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Posts Tagged ‘Valentine’s Day’

Sending some love through food ~ a lovely red velvet beet soup with a Valentine's touch!

There are over 100 ways to say I love you. Another way to send some love is of course through food! One of the pleasures of celebrating Valentine’s Day is to share food with others.

I was invited by Plant a Row – Grow a Row to cook up a special Valentine’s meal of warming soups with all the trimmings and goodies at The Salvation Army’s women’s shelter in Toronto. Here a few photos from our lovely day together.

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Strawberry Rose Masala Chai - for two!


For many years we’ve taught a festive Valentine’s Indian cooking class menu laced with beautiful, aromatic Indian spices. I always end the cooking class with a sweetheart of treat — Strawberry Rose Masala Chai. It’s velvety smooth, spicy and sweet and a beautiful ending to an Indian meal.

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Preena

Since releasing Arvinda’s Artisanal Indian Spice Blends in 2005 I’ve always loved the dark chocolate and garam masala combo. There is something great about the pairing of sweet with savoury, similar to a caramel with sea salt. Since then I’m always sneaking a hit of Arvinda’s Garam Masala into my hot chocolate – I think I have this every day!

Being a sweet lover, a steamy cup of hot chocolate is as much comfort for me as a warm blanket. Therefore, my garam masala hot chocolate ritual gives me both a sweet fix and like I said, comfort from the warming Indian spices, especially needed for our snowy days like today.

After a few years, I’m still super-loving this recipe and haven’t found anything to displace my daily indulgence, so I’m excited to share this with you!

Here is a short video clip on Making Preena’s Signature Garam Masala Hot Chocolate with Arvinda’s and the recipe that goes along with it:

A few weeks ago, trend-spotter and food blogger Dana McCauley, asked her audience about culinary collections. Yes, that would be me, a collector of cocoas and hot chocolates amongst my other food collectibles. Here are some of my favourites…

A selection of my favourites

Although I have many different hot chocolates in my collection, I prefer making hot chocolate from scratch using pure cocoa, to avoid any additives or preservatives. My absolute favourite is Cadbury’s Bournville Cocoa (Fair Trade certified), and Guittard’s Cocoa Rouge is also delicious with its fudge-like bittersweet qualities. Green & Black’s Organic Cocoa is also a great choice, as is Canadian Cocoa Camino cooperative’s organic and Fair Trade cocoa.

My top pure cocoa pics

Each cocoa does indeed have a unique flavour and characteristic, lending differences in taste, texture and full-bodiness.

Hint: I switch up the recipe from time to time and swap out the garam masala for Arvinda’s Chai Masala to give that quintessential chai flavour. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

A teaspoon of: Snow Patrol. Listening to: Chocolate.

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Still looking for some inspiration for a special Valentine’s meal today? Look no further. Indian spices can add both warming qualities and lots of flavour to a beautifully pleasing Valentine’s menu.

Indian cuisine is known to be aphrodisical in nature, namely because of the vast array of spices we use, each having euphoric-inducing qualities. These spices include ginger, cardamom, cloves and chilies that awaken the senses and excite the mind, body and spirit.

Here are a few easy recipes posted on Food Network Canada’s website using Arvinda’s Chai Masala and Arvinda’s Garam Masala, both containing these powerful and sensuous spices.



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A few days ago I was ‘across the pond’ in rainy London, England and had a wonderful day at the Tate Modern for a taste of the latest exhibits of modern art. Although there are many pieces worth mentioning, the work I was most intrigued about was Robert Therrien’s “Red Room,” a collection of 888 red household items melded together into what seems like one “large monochrome painting.”

Red Room courtesy of http://www.tate.org.uk

So often the colour red has negative connotations symbolizing war, anger, pain, danger, bloodshed…the list goes on. Upon first glance, I glazed over the room as an unpleasant ‘sea of red.’ However, within a couple of minutes I was drawn to Therrien’s work as it evoked feelings of the contrary — warmth, happiness, fire, excitement and passion. Each individual object began to story tell, spanning a range of positive uncanny emotions.

I started to get hungry. The “Red Room” got me thinking about my kitchen. My George Foreman Grill is the colour red, as are the silicone oven mitts, spatulas and pastry brushes I own. Interesting. It is said the colour red makes one hungry which could explain why red is so readily found in the kitchen. We left the Tate feeling famished!

In India, the colour red is highly symbolic, representing purity, fertility and wealth. Most things Indian involve some colour red, most definitely including the spice box!

Inspired by Therrien, I consolidated my red items into a monochromatic panorama. Of course my version of the “Red Room” didn’t come close to Therrien’s complex lacing of 888 items, but my selection included some of my favourite things – chilies, beetroots, Sriracha sauce, pomegrantes, apples and red tea.

Preena's 'room of red'

This month choose foods with the colour red for their antioxidant, energy boosting and aesthetic qualities, as well as to bring about feelings of warmth, excitement and passion.

This Garam Masala Beetroot & Carrot Kachumber(salad) is refreshing and beautifully pleasing to any February menu.

Garam Masala Beetroot Carrot Kachumber

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