Zafar's recipes

At the start of summer, the streets in the major cities, including Bangalore, are filled with vendors who sell push carts and boiled...

Every now and again I have a craving for mashed potatoes, especially with a steak or other grilled meat. It is comfort food at its core,...

These eggs go by many names, million-year, 1000-year or 100-year eggs. The folklore behind these eggs is from about 600 years ago during...

Indian cuisine is a vast myriad of spices often combined into a unique mix. The most common of these is termed garam masala. The term...

Sandwiches are perfect for road trips, but they need not be fussy with too many small ingredients and dry without loads of mayo and...

Combining flavours is an art. It brings the perfect balance of the essential flavours: sweet, sour, spice, salt, and umami. Understanding...

I grew up enjoying this dish prepared by my grandmother and then my mother. It was a dish cooked on special occasions, and you will see why below, and one the family always looked forward to. The lovely, creamy curry, with chunks of meat, potatoes, shallots, and fresh tomatoes, was greedily sopped up with naan or sheermal until we were stuffed.  This dish has a history and a long journey, with the original recipe adapted along the way. The origins of this dish are thought to be in the...

This is a Mughal dish that has been attributed back to the reign of Babur in the 16th century. This version is slightly different from the Northern "Shahi Tukda" (meaning royal pieces), where the bread is also seasoned with other spices, particularly cardamom, and topped with cream or rabdi (sweetened cream), making it a much richer dessert. Both of these desserts are of Mughul origin and seemed to take on regional variations as they travelled across the sub-continent.  The name Double ka...

A sattvic diet is one of healthy eating, vegetarian cuisine that avoids garlic and onions. In practice, a saatvik diet is supposed to...

Pre-desserts adapt your palate to go from savoury to the dessert section of a coursed dinner. They are always sweet, but also spicy...

During mango season I try and use mangoes in as many dishes as I can. Here is a new recipe that I use as a pre-dessert. A pre-dessert is...

One of the most common street-food snacks in India is green mangoes with chili powder and salt. I have also had this combination around...

I love tuna salad but have learned to make my own over the decades. The main reason for this is that commercial tuna salads are loaded...

Core to Georgian cuisine is khmeli-suneli, an aromatic spice blend that brings beautiful aromas and flavour to any dish it is added to....

As soon as chicken soup is mentioned I think of a nourishing light soup that is both nutritious and healthy. The soup brings back...

Charred is a flavour that is usually associated with grilled meats, but charred vegetables and even fruit are delicious. They are often...

I love kimchi, the Korean mainstay for pickled cabbage. It is crunchy, spicy and perfectly acidic. There is always a bottle in my fridge...

I love making and serving cheese boards, and I love seeing one when I enter someone's house as a guest. The first thing a cheese board...

I was asked to make sandwiches for a road trip so we did not have to stop multiple times. This is one of the sandwiches that I created....

A friend presented me with a pack of Smoked pastrami, which is how I learned about Smoked Charcuterie by Dianora. I was bowled over by...