Recipes

Egg curry/ Anda masala curry

In most of non-vegetarian families, eggs are amongst the favorite and quick breakfast or evening snack options. All over the world, protein-rich eggs come to easy rescue as a healthy start of the day from yummy omelets to peppered boiled to lightly scrambled and the list is endless. So, today let’s admire this versatile food and give it some space in the main course as well. How about adding some curry factor to the eggs…...yummy isn’t??

Egg curry is an appetizing main course or a side dish which doesn’t take much time to prepare. The curry adds a nice tangy flavor to the mild taste of eggs, making the recipe simply delectable. I have even seen the fussy little ones who may not relish the original taste of eggs, happily eat them in the disguise of delicious curry.

Dahi Ki Arbi/Colocasia or Taro Root in Yoghurt Gravy

It’s no surprise that so many of our memories are attached to food. Some dishes simply act as a time travel capsule for me, transporting me back into my mother’s kitchen many many years ago! And so was the case with today’s dahi ki arbi (If I can warrant a translation – colocasia or taro root in yoghurt gravy). This simple yet so beautifully tasty dish reminds me of the warmth of mother’s cooking and also a little bit of her cheating! : P I was never into trying something new as a kid and I loved potato so I pretty much stayed with it. So the first time my mom tried arbi, she told me it was potato! And the gullible me, believed it and what can I say: lucky me, loved it! :)

Banana Pancakes

We are back on the breakfast menu! And why should we not, breakfast has to be the most important and most energy giving meal to kick-start your day with. Today we bring you banana pancakes! The basic pancakes are very easy and simple to do and while I have added banana here, (mainly because I had some over ripe bananas lying at home :)) you can play with other flavours. Try apple and cinnamon or add berries in the mix or you can also add nuts to it. The beauty is that you can make the pancake mix in advance and store it in a jar and make the pancakes as and when you want to!

I have added eggs to the recipe, but once I was making for a Gujarati friend of mine who doesn’t eat eggs and they turned out to be as good. You loose on a little bit of fluffiness but it’s only marginal. So if eggs are not your thing, just leave them out!

Paneer Parantha/ Indian Bread stuffed with cottage cheese

Paneer or cottage cheese is the queen of a vegetarian Indian meal. If visiting an Indian home for dinner, 90% of the time paneer will be on the menu! Last night I thought of making paneer paranthas for breakfast today, but well there was no paneer at home! No problemo as far as you have milk at home! It’s very easy to make paneer at home and I made it at night itself. I seriously think that the ease with which it can be made at home is the reason why paneer is called ‘cottage cheese’.

I must have got around 100 gms of paneer from 500ml milk, which was sufficient to make 4 paranthas for the 2 of us. Also I used the whey left from making paneer to kneed the flour and it makes the paranthas very very soft!

Paneer Capsicum/ Cottage cheese with capsicum

Paneer Capsicum is my “exotic in minutes’ recipe! Do you often get surprise guests for dinner at home? It happens here quite often and while there are times time pizza delivery is the only option, I try to keep that to a minimum. For times like those I have recipes like this one – under 20 minutes. Paneer or cottage cheese has always been a special occasion dish on any Indian dinner menu and while most preparations take a long time, this one gets done in a jiffy! The red, green and yellow capsicum (bell peppers) gives a nice juicy, sweet and crunchy texture that compliments the softness of cottage cheese. This one is bound to impress and believe me your guests will never know that this was a less than 20 mins job.

Sooji Upma/ Rava Upma/ Semolina Upma

Sooji upma is a simple recipe that has travelled far from south India to every household in east, west and north. I love it for its aroma, flavours and adaptability. Upma is also great way of adding veggies to your breakfast. Especially if you have kids who are fussy. In this recipe I have added only onion, tomatoes and potatoes. You can add capsicums, peas, carrots, beans and create your own veggie mix.

Enjoy!

Cauliflower, potato and peas fry/ Gobi, aloo, matar ki subzi

I love the mild taste of cauliflower, be it as a stuffing in a parantha, rice dishes or just a stir fry. May be it’s the flavor cauliflower adds or the spices that gels well with it making it an enticing ingredient in a range of recipes. This cauliflower delicacy is my favorite since childhood. My mother revives my memory and tells me that I used to pick out the cauliflower florets from mine as well as her plate and just eat them leaving aside everything else. In my family, if cauliflower is in season, this recipe gets cooked at least once a week de facto.

Cauliflower, potato and peas fry is a quick and easy meal and works well for a main course recipe and is served along with a plain parantha or Indian flat bread. Due to its popularity especially in North India, it is mostly included in the party lunch or dinner menus.

Palak Paneer/ Cottage cheese in spinach gravy

I really feel amazed at mother’s energies when it comes to feeding their children. A mother’s heart is torn between feeding them healthy and feeding them what they like. How many children do you know who don’t fuss about eating?

Zero – is my number. We were ourselves very fussy so I don’t we have any right complaining about our kids. My niece is coming next week to stay over for a week during her summer break and I have already got a list of things she likes to eat from her. “Masi make bhindi, pasta, black daal and palak paneer.” And when I asked he what about the other 4 days, she says “we will repeat!” :D

Dal Makhani/Creamy whole black lentils

Dal Makhani or ma ki dal is a famous Punjabi delicacy and is served in almost all eateries from a small roadside food vendor to the finest Indian restaurants serving North Indian food. Not only in India, dal makhani is cherished as one of the main Indian dishes internationally as well. Its presence in most of the North Indian lunch and dinner party buffet menus is de facto. The creamy flavor, velvety texture and enticing aroma of dal makhani can awaken anyone’s taste buds asking……”what’s cooking…?”

Whenever we go out for a north Indian dinner outing, dal makhani is undisputedly preferred as one of the options. So I thought why not share the recipe for dal makhani this time. And for all those health conscious folks, lentils are a good source of essential proteins, fiber and minerals.

Potato curry with Indian fried bread/ Aloo poori

Celebrations add zest to our lives. The very thought of a party or a festival adds a kick in the normal routine. I personally believe each day spent healthily and happily itself is a reason to celebrate. Last weekend, while returning from my morning jog I met a friend who generally asked me “what’s up for today…?” And my instant answer was “just celebrating Sunday”. So to make it a festive Sunday, we decided to prepare the celebratory food “poori aloo”.

Poori aloo is a delicious traditional breakfast food. It is included in most of the Indian restaurants menu and is normally served only during the morning hours. Blame the tempting flavor which persuades a lot of people to ditch their lazy weekend morning and plan a breakfast outing just for poori aloo.

Sooji ki kheer/Milk and semolina pudding

Have you ever felt like taking a break from heavy breakfast routine of omelets, breads, paranthas and pancakes? Although I like all of them but today was just one of those days when I felt like preparing something light, satisfying and yet appetizing for my breakfast. The thought of quick cereals didn't excite me much. Suddenly, while wandering through my memory lane my mum’s favorite breakfast “sooji ki kheer” delighted me. During my school mornings, she used to prepare it in no time and I was super-quick in gobbling it too. Sooji ki kheer is a flavorful, rapid-cooking recipe and take my word; its health quotient makes it apt for everyone from a six months young infant to a sixty years old grandpa.

Gajar (Carrot) Halwa

Gajar halwa is a famous delicacy in India which is mostly prepared during the winter season when fresh red carrots are available in the market. It so happened that my son had just recovered from sickness and was not eating much due to loss of appetite. It then struck me to prepare his favorite Gajar Halwa. I wanted to capture the smile on his face with a surprise and therefore decided to prepare the halwa while he was asleep. I had just finished the preparation and was garnishing the halwa when my son woke up and called for me. I went to him with a big smile on my face and a bowl of halwa in my hand and he just jumped on the sight of the halwa and asked mamma you have made halwa for me. I still can’t forget how happy he was seeing at the halwa in my hand. Here is the recipe for the mouthwatering Gajar halwa.

Potato- Eggplant Vegetable Fry

If eggplant is my favourite vegetable, potato stands just next to it. In fact potato was the king according to me until I discovered the various delights of cooking with an eggplant! This recipe of potato-eggplant fry brings two of my most loved vegetables togetherJ. As a kid I didn’t eat eggplants just because I thought a vegetable cannot be purple in colour! Whenever my mom made this dish, I would single out the potatoes and eat just those. Times have changed and I’m a total eggplant convert! So much that I can write a whole book on just eggplant recipes! The beauty of this dish is that neither overpowers the other. We ate it in dinner with raita and rotis. There was some leftover which I used as a filling in a tortilla to make a wrap for my lunch!

Everyday Cooking - Aaloo-gajar ki subzi

A usual meal on my dinner table consists of one dry vegetable fry, one daal, chapatti, curd and salad. And after work there isn’t too much time to make elaborate dishes, so everyday meals have dishes like aaloo-gajar, okra fry, aaloo baingan and radish fry etc. These dishes are nutritious and take no more than 20mins end to end. Along with daal and chapati the whole meal take no more than 30-40 mins to cook. Some of my friends feel cooking is difficult and time consuming. One of the reasons of sharing these quick recipes is to counter that myth. I feel cooking is beautiful. More than that I feel when you cook for your family, you add that secret ingredient called love which no cook would add! So it’s time to reclaim

your kitchen and your family's health!

Banana and White Chocolate Cupcakes

These irresistible banana and white chocolate cupcakes take hardly any time to make and also hardly any time to get over. My household loves bananas so there is seldom any that is left to ripe. But I also love banana in baking, which requires as ripe a banana as possible! Sometimes I bargain with the fruit vendor and buy his ripened bananas at a cheaper price just to make banana-bread. This time when my sister came home, she carried bananas for the 6 hour train journey which by the next day had become fairly ripe to be eaten and they all were surprised at my happiness to see over-ripe bananas until I took out these delectable banana and white chocolate cupcakes out of the oven.

Fruit Dessert with Muskmelon, Orange and Grapes

Eating fruits on a daily basis is good for health but everyone just gets bored of eating the same cut fruits even though you may have variety of fruits. And if the fruits can be served in some other forms such as juice or dessert no one can simply resist.

During our trip to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, our friend and host Meenakshi made this simple yet tasty dessert with muskmelon and other fresh fruits available. It was so good that I decided to learn and make it myself. Muskmelon is amongst my favorite fruit and this dessert makes it all the more yum! Now that summer is going to come soon this will also help you beat the heat!!

Raw Tomato Vegetable Fry

I’ve recently caught the bug of growing an apartment garden and while researching I came across a lady who does it. I went to her house to get tips on what kind of plants can I grow and how to compost at home etc. When I was about to leave she gifted me 8 green raw tomatoes right from her garden! I had never used raw tomatoes before. She just told me to use these lovely green tomatoes as a vegetable and not as gravy base we normally use the red tomatoes for. “you will figure out the rest” is what she said and I did J. Here is a super quick recipe for raw (green) tomato vegetable fry or Kachche (hare) tamatar ki subzi

Indian Bread stuffed with Carrot, Radish and Radish leaves

I love the cool weather not just for the chill it adds but more so for the fresh and colorful veggies it brings. The aroma of lovely fresh greens, carrots, radish freshens up some of my childhood memories. In fact, I got a chance to replicate one of those for the next generation in my family as well. My daughter had a republic day celebration in her school and she was supposed to take something similar to the Indian flag that's tricolor. Without any further ado, we decided to make tricolor paranthas just the way my mum used to make it during my school time. Saffron from carrot, white from radish and green from radish leaves went deliciously perfect for my creation.

Needless to say regarding the health quotient of this colorful recipe. It is packed with an immense range of healthful nutrients and works lusciously well for a perfect breakfast or may be as a part of lunch as my kids prefer it.

Rice kheer/Milk and rice pudding

Rice kheer is a classic Indian dessert and is relished all year round. Along with the festivals and special occasions, preparing rice kheer is even considered auspicious during Indian monsoons. It can be enjoyed as a post meal dessert or even as a part of main course with delicious “purees” or fried Indian bread.

Once, kheer stood by me in representing my country. Last year, we were in London and my daughter’s multicultural toddler group had organized an “International food evening”. We were all supposed to bring some food from our respective ethnic cuisines. I was allotted the dessert category and without any delay rice kheer was the first thing that came to my mind. The Britons loved and preferred my dessert over their cakes and muffins. This is not all; they even requested me to organize a recipe presentation of my dish for the group members.

Turnips-Fenugreek (Shalgam-methi ) vegetable fry

Shalgam or Turnips are normally a part of salad in my home. Until yesterday I had never actually cooked them! When I saw this recipe for shalgam-methi vegetable fry on one of the cookery shows almost 4 months ago, I had made a mental note of trying it out sometime. Yesterday when I was thinking about what to post in this column, I suddenly remembered this one. Turnips won’t be in season for long so it gave me reason enough to go down to the grocery store and bring them home.

I hope this recipe gives you reason enough to bring them into your home too!

Pav Bhaji/Buns with mix vegetable in tomato gravy

Pav bhaji is one of the favorite street foods across all age groups. It is a quick yet healthful blend of vegetables which tickles the taste buds from the youngest to the oldest member of my family. Pav bhaji also comes as rescue for people who generally do not always relish the usual taste of mix vegetable and look for zesty options. It serves deliciously as a snack or side dish for a party or as a part of main course for the kid’s menu. In fact, my kids revere it as “THE WOW BHAJI”

Few days back, we went out for my daughter’s annual day function at her school and on the way back, I was looking for an answer to my hubby’s favorite question…what’s for dinner? Since, it was a special day so the menu had to be special. So, we decided to pick up some buns, some veggies and enjoy yummy pav bhaji. Pav bhaji in the dinner that evening gave a scrumptious ending to a wonderful day.

Green Chutney/Green dip (scallions, mint and coriander)

Dips or chutneys can spice up any savory recipe be it dumplings or pakoras, crepes, pulao or just plain normal bread.It gels undisputed with the breakfast recipes to the evening snacks till the main course at dinner. What’s more to ask if the side dip is full of healthy greens and free of fats. Every bite dipped in the green chutney makes the food more appetizing andundoubtedly healthy.

The green chutney interestingly came into picture. We had invited some guests for a dinner party last week and along with other veggies, I got a lot of mint, coriander and scallions for salad and garnishing. While doing the clean-up after cooking, I was storing the surplus vegetables in the refrigerator.Then the tangy taste bud became active and I decided to make the chutney with the remaining mint, scallions and coriander. Although tamarind chutney was already a part of the dinner menu, but my green chutney became the hit for the day, both with the snacks as well as during the dinner.

Vegetable Poha

Colors add vibrancy to our lives and so does the colorful veggies. Biting the fresh carrots, smelling the fresh coriander and the very feeling of starting the day with healthy and vibrant veggies is just unmatchable. They are just the right ingredient for a delicious breakfast poha or chivda as my neighbor calls it. Definitely, it makes me feel happy and satisfied more so, when I see my kids and family relish it.

Poha or flattened rice flakes makes for a perfect breakfast or an evening snack all year long. It is light and can be as healthful as you want it to be. I don’t remember even a single week in our household going without having breakfast poha. In fact, people loved it when we served it as side snack during a small get together at our place last month. You might find it in thick and thin shapes in the grocery store. I personally prefer the thick one as it sails nicely through the cooking and still retains its shape till the end.

Punjabi chole/ Indian Style chickpea curry

Chole Kulche is a quintessential Punjabi dish but finds its followers all over the country. No Indian fast food menu can be complete without Chole Bhature or Chole Kulche. For the diet conscious this has to be reserved for the days when you decide to splurge on eating… However since the unhealthy part here is the bhatura/ Kulcha (made with maida) else you can replace them with whole wheat rotis or rice. We give you the recipe for just the curry here; do let us know what you combined it with!

Lemon Rice

It’s amazing how one basic ingredient is prepared in so many different ways across India. One can actually write a book on just rice dishes in India and I’m sure there are many. From humble steamed rice to the pretentious biryani; rice finds its way onto everyone’s plate here. I first saw Lemon Rice on the menu in a Bangalore cafe. And I wondered “Lemon Rice”? What you put lemon in rice? Somehow it didn’t quite make sense to me but my friend, who was surprised that after living in South India for almost a year I’m yet to try lemon rice, ordered one for me. And if I wasn’t pleasantly surprised!

The waiter comes and even before he kept the dish on the table I could smell the aroma of rice and lemon. Ever since lemon rice has become somewhat a regular as an evening snack dish.

Masala Baby Potatoes

Potatoes have to be the most loved vegetable in Indian Cuisine. No chaat (snack) party is complete without a lot of potato dishes. The samosas, the kachoris, the pani puris... nothing would the same if you remove the potato from them. So today I thought of making a snack/ chaat with just potatoes. Not a stuffing, but purely as is. There’s actually very little room to go wrong with potatoes.

Wash them, cut them and toss them with spices. Yesterday when I went to my grocery shop, I saw a whole bunch of baby potatoes and that’s what inspired this dish.

Aaloo parantha/ Potato stuffed Indian bread

As soon as I wrote the recipe for methi parantha last week, I knew I have to do one for aaloo parantha. In my kitchen aaloo parantha presides over any kind of parantha. It’s the king. And since past few weeks we have been adding to the breakfast menu, I didn’t want to break the continuity either. As they say breakfast like a king; we need a king to do justice to it

Potato is a quintessential part of Indian cuisine, especially for a vegetarian. Breakfast, snack or main course – the menu is not complete without potato dishes!

Methi Parantha

It’s the season for greens. My neighbourhood grocery guy has a whole section in winters just for the leafy vegetables that are just so fresh and so bright this time of year. Yesterday I brought home a whole bunch of fenugreek. I cleaned it and kept it in the fridge for use later. My usual preparation with fenugreek leaves is to combine it with potato and prepare a dry vegetable fry. But today while thinking what to make for breakfast, I saw the whole bunch of fenugreek leaves – all cleaned and washed in my fridge and I decided to make methi paranthas or fenugreek Indian bread. Parantha is a flat Indian bread which may or may be stuffed with whatever you wish. For methi paranthas, the flour is kneaded together with fenugreek leaves. In case of stuffed paranthas, the stuffing is separate and is used when rolling the plain dough. I think I will soon give a recipe for a stuffed parantha as well but for now here’s the recipe for methi parantha.

Moong Daal Ke Cheele/ Savoury Crepes made with pulses.

It seems like we are doing a lot of breakfast lately. After Strawberry-Banana smoothie and Apple-Banana porridge, here comes a healthy moong daal crepe recipe or cheele as we know them in India. It’s interesting how we came about making these. My mother was visiting and I had soaked moong daal to make pakoras but then the healthy eating bug caught up and mom said, let’s make crepes instead! They make for a great breakfast but you can have them as an evening snack as well.

And you can experiment galore! Instead of daal, you can also use multigrain cheele by using a mix of flours for the batter; you can add vegetables of your choice... just grate everything together in the batter and cook as mentioned below.

Aate ka Halwa (Wheat flour Pudding)

No matter how much you control, sweet cravings have their way of coming up at odd and wee hours! And that is why quick and easy desserts such as this aate ka halwa are always up my sleeve! It’s an Indian dessert and I was lost for words when thinking of an English translation for the title... but Wheat flour pudding is the best I could come up with though it’s a little different from the traditional milk based puddings.

Aate ka halwa makes for a great winter dish as well as it keeps the body warm. Few of my relatives also add some ginger to it during winters. I also remember it from all the pujas in childhood. Aate Ka Halwa is part of most holy offerings and as children we would sit still through the entire ceremony only because at the end we will get halwa-puri!

Apple Banana Porridge

Making kids eat healthy is a herculean task! Ask my mother! As kids e and my sister were both very fussy and our mom had to come up with interesting stuff to make us eat healthy. I had a similar experience when I was babysitting for my niece last week. I had thought it would be easy – a lot of stories, some games and lots of good food. But at the food point, I faced the biggest challenge. Normally my sister takes care of the food part and I’m only concerned with games and stories. But this time I was on my own.

When I said porridge, I was greeted by what I would call “porridge face”. So I thought fruits and remembered the apple banana porridge mummy used to make. And then I decorated it with strawberries and pomegranate to make it look pretty and the porridge face went out the window! This recipe comes from my memory of the taste!

Radish Greens Vegetable Fry

The tangy (and slightly chilly!) white radish is a common ingredient in salads as raw and also in paranthas, the stuffed Indian bread. But the leaves of the radish are possibly the most nutritious part of the vegetable.

Mooli ke patton ki sabzi radish greens vegetable fry is a common preparation in my home. While many don’t add Radish per se to the recipe, I do. You can also add spring onions for a slightly sweeter flavour. The Radish greens wilt very quickly, so eat the greens within a couple of days of bringing it home.

Curry Paneer

Paneer is almost like a vegetarian chicken in Indian cuisine. Every chicken dish like chicken makhanwala, chicken tikka, kadai chicken etc. there is a paneer equivalent for the vegetarians. No Indian restaurant can run without these on their menu :)

At home, Paneer or cottage cheese is the festive or party dish in a typical vegetarian Indian household. When I was a kid, I used to look forward to guests coming home, because I knew the will be paneer on the dinner menu then. My mom used to make cottage cheese at home, but you can buy it from any dairy or you also get frozen paneer in Indian supermarkets.

French toast

French toast in India is prepared in both savoury and sweet style. Yes it’s true! We Indian have modified the original sweet French toast to a savoury one by replacing sugar with salt, chilli powder and other spices. But given my weakness for all things sweet and the fact that breakfast is the only meal which allows for too much sweetness, I usually stick to the original sweet version. And this time I even made honey bread to get that extra sweetness!

Pickled Eggplants/ Achaari Baingan

We come back to one of the most versatile of vegetables – eggplant! Pickled eggplant is a fusion of pickle seasoning and stuffed vegetable recipe. Pickles are a common accompaniment in every Indian meal. In this recipe I use the seasoning used in traditional Indian pickles to stuff baby eggplants with. The dish goes great with Indian flat bread (rotis) but these baby eggplants are a delight non their own as well!

The stems in the picture look a lot like tentacles but it just makes it easier to turn them while cooking and easier to hold them while eating as is!

Palak Kadhi (Spinach Kadhi)

Kadhi is an excellent way of including yoghurt in the menu. A comfort food for many, kadhi has a different recipe is almost every state in India. Moreover, this recipe combines the goodness of spinach into a popular dish. It’s also a good substitute for daal for the diet conscious.

Baingan Patiala (Stir fried eggplants)

Baingan or eggplant is called the King of vegetables in India. I’m sure it’s true in other cuisines also because of its versatility across and within cuisines. I first had Baingan Patiala at a local restaurant in Udaipur and immediately fell in love with the preparation. Till then my usual eggplant dish was Baingan Bharta or stuffed baingan but never a stir fried dish. After the meal, I actually pestered the chef to give me the recipe and now it’s a frequent accompaniment on our dinner menu!

Steamed Potato and Cheese Balls

These steamed potato and cheese balls were the inaugural dish of my new bright red steamerJ. Until now the use of steaming in cooking was limited to steamed veggies to go with grilled meat. This I could do with keeping the veggies on a colander and then atop a pot of boiling water. But now I want to go a step further; try momos and dimsums at home. That’s the why the new addition.

These potato and cheese balls make for a quick delectable snack. I have given them an Indian chaat flavour but I’m sure they will taste amazing with a mix of Italian herbs as well. Since it was just a trial, I made a small batch of around 12 balls and they were gobbled up before I knew!

Daal Fry (Yellow Daal/ Mixed Daal)

Daal or pulses are a major source of protein in an Indian vegetarian diet. They have so many varieties and variations across India that it will be a tough task to do a listing. So many Indian chefs have cookbooks dedicated entirely to daal recipes. Daal-Rice has to be the comfort food for majority of us Indians. It just slides down the throat and gives this nice warmth to the body.

Another thing which makes daal fry a comfort food for me is the ease of cooking it. All in 30 minutes this dish always brings a smile on my face. Take some steamed rice in a bowl; pour some daal fry over it and enjoy!

Tomato Basil Pasta

When it comes to Basil, the first dish that comes to my mind is the Italian’s ubiquitous Tomato-Basil Pasta. No Italian menu is complete without a tomato-basil-cheese pizza and pasta.

It’s very recent that I have started growing a few herbs in my balcony – coriander, mint, curry leaves and basil – and every new leaf in them is such a pleasure! And there is no better feeling than being able to go into your own garden and pluck the herb that you want! And today my basil plant has inspired me to bring Italian restaurant home.

Orange Syrup Loaf Cake

It’s so satisfying when a little effort brings so many and so huge smiles. When I had just ventured into the world of baking, I had to constantly refer to measurements, but now at least for a plain loaf cake, I have the recipe at the back of my mind. And after getting that comfort I now keep experimenting with different kinds of additional flavours in it.

Yesterday when Sikander was leaving for Assam for a week, I decided to bake him a cake to take along. And I saw this bright orange orange in my fridge that I knew I have to add this to the cake, so what followed is a very subtly flavoured Orange syrup loaf cake. What I loved most was how the whole kitchen had the beautiful hint of orange in the air while the cake was baking!

Everyday Cooking: Okra Fry/ Bhindi Fry

Bhindi, also known as ladies-finger and Okra is one vegetable which is liked by kids and adults alike. Everyone loves bhindi! And it features at least once a week in my dinner menu so how to make it different ways?

An interesting thing about vegetables (as with meats) is that the taste changes with the way you cut it. My mother used to make a simple fry recipe cutting them width-wise into circle. Length wise cuts were reserved for the stuffed bhindi recipe.

So I have sort of mixed the two versions for another everyday variety. Here it goes:

Cooking for One: The humble Veg Pulao

Cooking for one can be both fun as well as boring. Cooking for one means I have all the space for experimenting; even if the food goes wrong I don’t have too many consequences in terms of not having anything to feed the family :). It’s just me; I can do with hot milk with bread for a meal. But cooking for one also means that if the experiment turns out good, there is no one to appreciate it. Most of the times my motivation to try a new recipe comes from the fact that I want to put something different on the table.

So very often, at least for me, meals for one are quick and simple and wholesome. At LSE I survived on khichdi and pulao. Not more than 20 minutes and not lacking in taste either J.Pulao is a very versatile dish. Not only it is prepared in different ways across India, it also has it’s versions in other cuisines. The name itself has many variants – pilaf; pilav; plov and many more. I usually make a very simple and basic version following my mother’s recipe!

Brinjal and Tomato Grill

It was one of those regular days when I wanted to cook something different, something new. I wanted to experiment but the inspiration of what that ‘something new’ should be was lacking. I mean I can’t search for recipe for ‘something new’ on the internet. I generally glanced across a few food blogs that I follow but nothing seemed too interesting. So I went to my refrigerator to check what ingredients did I have and I saw these deep purple eggplants that I had bought a couple of days back.

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