Paneer and Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry

Plus Birthday Cakes

Welcome to The Flavor Files! 🎉 This is where I dive into my love for cooking, flavor, and food science—because delicious food deserves a little curiosity.

Craving more recipes? Find them all at Nik Sharma Cooks.

Still haven’t grabbed my latest cookbook, Veg-Table? You can get it here—it’s packed with veggie magic. 🌱✨

Oh, and if you spot a few affiliate links in this newsletter, just know they help keep the spice (and science) flowing!

Now, let’s get cooking! 🔥

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Hi Friends,

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating! It’s a quiet one over here—I’m not hosting a giant feast, just a casual little lunch that happens to include lamb with smoky tahini, a potato-anchovy salad (because I love drama), an iceberg salad loaded with tomatoes, pancetta, pork floss, and yogurt dressing, a carrot cake dripping in sour cream and orange glaze... oh, and maybe a surprise dessert if I get a second wind and a caffeine boost.

Also, April is my birthday month, which means: Cake and Ice Cream Season™. I bake myself one cake and treat myself to a new ice cream flavor a week leading up to the big day because I deserve it (and so do my neighbors, who conveniently show up right when dessert is ready). This week’s cake? A chocolate hazelnut praline situation that’s so decadent and happy, I smile every time I look at it. Chocolate + Hazelnuts = the Superior Sombo. I don’t make the rules, I just bake by them. 

It might sound a little sad that I bake myself a birthday cake every year—but honestly? It’s the best kind of self-love. Sure, I could go to a bakery and pick one up, but they never seem to have the exact flavor I’m craving (where’s the cake that tastes like childhood memories, three types of toasted nuts, and a hint of existential crisis?).

Plus, baking it myself gives me a solid excuse to say, “I’m not procrastinating, I’m celebrating me.” And that, my friends, is what I call personal growth… in layers, with frosting. I need to pick a new cake to make this week. There will be frosting!

I’m knee-deep in book edits right now, which basically means I’m in a committed relationship with several Word docs, a chorus of line edits, and my ever-vigilant fact checker. On Thursday, I heroically powered through an entire chapter, feeling, dare I say, productive, only to discover that the file wasn’t auto-saving to the cloud like I thought. Then it crashed. Completely. Gone.

So, I did what any rational adult on the verge of a Word-induced breakdown would do: I closed my laptop, dramatically whispered “we were rooting for you,” and took myself to a movie. Honestly, there was nothing else to do, and it wasn’t worth crying over. Pick up and move on.

The Wedding Banquet (a remake of the 1993 original by Ang Lee), to be exact. It’s emotional, but tender and warm, like a hug from someone who doesn’t need to say, “you’ll be fine,” because somehow you already believe it.

Until next time,

Nik

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For my paid subscribers, we’re making an Indian-style stir fry of vegetables and paneer for my paid subscribers. 

Paneer and Mixed Vegetable Stir Fry

There are some meals that don’t come from a recipe card passed down or a dish served at a holiday table. They come from a feeling of wanting something warm, something nourishing, something that reminds you that you're still here, still trying.