I always use my idli batter to make my dosas. I make idlis the first day, and then after two days, I add little water to make it slightly thinner, and get the dosas rolling. Everybody does that, isn’t it? It was by accident that I discovered that poha or aval or flattened rice flakes makes a very good replacement when you run out of urad dal. Poha is something that is always available in our home, as it makes a super quick snack or breakfast, either in this way or this. So using it in dosa batter was something I really wanted to try. My girls totally loved how crisp these dosas stayed, even after cooling down. I have a pretty warm kitchen, so my batter ferments well. But getting crisp dosas has been a challenge for me, but not after trying this recipe. The poha…
Wholemeal Bread
I am just glad that the first recipe for a full-on bread is going live on the blog today. 😀 I have made a lot of yeast-based bakes, but those are usually buns or recipes that weren’t something like a breakfast bread. I have tried so many bread recipes but each of them were a fail for so many reasons. The highest reason is my impatience. You need to knead your bread sufficiently and not add too much of flour. The time when the dough becomes non-sticky and elastic, is the time to stop. That is the time when gluten is formed and the bread will rise and look fluffy. There is a lot of science behind bread baking but I am no scientist and I don’t wish to take away the joy of cooking by mixing in science. 😀 But somehow, bread baking can be very stressful…
Chocolate Persimmon Overnight Oats
I haven’t done overnight oats in a long time. So when I saw Sarah’s information email saying that this month, the theme for the Fantastical Food Fight would be “Overnight Oats”, I just wanted to participate. I love overnight oats and since I have been on a quantified eating of late, swapping my rice with oats was usually not a preferred option, so oats had to take a limited offering at times. I don’t know how better I can explain this. 😀 Anyway, there were this persimmons that I had reserved to try this muffin recipe for the Bakeathon that concluded last month. However it didn’t happen, since I had no mood to bake them whatsoever. Happens, right? I just wanted to eat them rather than cook with them. Hehe… Then I thought, why not I use them in overnight oats? I decided to make a chocolate version,…
Paal Vazhakka ~ Malabar Plantain Sago Dessert {Version 2}
Isn’t it such a relief to see a white colored post after an overdose of brown posts in the past month? 😀 At least, I am feeling so much relief to see a change. Hehe… Another year has started, and we inch closer to our end in this world… Does anybody think of it that way? We celebrate each year with so much aplomb, not realizing that every moment that goes by means that we are losing a chance to better ourselves. There is so much that can be written with this regard. But seriously, I am in no mood to write. My head is buzzing with so much that I am feeling tired. I don’t know if it is good or bad… 🙂 I will leave it at that and move on to the post for the day… I have already shared a Paal Vazhakka recipe earlier,…
Vegan Cocoa Scones
When I had started blogging, I was in a shared kitchen with umma. She wouldn’t allow me to bake as such, since she is diabetic and she would say that my baking would actually not allow her to be strict with herself. I would wait for her and D to go for their walks so that I could do the baking. When they would return back, the smell of the bakes would be wafting in the house and she would give me that look – I guess we all know what that look is, yes, the same thing we use with our children too now! 😀 Life is which goes around, comes around… 🙂 Once D retired and left the country for good, HD found a decent apartment close to where his business is, so we shifted. It’s been four years now in this house, Alhamdulillah. As soon…
Easy Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls
Ever since I have started posts this month, I haven’t shared anything much personal. Maybe because there hasn’t been anything interesting… 🙂 One thing I started doing this month is journaling a statement every day. It is basically one question, that needs to be answered in a couple of statements, depending on your state of the day. Even though I haven’t been regular with it, I have stuck to it 80% of the time and can feel how relaxed that jotting down a couple of sentences is making me. I am trying to stick to it and do it on a daily basis from now on. I am seriously thinking of doing a statement and sticking it next to my bed, so that each time I go to bed, I check it and ensure that everything is done. Just trying to emphasis a bit more on my mental health……
Idiyappam | String Hoppers
When Valli’s mail came for the themes for this month’s Blogging Marathon #94 and my eyes fell on “Meals within 30 minutes”, I really wanted to do it. I am currently building up my “Under 30 Minutes” recipes on the blog and the theme was perfect for adding three more. I have chosen three recipes that fits into different courses, so that it doesn’t feel like you get only drinks within that time. 😀 The first one are Idiyappams or Nool Puttu, as we call it. “Nool” is thread, and definitely these are thread-like rice dumplings, steamed and served. I never realized how much my girls loved this till they literally ate my head asking to make it. I thought it was a really complicated process and would just ignore it. It was one Instagram story of Fami which prompted me to try these. I pulled up my…
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins | Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free
After the Honey Yogurt Cheesecake and the Dates Bliss Balls, here comes my third recipe for the theme “Sweets without Refined Ingredients” for the Blogging Marathon #94. Keto and Low Carb are big words these days. Every second person seems to be going on Keto. Hehe… I somehow have a mental block towards that diet, but then it is one of the diets that is causing a lot of people to lose weight really quick. I firmly believe that any diet followed in moderation will do good, but totally giving up on one part of the food chain is not sustainable in the long run. Anyway, to each, their opinion… 🙂 I have some coconut flour in my pantry that I bought out of enthusiasm, only to discover that I wasn’t liking it much! I tried making pancakes with them and they became a dud. I was somehow…
Wholemeal Banana Bread
I always feel it isn’t necessary to make something fresh for breakfast like the Muhalla or the Capsicum Olive Omelette, for the Blogging Marathon #93 theme I chose for this week, “Easy Breakfast”. I am somebody who loves to bake something and keep ready for breakfast at times, be it on weekdays or even better, for weekends. This Wholemeal Banana Bread perfectly fits the bill for a delicious and healthy breakfast without much effort in the morning! This recipe appeared on the King Arthur site as the recipe for 2018. I love their website and refer it to a lot of times for perfect recipes. So I was sure that this bread would be a winner too. I hardly made changes to the recipe – used wholemeal flour for baking it, reduced the sugar a tad bit and used a mix of oil and butter, since I feel…
Capsicum Olive Omelette
I love eggs for breakfast – period! When I started quantitative nutrition, the best thing I loved is that I could eat eggs everyday to cover my protein and fat requirements. Yaay! 😀 So when I do a post for the Blogging Marathon #93 under the theme “Easy Breakfast”, what is easier than having an egg meal? I have already posted a couple of my favorite omelette recipes here and here, but this one takes the cake! I love capsicum and try to include it into most of the meals I can. I keep a small bowl of chopped capsicum so that it becomes easy in the rush to just sprinkle them on while making the omelette. A bottle of sliced green olives is also a part of my pantry, since the whole family can finish a bottle in one sitting. Combining both these vegetables into this delicious…
Muhalla | Mhala ~ Emirati Date Crepes
You may have noticed that when it comes to selecting themes for the Blogging Marathon, I always go for something easy so that I can accommodate it in. 😀 This week, I have chosen a theme for version #93 that I am generally bad at – “Easy Breakfast”. Even though everybody tells you that breakfast is the most important meal, there are so many opinions coming up on how much important that meal can be. No doubt, if you need to feel at your best, you need to ensure that your tummy is in tact. This case goes really true with kids. Schools start so early these days, that eating is a task. My girls have just a cup of milk or sometimes breakfast cereal and go. Sometimes they eat oats or upma but nothing more than that. If I make, they keep grumpy faces. So I literally…
Wholemeal Pancakes
The feeling of coming home is different, isn’t it? After a two month break, we are back to the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge. Due to dwindling participation and generally everyone being in a holiday mood – which translates into more house work and hyper kids, usually! – unanimously, we decided to give the challenge a well required break and come back to it with a fresh mind. Even though I missed hosting it, it gave me a breather that I didn’t have to make sure that I cook, participate and do all that comes with an event, especially when I would be on a holiday myself. I hope that this break has helped everybody in the group recuperate and come back to their blogging mojo. It isn’t easy to get back to blogging after a break even, unless and until the mind is rested well and you are…
Homemade Chamee Cheese | Emirati Cheese
You all know how passionate I am of wanting to share as much Emirati recipes I can on the blog. Though my access to these recipes are limited, I am trying my best to dig into sources and find them as much as I can. I do have a few in my drafts and may more in hand, waiting to be tried, InShaAllah. I hope I can slowly keep filling in the section and make this blog a one-stop for the beautiful Emirati cuisine. 🙂 Cheese is a very integral part of Emirati food. They serve cheese with almost everything. If I tell you that it’s the golden Kraft bottle that sells the best here, you need not be surprised. Cheese is used to dip in their breads and chebaab, and as spread into their sandwiches, especially the ever favorite Oman chips sandwich. But apart from the spreadable…
Yogurt Rice Pudding
I guess as I finish up the theme “Single Serving Dessert” for the Blogging Marathon #90, I get to a recipe that fits the theme perfectly. While the Sticky Date Pudding and the Strawberry Fool were made for more than one, but served individually, this Yogurt Rice Pudding is just for one serving! I had mentioned earlier that I am on quantitative nutrition, and I am allowed to eat certain foods in certain quantities. This approach has actually made me realize that I am intolerant of milk and I may not be using it frequently as I used to in the future for sure. I wanted to make a dessert all for myself that fit into my macros and that is how this pudding was born. I was actually in two minds, then I thought, “It’s just for me. Why am I even thinking?” I am so…
Kai Pathiri/ Orotti ~ Malabar Rice Pancakes
HD is a sucker for anything traditional. As far as food is concerned, he is less fussy – the only requirement he has is the food has to be fresh. But nothing is best for him than a homely meal of rice, curry and fish for lunch, and even better, some pathil with mutta curry (egg curry). In our side of Kerala, it is nice pathiri or the thin rice pancakes. Nope, I still don’t have a recipe on the blog. Such a shame, right? 🙁 I hardly make it, and each time I make it, I want to get done with it! I have received requests to make video of it too… I sincerely hope I can do it soon. My first experience with this thick pathiri was when I got married. My first impression was definitely not good. It was thick and any amount of curry…