Another day, another passion, this time: COOKING!

Another great talent I inherited from my mother is my passion for cooking. I enjoy really exotic foods and my parents often treated us out to the most fascinating foods. While my mother was still around, I didn't actually cook that much, and to be honest I was quite awful at it. Its my children that inspired me to be the cook I am today. Before my mother departed she gave me great tips on cooking that still stay with me today.

So when my daughter requested an Indian feast for her birthday I set a whole day aside to cook the dishes she so wanted to eat!

Well I started with an accompaniment that is offered at most North Indian meals, Dhai Bhundi, which is a yoghurt dish filled with boiled potatoes and tiny graham flour balls, topped with spices and coriander.

Then I made a side dish, Aloo Gobi, which is basically potatoes and cauliflower. 

This was the main curry made with eggs, which sounds strange but is absolutely yummy! My vegetarian mother-in-law who is usually quite fussy absolutely loved it.

 Another side dish was Palak Paneer which is small cubes of Indian cheese in a spinach puree. 

None of the dishes were spicy, and all of it was served with rice and store bought chapatis. My favourite brand of chapatis is Elephant Atta, which you can get in quite a few well known supermarkets. 

If you want recipes I would have to recommend Anjum Anand. She really does make it very easy. 

So her Indian feast went down a treat and I was exhausted, but with just enough time to get set for her joint birthday party with her little sister. The weather was pretty awful all day but we made a special request to our very dear guardian angel and we were granted with sunshine until the last 10 minutes of the party.

The children loved playing in our garden and we hired out a fantastic bouncy castle! That's it for birthday parties until next year! Phew! Well will have to see what my youngest will want for her birthday dinner in two weeks!