MatrikaS “My Recipe Journal” Review

Lockdown has surely brought out a tiny chef in all of us. And for those who already had great cooking skills, am sure you must be nominating yourself for the next Master Chef contest! 

I was not much of a frequent cook, but the day I tried making Shingaras (Okay, FYI they are different from Samosas), I literally patted my own back! Yes after that back breaking effort, I literally had to pat my own back. And poof, those piping hot shingaras vanished in a few seconds. They turned out to be just the way my local paraar mishtir dokan (local sweets shop) makes it. 

Anyway coming back to this long pending review, MatrikaS was kind enough to send me one of their Recipe Journal for reviewing on my blog. It came with a personalised letter, and these small things really make me happy. In an era of digitalisation, people do actually take the effort of addressing you by your name. 

I had earlier reviewed their Woman’s Journal back when I had just started TicTakToe in 2017, and I was fortunate enough to bag one of their prizes (It was a review competition actually). Hence, I shall always be grateful to their brand for giving me the leap of faith! When they contacted me for reviewing the Recipe Journal, I obviously agreed. It is not everyday that you will come across a brand that has such promising products. I still love their Woman’s Journal and use it.

Coming back to their Recipe Journal, I keep tuning in to YouTube every time I want to recreate one of the perfect Chicken Bharta or Chholar Daal, but penning the recipes down in a Recipe Journal is a much better idea than to turn to YouTube. And come to think of it, there might be days when I might not have Internet Bandwidth to stream the videos. So writing them down is always a safer option! (Call me old school). Plus now that I finally have the leisure of penning down recipes, more so, because there are times when I end up tweaking the recipe as per my taste and that needs to be documented somewhere! (Why overburden my memory when you have a Recipe Journal as handy as this!)

The quality of the Recipe Journal speaks for itself. The cover features a lady in an orange saree on a brown cover (the other version is beige in colour). It is hard bound and the paper quality deserves a special mention. They even have a Journal dedicated to Baking which comes in two colours, Red and Blue. So all you Home Bakers out there, there is something special for you as well. Click HERE for MatrikaS Baking Journal (Contains an affiliate link for which you will not be charged extra)

The Recipe Journal starts with a page where you fill in your personal details like name, address, email id and phone number. Then comes an Index where you can list down the name of the recipe with the corresponding page number of the Recipe Journal.   

Then there is a Master Grocery List that you can refer to while ordering for your kitchen pantry, which is a pretty smart idea, because I no longer have to scroll through my supplies before ordering. 

A major part is dedicated towards planning your meals (both daily meals as well as party meals). 

The Recipe Journal comes with the recipe of Tomato Soup to help you get started with the format of your Recipe Journal journey.  

There are tabs in the form of stickers that help you segregate the recipes and this saves your time when you know which recipe will be under which particular tab. So while you can choose to segregate them as breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can also choose them to divide on the basis of starters, salads, soups, bread, curries, daal, snacks, party recipes, cookies, etc. There are also stickers which help you to cover the sticky underside of the tabs. Then there are stickers that help you classify the recipes as Spicy, Healthy, Time Savers….I mean all this is pretty quirky and it makes me feel as if I am a teenager penning down my recipes in a scrapbook. It gives a feel good factor (you know what I mean right?) So just get creative and place the stickers as you please in your Recipe Journal.

There is also a telephone list where you can jot down the name and phone number of your nearby grocery store, so that you can call them in case you need to place an order of groceries to be delivered. 

It also has numerous pages dedicated to what is known as a Grocery List! If you ask me, I might just run of out grocery items to fill the pages in, but I will never run out of the pages. These are detachable grocery shopping lists. They have printed a few pages that you can actually tear from the Recipe Journal and take them along when you next go for grocery shopping. How cool is that? Now you need not actually misplace your lists anymore (I know I keep misplacing mine). Just keep jotting them here and tear it from the Recipe Journal when you are good to visit the Grocery shop.

And finally, we have the recipe section where you can pen down your recipes. It could be an interesting recipe that you have just learnt, or a classic heirloom recipe that you would want to pass down.

You can pen down around 95 recipes in this Recipe Journal. Each recipe has segments to write the ingredients, directions and even a column on the right documents finer details like cooking time, resting time, rating and how many people it serves.

Lastly, like the Woman’s Journal, the Recipe Journal too comes with a pouch/envelop on the back cover and elastic for safe locking. I might use the pouch to store in invoices from grocery stores and discard them before the next billing cycle. The elastic will surely safeguard your recipes privacy! It also comes with a pen-holder/loop, specially for forgetful people like me who keep misplacing their pens and cannot find one when they need it. These intricate details really speak a lot about the Brand, and that they have put in quite a lot of thought before developing this product.

The Recipe Journal carries beautiful prints and fonts. The graphics are of the finest quality. The Round Back & Round Corner feature of the Recipe Journal adds a touch of sophistication. The paper used in this Journal is of A5 size and the pages are of superior quality. Infact,  I need not emphasize about its quality because I have been using their Woman’s Journal and Diaries, so I have full faith on this brand. There is a Satin Page Marker in black to mark your pages, so that you can catch up where you last left the page.

Okay if that was not convincing enough, hear this out: 
Imagine the delight if several years down the line someone discovers this Recipe Journal from your cupboard. I am pretty sure it will last that long. 

A short description about those who are yet to explore MatrikaS
Their range of products includes Notebooks, Journals, Diaries and high quality book making services. Their factory and head office is known by the name “SFA Print Private Limited” located at Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu which is well known for its fire cracker, match and printing industries. Amazon ships their products Pan-India and a selected range of their products are also available at Office Linc. A quick glance at their website, while penning down for this blog post revealed that they are indeed true to their Corporate Social Responsibilities and have given back to Mother Earth by using wind mill as their source of most of their power needs. They even create jobs, support local schools, sponsor local activities that benefit the youth of the area, which is a commendable thing to do.

You can get to know more about the brand, their products and activities by visiting www.matrikas.co.in

You can buy MatrikaS Recipe Journal on Amazon by clicking HERE (Contains an affiliate link for which you will not be charged extra).

Price – Rs.450/- INR (Surely worth it, considering the quality and the value!)

Thumbs Up for:

• The quality of the Journal, both the binding and the paper
• The size (Neither too big nor too small)
• Special features like Stickers, Master Grocery List that is tearable, Party Planner, Intricate details of each recipe, pen holder, pouch on the back cover, etc.

Thumbs Down for:

• Really cannot think of any cons, except for the fact that a student might find the price on the steeper side!

In case you are interested in reading my review for MatrikaS – The Creative Woman’s Journal, Click HERE 

Still wondering whether to buy it or not? Take a tour down this video By MatrikaS, a live preview of The Recipe Journal.

In case you found this review helpful, do share it with someone who might be interested in trying our a Recipe Journal.

MatrikaS Recipe Journal Inspires The Chef in You, to be Creative in The Kitchen & Record Your Experiments with recipies!
So what’s cooking this week?

Disclaimer: While the brand had contacted me and sent me the Recipe Journal for reviewing, the opinion penned down in this blog post are completely honest and unbiased.