& I love! I love my family, I love my true friends, & I love my passions - cooking, painting, fashion styling & interior designing! While this blog focuses on my love for cooking, it is but natural that all aspects of my personality bleed into my "Cooking Thumb" avatar - making this much more than a blog about food. It is a blog that aggregates my life, my passions, my emotions, my experiences into recipes that I love to make, & that I hope you will love too :)
Just like my painting canvas, my kitchen is a place where I can unleash my emotions. Affection, compassion, euphoria add to the sweet taste; fun, laughter, humor provide the tanginess; even the negatives - anger, anxiety, grief, do their part by giving a dash of bitterness. Like a violinist squeezing out every melodic strain of a soulful tune, like a singer bellowing her heart out on stage, like a formula one driver keeping the accelerator fully pressed on a sharp turn - I pour out every bit of my expertise, feelings and personality into the dishes that I prepare. I am an artist and a hopeless romantic at heart, so I strive to make every dish a masterpiece that I can fall in love with. To see assorted ingredients blend and transform into a succulent, aromatic dish is as magical to me as watching an ugly caterpillar turn into a breathtakingly beautiful butterfly. And I feel rewarded every time someone pauses in the midst of a mouthful to savor the taste of my dish, every time someone hopefully scrapes the spoon at the bottom of the bowl to get the final crumbs, every appreciative word or glance or even sigh of satisfaction - it gives me the energy to go on cooking flavorful dishes.
Good cooking knows no borders. I love to tinker with cuisines from all over the world, to bring cultures together by preparing modern fusion recipes that tantalize the taste buds with flavors that are steeped in the familiarity of time-honored traditions, of established norms, of mom's cooking, but also take a peek into the bold beyond of the unknown relish, the untasted suggestion, the virgin essence. In today's maddeningly fast-paced world, everyone wants to spend less time in the kitchen but avoid unhealthy eating. To that effect, I strive to create global recipes that are quick & easy-to-make and promote a healthy diet or are healthier versions of popular recipes. My husband & I are very health-conscious, and I believe so are most people, so I strive to cook healthy but without losing the great taste - as such I use very little oil and avoid or minimize use of fatty foods like cream or butter.
I started my culinary journey from a simple place with a simple name - Home! More than anything else in the world, I owe the taste and essence of my dishes to my mom’s cooking. I vividly remember the countless hours of childhood spent in the kitchen with my mom, a traditional Punjabi Indian housewife with a Midas touch of cooking! Gaining knowledge, tips, tricks, traditional secrets of ethnic Punjabi cooking that has been passed from mom to daughter, generation after generation. Learning to cook various recipes to compensate for the lack of restaurants in our area. Preparing, experimenting, inventing, discovering new and old flavors. God bless all moms, the best part of humankind! But as I grew older & expanded my wings & my horizons, my culinary skills followed suit. My husband & I have traveled a lot of countries, & we enjoy exploring and understanding various cultures & cuisines. My zest for experimenting, creating, improvising, still continues & now the world's my stage, global cuisines are my instruments, & you, my dear friend, are my borderless audience! My recipes carry the taste of my global exploits, my perfectionist nature that is the trait of all artists, and a hard to pinpoint cooking intuition that my husband has nicknamed my ‘cooking thumb’ :)
Thank you for spending your precious time on my blog. I hope you find it worthwhile. I am a vegetarian by choice – so the dishes here will be Vegetarian and Eggetarian. Being a perfectionist, I hate to write half-baked blogs that leave the reader second-guessing on the ingredients or on the method of preparation - you will find my recipe instructions clear, complete and correct. Please do leave your comments and let me know about your experience. On my part, I promise to give you reasons to return again and again by posting great-tasting recipes on a regular basis. It will be an easy promise to uphold. I love to cook :)