Content
5 years ago, if someone had told me I would be a big fan of cast iron, I would have laughed. “There is no way” I would have said. I had this myth in my mind that cast iron takes a lot of oil. The first entry of cast iron …The post Spicy Egg Fry appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
When I visited India last November, I spent almost a month and a half in Bangalore. My in-laws were at my MIL’s brother’s home that time. I stayed with them for a couple of days. They have a new cook at their home now. This cook comes around 11AM and …The post Capsicum – Bittergourd Sidedish appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Last December when Shilpa visited us, we were trying to remember if there were any recipes that my mother prepared, which we have not posted on this site. While discussing this with my brother, he suggested this shrimp pickle. My aayi was a vegetarian, but she cooked nonveg for us. …The post Shrimp Pickle (Sungta Nonche) appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
We are a family of Italian food lovers. While V almost always takes angel hair pasta when we are at any Italian restaurant, I have tried most of the different options available. I love different cheese stuffed pastas/lasagnas, but I feel really guilty about eating them. I wanted to find …The post Stuffed Pasta Shells with Ricotta-Tofu-Spinach Filling appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Few days ago, we had some friends visiting us. One friend suggested I make ragda pattis for them, I wanted to make something else for starters. Most of these friends are chicken lovers, so I thought of making chicken kababs. There is something very interesting about chicken on skewers – …The post Grilled Chicken-Vegetable Kababs appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Which child does not like M&Ms (Gems)? I loved these as a kid and still love them – although, I cannot stand the ones with peanut butter!. Ishaan became a fan when both set of grandparents pampered him with Gems, he continued his love for these chocolaty goodness after coming …The post M & M (Gems) Cake with Chocolate Buttercream appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
I am a big fan of cooking channels. I used to watch Food Network for hours before Ishaan was born. Then a time came when I didn’t have a single moment to sit infront of TV, so we decided to cancel cable. Then, around last year, I found out this …The post Hummus with Lemons Pickle and Capers appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
One of the questions I get asked very frequently is ‘how I manage to cook with a very active child at home’. So I thought of writing this post. I am by no means a person who can give tips on this topic, but I am happy to share how …The post Cooking For Parties With a Toddler at Home! appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
My MIL (Mother In Law) prepared this for us during our India trip. Considering I love all kinds of Marathi (or Marathi inspired) dishes, I loved it. I don’t know if it is a authentic Marathi dish, but I am sure you will like it. I usually make amti with …The post Toor Dal Amti appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Ishaan is already 3 years old! I love this beautiful age – his imaginary stories, his own on-the-fly songs, his craze for cricket and soccer and everything that involves balls, his love for his bike etc. Unlike last two years when we had big parties for his birthday, we decided …The post Backyardigans go to Old MacDonald farm cake appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Wish you all a very happy Yugadi (Ugadi). I normally do not make anything special for this festival. But I read so many wishes on blogs/Facebook etc, I felt like making something special. As I have mentioned many times, none of us in the family have any sweet tooth. V …The post Sweet Flatbread with Peanuts (Shenga Holige/Shenga Poli) appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Since my childhood, our staple combo for lunch and dinner at home, usually has been rice and some kind of gravy/dal with one or more sidedishes. However it has gradually changed in the last 5 years or so. It sometimes amazes me. As much as I love my comfort food, I …
Breakfast in my house is usually a typical Indian spread – either uppittu/upma/dosas/idlis. I cook both lunch and breakfast in the mornings. V tells me to take a break once in a while when we can just eat cereals. But breakfast for me has to be something hot and savory!. …
Masoor was not very commonly used in Konkani dishes before. But it has become a regular at my home these days. The most popular masoor dish at home is this masoor bhaji which I my family loves. This is another very simple gravy with Konkani flavors. If you are not …
Well, this is not the traditional chicken achari recipe, but my cousin Anirudh’s creation. Few months ago, we were chatting on google chat – he was in Germany and I was here in Kansas. It was one of those catch up sessions where we chat once in a while and catch up on what is [...]
We had a snow storm 2 weeks ago that dumped about 12″ of snow here in Kansas. Just when we thought we could move around again, we got the second one last week. Although the driveways were cleaned, it was too cold to move around. We still have lot of snow on the ground. This [...]The post Chicken-Vegetable Soup appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
I get many requests to post kid friendly recipes. Ishaan starting eating what we eat from a very young age. There are many things that he does not want to touch – like most of the vegetables. But I always serve him everything that I have prepared. I give him very small quantities, sometimes I [...]The post Tomato Vegetable Pasta Sauce For Ravioli/Spaghetti appeared first on Aayi's Recip
I love babycorn in any dish. Many years ago when I lived in Bangalore, I cooked with it whenever I could. But in last 8 years or so, I have not seen fresh babycorn here in Kansas. I heard it is available in some stores here, but I have never seen it. I am not [...]The post Chickpeas – Babycorn Masala appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
How much push a person like me (who loves cooking & baking) needs, to try something new? A year ago, I would have said, not much!, but I have become a very lazy person lately. I keep thinking about cooking something, but it never happens. I make something simple and get away with it. I [...]The post White Chocolate Pattycake appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Red amaranth is a very popular leafy vegetable that we get in the market here. It is in season now, so we go to any santhe(like a local farmer’s market) we can find this in abundance. Some people even get this to our door step. There are many varieties of tamdi (red) bhajji (leafy vegetable), [...]The post Red Amaranth Gravy (Tamdi bhajji – Odi Ambat) appeared first on Aayi's Reci
I wanted to post this recipe for a long time. This was a regular with chicken biryani at my pachi’s (aayi’s sister) home. It has been over a decade and I still remember the awesome taste of this combination. Somehow I have not prepared this very often, I kept forgetting to get the exact recipe [...]The post Mint – Onion Chutney (Pudina – Kanda Chutney) appeared first on Aay
Hope you all are doing great. We are back in Kansas after a long vacation in India. These were some of the best days of my life – We missed V, since he stayed back here due to his busy work schedule. Ishaan had too much fun with my parents, my brother and his family. [...]The post White bean Vegetable Chili appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Wish you all and your loved ones a very happy new year. I wish this new year brings loads of happiness and prosperity to you all. Hope we hear more and more peaceful news this year. I am currently in India and enjoying with my family and aayi is busy in feeding us with her [...]The post Happy New Year 2013 appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Couple of months ago, V’s maternal uncle and aunt visited us in Kansas. Did I mention I love to have guests at home? Their stay was packed with lots and lots of travel in and around Kansas. In between, we squeezed in some time for food. I baked a cake for them, which aunt requested, [...]The post Chicken Curry With Ghee Seasoning appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
Hope you all had a very happy Diwali. So after all that sweet dishes that you all might have enjoyed, I thought of posting a spicy dish. Last year when we visited India, my SIL R prepared this dish for us. She got this recipe from a magazine and she made little modifications to it. [...]The post Mirchi Ka Salan appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
When I carve cakes like Thomas cake or football cake, one of the things I worry about are the small irregular pieces that remain after the carving is done. They are all pieces which are not so pretty to eat (they taste great) or to offer to someone. Last time, I ended up wasting most [...]The post Cake Balls (Inspired from Cake Pops) appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
It has been couple of months since I became a “Stay at home mom”. I was both happy and sad about this decision. Happy because finally I could give all the time to Ishaan and also work on a thousand things that I was putting on back burner due to my busy schedule. Sad because [...]The post K-State Football Cake appeared first on Aayi's Recipes.
We have become big fans of Sweet tomatoes which is a soup-salad buffet restaurant. We visited it for the first time many years ago and at that time we were not very impressed. We became regular customers here after Ishaan was about 1 year old. This soon became the only restaurant where Ishaan would sit [...]
Fenugreek or methi is supposed to have anti-diabetic effects on human body. According to wiki – ‘Several human intervention trials demonstrated that the antidiabetic effects of fenugreek seeds ameliorate most metabolic symptoms associated with type-1 and type-2 diabetes in both humans and relevant animal models by reducing serum glucose and improving glucose tolerance‘. I like [.
I spend a lot of time looking at every corner of Indian store here and I wonder about new vegetables that I have never tasted. Almost during every visit, I saw these frozen pigeon peas and wondered what to make with them. Then I saw my friend P making this delicious subji with them. She [...]
It looks like ages ago when I was working for a IT company in Bangalore!. Anyone who has ever worked in IT industry knows how busy and stressful life can get. During those days, my friends and I loved to take long lunch break together. I looked forward to this time as most of my [...]
One of the biggest jobs I have after any big festivals is to finish all the fruits, vegetables, coconuts before they go bad. We bought a big batch of coconuts and fruits for the Ganapathi festival this year. While I am still working on coconuts, bananas needed immediate attention. V kept reminding me to make [...]
Ishaan started going to daycare at a very young age. When he was around 1 year old, they made him sit on his highchair to eat. He was all excited about feeding himself at that age. I was not a very big fan of the food provided at daycare – especially lunch, most of which [...]
Phodis are very popular among Konkanis. Chilli powder and tamarind are used to marinate the vegetables to make phodis. In old days the chilly powder was not easily available. So they prepared a pulp of red chillies, tamarind, salt and asafoetida. This pulp was used to prepare phodis of different types. It can also be [...]
I am bit confused, should I call these dosas or pancakes? Actually I wanted to make pancakes, but ended up making them spicy and more like Indian cousin dosas!. These were infact inspired by zucchini fritters that I saw on TV a while ago, which involved deep frying. Lately, I have started using zucchini a [...]
I studied engineering in Belgaum. There I got my first introduction to many Marathi dishes. Among all, my favorites were sabudana khichdi and vada. I would just gobble down these whenever I got a chance. I stopped making these in last few years as V is not a big fan. Last week I was craving [...]
It feels great to get back on internet again. Our laptop crashed couple of weeks back and it took a while to get it fixed. Puffed rice dishes are very easy to make. When my children were small, I often prepared these dishes for a quick evening tea. There are two types of kalayile – [...]
We love parathas. I wanted to try something different this time. I buy zucchinis during every shopping spree. I try to include it in different dishes. It looked perfect for paratha stuffing. A small potato helps in binding the stuffing. I also added some roasted peanuts for a nice crunch. The parathas came out so [...]
Wish you all a very happy Janmashtami. This is one of the festivals that we celebrate here every year. This year I wanted to make something new for the prasad. So I prepared these burfis. Click here to read about the traditional janmashtami celebrations at my home. Although I love cooking, I am not very [...]
This is another recipe sent to me by my pachi (aayi’s sister). I hardly buy shrimp here as we are not big fans of the huge fresh shrimp or the frozen ones that are available in small sizes. I am yet to find small fresh ones – probably I need to check out Asian markets [...]
Few months ago, one of my friends asked me if I can cook for a function in temple. I had to make a large tray of Chole. I said yes, but I had no idea how much chickpeas were needed to make that. I bought 8lb of chickpeas and soaked about 6lb. But I used [...]
This is by far the most difficult and time consuming cake I have ever prepared. But I enjoyed it thoroughly. Few months ago, my friend asked me to bake/decorate a cake for her son’s 3rd birthday. I was very excited about it. Now after it is all done, I have to write down some things [...]
Every time I see some overripe bananas sitting on the counter, I think about baking cake but somehow it never happened until recently. Last week I prepared banana-carrot cake and both V and Ishaan loved it. Yesterday little prince came home asking for some cake. I promised him I will bake him something. I started [...]
Few days ago, I promised to post more of my pachi’s recipes. This is one that I have come to love very much. I have never cooked any Indian savory dish with almonds before. So when I read the recipe, I was very much interested to try it. Instead of red chillies, this recipe calls [...]
In winter, we usually get fresh gooseberries. The local ones we get are quite small, but I usually buy the big-ping pong ball sized ones from Bangalore. Gooseberries are full of vitamin C, minerals and fiber. They increase the resistance power of the body. They are extensively used in Ayurvedic medicines. Earlier, I was preparing [...]
My aayi loves stuffed parathas. Everytime we visit India, we go to this small paratha place near my brother’s home in Bangalore. It is aayi’s favorite place. Last few days, I have been missing her so much. So I decided to make these and pretend as if she was right here. It made me feel [...]
I am trying to include more chicken into our diet. Although I mostly make Indian dishes at home, once in a week, I experiment with new dishes. This was one such dish which came out really well. If you are a vegetarian, you can leave out chicken in this, it will still taste [...]
I learned today about the unfortunate turn of events in my uncle’s health. He came to US couple of months ago. On June 26 2012, he complained about chest pain and subsequently taken to emergency. Doctors diagnosed the condition as severe cardiac arrest. One of the major arteries in his heart had a blockage and [...]
We have few jackfruit trees in our garden. During the season, we make many dishes from the raw fruit. This is one such dish which happens to be very popular among Konkanis. Some call it Chakko chane ghashi, we call it chakko chane randayi (In our Konkani, randayi is any side dish which [...]
Like any other kid that goes to daycare here, Ishaan loved goldfish crackers from a very young age. Although I was okay if he ate them at daycare, I like to avoid giving them at home. So I wanted to make something similar for him, where I could control the ingredients. One day [...]
