millions across the globe.

Thank you Anette and the entire team at DinnerTime for agreeing to my request not just this time but always. You have always supported me and it truly brightens my day when you encourage me and indulge me like this.

15th May 2015: The big day. The global day of action. We were all up really early smashing it up at Jamie’s Italian. 100 children alongwith their parents. It was like a mad mad carnival where we played with food. There was “humble water” to drink, fruity ice popsicles to lick, a flour station to get our hands messy, pasta machines to see how fresh pasta is made and ofcourse nonstop squashing. Tattoos too. 

We took a pledge to eat more veggies and fruits, we swayed to the Food Revolution Anthem and proudly collected our certificates. 

Wearing colourful food revolution T shirts it was a like rainbow decided to show up in the desert that day.

Thank you Mansij, Luis, Anish and the entire team at Jamie’s Italian. You guys are the best. Always ready to go that extra bit. I am missing all our morning “meetings” where I felt as if I was a part of your team.

See the full album here.

16th May 2015: It was a long day but we weren’t done yet. 120 kids and their parents joined us at Lafayette Gourmet the next day. 120 workstations were ready to welcome them; recipe cards and pledge sheets, ingredients and rolling pins. 

The children tasted and tested different types of new foods (purple carrots!), made their own recipes for orange, green and pink juices, made ravioli from scratch (big hit!) and after all this took their places at their workstations. 

The atmosphere was simply amazing (read: Goosebumps inducing); 120 of them reading the pledge out aloud and squashing the veggies and fruits.

Thank you Chef Russell and the entire team at Lafayette Gourmet for believing in this event. For those 1000s of emails we exchanged, for your time and for always-always teaching the children about food (not just that day but all year round). Thank you Tony Lootah for that wonderful produce. Thank you Team Tavola for the rolling pins and more.

See the full album here.

I made such lovely memories and those of you who know me well, will know how I like to capture the little and big moments in my life. Food Revolution Day 2015 couldn’t have been complete without this rolling pin.

Before I end this post, I also want to share how everyone from media supported Food Revolution Dubai and me.

Thank you Suzanne and Linda for inviting me to Dubai Eye 103.8 and to your show and giving me chance to tell everyone at Dubai about Food Revolution. (Podcast part one here and part two here). We also made the squash it sandwich in the studio.

Today is Jamie Oliver's birthday & yesterday we had his food revolution ambassador, Prachi Grover from Dubai in our studio teaching Mohit how to make the 'SQUASH IT' sandwich in exactly 3 minutes
Posted by Radio Mirchi UAE on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Thank you Mohit and Tamanna for inviting me to Radio Mirchi UAE and to your show. It was a lot of fun squashing that sandwich. Listen to the show here.

Thank you Dina & the entire team Mother Baby Child for the write up.

Thank you Cindy & Team Good Taste for sharing the events with your readers.

Thank you The Indian Trumpet for sharing Jamie’s letter with all your readers. 

Thank you Liz and the entire team at instagram for sharing my story on the Food Revolution Day with all of your followers. This was incredibly special and overwhelming. Read the complete post on their blog here.

Thank you Libby, Jo and the entire Food Revolution Team for bearing with all of us, for answering our innumerable questions and for bringing it all together. Thank you Jamie for inspiring. 

Last but not the least. Thank you parents and thank you little ones for celebrating with us. 

Keep cooking, keep trying out new things and keep making faces (because making faces and rejecting is also a part of growing up).

Give yourself a pat on your back for you are all AWESOME.

At the last event one little girl came and told me she really really had fun today and when would be the next Food Revolution Day. I whispered in her ear, guess what it is tomorrow ! That’s right. Every day is a Food Revolution Day!

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask! 

Food Revolution Day 2015 : Fighting for Food Education

15th of May 2015 is the Food Revolution Day; a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. 

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution is a movement that allows people who love food to come together to share talents and resources, pass on their knowledge and bring food skills to life. Each year the Food Revolution Community celebrates this day with an aim to raise awareness about the importance of good food and food education and I have put together a number of events with the support of some very enthusiastic supporters for all of you. 

Before I share the details with you I need you to do something for our children.

This year, Food Revolution Day's global campaign is to put compulsory food education back on the school curriculum. Jamie believes that by educating children about food and cooking, we can equip them with the basic skills they need to lead healthier, happier lives, for themselves and their future families.  

We’re currently facing a global obesity epidemic, with 42 million children under the age of five either overweight or obese across the world. The bottom line is the next generation will live shorter lives than their parents if nothing is done to rectify these alarming stats.

So I am asking that you do two simple things if you haven't already – first, please sign this petition to show your support for compulsory practical food education in schools across the world, then, most importantly, share it via your social networks. 

In just about a month more than 740,400 people across 182 countries have signed it. Lets make this happen people.

Sign it. Share it.

I am celebrating Food Revolution Day 2015 throughout the month of May. Here are my plans:

• Sunday, 3rd May 2015: We begin the month with the children at the Indian High School . The children will be making the squash it sandwich, taking a pledge to eat healthy and interacting (This event is only for the students of the school).

• Sunday, 9th May 2015: All subscribers of DinnerTime UAE will be getting the ingredients for the Squash it Sandwich in their weekly box to cook along. So remember to order you box here and cook along. Share your pictures with us on the orange kitchens facebook page and dinnertime facebook page.

I'd also like to invite all the children (6-12), along with their parents for a morning of tasting, cooking, sharing and eating:

• Friday, 15th of May 2015 from 10.00 am-12.00 pm: Join Food Revolution Dubai & Jamie's Italian in celebrating Food Revolution Day 2015.  We will be:
• Making Jamie’s "Squash it Sandwich"
• Taking a pledge to eat healthy
• Trying our hand at making fresh pasta
• Getting our hands messy baking bread
• Beating the heat with fruit ice lollies
• Tasting new fresh foods
• Colouring and more.
• Complimentary meals for the children on the 15th.Terms & conditions apply.

This event is FREE but since there are limited seats registration is a must. 

You can register HERE.

• Saturday, 16th of May 2015 from 10.30 am-12.00 pm: Join Food Revolution Dubai & Lafayette Gourmet in celebrating Food Revolution Day 2015. We will be:
• Making Jamie’s "Squash it Sandwich
• Taking a pledge to eat healthy
• Trying our hand at making fresh pasta
• Whizzing up a smoothie
• Tasting new fresh foods and more
• Complimentary fresh food for all participating children. Terms and conditions apply.

This event is FREE but since there are limited seats registration is a must. 

You can register HERE.

Also all participating children at BOTH the events will be getting certificates of achievement.

• Friday, 1st- 15th May, 2015: Food Revolution Virtual Squashing and Smashing at Orange Kitchens.

This is what I ask of you. We are all in different parts of the world but we can all make a difference this sitting right where we are. Our Homes.

Simply sign up HERE and Join the Orange Kitchens Virtual Food Revolution get together. Download and print the recipe and here are some ideas on what you can do.

• Make the Squash It Sandwich with your children 
• Host a potluck dinner with your children and their friends and cook and eat the sandwich together 
• Or perhaps teach the kids at your home/community.

It is that simple. Whatever you’re planning, I want to know how you are planning to getting involved. 

Remember to post your picture on the event page. Invite friends & families to join and inspire others to cook.

Can I ask that of you? Can we make this happen? I know we can :)

So let's food educate our kids. Raise healthy and happier children. 

Children who will thank us later for they ate real food and learnt a life skill; Cooking.

Before I end this post I must thank all the people who have come together to make this happen. Big thanks to the entire team at the Indian High School, DinnerTime, Lafayette Gourmet and Jamie's Italian. Without their enthusisam, support and generousity none of this would have been possible. Thank you ever so much.

  

This month is going to be exciting!

Images: Personal album, approved stills from the Food Revolution team and logos from the respective partners.

Food Revolution Ambassador Monthly Challenge: February 2015

Good Bye February. You promised to be short and sweet and you were. Crazy too. But I am not complaining. I like this kind of a crazy. Infact crazy is my new normal. Before I say hi to March tomorrow morning a look back at the February monthly challenges.

If you are new here: At the beginning of each month the challenges are announced. These challenges are for inspiring the entire Food Revolution team and to make deeper connections with everyone (fellow food ambassadors, friends and family, anyone who wants to be a part of this challenge too), share our stories , whether we failed or conquered and more. The idea is to complete as many challenges as one can (Read about the October , November , December and January challenges).

For February:

Challenge 1: Cook for loved ones this Valentine’s day. Do you have a special recipe you cook for your loved ones? Whether it’s your kids, partner or a close friend, we want to see what dishes you make to win the hearts of your nearest and dearest. Find some sweet inspiration here. 

One doesn't really need a reason or a day to celebrate love. It needs to celebrated, acknowledged and respected each day of the year. But when the year gives you the 14th of February to tell those special people in your life that you love them , you should. For very often we love them but we don't tell them and sometimes it gets too late. Someone very wise (Read:Pooh) when asked, How do you spell LOVE? answered "You don't spell it, you FEEL it", he said. 

What is your LOVE LANGUAGE? Mine undoubtedly is FOOD. Nothing says I LOVE YOU louder than a rose kulfi and that is what I made for my loved ones this Valentines and hey rose does represent love.

Challenge 2: Embrace wonky veg! Jamie has been on a mission to cut food waste and get wonky veg back into our shopping basket. This month, we want you to embrace all leftover, wonky veg out there and try to reduce your food waste. Find out more here. 

A weird looking squash, a deformed potato, crooked carrots...you get the idea. Did you know that as much 20-40% of produce gets wasted because it doesn't look perfect. Hard to believe but true. Such a huge waste of fresh produce just because they don't look the way we have been used to seeing them in the supermarkets. Round, glossy, clean, perfect lines. 

But who is to decide what is perfect? As far as I remember WE WERE BORN TO BE REAL AND NOT PERFECT. A quote that holds true for both people and produce. 

I came across this wonky sweet potato at the local organic store. Sad and forgotten because no one was picking it up. I decided to give it a home and it was unlike most sweet potatoes I had worked with before. A gorgeous purple from the outside with "curves" and black and sticky from inside. After I baked it with some olive oil, rosemary and some grated cheese it tasted like a cross between a sweet potato and banana chips. A texture we loved.

So let the new mantra be I AM NOT WEIRD I AM LIMITED ADDITION. Lets pledge to pick up that "imperfect" vegetable/ fruit and give it a "perfect" recipe ; one that promises to make our taste buds sing.  

Challenge 3: Start planning your FRD! If you haven’t already, now is the time to start thinking about what you’ll get up to on Food Rev day. Sign up for the day and get your friends and followers to do the same at www.foodrevolutionday.com. Maybe you’re hosting a potluck dinner with your friends? Or perhaps you’re going into your local school to get cooking with kids. Whatever you’re planning, we want to know how you’ll be getting involved on the day! 

With the big day just a little more than two months away I am really excited. The month was spent thinking, planning, making contacts with people who "care" about what goes into the bodies of our little ones and want to give children the life skill called cooking.

So since there are so many wonderful people and opportunities out there instead of a Food Revolution Day it is going to be a Food Revolution Week. We are planning to celebrate food education through the entire week and the plans are just about taking shape. 

We already have a school on board who have shown great enthusiasm for bringing about a Food Revolution amongst their little ones (They even have a cooking club!).  We are going to sit down March end and make this happen together. More children will join us in making the Squash it sandwich at Galeries Lafayette’s Gourmet wing. The Culinary Director there strongly believes in cooking from scratch and is as excited as us about the Food Revolution Day. Also on the big day will be an event for Jamie’s Juniors; where else but at Jamie’s Italian!  The team at Jamie’s and I are looking forward to be working on it together.

Hopefully before the the end of the next month you will hear about more collaborations and I will have more specifics to share. 

To food revolution and to putting our heads and hearts into this, together. 

Also if you haven't signed up till now, do it here. There is something that I have planned for all you lovely readers for the big day as well and I promise you it will be a lot of fun. Invite your friends and family to sign up as well :)

EXTRA CHALLENGE We want to follow you! If you have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest account that we don’t know about, let us know so we can see all your amazing work and share it with others! 

Find me here : 

   

Get ready to welcome the third month of the year. Happy March everyone!

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask!