Welcome to my substack @Jam Lab!

A kitchen filled with flavors and experiments!

Welcome to my Substack - Jam Lab - a kitchen filled with flavors and experiments! Jam Lab started off as a jam making company, that has slowly morphed into a brand - a brand that creates unique flavors - be it sweet or savory. Well I do not take the title of “Flavor Queen” lightly! :)

You can read more about me in the About Me page. I will not bore you with the same stuff here. I have 2 kids - one a pre-teen and a teen. Their first foods at a mere age of 5 months, were mashed foods - all homemade, prepared on a daily basis. Why am I telling you this? It has always been important to me - to provide fresh meals, with seasonal produce on a daily basis, on our dining table - A way of life that my mother created for my brother and I, when we were kids.

My purpose and goal here on Substack is to be able to share many things - weeknight meals, traditional Indian and Gujarati meals, daily inspiration, flavor combinations that I am in love with, weekend desserts that require time and love, easy bakes and loads of tips and tricks that can help you become a better cook and a baker. To see people cook more often, using what is in season, and including spices in your meals, is what gives me the utmost joy.

Looking forward to connecting with you here. I look forward to showing snippets of my thought process on recipe development. I will share things that are getting me excited off late - be it new foods, new restaurants or heck even new serverware! I will share tidbits of my life - and share positivity all around. As I grow older, incorporating things that bring me joy has become extremely important, and I want to radiate that via my Substack.

What did I make last weekend?

I have been toying around with this ice cream idea for a while. My favorite combination from last year has been a Plum, Fennel and Cardamom Cake.

This year I played with this flavor combination and made an ice cream over the past weekend. I made a custard base for the ice cream, infused with toasted fennel and cardamom, finely ground into a powder. The licorice and floral notes from these two spices in the base is intoxicating!

Fennel is an underrated spice that I simply love. I wish more people would use it! I also made a simple plum jam that turned out tart and super delicious - a perfect compliment for the sweet custard base.

For the added texture element, I added fennel and cardamom shortbread - buttery and crumbly deliciousness!

All the flavors marry really well together! I am looking forward to photographing the ice cream this weekend. Yes, I did not allow my family to take even a bite of the ice cream, because I need to photograph it ;-).

Another recipe, that is a popular weeknight recipe with my family is these Garlicky Green Beans and Tofu, that I added on my blog this week. It has many cloves of garlic, a very simple but delicious sauce, baked tofu and in season green beans - that I am seeing in abundance at my farmer’s market. It is an easy enough recipe that one can make as a weeknight meal.

The baked tofu is simply EPIC - and something that you HAVE to try! Prepped tofu is baked within 30 minutes. Make the saucey green beans in the meanwhile, and add the tofu as soon as it is done. Enjoy this fulfilling, nourishing meal with jasmine rice.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s post/substack (is that what you call it?!). I will be back with more this coming week.

Love and Spices!

XO Amisha

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