The Recipe I Mastered This Year

This December, we asked our readers to join us as we took stock of 2019. What recipe did you master this year? A dish you love, one you returned to again and again, tweaking and perfecting ingredients and proportions, until you were convinced it couldn't be better.

At Goya, we believe in eating well. We also believe in learning to feed yourself. Cooking is the essential first step to adulting; to surviving the world on your own. Cooking can also become a demonstration of love, an expression of self-care, a way to relax and unwind, even outlet for creative energy. Cooking for yourself is also a way to care for the planet, to live sustainably, to reduce waste, excess, and over-consumption. If we haven't managed to convince you yet, then we hope that browsing through the stunning dishes below will help change your mind.

Seema Seth's Japanese Milk Bread
One of my favourite breads is a simple Hokkaido Milk Bread. I spent a few weeks in Japan earlier this year, and was blown away by their baked goods. Like everything else that is Japanese, their breads are simple, but perfect. This recipe is very easy to make, and is like eating a cloud. Recipe here..

Khushboo Ramnane's Pumpkin Flower Fritters
My favourite among the fruit trees in my kitchen garden is the pumpkin plant. This year, the creeper hasn’t fruited. But we coated her flowers in batter and deep fried them. We sampled it once, and the rest as they say is history. Recipe here.

Toshi Singh’s Khadi Bari Chawal
This year I tried Maa’s kadhi bari recipe and was transported so many years, back to my dining hall in Patna with of us all eating together, and it was truly the best feeling ever. Recipe here.

Drishya Maity’s Ramen Bowl for One
I made my first bowl of ramen earlier this year. I didn’t even know where to begin, but a lot has changed since then. After many failed attempts and a few successes, this is how I make ramen at home now. Recipe here.

Soorya Menon’s Bengali Prawns in Tender Coconut
One bit of magic, that I couldn't be more thankful for discovering, is the posto-shorshe (poppy seeds and mustard seeds) pairing. I think it is the most unparalleled combination - silky smooth posto and pungent shorshe. In my search for more recipes with this pairing, I discovered Daab Chingri, in which prawn is cooked with tender coconut and served in the coconut shell. This recipe is always a sure-shot show stopper at every party! Recipe here.

Shreyasi Ghosh's Bhapa Chingri
A Bengali childhood classic, this is a super-easy and quick recipe from my mother. It is delicious, bursting with flavours and doesn’t leave too much of a mess to clean up after! Recipe here.

Raadhika Dosa’s Mangalorean Crab Curry
As a child, I remember sitting on the floor with my brother as our mother fed us a huge thaali of steaming rice and fragrant, spicy coconut curry. With each morsel, she would include generous portions of the snow-white crab meat. But since she moved away, it has fallen on me to continue this tradition. It took a few tries and several phone calls to perfect it. Recipe here.

Zuri Camille de Souza’s Raw Apricot Dark Chocolate Squares
The recipe came about at work at an Epicerie in Marseille, and trying to figure out interesting gluten-free/vegan snacks for people with allergies or who have particular diets, since most of our food has wheat or dairy in it. Recipe here.

Marina Balakrishnan's Persimmon & Apple Galette
My fascination with pies and galettes began while I was studying in New York. The intricate lattice work on flaky pie crusts inexplicably drew me to their rustic beauty. It made me want to bake and perfect these beauties. Recipe here.

Sharmila Vaidyanathan’s Vadu Mangai
We had baby mango pickle to last us the entire year; it felt like summer was just a spoon away. Last year I tried my first batch of vadu mangai with a handful of mangoes. The end result was worth the wait. Recipe here.

Priyanka Tiwari's Spanish Flan
This recipe is from my dear friend Derly, a Columbian-American married to a Brazilian. After practicing many variations on her recipe, I've finally nailed it. I won't claim it's authentic recipe, but it is certainly foolproof; simple enough to whip up in a few hours, and gorgeous enough to dazzle my family! Recipe here.

Shaheen Upade's Sriracha Chicken
I sort of stumbled onto this recipe by happy accident. In a hurry at the supermarket, I bought a bottle of sriracha sauce instead of the usual red chilli sauce, and didn't know what to do with it. It's now become a family favourite. Recipe here.

Diya Rajan's Bestover Paneer Tikka Sandwich
This Paneer tikka sandwich would not have come into existence had it not been for an intense pang of hunger that drove me to fish out the leftover paneer curry from the fridge, reduce it a pan and slather it between two slices of toasted brown bread. Recipe here.

Sajiya Chaudhary’s Green Chilli Fish
This particular dish sounds quite easy to make, but it is a wee bit complicated. Its reward is it tastes like heaven. The first time I cooked this dish, it was amazing, which surprised even me, because I never imagined I could cook it as perfectly as my mom. Recipe here.

Shivani Kale’s Arbi Leaves
I was introduced to colocasia leaves/arbi leaves when I moved to Mumbai about 6 years ago. My grandmother-in-law made patra, that uses arbi leaves, and I absolutely adored them. Recipe here.

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