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Soups for me meant tomato soup. Warm creamy tomato soup seasoned perfectly was the first thing I looked forward/ ordered whenever I went to a restaurant.Based on the taste and texture I used to like or dislike the restaurant. And this was before my blogging and even food review days. Ofcourse the preference still continues. Even when it hot outside, I still prefer my warm tomato sou
Pizzas are one of my favourite. I love eating them though I don't always bake them. Sometimes I think if we could pinpoint something that mobilised India to modernise or grow or urbanise pizzas would have an imporrtant place along with or slightly lower than internet and cell phones. My association with pizza started in my late teens. A Pizza Corner franchisee had started near
Rice or Anna has been a major part of Indian food and in general Indian Culture. Though Anna generally refers to food, it also refers to rice or the maincourse. Rice or Oryza Sativa (Asian Rice) or Oryza Glaberrima (African Rice) has been respected by one and all and this is true not just in India but worldwide. And ofcourse there have been several varieties of rice and hundreds of rice prepar
I love the months of March, April and May. March as its my daughters Birthday month and April and May being the vacation months here. I love being lazy on April and May. No schools, can travel to my mom's place, simply laze around I can give several reasons of doing no or less work in April and May. But once I started blogging, I find this urge to continue in April and May.
Recently the convenience shop n our complex was giving free veggies to their customers as they had surplus produce which cannot be stored for a long time.Prominent were red and yellow peppers and purple/red cabbage which otherwise cost a bomb in the same shop. And to think I had visited the same shop previous evening and got the red and yellow peppers at a high price.Anyway the next
If you think breads or kneading is threapeutic then I have something else to add to it. Along with breads,cookies are also my "pick-me-ups'. Ofcourse our cookie obsession starts right from childhood or say by 2 years of age. Instead of chocolate which we say " decays tooth" we give the kids cookies/biscuits with milk as snack or think about the traditional cookie- milk snack for S
There are several coffee brands and cafes but what makes CBTL a cut above the rest.? Read on.. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) is the biggest private specialty coffee and tea retailer in USA. In their own words they select "only the one percent of finest Arabica coffee beans and finest hand plucked whole leaf teas". They are based in Los Angeles and opened their first cafe
For me cheesecake was a dream. I made my first cheese cake with egg replacer and cream cheese while in US. After coming here somehow I didn't feel like making one. The cream cheese was either tangy or not available. But still I went on bookmarking yummy cheesecakes that I saw on web. Finally I got down to make one or few when I was pushed into it thanks to Swathi who wanted m
This is a simple recipe easy to make but looks and taste different. A bit like life I feel. I started making this shrikhand with dried rose petals and rose preserve (gulkhand) expecting a rosy pink dish. But it was still pure white thanks to the curd cheese. But one taste it bursted rose in my mouth. Appearances can be deceiving in dishes as well.:). But taste is an all important facto
The good thing about summer is the various cold and refreshing items we can consume . The moment heat rises out come the slushies, granitas,sorbets ices and whatnot. When I was a kid, I knew only very few of these. I could see the roads lined with watermelon and knew then summer was here.Mostly I was happy with the 'sip ups' that where available all the year round and were much needed in
Summer I feel is like an unwanted guest. We want the sun in winters but when sun shows its might we feel scorched,parched and basically mad. But look at the positives, it is the time for getting a shorter haircut (my daughter got), get summer clothes (is my H listening) , trendy up yourself to show off your fit sleeveless arms and wait more important .. Runaway from kitchen! The sun
Two years backs while on a visit to Pondicherry, I chanced upon a turtle on the buffet table. No,no don't panic. It was bread shaped like a turtle and it looked so perfect that my friend took a pic of it and even put it on her FB page. That day I was in awe of baking and the baker who made it. Little did I know that I would be trying out the same with the third challenge of We Kn
Now I know we all have our own comfort foods. Sometimes we try to add a twist here and there and make them taste more comforting. A little extra spice/seasoning, sometimes replacing an element with another. All these jazzes up our comfort food. Exactly the same I felt when I made irio. This is actually Kenyan style mashed potatoes with corn and peas. Atleast thats what I have google
This time thankfully I could finish the Baking Partners Challenge. After the macaroon debacle last time, I had almost given up on baking. This time also, few hurdles were there, but I reached the finish line. I was actually taken aback when I saw the recipe, then thought why not give it a try. And TG for that. Once the dough was ready and good to go, I went crazy, dividing
I used to make fun of my older cousin who couldnt spell 'zh'. I used to make him say all the words that had the 'zh' in it and we younger cousins had much fun in those 5 minutes till he got fed up. I thought the letter 'zh' or (?) was special to Malayalam and not in other South Indian languages especially Tamil where instead the 'lla' sound was used. That was before I discovered Kozhukka
I know I have been absent from here. There was a small trip followed by my trial with croissant. As most of you must have known(seen) I am also a part of We Knead to Bake by Aparna and as always I am late. This time I wnted to be on time, but my croissants didn't come out that great though the taste was awesome. A few mails between Aparna & me and still not so good pain au chocolat or croi
I love spuds and this fact has been repeated several times here. I also love trying several salads with spuds . Ofcourse, potatoes are full of carbs and mostly a no no to people on diets , but still once in a while you have to have your comfort. Especially this one which I recently tried out with lemongrass dressing from here. Compared to the mayo rich traditional American potato salads or eve
I am always short of snacks. Especially something that can be made in a jiffy. They surely make life easy, full and tasty. Obviously I had not heard of Honey Joys. These are actually mini granola bars or mounds. Or they are cornflakes dunk in melted butter and honey and baked for a few minutes. I came across these while browsing through this blog. I gave it a try after googling several other&n
This is what happens when you keep something soooooooo long. My nutella dried out. Ofcourse the cookies were yum, but they look as if nutella was swirled into them just before baking. But hey, thats a good idea after all. These cookies were simple and easy to make and have just 5 ingredients. And were perfectly eggless. So no need to rack your brains on using a suitable egg rep
Chimichurri is a sauce used for grilled meat. Its supposed to be originally from Argentina, though there are several theories regarding this. Its usually a mix of flat leaf parsley, garlic, olive oil and vinegar though the ingredients can change as per taste and availability. I have tried this sauce as a thick dip for my potato wafers. IT can be used as a pasta sauce or even marinating v
I love cheese on bread. Or rather cheese on anything. Especially love the combo of chili + cheese + bread. So when I opted to join We Knead To Bake , a monthly event by dear Aparna, I never thought I would be baking a cheese bread first. But I did and thoroughly enjoyed. In fact the whole family loved it and despite my New Year Resolution to control binging, I can't see myself away from this.
When I saw the Baking Partners Challenge for January, I loved the recipe for sun dried tomato & onion tart. It was easy peasy to make. Only 1 hinge was there. Puff Pastry. Puff Pastry is available in India, especially Bangalore. Only you have to buy in bulk. Which of course I didnt. So I opened my dusty bookmarks folder wherein I had stored all the wanted-to-do recipe
This salad reminded me how much I have missed using tahini. All this started with me wondering what I should make as I had few cooked chickpeas sitting in my fridge waiting for the turn. Ofcourse the added attraction was entry to NCR:Leftovers at Lisa's.A simple search and I found this recipe and used it my way.An excellent chickpea & broccoli salad with Tahini dressing!. Yum &am
I know we are in the second week of 2013. I know I am late. But now I am back and happily blogging. Normally I start a new year with some baked treat. -Be it cookies or cakes or anything it should be baked. I get a feeling that if I post a baked dish then I will be baking more the whole year. Of course its just a superstition which I will be breaking this year. How and Why?
For a long time I have been waiting for it. I have heard very good reviews about its other branches but it still eluded me. Finally I made it 2-3 weeks back. By the time I am writing this, I have been there twice and both times it was good experience. Wondering what am I talking about. ? Its Noodle Bar which opened in Phoenix Market City Bangalore. Noodle Bar, owned by Pa
I know I have been late and lazy these days. Posts are ready, I keep on experimenting, but somehow I find myself running late while updating the blog. But don't worry, I am still around and am planning to be there in future as well. Anyways, the cake was supposed to be posted by Saturday, but here I am now with a simple experimental cake with not so good decoration. &
As the awareness about food increases and the Indian tastebuds evolve to newer tastes and cuisines, the trend is cashed in by cookery shows and channels and prominent among them is NDTV Good Times. Among the several shows stands out the Chak Le ! India Show hosted by vibrant young chef Aditya Bal. Most of us are familiar with model turned celebrity chef & TV host. I had the opportunity to
Now, I know I have been silent here for a while. Diwali came & went, I made something, but could find time to post. In between thanks to deadline posted my shaped dinner rolls. Now Thanksgiving also came and went and am eagerly waiting for Christmas baking. But still experiments are going on, and so I thought since pumpkin is the flavour of fall, why not pumpkin puree and butter my way. It
I love baking breads especially dinner rolls. I was the happiest when this month Baking Partners had to bake dinner rolls that to in three different shapes. We were given two recipes -one with egg -Lion House Rolls and an eggless one. I had already tried and posted the eggless recipe while the eggy one was very new. I as usual went for the eggy rolls recipe and tried it eggless. You migh
What do you do when you are busy with work and looking forward to just an hour break before the hell breaks out again? Especially when you want to satisfy your chocolate cravings ? Simple, bake a chocolate cookie. Thats what I did when I got time in between work and they were perfect for the occasion. I had tried to make chewy cookies, but mine were turned out crispy. Maybe the cornflour
When I made my sambal oelek, I was actually wondering how it could be of more use to me. It appears now that I was wrong. I have started using it on a regular basis and keep on accidentally finding such recipes as well. One such was when I came across Terong Belado in a magazine. A little googling as always and there I made it. The name is quiet interesting actually. Terong is for eggpla
Sometimes I am surprised how some dishes just come to me. I was searching for something else and then found this word 'curtido' and little more googling led me to several mouthwatering recipes of this El Salvador style coleslaw. This unless coleslaw is much lighter but equally tasty unless you do not mind the tanginess of the vinegar used. I had found that it traditionally uses pineapple vineg
I love rice and can have it any/ all time of the day to be honest.But I found that its been a long time since I posted a rice recipe. I have been trying out several rice dishes but never got to post them though.So today I thought I will post a family favourite -Sinangag, which is Filipino version of the fried rice that is a staple of all South East Asian cuisines. And for a perfect version I d
Now that I have been rambling on about my cookie baking craze, I thought I could also share the simple cakey cookie that I had tried recently. I had seen and made several cakes with yogurt but had never tried a yogurt cookie. I was curious to see how it will turn out and tried adapting this recipe here. I had added little spice to these sugar cookies and they turned out cakey with a springy/pu
I have talked a lot of how when I am in a baking low -when bakes go wrong that is, cookies help me out of it. They come out perfect and act as antidepressant. But do you know what actually works as another happy medicine - breads !! Surprised, don't be, kneading is therapeutic and there has been instances when my anger has been washed away after 8-10 minutes of happy kneading. But
Pumpkins remind me of fall time in US. I know pumpkins are easily available here also,but cute sugarbaby pumpkins appear when in October onwards -when its fall and Thanksgiving time in US!. I was thinking that seasonal vegetation changes in US do not reflect here but never mind, we can have the best of both worlds or it might be pumpkin harvesting time here also, but I love them in baked
I am usually attracted to any place that has a board labelled chaat. I would not care for the ambience or even the cleanliness of the place (upto an extent that is) if I can get hold of a bowl of chaat!. My friends in my residential complex can vouch for the fact as I drag them along for chaat the moment the neighbourhood chaat shop opens. This despite the fact that I make them at home!For me
There was a time when I hated baingans. I was not in love with the purple big eggplants/brinjal/baingans as I could not roast properly. I know its sounding ridiculous, but its true.I knew how to chop up and cook,but roasting over gas was something I started enjoying after marriage. I love the warmth provided by smoking and enjoy bhaingan and the bharta . Now I am trying out different eggplant
Do you believe the Mahabharatha War took place in reality? Its not just a myth? Did ancient sages knew about nuclear power,cloning etc? Do you believe in Krishna or the Dashavatars of Vishnu? Is it time for the last but never the least Kalki Avatar? Read the Krishna Key if you have answered most questions in the affirmative. Here science and mythology have been combined to produce
Few days back, I was invited for Bloggers Meet at the newly opened Trader Vics restaurant @ Phoenix Market City, the new destination for Bangaloreans. The restaurant is a part of the TraderVics International Chain of restaurants. It is managed in India by JSM corporation who run the Hard Rock Cafe and the Shiro restaurants. The restaurant launge is supposed to cater Polynesian
It seems I am becoming a huge fan of roasting. Thanks to the cold weather and warmth and taste induced by smoking, I recently tried roasting cauliflower and turned it into a salad. And not just any salad, but a Calabrian style perfectly vegan salad which I adapted from here.It seems Calabria in Southern Italy developed its own style of cooking thanks to it being conquered by several
Some or most of you might have heard of a galette or rustic pastry or pie. Compared to pie its easy to bake a gallette which means we are tension free. You can go for sweet and savoury galettes as desserts or mains respectively. And hey, they save the day when you are doubting what to bake for the avid baker and dessert queen! What you curious.?... Bet you are. Stumped too
I love baking cookies. Whenever I am low, baking a cookie cheers me up. If kneading is therapeutic, then baking cookies for me is like oops, I do not have a word ,.. call it a happy medicine. If pulls me up from dumps and gives me confidence, seriously. I sometimes dream of my own cookie shop, with varieties of cookies from each and every country and for each occasion. But hey have I covered a
I have this affinity towards biscuits. I mean the Southern or Baking powder biscuits. They are bready and can be made quickly. The waiting time is almost nil when compared to yeast breads.This time around I tried biscuits with sourcream in them. When I had made sourcream the first thing that came to my mind were these herbed biscuits that I had seen. The recipe was quick and easy and bisuits w
Some of you who are in US might be wondering how come I am posting a homemade version of something that is very easily available there. But in India it has not yet become an ordinary routine stuff though its definitely available in speciality stores at high prices.Basically sour cream is nothing but "mildly soured cream". More plainly it is fermented regular cream or milk cream to which the ba
I know I am back after a short break. I know you might not have missed me much. :) But FYI, I was still baking and cooking though could not post the dishes. Anyways, I thought I would post a simple chocolate cake which works very well for me. You must have seen several versions of this vegan chocolate cake and some of them might or might not have worked out for you. I too have tried several re
It was a long time since I had baked cookies. After the Reine de Saba I was slightly busy and morally down thanks to the flop show. But hey, a cookie always lifts my spirits especially a chocochip cookie. So I digged into my bookmarked recipe file, found one which I had actually torn from a magazine and voila they also had a twist suggested to the regular cookie. It was to bake it in muffin ti
Whenever I try something new, sometimes I am left wondering, how to use it. I mean, if its a paste or sauce then how can we use it in a dish. I faced a similar problem with sambal oelek as it was very spicy. Now I had plans to use it in a dip, but the heat from the chiles always pulled me back. Then recently I tried a soup in which I added it to he dressing along with coconut milk and fo
Sometime, Pride comes before a fall. Atleast this is the case with me when I attempted the Queen of Cakes by Julia Child - a Reine de Saba with Chocolate Frosting. Almost a month back, I had joined "Baking Partners" and this month or today which is Julia Childs Birthday we were supposed to bake and post the cake and I am left with no pics just a fallen attitude and 3 attempts at the cake
Though the monsoon is delayed, it is very windy here. Wind makes such sounds and is so forceful, we can see items flown away lying around in the lawns and gardens. Its very chilly and cold and such evenings and nights definitely call for comforting hot chocolate. Though hot chocolate or even hot cocoa are regulars here, I have never experimented with white chocolate. I am not a great fan
