List of All Articles with Tag 'lifestyle'

Chicken tikka masala is a much-loved dish, but it’s only scratching the surface of delicious food cooked in a tandoor. The tandoor – a clay oven used in a lot of Indian cooking – offers a world of possibilities, and that’s something chef Maunika Gowardhan is keen to uncover. It’s not like there’s just one type of chicken tikka. From murgh malai to reshmi tikka, the options are endless – and Gowardhan, 44, had the best exposure possible growing up in Mumbai. “I grew up on really, really good street food – India is such a vibrant, diverse space. In every region you find some sort of street eat somewhere, and every corner of the country will have some sort of kebab or tikka,” she says. “Sometimes, books can have one or two of those recipes – you can’t have a whole book on just that” – and that’s what Gowardhan has set out to change in her latest cookbook, Tandoori Home Cooking. She wants people to recognise the history of the tandoor: “What really sets it apart, for me, is that it’s a cooking technique that is dated back to the Indus Valley [from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE]. It’s something that is so historic, that has so much of a rich heritage – it’s such a vital part of how we eat, not just in the streets of India or in restaurants, but even in our own homes.” Even though most homes in India don’t have a clay oven, there are plenty of techniques to replicate that smokey flavour. “When you have a look at the way a clay oven works, essentially it’s heat that’s 360 [degrees],” Gowardhan explains. “In our domestic kitchens, the endeavour is to replicate that – conventional ovens provide heat in an encapsulated space. So they are similar, but they’re not the same.” The main difference is the coals at the bottom of a tandoor – when fat drips from any meat or anything else you put in the clay oven, it drips onto the coal and the smoke that is produced gives the food that “charred, grilled smokey flavour”, she says. But how can you get that at home? One of Gowardhan’s genius tips is making smoked butter. “You can store it in the fridge, and when you start basting your food with that smoked butter, you’re getting the charred, smokey flavour that you’re really yearning for in tandoori dishes.” Not that Gowardhan has been perfecting smoked butter from a young age. “I’m going to put my hand up here and say when I first came to England [25 years ago], I didn’t know how to cook Indian food,” Gowardhan, who now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, confesses. She came to the UK for university, during which she was “thrilled” to be away from her parents with that “sense of freedom”. But after moving to her first house and getting a job in the city of London, Gowardhan says: “It slowly creeps up on you – when you go to an unfamiliar place, what you really miss is that familiarity.” That’s when Gowardhan started to learn how to cook Indian food, because “I craved it and yearned it all the time”, she says. She would ring her mother back in India and ask for simple recipes – daal, rice, green bean dishes. “I cooked not just for sustenance, I cooked because I missed home and I missed good food,” she reflects. Since then, Gowardhan fell in love with food and made her way into the industry, and this is her third cookbook. She now deems it her “calling”, saying: “I knew food was something that was a leveler on every aspect of my life. “When we did really well, my mother would say, ‘Can I make you something?’ If we were really upset she was like, ‘Let me cook for you’.” Gowardhan also suspects some of it comes from her grandmother, who was an “avid cook”. “My grandmother was the hostess with the mostess. In the 1950s in the city of Bombay, a lot of film stars and Bollywood film stars in India would actually come to my grandmother’s house to eat her food. To be a fly on the wall at my grandmother’s dinner parties…” Gowardhan’s grandmother passed down these recipes, and her mother’s passion for food “gave us this effervescence for cooking and eating good food”, she adds. After dedicating the past 20 or so years of her career to Indian food, there’s a major thing Gowardhan would like people to know about the cuisine. “People tend to forget it’s actually a subcontinent. Because it’s a subcontinent, you realise there is so much more, and every community has so much more to say about the food they cook. “Of course, it’s blurred boundaries as you go through every space, but I feel like every 20 or 30 kilometres you’re travelling, the food changes – because the crop changes, because the climate changes, because the soil changes. All of that makes a huge difference.” So, when people ask her to sum up Indian food, Gowardhan says: “It’s like saying, ‘What is your favourite European food?’ Impossible.” ‘Tandoori Home Cooking’ by Maunika Gowardhan (Hardie Grant, £25). Read More Banging brunch recipes worth getting out of bed for Think pink: Three ways with rhubarb to make the most of the season Love wine but can’t afford it? Here’s how to drink luxury for less Three meat-free dishes to try this National Vegetarian Week How to make TikTok’s viral whole roasted cauliflower Gordon Ramsay: ‘I’m going off the beaten track to become a better cook’

Officials at Yellowstone National Park say they were forced to put down a newborn bison calf after another unfortunate encounter between a park visitor and wildlife, according to a release from the National Park Service.

Talks over forming Thailand’s next government are well into their second week and there’s still no sign that

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus has revealed that she took inspiration from Princess Diana’s iconic wedding dress for her own nuptials more than three decades ago. The Seinfeld alum appeared on Live with Kelly and Mark on 22 May, where she opened up about her nearly 36-year marriage to actor Brad Hall. “You and your husband have been married for 35 years,” Ripa said, as she showed a photo from their 1987 wedding ceremony. The photo showed the newlywed couple smiling and walking down the aisle together. For the occasion, Louis-Dreyfus wore a white wedding dress with a flowing ball gown skirt and quintessential ’80s puff sleeves adorned with ruffles. She tied her hair back in a low bun and completed the look with a flower crown and a long white veil. “Yes. Look at that wedding dress,” the comedian replied, laughing. “You’ll see I fashioned my dress after Princess Diana. It’s the times, I guess.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s wedding gown wasn’t a far cry from the one worn by the late Princess of Wales on her wedding day to the then-Prince of Wales in July 1981. Since then, the voluminous bridal gown has become one of the most recognisable dresses of all time. On 29 July 1981, an estimated 750 million people worldwide watched as Lady Diana Spencer became Princess Diana during a royal wedding ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Her wedding dress was designed by former husband-and-wife duo David and Elizabeth Emanuel. The silk-taffeta gown featured a fitted bodice overlaid with panels of antique Carrickmacross lace that originally belonged to Queen Mary. It also included a sequin-encrusted train measuring 25 feet that remains the longest in royal wedding history. Much like Kate Middleton’s wedding dress in 2011, there was so much secrecy surrounding Princess Diana’s gown that the Emmanuels were required to create an alternate gown in case the dress was revealed preemptively to the public. In 2021, Princess Diana’s wedding dress was displayed at Kensington Palace as part of a temporary exhibition exploring royal style. The gown – which is now privately owned by her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry – marked the first time it had gone on display in 25 years. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall will celebrate 36 years of marriage this June. Last year, the 62-year-old actor celebrated her wedding anniversary by sharing a sweet tribute to her husband on social media. “Even though we’re surrounded by a lot of bad news, I’m celebrating some good news today – Been tied to this superb guy for 35 years!” she captioned the Instagram post, which featured their smiling wedding photo. “What in the living hell? How did that happen so quick?” The couple – who share sons Henry, 28, and Charlie, 23 – first met as students at Northwestern University, when Louis-Dreyfus auditioned for Hall’s theater production in the early 1980s. They were married on 25 June 1987 in Santa Barbara, California. Read More 5 things you didn’t know about Princess Diana’s wedding dress Princess Diana’s wedding dress is now on display at Kensington Palace Julia Louis-Dreyfus opens up about ‘devastating’ miscarriage she suffered at 28

A Stella McCartney gown previously worn by Gisele Bundchen has sold for a whopping $48,000 at the supermodel’s annual charity gala. On 20 May, Bündchen attended the Luz Alliance Gala in Miami to benefit the Brazil Foundation. The Brazilian model wore the Stella McCartney dress to the event before auctioning it off her back, ultimately raising a reported $1m in humanitarian pandemic relief to families in Brazil. The white gown, which featured a one-shoulder sleeve and swooping neckline, was previously worn by Bündchen at the Hollywood for Science Gala in 2019. Four years later, it appeared that the former Victoria’s Secret Angel had reworked the dress by removing the long cape that fell from the sleeve on one side. Her stylist, Evet Sanchez, said on Instagram that Bündchen removed the cape to give the dress a “fresh” look. She styled the sustainable white gown with a matching ivory clutch, green heels, and emerald-and-diamond earrings. Taking to Instagram, the mother of two shared her praise for those who attended the event and donated to the Luz Alliance Fund – which Bündchen founded in 2020 to support environmental conservation and rehabilitation projects in Brazil. “I used to think how can I make a difference?” she captioned the post, which included photos from the charity gala. “I am just one person in this enormous world and there is just too much to do, but early on I understood that to amplify change it is essential to join forces and that through dedication and collaboration, everything is possible.” “From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone who was at the Luz Alliance Gala yesterday, helping us to support nature,” she continued. “Together we were able to raise funds that will help so many people and projects in Brazil.” Bündchen added, “As Desmond Tutu said: ‘Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.’” During the event, Gisele Bündchen also made a rare red carpet appearance with her fraternal twin sister, Patricia. Speaking to People, she thanked her sister for the work she’s done with the Brazil Foundation and expressed how happy she was to attend the gala with her. “This was my first gala and couldn’t have done it without my sister Pati who worked diligently with the Brazil Foundation to organise this special evening,” Bündchen said. “It was very special to have her here tonight. She worked so hard to organise this event as she does every day.” The model went on to describe her close relationship with her twin sister, adding: “I know she’s got my back like I got hers. We trust each other and we always want the best for one another and that is priceless.” Bündchen, who announced her divorce from NFL star Tom Brady last year, also reflected on how much her family means to her. In addition to Patricia, she has four other sisters: Rafaela, Graziela, Gabriela, and Raquel. “My family is everything to me and my sisters are my best friends even if sometimes we disagree,” she shared. “Family is what gives us our foundation, they are our greatest teachers, and they help us become who we are.” Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, who finalised their divorce in October 2022 after 13 years of marriage, share a 12-year-old son, Benjamin, and nine-year-old daughter, Vivian. Read More Gisele Bündchen makes rare appearance with twin sister Patricia Gisele Bündchen poses solo on Met Gala red carpet following Tom Brady divorce Tom Brady pays tribute to exes Gisele Bündchen and Bridget Moynahan on Mothers’ Day Julia Louis-Dreyfus reveals Princess Diana inspired her wedding dress Bridal suits: The best tailored looks for brides who don’t want to wear a dress Elle Fanning wows fans with daring cut-out dress at Cannes: ‘My nips could never’

Montana has become the first state to specifically ban people dressed in drag from reading books to children at public schools and libraries

The largest LGBTQ+ rights organization in the U.S. has joined other civil rights organizations in issuing a travel advisory for Florida

Netflix has outlined how it intends to crack down on the rampant sharing of account passwords in the U.S. It's an attempt to reel in more subscribers to its video streaming service amid a slowdown in growth

The largest LGBTQ+ rights organization in the U.S. has joined other civil rights organizations in issuing a travel advisory for Florida

Aviation safety technology that helps prevent runway near-collisions should be deployed at more US airports, the government’s top

Recent shark bites in Florida and Hawaii and a suspected case in New Jersey have piqued interest in the age-old summer question of whether it's safe to go in the water