I had been meaning to make peanut chutney for the longest time now. A co-worke had brought this ‘lip smacking’ peanut chutney into work one day and ever since I had been pestering him to get the recipe from his wife. He did oblige shortly (or rather his sweet wife did) and then somehow between […]
Indian
Flattened Rice Snack (Aval Vilayichathu)
Another quick and healthy snack from my amma’s repertoire of easy snack recipes! As kids we used to always come home to find a tea time snack and different types of aval (poha) dishes used to be common. I have posted one aval recipe before – Aval nanachathu. Today I am posting a variation of this. […]
Happy Holi! : Puran Puffs (Sweet Lentil stuffed Puff Pastry)
Holi Hain! The mention of Holi makes my heart feel so happy. And warm. The warm feeling you get when you think of fun things that you used to do on Holi like fooling around with friends, playing pranks on strangers (only when I was a teenager 🙂 ), throwing tons of water and color […]
Yam and Coconut Soup (Elephant foot yam curry)
Elephant foot yam? Now what is that? My kids were stumped. What a weird name! But if you see this yam, which is like a super large yam or potato, it does indeed resemble an elephant’s foot! In Indian cuisine this yam is used in almost every region although it is called by different names […]
Mumbai Vada Paav with home made Paav
One of my favorite street foods in Mumbai is the ‘Vada Paav’ or the poor man’s burger which is made with potatoes and chick pea flour. Vada Paav is as basic to Mumbai as cheese burger is to America. It is the most ubiquitous street food in Mumbai and you can find it almost at every […]
Chicken Curry for the Soul
What makes a good curry? Well …let’s see… a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a lot of tender loving a.k.a slow simmering, an unique combination of spices that is the right marriage of flavors and a final product that is both attractive to the eyes as well as intoxicating to the palate… don’t […]
Valentine’s Day Special: Beet Idlis
The family has a new name for me – ‘sneaky mom’ 🙂 Can’t blame them …I have been really on a roll lately adding spinach and carrot to idlis, then adding beets to the vegan chocolate cake I baked last weekend. So anyways I am happy with the title and the family is not really complaining. […]
Calamari – 2 ways! : Spicy Sauteed and Chick Pea batter fried
Until a few years ago I thought that calamari was ‘fried squid’ – i.e I thought the name of the dish where squid was fried was calamari! So I am sure that some of you might still be under that confusion. So let’s clear your doubts. Calamari, is just the Italian name for squid. And the dish that most […]
Spinach / Carrot Idlis
‘Idlis’ are quite healthy as is. Made with Rice and Urad dal these are steamed – so no oil or fat involved and the batter being fermented, they are light on the stomach too. Because of their high nutrition value and also because they are a little bit like finger food, kids usually like it. […]
Crispy Lentil Fritters (Parippu vada)
Parippu Vada is something you will find in all tea stalls in Kerala along with the ubiquitous Pazham Pori or plantain fritters. I had posted the recipe for pazham pori before in a post where I shared some lovely pictures of Kerala. To me nothing says Kerala more than plates of pazaham pori and parippu […]
Shaali Aunty’s Misal Paav (Spicy Sprouted Moth lentil curry)
Hope the New Year is going well for everyone thus far. The holidays that just went by were simply fabulous. We were blessed to be flanked by friends, some of whom are like family and of course there was too much food! I was pampered by my friend Vaishali who was visiting us this holiday […]
Semolina Almond Halwa (Vegan Sooji Halwa)
One always hear about folks talking about middle of the night cravings. But what about middle of the day cravings? And that too when you are in the middle of work? Well that does not usually happen to me but of late its been happening. I think its because of the different diet restrictions that […]