There are some recipes that you really don’t want to change the way you make it. It is all about being in the comfort zone, isn’t it? I learned to make cutlets from umma, and I have been making them that way for a long time now. It’s just not me, even my sister sticks to that recipe, because it is what works and is so much loved. Umma would make such huge batches every Eid and it would literally disappear in seconds. My girls love it a lot and they are devoured as soon as one batch gets out of the hot oil. We have seen others snort because the onion, ginger and chilli are added raw into the chicken and potato, but at the end of it, there would be no complaints and the plate would come back empty. All the cutlet recipes already on the blog…
Kheema Toasties | Minced Meat Sandwich
Are you among those who love to go on picnics? I do love to go for them, but unfortunately HD isn’t very keen on it. I feel his disinterest actually makes me feel jittery if we need to plan a picnic, because my head goes blank regarding the snacks to carry. I don’t have a head that functions immediately when a plan is thrown at me. I suffer from inertia, and then slowly it gets into the mould. I guess it has got worse with age. Hehe… I always feel I need to bake some cake and cookies, make some sandwiches, fill a flask with some hot chai and some hot chocolate, and just move out for a quiet time. But then the lazy me wouldn’t want to bake and take the extra effort to make all and pack, so I would still prefer the prelude of being on…
Mutta Porichathu ~ Malabar Fried Eggs
I decided to have a 3 back-to-back series this month. Can you guess what is the theme? The weather over here is quite apt for “chai and pakoda”, and hence I decided I will share three chai time snacks. Even though I am someone who likes to enjoy my chai on its own without anything alongside, at times, I crave for snacks like ulli pakvada or pazham pori. This egg fry is something I learned when I get married. We would only boil our eggs, peel it and have it as it is. When I married HD and came towards his side, I was intrigued by this glamorous avatar of boiled eggs, that would get served in every second house we visited. I used to call it “monjathi mutta” aka “pretty eggs”… hehe… The eggs are boiled, peeled and slashed. You can either coat it with a masala…
Fruit Salad
I sincerely hope you are enjoying this three back-to-back series of super simple desserts. 🙂 I just wanted to push up my momentum, which is at a dragging phase at the moment and these posts have somehow tried to get me back out of the inertia. Hehe… So after the jelly mousse pudding and the milk pudding, here is a no-cook one that is so simple but is usually ignored for fancier options… For last Eid-ul-Fitr, I was intending to make my easy trifle recipe, since it badly needs an update in its pictures, plus I hadn’t made it in a really long time. Unfortunately, nothing worked as per plan and the tin stayed in my pantry till I found it out while I was rearranging my stuff prior to leaving for my vacation. It did have enough time to expire but I wasn’t in a mood to…
Easy Milk Pudding with Cashew Praline | China Grass Pudding
After the Quick Jelly Mousse Pudding recipe, here is the second post towards the three back-to-back super easy desserts. I must stay that this is one among the oldest drafts I have on my blog. I started my blog six and a half years ago, and finally this recipe makes its appearance, amidst a lot of requests on how to tame china grass or agar agar. I already have a few agar agar recipes on the blog but they were posted in the initial years of blogging. Somehow, even though I find working with agar agar far better than its non-vegetarian replacement called gelatin, I am not very fond of the jelly consistency it gives to its dessert. I love desserts with a mousse-like structure over the hard jelly types and I always prepare desserts in that category. It was only lately I discovered that my girls love…
Quick Jelly Mousse Pudding
This month, after contemplating a bit, I decided to post three back-to-back super easy desserts. I make some form of dessert on Fridays. That is the only day I take out of the week to make something to enjoy after the heavy lunch. I normally don’t tend to repeat the desserts, so sometimes I am forced to because my head wouldn’t work as to what to make. I guess that happens with everybody after a tough working week, hehe… So in order to ease your tension, I am posting three really simple, basic desserts that will be loved by anyone. You can make them just for your family or even when you have guests. So here we go… If there is something that is usually in my pantry most of the time, then it is a box of jelly. My younger one loves jelly. Even though I don’t…
Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream
While I made the Mango Kulfi and the Jack-fruit Ice Cream to fulfill my “blogger mind desires”, this ice cream was fair and square made for the girls. Whenever we go to Baskin Robbins, I always end up taking Jamoca Almond Fudge. I just don’t look anywhere else. It is my standard choice. Now my girls have started following suite. The elder one moved her favorite flavor from Praline and Cream and the younger one has graduated from the bizarre colored ones like Bubble Gum (yikes!). They have been telling me since ages to try this flavor at home. I knew it wouldn’t be hard to replicate, but then it is more work that other ice creams. I have to roast and chop the almonds. I have to make the fudge sauce. I have to do a little bit of work in between to get it done. Oh…
Jackfruit Ice Cream
Just yesterday I mentioned my jack-fruit getting spoiled, so you must be wondering from where this ice cream post? If you have read it carefully, I have mentioned that one of the post is from my drafts. So this is the post… 😉 I don’t eat jack-fruit. I know I would get beaten up for this, but then that is the truth. I used to eat a lot of jackfruit when small. Each time we go home, my mattamma would reserve at least a couple of jack-fruits for us. She had a lot of jack-fruit trees on her plot, more than mango trees in fact, and they yielded the sweetest jack-fruits I have ever eaten. She still does have some trees, but not as much as it did before. She would patiently sit and remove the flesh from inside, and as though we were in a competition, my…
Instant Mango Kulfi
It’s been ages since I have worked on a 3B2B series for the blog. Somehow, my drafts have been dwindling and I haven’t been getting three posts that would fit into a theme, so I had thought to give the series a rest. 😉 But this month, because of the heat wave, I ended up making two back to back frozen desserts and one was staring back on me from my drafts, so bingo! I had three posts ready to be give a little life to that series. As you may have guessed, you will get to see three back to back ice-creams or frozen desserts, whatever you would like to call it, to beat the blazing summers! Last month, B traveled home for a few days and he came back with a whole lot of luggage, including mangoes and jack fruit. I am sad to declare that…
Pear Cinnamon Cake
So after two plain Hot Milk Cake and Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, let me present you a full on, mouthful bake! I love baking with fruits and it is evident with the amount of cakes that have fruits included in it. My first and only pear bake was this one, which I totally loved, so when this recipe was posted by Ms. Zanam Fijas on a FB group, I had to save it up and try. It is definitely one of the rare recipes that I baked as soon as I landed up on the recipe! 😀 As far as I am concerned, it was that tempting! Cinnamon is a beautiful spice. But it can be a turn off too, if not used in the correct amount. Somehow, I hate the taste of cinnamon in bakes that we get to buy from outside. I feel they are just too…
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
Sometimes, I feel the vacation hasn’t really helped me get rid of the tiredness. Or is it that I really need to tweak my timings? It feels like my chores just take away the joy of my time. For the time I wake up till the time I sleep, there is a constant rush of activities going on – whether it’s packing the kids’ lunch box to prepping my meals to getting stuck in traffic to work – which is Alhamdulillah a blessing, I must say! – to the traffic back, and then working out and then going home to more chores that never seem to end. At times, it drains up my energy, but then I tell myself that there are people who look for the kind of life that I have. Always, the other side is greener, isn’t it? 🙂 I am now trying to see…
Hot Milk Cake
It’s been long since I have done a three back-to-back series. Since I have been doing the Blogging Marathon on and off, I had decided to give the series some rest. Also, my drafts are dwindling so it may mean that I won’t get three drafts that go with a theme. 🙂 Thankfully, this time I do have some from my drafts, so let’s push it through! With the climate slowly getting better, the mood for coffee and cake pushes up in the evening. I love simple cakes, no icing and all. You may have a look at all the cakes that I have on the blog and notice one thing – not many have frosting on it. Even though frosting makes a cake look and taste better, somehow I like plain cakes. They are easy to make, quick to eat and frosting is always messy! Call me lazy……
Jallab ~ Middle Eastern Date Raisin Drink
I am a drink fanatic. I guess many of you must have already got it from the amount of drinks I already have on the blog. I always like to try something new all the time. Last Ramadan, while coming back from a trip, we stopped by the petrol pump to feed the car and as usual, the kids and I walked into the convenience store looking at something we could pick up. Usually I would go for a coffee, but since it was hot, I headed straight towards the chiller section and discovered this tall bottle of brown colored liquid which was labelled “Jallab”. More than the color of the drink, it was the nuts and dry fruits floating in the bottle that attracted me. I can’t express how much I enjoyed that whole bottle without even sharing it with the girls… Hehe… call me a selfish mom!…
Aam Panna
Aren’t there drinks that you may like personally but none of your family enjoys it? And then you end up drinking the same thing over a few days to finish off the batch, but just because you love it, you really don’t mind it. 🙂 That is how I would term this Aam Panna to be! After the Mohabbat Ka Sharbat, here is another North Indian drink that is for the lovers of sweet and sour combination, as a part of the 3 back-to-back Ramadan Coolers… The first time I had Aam Panna was at Huma‘s place when I went to meet her for the first time around four years ago. As I looked at a drink which had an odd green color, I gave her a quizical look. She told me it is a drink made of raw mangoes and spiced with cumin. I really didn’t want…
Mohabbat Ka Sharbat | Watermelon Roohafza Drink
When I signed up for the Blogging Marathon this month, I had totally forgotten that in my schedule, I had placed to do the 3B2B series on the blog too. While trying to fit through my schedule, it popped up and I had to do it. The theme I had chosen was “Cold Drinks for Ramadan”. Most of the countries are having summer during this blessed month and all you need at the time of Iftar, is something cold to wash down your throat. Even though there is no substitute as good as timid water to elevate your thirst, we always look out something sweet to get going. Even if somebody tells it is unhealthy, we would prefer to have something sweet to go down. Watermelon is something that gets eaten by a tonne in our house daily during Ramadan. How much ever is cut, it is never…