Just a few months after my first baby was born I gave birth to another. I nurtured it and groomed it, and give it all I could so that it could grow and flourish. It slowly grew up and started to shine and reached out to the world and left me awestruck and wondering in disbelief. Today that baby is one year old and I still am not sure when that happened! Yes, today IndianSimmer is celebrating it first year anniversary. Today was the day when, after putting my six month old little girl to bed, I just opened a blogger account and posted something to get in touch with the outer world. That evening I had no idea how proud that little step would make me in an year. I can say that IndianSimmer has come a long way and I owe it all to your love, support and motivation that kept it going. So today from the deepest place in my heart, I just want to say THANK YOU. And today, I want to make it just all about you! Because I want to celebrate you and your love for IndianSimmer.
I have a lot of things that I am excited about and would love to share with you today. Let’s start with the GIVEAWAY.
A while back I bought a book called Modern Spice by Monica Bhide. A great writer and a prominent cookbook author, Monica was born in India and now lives in the US with her beautiful family. What I love most about Monica is her art of storytelling, her ability to engage readers and take them on beautiful journeys. I’ve been to several trips with her – to her childhood, to the streets of India and to her kids’ childhood. To top that, she makes food that tells stories for her. That’s what she does in this cookbook of hers. I’d repeat the words of one of her reviewers: At once contemporary and rooted in tradition, sophisticated yet straightforward, creative but comforting, Modern Spice is perfectly suited to the times; it offers new directions, interpretations and ideas for taking Indian food to next level.
Like this recipe for Rice Pudding Mango Parfait. The part of India where I come from, Kheer (rice pudding) is a symbol of happiness and celebration. If you pass an exam, you get to eat some kheer. If you are cooking for an old friend who is visiting after long, there will be kheer on the menu. You will get kheer (rice pudding) in some form or the other in every Indian celebration. So how could I stay away from it when celebrating a great milestone. And after seeing the twist that Monica gave to a traditional kheer, I had no doubt in my mind that I was making it for the anniversary post.
And the best part was that Monica was so kind to offer a copy of her cookbook to one of IndianSimmer’s readers to celebrate the completion of its first year! Yes, you have a chance to get your hands on this wonderful book which has taken a permanent place in my kitchen! How? you’ll know soon!
Now the second announcement is inspired purely by your love and support that you show towards Indian Simmer. It fills my heart with joy every time I get an email or a tweet or a message on Facebook by you lovely people telling that you tried one of my recipes and it turned out good. Sometimes you are too kind to even post them on your blog like my wonderful friends Kulsum from Journey Kitchen who tried my molten chocolate liquor cake or like Sabera from One Life To Eat who blogged about my chocolate cake. Or sometimes you just can’t wait to eat the food and still manage to take a photo like beautiful Joy from Joylicious who sent this gorgeous photo of Palak Paneer:
Thanks so much guys! So I came up with this idea which I kind of stole fromEllie’s Recipe Shoutout series. But its mine now! The idea is that if you try any of Indian Simmer’s recipe then do let me know. Send me a link if you wrote a blog post on it or if you don’t have a blog then no problem, just take a photo and send it to me and I will post that here on my blog to share it with the rest of the world. We’ll call it Indian Simmer in Your Kitchen! Your blog post or photo will be featured just like the ones featured here today.
Its kind of a coincidence that recently I’ve come closer to one of my friends who is gluten intolerant. At the same time I got to know Jenn from Jenncuisine who has a gorgeous blog and she shares gluten free recipes there. Both these ladies have opened my eyes about the whole topic and kind of inspired me to cook some gluten-free food too. Then a few days back Karen form Cooking Gluten Free tried a gluten free version of my Naan Recipe and sent photos of it posted above. They really inspired me to do something new on my blog as well.
So here’s the third announcement I would like to make today. I will be posting a Gluten Free recipe on IndianSimmer every month either featuring one of you gluten free cooks out there or one of my recipes. So if you have a gluten free recipe that you would like to share here on my blog just drop me a line and I’ll get back to you. The recipe doesn’t have to be of Indian food. It can be anything Gluten Free.
Now lets talk about how you can make that wonderful Rice-Pudding Mango Parfait in your kitchen.
Ingredients: Serves 6
3 cups whole milk
2 to 4 table spoons sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup white basmati rice (rinsed and drained)
1 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced.
Method:
In a deep saucepan, bring the whole milk and condensed milk to boil over medium heat. Stir constantly to prevent scorching.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Add rice and cardamom and mix well. Continue to cook for about 50 minutes, until the milk is reduced by half and you obtain a creamy consistency. Stir frequently while cooking.
Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature.
Refrigerate, covered, for at least an hour.
When ready to serve, spoon some pudding into a wine glass, layer with some mango, and add another layer of rice pudding. Serve immediately.
Notes by the author:
Use 4 tbsp of condensed milk if you like your rice pudding really sweet. With 2 tbsp, its is sweet but not overwhelmingly so.
If you have a mango that is firm, peel it and then use a vegetable peeler to create thin mango slices. Arrange the slices on a plate and place a scoop of the rice pudding in the center of the mango “carpaccio”.
Rules for the giveaway:
- In the comments section, tell me why you would want to win this book.
- For an extra chance you can go follow Monica on twitter @mbhide and/or onFacebook, come back and tell me that you did.
Last date for entering the giveaway is 1st March 11:59 pm EST. A total of four winners will be chosen two from the US and two from India separately. And the results will be announced on my 2nd March post. So hurry! If you reside in the US or India or have an address in either of the countries then you are eligible for the prize.
