I was commissioned by BBC Good Food Magazine, India to develop and photograph a ‘Pakistani Feast’ as an 8-page feature for their current (October, 2012) issue. [Read more...]
Announcing the Arrival of ‘Tiny Spoon’
Friday, September 14, 2012 By 50 Comments
I wanted to share with you that our ‘Tiny Spoon’, our little darling baby, came into the world this August! That is what my ‘non-food related project’ was, and the reason why I have not been able to cook, write or blog as of recent.
I wanted to thank all of you for your readership, encouragement and support. I will be back in The Spice Spoon kitchen, inshallah later this year. And no, I won’t be blogging about baby food 
I hope all of you had a lovely summer.
x shayma
My ‘Letter to Pakistan’ in Newsline Magazine Pakistan
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 By 16 Comments
I am honoured to have been featured alongside Pakistan’s novelists, barristers, journalists and milkmen for a Cover Story on “Letters to Pakistan” to commemorate our 65th Independence Anniversary. My piece is a nostalgic one, about my childhood in Lahore in my Nani Ami’s; maternal grandmother’s home, near the Canal Bank with the weeping willow trees on the bamboo trees street; bhanson wali sarak.
NB – The magazine accidentally changed my phrase bhanson (bamboos), to bhainson (buffaloes) - which is wrong.
It must be white-hot right now, your sun shining strong above the canals of Lahore, where children come to wade in the brown water to cool themselves off. Summers remind me of siestas in my Nani Ami’s home on the bhanson (bamboos) wali sarak, when all the bedrooms would turn ink-dark by pulling down the bamboo blinds after a long, lazy meal of her spicy ginger-laced chicken stew, scooped up with light-as-air tandoori rotis from nearby Dharampura. I would love to have mangoes from your fertile Punjabi earth, those fragrant chaunsa mangoes, egg- yolk yellow from inside, through which my knife slices like butter, the juices running down my arm with each bite, seated at my grandmother’s dining table. Or maybe one of your anwar ratols or the parrot-green skinned langras, all reminiscent of my childhood in my city of birth, Lahore. [Read more...]
Morabayeh Holou – Peach Compote in the Afghan Manner
Sunday, July 22, 2012 By 19 Comments
Dear All,
Thank you for all your kind messages regarding my lack of blogging as of late. I haven’t given up on blogging; I am just working on a non-food related project which has made it difficult for me to devote time to my blog at the moment. Inshallah, I hope to be back in the Fall with new recipes / posts. Thank you so much for your readership and warm and encouraging messages. [Read more...]
The Spice Spoon Interviewed by The Saturday Post
Monday, May 21, 2012 By 9 Comments
I had the honour of being interviewed in my capacity as a food blogger for The Saturday Post – here is the full feature.
My Guest Post for ‘Indian Simmer’- Chicken Kebab Sliders in the Pakistani Manner
Friday, April 20, 2012 By 12 Comments
This week I had the honour of guest blogging for someone who has become a close friend of mine through the blogging world- Prerna of Indian Simmer. Prerna is a phenomenal cook and food writer from India who takes beautiful and poetic photos of food; some of the best in the food photography – let alone food blogging – world. You can see these photos for yourself in her post on nankhatai; eggless spiced biscuits or the one on jalebis; sweet, crackly fritters which are washed down with a cup of hot, milky tea.
Prerna is currently working on her first cookery book, the arrival of which we are all eagerly anticipating.
My post on Chicken Kebab Sliders in the Pakistani Manner is here on her lovely blog.
Elaichi Chai- Cardamom Tea in the Pakistani Manner
Sunday, April 8, 2012 By 35 Comments
If you were friendly with one of the House Prefects, you were always guaranteed a thick stack of those buttery, crumbly biscuits for dipping into your milky tea. At 10am, as the bell rang, all of us would push past the Assembly Hall’s heavy doors and greedily reach for the blue and orange rectangular biscuit tins. The Prefects had control over the tins and if you weren’t on good terms with them, you’d have to ask your mates to share some of their goodies with you, which they always did, but rather reluctantly. It was all about survival of the fittest in that Assembly Hall. No one really wanted to share their elevenses with you. Not even your best friend. Everyone huddled together, with their plastic teacup of fragrant Kenyan tea in their hand, dipping the thin sliver of a biscuit with the frilled edges into the hot liquid till it turned just a tad bit soggy and melted in your mouth with each bite. [Read more...]
Guest Post by Kulsum of Journey Kitchen- Mom’s Zarda, Sweetened Saffron Rice in the Indian Manner
Sunday, April 1, 2012 By 27 Comments
Kulsum of Journey Kitchen takes poetic, dreamy photographs of Indian-food-with-a-modern-twist, reminding you of that picnic you plan to have with your friends nestled under a 700-year-old olive tree, when the weather warms up and everyone starts wearing linen and flowing dresses. Your plaid blanket is laid out on the grass, and as everyone chatters, from the wicker basket emerge Kulsum’s home-cooked snackettes- slices of wobbly saffron and almond custard, savoury bites of bruschetta with her homemade paneer, crowned with sweet cherry tomatoes; and small tins of her chocolate cinnamon date truffles, which she made for her family on Eid.
These are the scrumptious treats Kulsum prepares from her kitchen in Kuwait- inspired by her Mom’s cookery style- where she lives with her husband, affectionately referred to as ‘M’ on her blog. I am always in awe of the innovative recipes she creates on her blog week after week. Over time, Kulsum and I have become close friends through Twitter – that may sound odd to many of you- but these days so many of us connect with each other through social media channels.
Kulsoom- which dish or food item reminds you of one of the women in your family; someone you love? My Mom’s Zarda, she said. [Read more...]
Zarreen’s Khagina- Scrambled Eggs with Potatoes in the Pakistani Manner
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 By 21 Comments
Aglio, olio, peperoncino. Tossed with some spaghetti and it’s a full meal for the five friends who end up at your place after a night of hearing the legendary jazz pianist Chucho Valdés perform at the Villa Celimontana. There isn’t much in your fridge or pantry, but you are all hungry, and you do have that holy trinity of garlic, olive oil and red pepper chilli flakes in your pantry. Add a bottle or two of Morellino to the late-dinner mix, even if it may be a bit too tannic for a spicy pasta dish, but it is all you have in the house that night and besides, everyone loves a good bottle from the Maremma. To cleanse the palette after the pasta course, there is a packet of rughetta; arugula- in the fridge, and some tomatoes you bought from the Testaccio market that very morning- tiny, china-red orbs, which your friend slices and tosses with the peppery leaves, adding a drop or two of musky, tart, sweet balsamic vinegar and splashes of fruity, grassy olive oil, from your favourite casale in Umbria. [Read more...]
Aloo Keema Bun- Sloppy Joes (Yousefs) in the Pakistan Manner
Monday, March 5, 2012 By 30 Comments
I cannot take credit for the Sloppy Yousefs witty title, my friend MAR suggested it- many thanks to him.
My Nani Ami used to make a humble ‘meat and potatoes’ dish- fragranced with notes of spicy ginger and black cardamom, it was cooked slowly, over a low flame. It wasn’t like that posh ‘meat and potatoes’ dish you have at Sassafraz- that perfectly scarlet-from-the-inside beef tenderloin you eat alongside a rectangular tower of a crispy, butter-slicked potato galette. The dish in which you glide your knife through the galette, sweep it through that glob of Dijon mustard and then impale a slice of beef on your fork, before washing it all down with a deep, earthy Malbec. [Read more...]
