Diwali or Deepawali
October 19th, 2019
We at mamtaskitchen wish all our visitors a very Hally Deepawali. May the coming year be happy, healthy and prosperous for you.
This is an archive of all the news posts that have appeared on this site over the years. Please bear in mind that some of this information is almost certainly now out of date!
October 19th, 2019
We at mamtaskitchen wish all our visitors a very Hally Deepawali. May the coming year be happy, healthy and prosperous for you.
October 1st, 2019
In Northern India, where I come from, when vegetables are cooked without gravy/sauce, they are simply called Bhaji or Sabji. For example, potatoes cooked without a sauce will simply be called Alu Sabji or Bhaji. When they are cooked with gravey or sauce, they will have an additional word 'Rasedar', meaning 'with gravy.
When I first started the website, mamtaskitchen, many, many years ago, very few people here in UK recognised this, so I called bhajies 'dry curry', meaning a curry without a sauce/gravy, technically an incorrect name.
Now that many TV chefs have familiarised the public with correct Hindi words, I think that it is time I removed the word 'Dry Curry' from my recipes too. It irritates me every time I read it!
A recipe's name of the dish is the same, I have just removed the words 'Dry Curry' from their title.
January 11th, 2019
If you cook using any of our recipes, share your experiences and pictures with others. Answer and ask questions on mamtaskitchen Facebook page.
December 31st, 2018
We at mamtaskitchen wish all our visitors a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
Have a great 2019.
December 20th, 2018
We at mamtaskitchen wish each and every one of you and your family a very merry Christmas.
Have a great time!
Mamta, Kavita and Pete
November 5th, 2018
Both the words Deepawali and Diwali are made of two Hindi words; deep + awali=deepawali and diwa + ali=Diwali. Deep and Diwa both mean 'a lamp'. Awali and ali mean 'a row of'. So, it means 'a row of lamps'.
Diwali, a Hindus festival, is also called the festival of lights. It is one of the biggest and grandest festivals of India.
There are many stories about Diwali celebrations;
PreparationsPrior to Diwali, market places are decorated with lights and buntings. Shops are overflowing with sweets, fireworks and other goods. Temples are cleaned and painted, statues of Gods adorned with new clothes and jewellery. Youngsters compete to buy the loudest and most colourful fireworks available. Rich people spends thousands on buying new clothes, jewellery and fireworks. Sweets, kheel (parched/fluffed grains of rice) and batashe (a kind of egg-less meringues made in various shapes of animals and toys), are distributed to family, friends and workers.
Diwali foods:
Every family makes their own favourite meal in the evening. In our house, it consists of Rasedar Aloo (potato curry with gravy, new vegetables of the season like cauliflower , sweet pumpkin, mooli-ka-lachha (grated white radish with salt and lemon dressing), poori, and urad dal kachoris. A large selection of sweets are either made at home or bought from sweet shops. Search for Indian sweets on this site.
April 8th, 2018
Baisakhi is the Solar New year for Indians and it is celebrated on the 13th of April each year all over India. It is on this day that Sun enters Aries, the first sign of Zodiac. This signifies the New Year. It has special significance for Hindus and Sikhs of all of India. Hindus believe that the sacred river of Gods, the Ganges (Ganga), was persuaded to descend from heaven to earth on this day many thousands of years ago, following rigorous prayers of Bhagiratha (look for the story of King Bhagiratha’s ancestor King Sagara). To celebrate this, Kumbha Mela is held every twelve years at Varanasi and Haridwar. People believe that bathing in Ganges washes all their sins. Dying are given a drop of holy water of Ganges, to absolve them from any sins they might have committed.
Sikhs believe that on this day in 1699, their 10th Guru Sri Gobind Singhji gave Amrit, the nectar of eternal life, to his five disciples known as Panj Pyare (the five beloved ones). He said, "where there are Panj Pyare, there am I”. This was the birth of the Khalsa religion. Sikhs take their holy book ‘Sri Granth Sahib' in a procession, which is led by the 'Panj Pyaras', five senior Sikhs, who are symbolic of the original Panj Pyaras.
It is a colourful harvest festival in Punjab, where Sikhs and all Punjabis dress in colourful clothes and dance the energetic folk dance called Bhangra to the beat of Dholak, a Punjabi drum. This dance has now become very popular in UK too and often involve enactments of tilling the soil, sowing of seeds to gathering of harvest, and many local folk lore. Many fairs are held all over Punjab on this day. Special foods for this day are Sarson ka Sag, Makki Roti, Gajak, a candy like sweet made from sugar (or jagary) and sesame seeds.
On this day, harvest festival is celebrated in many other parts of India too.
March 18th, 2018
Today is the 1st day of the Hindu Year 2075.
In most parts of India, start of Vikram Samvat, the Hindu calendar year, is considered to be on the 1st day of the Hindu lunar month of Chaitra, which always falls in March-April.
Vikram Samvat was started by the king Vikramaditya of Ujjain, India, following his victory over the Saka dynasty. Vikramaditya or Chandra Gupta II, was the grandson of King Chandra Gupta I and the grandson of King Samudra Gupta. He was one of the most loved, prosperous and progressive king of the ancient Gupta dynasty that ruled India from 320 AD - 520 AD. It is said that Vikram Samvat year used to start in the Hindu month of Kartika originally, on Diwali day or the festival of light. Later on, it was changed to the month of Chaitra, to synchronise with the Shaka calendar, which had been running since around 5500 B.C. In Gujarat, the start of Vikrama Samvat, or the Hindu New Year is still celebrated on Diwali. This day is also the beginning of Navratras.
December 29th, 2017
We at mamtaskitchen team wish you, peace, health, happiness, love and prosperity in the 2018.
Eat well and be happy!
If you cook something from here and like it, you can post your photos on https://www.facebook.com/mamtaskitchen
We are now able to offer our Mamta's Kitchen aprons for sale again. Please go through to the Apron Shop!
December 19th, 2017
We at mamtaskitchen team wish you, peace, health, happiness, love and prosperity at Christmas and in the coming Year.
Eat well and be happy!
We are now able to offer our Mamta's Kitchen aprons for sale again. Please go through to the Apron Shop!