About

Welcome to Ma Niche !

I am Tanusree. A mathematician by day, a mom to a handsome little boy, wife to an astro-physicist and the person behind Ma Niche. 

I started blogging at Ma Niche way back in 2009 but it was only in 2013 that I began documenting my favorite recipes here. Most of the recipes that you see here are ones that I collect from Maa, my mother, Bou, my mother-in law, aunts, sisters and friends. Others are my renditions of ones that I spot in cookbooks, magazines, tv shows or webpages of celebrity chef's and fellow bloggers. 

I grew up in a small town in West Bengal where  eating seasonally and locally was the norm. My mother always cooked and baked from the scratch and all our meals were always delicious. Like her, I almost always cook and bake from the scratch and often give classic recipes from all over the world, complete makeovers to fit my resources. Chicken roast in Port Wine, Garbure-style Chicken Stew, Penne with Eggplant Sauce, Mashed Val Raguni and vegetarian Moussaka are some such adaptions which over a time have become our family favorites.

Having inherited a sweet-tooth from our parents, husband and I both love sweets and baked treats but we live by the mantra of "moderate indulgence," which means no big frosted cakes for us, only tiny bars and small portions of 'halwas' made with natural sugar and healthier substitutes. Hummingbird Bars, Chocolate Banana Bars, Wholegrain Caramelized Banana Bread, Conchas(using Scalded flour method) and 100% Whole Wheat Bread (using Tangzhong method) are some recipes that I am extremely fond of.

For the love of French food, in June 2013,I had joined French Fridays with Dorie, an online cooking group dedicated to Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table and for over an year I had fun cooking and reviewing dishes from the book along with the rest of the Doristas. For a while I was also part of two baking groups, the Baking Partners and the Eggless Baking Group. Besides introducing me to a range of exotic treats like Medovik from Russia, Japanese Cheese Cake, Kourabeithes and Koulouri from Greece, Pio V, the Nicaragun Christmas Cake and Koffiebroojes, the Dutch Sweet Rolls my journey with these groups taught me many a nuances and tricks about the basics of baking and probed me create eggless Brioche, egg free version of Paska, the Slovakian Easter bread and Creme Brulee sans eggs.

So if you are looking for something exotic or something healthy head over to my recipe archive. You might find just the recipe you are looking for..  right there ! 

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For any queries or questions please mail me at manichemyspace at gmail dot com. It is always a pleasure to hear from you.