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AUNTY'S recipes have created an internet sensation for Bahrain-based blogger Maria Jose who has been inundated by numerous newly-wed women wanting to cook up some hot stuff in the kitchen.
Her 'MariasMenu' website has become a huge worldwide phenomenon and has received heaps of praise from those lacking experience when it comes to cooking up Indian culinary sensations.
Maria, 29, from Juffair, launched her venture five years ago after marrying Bahrain-raised investment banker Jose Paul Martin back home in India before settling down in the kingdom. She said: 'When I moved to Bahrain my Aunt Tessy gave me a diary of all her old recipes and soon I began using them. I even began experimenting and introducing a few additions too.'
Impressed with her new cooking prowess, Jose suggested creating a blog where she could archive the collection of recipes as well as share them with friends and family. Word soon spread and thousands logged in for cooking tips and advice.
Jose, 32, said: 'We started it as a very basic site with 4,000 hits a month but now we have 35,442 unique visitors, 210,177 page views a month and 1,234 subscribers for the page.
'The content and the photography on the site is all Maria's - with help from her aunt's family treasures! She compliments the food with a picture - sometimes taking up to 30 minutes to capture the perfect image of a single dish!'
The site now boasts more than 200 recipes of traditional homemade Keralite dishes as well as other delicacies. Maria, 29, said: 'I love bakery items in particular and used to live on them during my school days. Even now when I go to a bakery I am like a hen let loose in the moonlight!
'Seeing my love for bakery items, my aunts used to say 'we will get you married to a bakery owner' and secretly, I loved that idea! The thought of an unlimited supply of meat puffs, laddoos, jilebis and jam rolls on a daily basis was too much to resist!'
Her relationship with Jose was almost heaven-sent when Jose revealed his childhood dream of one day opening a bakery. She said: 'I guess we were destined to meet - a bakery-obsessed girl getting married to a would-be bakery owner!
'We would love to have our own bakery or sweet shop some day because they are places where people usually come to celebrate their happiness and we would love to be a part of it.'
Jose's favourite dish is Maria's chicken biryani, which she has now mastered after failing miserably at the start. She said: 'I still remember the first time I made biryani. It was our 'one month' wedding anniversary celebration and it had only been a few days since I had started cooking.
'I wanted to surprise Jose and decided to make the dish for dinner but half way through it I realised that it needed to be baked. I didn't have a clue how the oven worked - we only bought it the previous day and I hate reading operating manuals.
'Since the whole dinner was supposed to be a surprise, I couldn't ask Jose to help. Luckily, I recalled my aunt mentioning the 'dum biryani' method using the stove.
'But this incident helped me a lot with the blog because I know exactly how a 'novice cook' thinks. I try my best to write the recipes accordingly, including even the simplest of things!'
'What keeps me going is the feedback I receive from visitors. They are very generous with their comments and support and I feel blessed to have such wonderful followers.'
The website also has helped the couple make new friends and Maria hopes to add different cuisines to her recipe for success, for instance popular Italian dishes. Currently, she is planning her first published cook book which will feature simple, homemade recipes for young women.
Maria shares two of her favourite recipes with GulfWeekly readers.
Sweet treats and savoury temptations
Breakfast: Chicken Stew - A traditional Keralite dish served with appam/bread.
Ingredients:
Chicken 3/4 kg (cut into medium pieces)Onion 2 medium, thinly sliced Green chilly 4-5 Ginger & garlic 1 tbsp
Potato 1 medium, cubed
Carrot 1 medium, cubed
Cinnamon a small piece
Cardamom 4
Cloves 4
Whole pepper 1/4-1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds - a small pinch
Thick coconut milk - 2 1/2 - 3 cups
Thick coconut milk 1 cup
Cashew paste - 1 tbsp
Coconut oil to taste
Salt to taste
Curry leaves to taste
Directions: Crush the spices mentioned in point 4. Heat oil in a deep pan and splutter the masala. Add onion, ginger, garlic, green chilly and curry leaves. SautŽ until onion becomes soft but not brown. Add the chicken pieces, salt and potato cubes. Mix well. Add medium thick coconut oil and cover and cook.
When the chicken is half done, add the cubed carrots and continue cooking. Add the cashew paste to the thick coconut milk and mix well. When it is cooked add the coconut milk. Reduce the flame and cook for five to seven minutes. Garnish with fried small onion/shallots and curry leaves. Serve hot with appam or bread.
Sweet treat: Caramel Custard.
Ingredients:
Milk 1/2 litre
Eggs 4
Condensed milk 1 tin
Corn flour 2 teaspoon
Vanilla essence 1 teaspoon
Sugar 2-3 dessert spoon
Directions: Beat condensed milk and eggs, add milk to this mixture and continue to beat well. Take a little of the mixture and add corn flour to make a paste. Add the corn flour paste and vanilla essence to the milk mix and beat it.
Spread two or three dessert spoons of sugar in a dish. Add some water and caramelise it. When it becomes golden brown, take it off the stove. Once it is set pour the pudding mix over it. Cover the dish with aluminium foil. Keep the pudding dish in that and cook for 10 minutes on a low heat in a pressure cooker. Turn off the gas. Keep the dish in pressure cooker for another 30 - 45 minutes. Once the dish is cooled keep it in the fridge for three to four hours.
