Monthly Mingle 20: Bollywood Cooking

MM Bollywood Cooking April 2008

It was bound to come. A mingle dedicated exclusively to Indian cuisine. There is such a huge variety of food in India that one could eat a totally different type of dish every day of the year. For those who read my blog regularly will know that my monthly series Bollywood Cooking presents typical Indian food, with the idea to show my non-Indian readers and lovers of Indian cuisine just how easy it is to enjoy good home cooked Indian food from your own kitchen. To intrigue my Indian readers, I like to add a little twist.

I did not realize when I started the series last year that it would become so popular. I love the mails and comments I get regarding a specific featured recipe and I enjoy answering all your questions.

For this 20th edition of the Monthly Mingle I decided I need to celebrate Indian cuisine. I need to get all my non-Indian readers to come out and create their favorite Indian dish. For my Indian readers I want you to join in on cooking with a twist.

What's the twist you ask?

51qIgf9Sp2L._AA240_[9] My current featured Bollywood Cooking star spicy okra with onions, introduced you to a lovely cookbook the Bollywood Cookbook by the stunning Bulbul Mankani. A couple of months back I contacted Bulbul and asked her to join me at my mingle. She agreed and we have a great little surprise for you. Bulbul and I will select one worthy Bollywood star dish from the entries we receive. The lucky winner will then get their own personalized, autographed copy of the Bollywood Cookbook sent directly to them from Bulbul!

As you can expect it's not going to be easy. We have high expectations and know you all will come through, but there can only be one Superstar. So make it a special dish!

What we are looking for is a glamorous and elegant dish fit for the red carpet. We love the everyday comfort cooking no doubt about that, but here we want you to dress your dish up in glitter and gloss. Show us your favorite Indian dish fit for a Bollywood (or even a Hollywood) star and share your experience with Indian food with us. The hottest performance and creation will be waking away with the coveted prize of this spectacular cookbook.

I'd also like to take this opportunity and introduce Bulbul Mankani to you all. Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for Bulbul:

I have straddled careers in media (advertising/television and films) and taught at a film school but at heart am a vagabond, dreamer and spiritually alive and curious. But here is my food story- come from a gluttonous family where we drowned our good and bad times in good to excellent food. In my family everybody cooked- the men were particularly good at weekend feasts of meats....
My mom's family is from old Delhi - its a cauldron of delightful foods- street food of such high standards I have never tasted anywhere again.  I went on to join a food institute where for three years we wore chef hats all day... then for many years I lost touch with food as media took precedence...then I met another foodie and we began to make food television and explore Mumbai's food secrets and throwing wild food parties... that was in 1994 and since then I remain a seeker of fine dining. I cook a lot now and seek organic foods (still very hard to source in India) and battle with over weight constantly...

You just have to love a person like that don't you?

Here’s how it works:

  1. Create a dish that fits the theme of “Bollywood Cooking” as described above
  2. Post about it on your blog anytime from now until 5 May (entries must be in English, please).
  3. Link to this post send the details to me (see below).

Once you’ve posted your dish, send an email with “Bollywood Cooking” in the subject line to: meetasmingle (at) gmail (dot) com by 5 May with the following information:

  • your name
  • your location
  • the name of your blog and its url
  • the name of your dish and a link to the relevant post
  • a copy of the main photo of your dish 200px wide

Note: A few of you know that I am quite lenient with the deadline and have accepted entries that have dawdled in a day or so late. However, this time I have to be rather strict as we need to have enough time to look through all the entries. So this time folks I have to remind you make sure you send your entries punctually!

To keep a track of the Monthly Mingle each month please refer to the Monthly Mingle Guest Host Calendar. If you are interested in hosting the Monthly Mingle at your place, send your emails to blogmeeta@gmail.com.

Now go create a star. Good luck!


All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First

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26 comments:

  1. That sounds like lots of fun! Will definitely try and participate. Thanks.

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  2. oooo fantastic, am after getting so into indian cooking recently!

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  3. What a great collection of Indian recipes this will be! I'm still pretty insecure about cooking Indian food, but I can't wait to bookmark the roundup.

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  4. this sounds fabulous meeta - i shall have to see what i can come up with!

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  5. Let me get ready for the event then :)

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  6. omg girl!! you sure know how to tempt and tease!!:) this is gonna be one swell of a mingle, and I'm already excited!!

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  7. The theme sounds so exciting, i cant wait to participate:)
    thanks for the wishes btw!

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  8. Now, that is such an interesting theme...can't wait to get started :-)

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  9. Great theme Meeta! Can't wait to get cooking!

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  10. Love the theme! I will be submitting something for sure. I'm not Indian, but it's my favorite cuisine and I recently came up with an new recipe that I will send along to you soon. Thanks for hosting this fantastic event.

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  11. you surely know how to attract that crowd... am in... you rock buddy

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  12. I'm overdue for Indian cooking, so I'm definitely in on this one. Sounds like it should be fun!

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  13. Hey Meeta..that's an interesting one! Love the idea of a red carpet dish; time to dress it up! The book sounds divine...read about it on Amazon. Hope I can come up with something for this Mingle too.Bring on the BLING!!XOXO

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  14. Whats Bollywood without a few jhatkas and matkas - so thats what I will be cooking up - food with flair! :)

    Miri

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  15. wow meeta ....lovely theme!!!!!cant wait to be a part of it....

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  16. Oh you bet this is going to be fun!Look forward to all your entries!

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  17. My entry has been sent. Hope you got my email.

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  18. after all the seasonal feasts you hosted these previous months, i could not join in as we're in different part of the worlds with different climate change, of course. now i can think of something rather sensational to fit in this theme hehehe... psssttt... i like sri devi!

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  19. Hope u received my entry meeta!

    Regards,
    Veda

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  20. HI MEETA..i have just emailed u my entry to this event..i hope u received it..plz let me know...Thanks...

    cheers
    ranji

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  21. hi meeta, hope u received my entry, plz do let me knpw..

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  22. Just sent you my entry...awaiting the mega roundup!:)

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  23. Hi Meeta,I send you my entry yesterday , hope you got it:)

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  24. OH! I love this idea.... sorry I'm so late in the game. I'm going to do my best to catch the next one. I found you via Deeba & I'm so happy I have!

    xoxox Amy

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Thank you for visiting What's For Lunch, Honey? and taking time to browse through my recipes, listen to my ramblings and enjoy my photographs. I appreciate all your comments, feedback and input. I will answer your questions to my best knowledge and respond to your comments as soon as possible.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy your stay here and that I was able to make this an experience for your senses.

Hugs
Meeta