I am going to be a little tardy with my guest posts and book reviews from now on. I am telling myself – no keeping schedules. Hehe… It makes it easier for me to not feel pressure and I find it easier when you give a good gap and timeline for posts. So if I go kaboom with such posts in the near future, this is the reason.. 😉 So this month, we have a guest again on the last Saturday of the month. Can you believe we are in the last quarter of 2020? What a year it has been… Alhamdulillah… Anyway, coming to our guest, she is one of the seniors in blogging, as far as cooking experience is concerned. I don’t know if I have made it evident to her, but I admire her immensely. She has three grown up children who have settled themselves up,…
Soya Kheema | Vegetarian Kheema
 Sometimes, while doing grocery shopping, I pick stuff at whim and then regret it later. It is even worse when they are stuff that my family just wouldn’t eat. That is what happens when I pick up soya chunks each time. When I see them on the aisle, I think, “Oh, I haven’t cooked these in a long time.” When I reach home, I will see all sour faces staring at the packet. Hehe… I have now literally stopped picking it up unless I really crave for it or have any specific plans in mind. I have a handful of soya chunks recipes on the blog: Soya Chunks Masala Soya Chunk Cutlets Soya Mince Pies Soya Masala Buns  Soya is known to be a good source of protein for vegetarians, even though there are so many remarks otherwise as well. I had this pack and I was wondering…
Palak Paneer | Cottage Cheese with Spinach {No Cream!}
 For the Blogging Marathon #115 for theme “One Vegetable, Three Ways”, I have chosen spinach and after these chapathis, here is the second recipe. I already have a palak paneer recipe on the blog – which was coincidentally shared during a previous BM theme! – but that is a super easy truncated version to say the least. Usually dishes like these are treated like “treats”, something you make when you have guests coming or that you order when you go into a nice vegetarian restaurant. This happens even though the ingredients used are very regular. Haven’t you felt that? 😉  Anyway, coming back to this delicious dish from the vegetarian repertoire of a beautiful state called Punjab, the regular Palak Paneer is indeed a treat. Time is taken to blanch the spinach so that it doesn’t loose its green color. Usually it is cooked in ghee or butter…
Palak Chapathi | Spinach Flatbread
 For this week’s Blogging Marathon #115 theme “Three ways with one vegetable”, I chose “palak” or spinach as my vegetable. So you will find three ways to use it up. 🙂 Spinach is always associated with Popeye The Sailor Man, isn’t it? 😀 The way he presses the can, plops in the spinach and then immediately those muscles pop us is always fascinating to watch. But then I never loved eating spinach all this while, thanks to its muddy taste. It is only when I started my quantified diet and had to include more vegetables into my eating, that it became something I love to have. My favorite way of having it is in this easy peasy palak paneer, but yes, there are so many ways to surely include it into your diet!  During the quarantine shopping, I had picked up a couple of packs of frozen spinach….
Baingan Bhaji – Bringal Fritters
 For the Blogging Marathon #115 theme of “Monsoon Delights”, after the Urulakizhangu Bonda, it is this super simple fritter made with brinjals/ aubergine/ eggplants – call it whatever you want! 😉 We had this huge brinjal sitting in our pantry not knowing what is to be done with it. That is when SIL suggested we make some fritters with it. We have initially thought of cutting it into roundrels and making it like pakodas but then changed the plan to make it a little different. This post is solely her creation and idea of making it. 🙂  The eggplants we usually get here are quite huge. You can cook one for the entire family! This one we used was no different. It was cut into rectangular sticks so that it would feel meaty in each bite. The recipe has no complicated ingredients, so you can just mix up…
Urulakizhangu Bonda | Aloo Bonda ~ Potato Balls
Time for two weeks of the Blogging Marathon this month too! By now, you would have figured out how much I love doing the Blogging Marathon whenever I can. I always tell Valli how much the two weeks makes me feel really energized and looking forward to trying new recipes and doing posts on the blog. I am really thankful that I am finding it easier to do posts and things seem to be in a nice flow now, though I wouldn’t want to get over excited about anything at the moment. 😉 This month’s edition is the BM #115 and this week, the theme I have chosen is “Monsoon Delights”. I have been going home every year for the past six years. Every year, we would think of not travelling, however at the beginning of the year while fitting in the plans, going home comes in automatically. Staying over…
Sarlas / Challas ~ Kerala Pickled Onions
 When you have a biriyani recipe coming up and an accompaniment is one of the best part of it, then it has to mandatory come before it on the blog. 😉 I was contemplating whether this needs to be on the blog, since it is hardly a recipe. But the whole point is, this very simple dish with a funny name is something that I adore when I am being served biriyani at a wedding or at a hotel back home. I am not a person who like to eat raw onions, for the obvious reason of bad breath that it gifts you after, that doesn’t even go with chewing gum or brushing your teeth with the strongest toothpaste at home! But somehow, this humble onion salad can be had in a little bowl as the biriyani gets wiped up. In fact, I love this sallas and the chammanthi…
Mixed Vegetable Sagu | Karnataka Style Vegetable Stew
 For this week’s Blogging Marathon #114, when Valli published the themes and I saw “Bring on The Curry!”, I picked it up right away. I struggle with making curries especially for dinner. For lunch, we have a standard rice-curry-fish-stir fry combo, that is still manageable, but for dinner, to keep the folk’s interest, it is a tough task. Anything non-veg gets accepted with gusto but when it comes to vegetarian fare, I have a roller coaster ride. I guess anybody with a carnivorous family would agree to this.  So you can imagine my excitement, when I made this sagu and it got wiped up from the plate. Such a joyous moment! A sagu is a rich gravy that is very specially made in Karnataka, usually eaten with set dosa or pooris. When you go through the list of ingredients, you may figure out the richness. The coconut and…
Kalonji Aloo | Potatoes with Nigella Seeds
 The current pandemic had put a temporary stop to a few challenges and that included the AtoZ Challenge, that is hosted by Vidya and Jolly. After posting this recipe for the letter “M”, the tough times came through and taking into account the lock-down back home and non-availability of ingredients, the post for the letter “N” was moved. Finally, we had a declaration from Vidya that we could do our posts this month. During this pandemic, I decided I would cook up with what I had in my pantry – “Nigella Seeds” aka kalonji. This ingredient is actually something I rarely use in my cooking. I keep a little stock in my pantry so that I can sprinkle it into my pazhampori. I totally love the little bitterness it gives when you bite through it along with the sweet plantains. My impulse was to try Fami’s banana bread, but…
Easy Coleslaw
 When we keep gap in between participating in challenges, it feels like a long time. I was thinking that I haven’t been a part of the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge for a long time, and then realized that after participating in March for the pancake challenge, due to the current situation, there was only one month with a challenge in between, which I did skip. If you remember, I did mention that each of the participating bloggers get a chance to suggest a theme every month. For this month, Kalyani suggested that we make summer salads. Before I go further, Mayuriji has updated this challenge with a new logo from this month. It actually feels good to see a challenge thrive for a long time and get uplifts as well, such cases are a rarity now. From beginning with under Priyaakka, this challenge has traveled interesting paths and themes…
Easy n Creamy Mushroom Sauce
 I think when you say “Mashed Potatoes“, automatically some sauce has to come with it. The highest probability is always for Mushroom Sauce, isn’t it? So let it be the second recipe for the three back-to-back junk food favorites for this week.  My girls can’t stand mushrooms. I have no clue why. The day we make something with mushroom, they frown. I try to tell them it is a nice meaty vegetable that won’t make you miss the meat, but somehow it doesn’t go much with them. So when I was making this sauce, I was kind of sure that my girls wouldn’t have it. Anyway, since I was craving for it, I got to making it. I wanted to make a sauce with pantry ingredients. I didn’t want the recipe to be over complicated, with spices that we may normally not stock in our store cupboard. That…
Mashed Potatoes
 It is good to see the surroundings opening up. With Covid 19 cases on a downward trend and the all facilities slowly opening up, people are slowly coming back to normalcy. Over the weekend, we went for a long drive. We did see a crowd, but we could generally sense that people aren’t still comfortable with eating food from outside or being outside for too long. Even we didn’t walk around for too long. First of all it is really hot and then having the mask on is the most uncomfortable thing in this weather. With the upcoming months going to be really hot, this is something we may need to get used to.  Over the weekend, I was really wanting to make some steak and sides. But I am not very knowledgeable about the steak to be used for such meals. I did get thin steaks and…
Aloo Baingan | Potatoes with Brinjal
 Even though I have a lot of curry recipes already on the blog, somehow my mind always rotates around my sister’s complaint that I don’t have many “serious” recipes. I still fail to understand what she means by it. Hehe… With the last couple of months teaching a lot about the management of time and resources, it has become really important to learn to cook with whatever is available in the pantry. Alhamdulillah, we never faced a situation where we were short on anything. We still could order online and recieve stocks, we could move out and get the grocery we wanted, but I do know of a lot of friends and acquaintances who stayed in complete lockdown areas and had to adjust with whatever they had with them, and with no option of getting in any deliveries.  I never knew that a combination of potatoes and brinjals…
Batata Batemjaan ~ Potato Aubergine Casserole
 I was contemplating whether to post this now or later. But during Ramadan, even though we love to eat a lot of non-veg dishes, there are times when you would like vegetarian fare and you would prefer eating something that wouldn’t make you miss non-vegetarian food. This casserole perfectly fits the bill in every way.  Let me start with a story. Last January when my parents were here, we were invited for dinner to HD’s local friend’s sister’s house. It is the first time I am eating at a local’s house. Expats in the Gulf countries may understand when I say “first time”. I do have a couple of local friends but we always end up meeting and eating out. The beauty of most of the Gulf countries is you do not feel like you are living in a foreign country, especially if you are an Indian, and…
Aloo Gobhi | Easy Cauliflower Potato Curry {Version 2}
 How’s the current lockdown treating you all? With Ramadan right across the corner expected anytime on Thursday or for sure on Friday, it feels really different. We have already received notifications that the masjids would continue to remain closed, so all prayers would still be at home. Even though I have been pryaing Tharaweeh at home ever since the girls came their way, I always love going to the masjid for the Tharaweeh. It gives a real Ramadan feeling. For the past couple of years, even though not every day, I would go on and off whenever I have been able to settle up work. But this time, there is no hope. Let us wait and see how things fare as days pass by, InShaAllah…  I am all in for gravies that don’t need too much work. I already have a version on the blog, which umma loves…
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