These irritatingly addictive little balls are the backdrop to every cultural or religious calendar event in India. They can be made in minutes and stored for weeks, and are delightful to eat as a snack, on picnics, or even to give to others. A food processor will make…

There is a secret to this one, my grandma said: you know it’s done when the spoon stands up by itself in the mixture. And with this piece of advice, I have always had perfect fudge. This is one of the most highly prized of all Indian sweets, the mastering of which…

This recipe marks a milestone in my relationship with my mother. When I gave her some of the halwa with a cup of tea, she burst into tears. I was horrified something was wrong. “No,” she said, “but I think it’s better than mine!” If eating carrots as a dessert strikes…

My Aunt Dina always has a batch of these tucked away in a stainless-steel tin in the kitchen. There’s a considerable amount of tense anticipation around the table at teatime until she opens it and hands them out, and then it feels as though the world is put to rights…

This recipe is based on my mum’s go-to dinner party classic, which she’s been serving in the same crystal bowl for decades. It’s never once let her down. It’s made by poaching roasted wheat vermicelli in milk and cardamom, which creates something as comforting but not…

Mum talks fondly about a cake that was made by an Ismaili Gujarati friend of hers back in Uganda. Neither her friends nor she had ovens, so they used to take the mixture down to a baker in the East Nile District and go for a swim or play with baby crocodiles while it…

This is a rich cake for a celebration. Serves 6 1 cup ground pistachios1 cup ground almonds¾ cup self-rising flour½ teaspoon baking soda¾ cup sugar½ teaspoon ground cardamom (or finely ground seeds from 6 pods)½ teaspoon ground cinnamonzest of 1 lemon2 tablespoons…

Diwali is great for two reasons. It’s a celebration of good over evil, and it’s the one time of the year that dentists and doctors in the Indian community keep quiet while the rest of us wade thigh-deep into our sugar-spun fantasies, eating googras, cham chams, kaju…

My dad’s favorite dessert is cheesecake. While the rest of us plan our meals around mains, he’s already sidled up to the dessert trolley. American style, Italian, and even Greens Original (the packet stuff): he loves them all. But this year, I thought I’d create a…

Jaggery is one of my special weapons in the kitchen. It’s a gorgeous, deeply toffee-flavored, fudge-like sugar made from the unrefined sap of date palms or sugar cane. It also lends itself well to a little salt, which brings out an inexplicable deliciousness. NOTE:…