About The Purple Foodie

 About

Hi! I'm Shaheen, a 20 something girl from Mumbai who always has food on her mind and is always thinking about what to bake next. More often than not a recipe book replaces the bedtime book.

I created this blog to chronicle my cooking and baking experiences. I'd like to share my experiments - be it the most luscious Creamy Oreo Pie or the insanely delicious Garlicky Baked Fries or the Chocolate Chip Cookies that got everyone swooning.

By day I'm marketing for an IT company and in my free time I bake. I love that I have flexi working hours to help me cultivate my hobby.

Although I love trying new foods, I’m not too daring about what I try in my dishes. By this I mean that I'd happily eat a lobster ravioli at a restaurant but I won't be able to stomach a lobster that I've cleaned myself (that's why I watch Bourdain for some inspiration). A little queer, I know.

FAQs

Which camera do you use?
When I started the blog, I used my cybershot camera phone only because I thought I'd never miss an opportunity to photography since it would always be on me. Not a very wise decision. Since June 2008, I've been using a Canon A570IS Powershot and I've been working towards improving my photography. I've learnt that the easiest way to get photos right is by getting the lighting right. I can't emphasise enough the importance of lighting. It's great if you know Photoshop or Lightroom, but I'm still learning. The most I do to a photo is auto-correct it in MS Photo Editor.

Are these your recipes?

A lot of the recipes on the blog are inspired or adapted from my ever growing collection of cookbooks. When this is the case, the recipe source is always  mentioned below the recipe. Otherwise, the recipe is just something I've come up with on my own over time or probably for lack of foreign ingredients.

Can I use your recipes or photos?

Yes you can, but there are certain conditions. The blog is licensed under Creative Commons. This means that you can share or adapt my work only when you give me due credit for it. If you chose to blog about you, you must link to the original post on this blog.

Are you really from Mumbai? Where do you get your ingredients from?
Yes, I am from Bombay (wouldn't call it by any other name!). It's not easy to find foreign ingredients here and I've been fortunate to travel or have family come down every so often to honour my wishlists. But of late things have gotten a lot better.

• You can find fresh herbs(chives, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, etc), cheese and cold cuts at any of the supermarkets like Hypercity or Star Bazaar.
  
• For all those spices, Philly cheese and nuts Alfa at Irla is my preferred choice. Though you could find them at Crawford Market as well.
  
• Light and dark brown sugar is available at Hypercity and Alfa but I really don't recommend spending so much on them (they're 10x the price of granulated sugar). You can use Demerera sugar instead, which you can find at your local grocer. Another place I recently found brown sugar at was Godrej Nature's Basket. You can find it under the Conscious Food label.
  
• Vanilla - Fellow Bombayites! Please stop using the tiny bottle of vanilla essences. That is not real vanilla. I was so happy to find pure Vanilla beans on a trip to Bangalore that I made my own Vanilla extract - it's really, really easy. I urge you to make your own. You will never use anything else.You can find vanilla beans at Indigo Delicatessen.
• And buttermilk? Sure, we don't get buttermilk here but that doesn't mean we can't make anything that calls for it. While I may have buttermilk written in my recipes (because that is the preferred choice for the recipe), I have been very successful in using the same amount of stirred yoghurt. Although, this is not the only substitution. Joy the baker has some pretty neat substitutions.
• Chocolate? Just chase your friends/cousins/relatives down to get you some good chocolate (I use Ghirardelli). It' s sad that you don't get good quality chocolate here. For something that totally depends on good chocolate, use slabs of Lindt. I hear we have one supplier for Valrhona here, but it comes at a steep price (Rs. 2,000-5,000). If you're interested, e-mail me and I will help you out.
• For all sorts of cake pans, tart pans, dessert rings, muffin pans Arife at Crawford Market and Andheri Station (West) is your best bet. For better quality stuff (though not so much variety) head to Hypercity, Home Stop or Home Center at Lifestyle.
  

Oh and what's with the name The Purple Foodie?
That's the question I'm asked the most, but there's no specific answer to that. Purple is just my favourite colour!

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