White Jasmine Everyday Cooking Brings Pakistani Flavor And Plenty Of Fun To America's Favorite Foods

Huma Siddiqui knows if her mother were alive today she would be, "quite tickled" to see everything her daughter has achieved. The host of the popular White Jasmine Everyday Cooking Show remembers warmly times spent cooking meals with her mother while growing up in Pakistan. It was through her mother that she learned how traditional Pakistani spices were used to compliment the colorful vegetables and meats used in every meal.

A lot has happened since her younger days, including living on three continents before coming to Wisconsin with her two young children in 1995. Thirteen years later the single mom is a CPA, president of White Jasmine, LLC and host of her own television cooking show. White Jasmine Everyday Cooking (seen on Bridges TV and NBC-15) brings a delicious twist to tride-and-true meals that we know and love. Siddiqui is able to achieve these culinary feats by bringing together in every recipe an assortment of spices found in Pakistani and Indian cooking.

Clare Schulz, a longtime fan of the show, says she is always amazed at how easily Siddiqui brings so many exotic Pakistani and Indian spices into her everyday meals. "She gives a lot of herself. You get to know her as a person very easily. She's very warm and very generous in talking about her family and how they are the reason why she is so involved in cooking."

There's also a fun-loving, sort of mischievous side to Siddiqui that comes out during her shows. She loves engaging her audiences with playful teasing, lighthearted laughter as well as meaningful conversation, creating a warmth that mixes easily with the flavorful foods and aromas filling the room.

White Jasmine guests bring another element of fun and flavor to the show as they share their recipes and a bit of themselves with Siddiqui and her audience. Just as Siddiqui puts great emphasis on buying fresh foods from local vendors she feels equal effort must go toward promoting local businesses that help the community thrive. Guests representing local busnesses, non-profits and other organizations come on the Everyday Cooking show to share a bit about what they do in the local community while they cook a favorite recipe with Siddiqui. "Our guests come from different professions and walks of life. Getting to know them is getting to know our neighbors. And the great thing is that we have a lot of neighbors around here who know their way around a kitchen. They are proof that you don't have to be a chef to be a good cook. It's all about the flavors; it's all about the passion. If you're interested and want to create those flavors you will start finding them for yourself."

In many ways Siddiqui's approach to cooking parallels her approach to life. "Be curious and experiment," she told her audience during a show at Allen Kitchen and Bath in Madison, Wisconsin. "It's not only about cooking but about life. You could be missing a whole other world if you're not curious about things."

Siddiqui sees her cooking show as an opportunity to introduce people to the wonderful tastes that come from curry, coriander, garam masala and the many other fragrant spices that she grew up with. And she loves bringing them into everyday American cooking. Hamburgers are a favorite American dish that Siddiqui says she started experimenting with early on when coming to America. Living in different parts of the world and being far from family and the familiarity of where she grew up, Siddiqui found that the foods of her homeland brought her comfort wherever she was. "The smells, the tastes reminded me of being in the kitchen with my mother and having meals with my family. Then when I came to America I had my first hamburger. I just loved the taste, but I always felt there was something missing. So I started experimenting with different spices in the meat to bring it just the right flavor."

Once Siddiqui found the perfect seasoning she started cooking her new burgers for family and friends, and received rave reviews. Experimenting further, she added different spices together and tried them with other American favorites like meatloaf, grilled chicken, fish and even stews. What she came up with was a fragrant flavor that brought out just the right taste in all of the above.

She named the new spice blend Tandoori Masala. Before long it gained mouthwatering appeal throughout the Midwest, being sold under the White Jasmine name in Whole Food's Markets as well as other grocery stores throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan. Siddiqui realized that more and more people were developing a taste for her new spice blend, so to continue satisfying their demand she created a second blend that incorporated many of the flavors found in traditional Pakistani barbeque. Her mildly tangy Sajji Masala spice blend rapidly gained popularity as demand for all the White Jasmine spices and spice blends started to extend beyond the Midwest. New decorative tins filled with the delicious spice mixtures continue appearing on more and more supermarket store shelves throughout the Midwest and East Coast states.

Orders for the popular spice blends are also in high demand on the White Jasmine website at http://www.whitejasmine.com/. Once there, visitors can buy the spice blends as well as individual spices packaged in the easy-to-use decorative tins. The White Jasmine site also has a large assortment of teas for every taste. And their gift baskets make the perfect present for holidays and birthdays.

Another treasure found at the White Jasmine website as well as at Amazon.com is Siddiqui's cookbook, Jasmine in Her Hair, which is a tribute to her mother. And it's more than just a cookbook as its colorful photos and delicious recipes are complimented by delightful stories that illuminate beautiful traditions of Pakistani culture.

Siddiqui loves sharing those traditions with others through her writing as well as through her cooking show and cooking classes, which are held in various locations in Wisconsin, and in Minneapolis and Chicago. It's an opportunity to share the customs and rituals of her homeland and bring them together with the life, the foods and the people she has come to love and embrace here in Wisconsin.

Huma Siddiqui

President

E-mail: huma@whitejasmine.com

Phone: 608-437-1250

Toll free: 866-774-2995

Mail to:

P.O. Box 2561

Madison, WI 53701-2561