As you would now be aware of this well-known fact about my darling husband – that he has real appetite for sweets, especially the milk based ones. I can safely and confidently say that he seems to have sweet teeth only, and none of the spicy ones 🙂
Most people use tomatoes to make gravy; some also use them as a (minor) component of any curry or a chutney. However I have used tomatoes as the main part of today’s post – the tomato-peas curry. It is a very quick, super easy and lovely sweet / spicy curry. My hubby loves this curry so much and so I always make this curry as a mains not as a side 🙂
I know London is known for pretty sad weather but winters are not that bad, at least for me. I actually love winters – the chill in the air, the colours of Christmas, and a good chocolate treat! Last year on such lovely night, I felt a strong desire for the good old chocolate cake. But it was quite late and all my neighbouring shops were well past their close-by timings. That is when, to satisfy my craving, I picked up this recipe and made my 1st chocolate brownie in flat 15 minutes – yes, that is all it takes to get a lovely home-made chocolate delicacy.
Bhakarwadi is a fried savory snack that has a spicy and tangy stuffing, rolled into a dough and, sliced into small pieces that look like pinwheel cookies. Bhakarwadi is a quite known in Western India, particularly in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The best part of this snack is that it has a very good shelf life – it can be stored at room temperatures for around a month.
Any Indian celebration is incomplete without sweets, and that’s a known fact 🙂 . Laddu is an essential part of any celebration in India, especially Boondi Laddu. Even most of the revered temples in India serve Boondi Laddu to the Gods!.
Everyone loves cookies and that definitely includes me, my darling hubby and my little angel. I had previously never tried baking and was little hesitant when my hubby asked to get some home-made cookies. Under pressure :), I had to take the plunge but it turned out great (Thank God!).
Apart from my own country’s (Indian) spicy food, I am also very fond of Italian food. My love for Italian food was developed when we (me and my hubby) went on our Roman Holiday across Italy for 2 weeks way back in early 2011 – so many different varieties of pizzas, pastas, breads, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, olive oil, cheese, balsamic vinegar and house-wines that it was really hard not to fell in love with Italian cuisine!
I believe that some people in India have a perception that Aubergine (Brinjal/Eggplant) has no benefits or is of no good. This may be because in Indian language (Hindi) it is called Baingan, manipulated in local dialects to Be-gun , meaning no good – this is certainly so wrong.
Navratri is around the corner, so let’s get going with some divine dishes. For the benefit of everyone, Navratri is 9 day festival period dedicated to the Indian divine goddess Maa Durga. Most Indian people observe fast, in some form, on some/most of these 9 days. Some people do not even eat any grains during Navratri; so it becomes all the more important for them to get some good carbs to get charged up for the whole day.
Potato is the quintessential vegetable in an Indian household. I personally don’t happen to like potato very much, and this curry came out because I didn’t had any other vegetables yesterday – as a result, I experimented with the potatoes and this spicy n tangy potato curry happened !! You can say it Achari Aloo.
I am sure all of you would now be aware that I come from the western part of India – through my multiple mentions in the previous posts. My state in this western part – “Rajasthan” – is an arid, desert region and hence is generally unsuitable for growing vegetables. This is the reason why people from this region have the routine of preserving vegetables and lentils by dehydrating them, and then using them to prepare various dishes.
Me and my hubby are health conscious (well, try to be) so we generally avoid eating maida / all-purpose flour; and then it struck me – to make wholewheat Kulcha instead of the regular (maida) Kulcha. Generally kulcha is made in the clay oven (Tandoor) but I made it on a skillet (tawa), and it was very soft n tasty ! It was my first attempt at making whole wheat Kulcha and, it got great response from my friends and family. Hope you guys also like this recipe.
Upma is a regular breakfast dish in my household. Undoubtedly it is an healthy, quick and easy recipe. I have now made it in many different ways but today I am presenting the post on the basic/original upma with the touch of Turmeric (haldi).
Lachha Paratha is a multi-layered Indian flat bread/paratha of Punjabi origin, which is traditionally prepared in a Tandoor (a cylindrical clay or metal oven) using ghee/ clarified butter. However it can also be prepared using oil on a tawa/skillet.
Kadhi is a yogurt gravy with a little bit of chickpea flour, tempered with some spices. There are different versions of kadhi in each and every state of India – Gujarati kadhi, Punjabi kadhi, Rajasthani kadhi etc.
For the benefit of everyone, Kheer is a very popular sweet in all over India. It has different names in India itself – in South part of India it is known as Payasam; in Eastern part it is called as Payas, and in rest of India it is famous as Kheer.
Being from Bikaner (in the state of Rajasthan, India), I am a normal “Bikaneri” – in simple words, a complete foodie. I love both sweets and savouries. Some of the usual Bikaneri savouries are Kachori, samosa, paneer kofta, bhujia….the list can go on and on. However living in London doesn’t always help me get the original taste.
For the benefit of everyone, Laddu is mainly a round sweet ball which is very famous sweet/dessert in India. Laddu has been an integral part of any Indian celebrations, whether it was a wedding or big ceremony or as sacred prasad.
I have seen/observed that many people don’t like Spinach – my hubby being one such example 😉
Green vegetables should be a part of our meal but it seems hard to get some people to have spinach – especially men n kids 😉 For all these folks, I have today prepared Spinach Koftas – no, these are not the regular fried koftas. This is the baked version from my side – I mostly try to avoid deep frying. These green beauties (spinach kofta) have resulted in the delicious Baked Palak Kofta Curry !!
For the benefit of all, Nankhatai is a tea time snack that originated in the city of Surat, Gujarat. Essentially, it is an Indian short bread / cookie / biscuit.
The name Nankhatai is a combination of the Persian word ‘Nan’ (meaning bread) with ‘Khatai’ (meaning 6). A bread which made up of 6 main ingredients – semolina, chickpea flour, all-purpose flour (maida), sugar, butter/ghee and, nuts (almonds/pistachios). But nowadays there are many different versions of Nankhatai.
I have always fallen back on typical Indian snacks like samosa, kachori, chat, fritters etc., when I wanted the taste and had the time to prepare. Around a month back on one evening when the London weather suddenly turned rainy, it made me crave for some new snack. I wanted a snack which was spicy, tangy but not the regular Indian snacks. The curiosity in me arose and, then came to my mind – McDonald’s Veg Pizza McPuff.
Poha came into my breakfast life from my marriage. I know and accept that Poha in its original form itself is a light and healthy. But I got really bored eating the regular Poha twice a week that I desperately wanted to experiment. And then I came across this super-healthy recipe.
As stated earlier in my last post, we Rajasthani’s cook multiple unique curries from chickpea flour. This post covers another such chickpea flour based Rajasthani curry with yogurt based gravy, but completely different in taste to the earlier Patod ki Sabji. Honestly, this is my favourite and I am always keen to have it.
Being a Rajasthani/Marwadi born and brought up in Bikaner, I have always loved curry/sabjis which are made of Chickpea flour (Gramflour aka Besan). Rajasthani cuisine is famous for using lentils / chickpea flour in their food and making different and delicious vegetables curries. Though there are multiple different types of such curries, all of them are pretty unique in their own taste.
I am sure after couple more posts you guys will certainly know that milk based desserts and my darling hubby have a very strong connection:) This post uncovers Kalakand – another one of my hubby’s favourites. In common English parlance Kalakand is a form of a milk cake – soft, and melting in the mouth.
I love spicy, rich Indian food. Chole is one of my favourite and, I always keep on making them at least once/twice in a month.
Recently we went on holidays to Switzerland for a week. It was a really great place and a memorable holiday but I surely missed my rich, spicy Indian food. We did had some Indian food in Switzerland but then, no offence, it was of a slightly different league. The problem with me and my hubby is that we start to miss our Indian spicy food usually after 3-4 days of dining on any other cuisine.
After making the Rasogullas, I didn’t wanted to discard that “protein and calcium rich” whey. So I thought why not make a soup of it – does it sounds wierd? Well, it’s a very quick, healthy recipe and uses only 3 ingredients. Believe me – the soup is very tangy, perfect bit spicy n refreshing.
What could be a more better start for my food blog than a Bengali Rasogulla recipe – after all they are the best light, milk based sweet ever invented in my opinion, and the start of any good work in our Indian culture is celebrated by eating / distributing sweets!
cookingwidjoy 