After posting the Batata Harra and Aloo Raita, here is the final potato recipe for this week’s Blogging Marathon #106 theme of “Pick one vegetable, cook dishes from three states/countries”. I have moved from Lebanon to India and now to our neighboring Pakistan to select a humble potato dish. In fact, this dish is cooked in Muslim heavy areas of northern India as well. My first tryst with Aloo Gosht was at a nearby Pakistani restaurant, adjacent to the building we used to stay during our school days. We would go there for eating their huge thick oil laden parathas and order sides of dal fry and this aloo gosht. It would look the same all the time – a dark brown color gravy with a couple of inches of oil floating on the top, which we used to pull out by dropping a couple of tissue on…
Aloo Raita ~ Potato Yogurt Dip
After the Batata Harra, here is the post no.2 for the Blogging Marathon #106 for the theme “Choose a vegetable, prepare three dishes from different states/ countries”. I decided to do three recipes from three countries, so after a Lebanese recipe, we come to our very own India. 🙂 If you thought potatoes are loved in my house, then I beg to differ. HD, I and B are the ones who love to eat potatoes. My girls scoff at it unless it is in french fries form. Believe me, I sometimes really admire my level of patience with them when it comes to eating – they are way too fussy. *leaving a cry out* Anyway, one Friday, as I was cooking fish biriyani for lunch, I wanted to make a different type of raita. The posts for this theme was pending and it was perfect time to cook…
Batata Harra ~ Lebanese Skillet Potatoes
This week, I am doing three posts related to the Blogging Marathon #106 for the theme “Choose a vegetable, prepare three dishes from different states/ countries”. I have no clue why I chose this theme, but I am sure it was with the good intention of making some nice vegetarian dishes for the blog. I first pondered around using eggplant as my ingredient and even mentioned three recipes I would try. Alas, nothing materialized and to make sure that I have posts ready for this week, I went with the easy to work with, world famous tuber called potatoes, which was incidentally Valli’s example for us to explain the theme. 😀 I was supposed to be doing another dish to start off these three weeks. But I skittled through last moment, and realized I only had saved up the pictures of this post in my pen drive. I…
Kozhi Ishtu ~ Kerala Chicken Stew
For this week’s Blogging Maraton #106 theme of “Soups and Stews”, since the last two posts were soups, I thought I will post a stew this time. A stew usually has more body that soups and eaten with a side of bread, rice or something similar. I just decided that the easiest thing for me to do is to post our own stew – Ishtu, which is basically a “Malayalamized” word of stew. 😀 For umma, ishtu is always vegetarian – with potatoes and some additional vegetables. Whenever we would tell her to add chicken or meat, she would give us such a stare as though we have done some sacrilege. Hehe… However, non-veg ishtu very much exists in the menu card of Keralites. Just like umma, I used to think rasam was always vegetarian till I heard of “kozhi rasam”. Hehe… yet to try though… OK, coming…
Aatinkaal Braath | Malabar Mutton Bone Soup
After the Sweet Corn Soup, here is the second recipe for the theme “Stews and Soups” for the Blogging Marathon #106. Mutton is one ingredient which is considered to be healthy, even though on the fatter side. The meat maybe red and not recommended to be eaten too much, but considering the improbability of instilling hormones into a goat when compared to a chicken, the meat is considered to be much healthier. In Malabar area, when a woman delivers, she is supposed to eat one whole goat, from head to whatever, in the 40 days she takes rest. I haven’t had that privilege for either of my deliveries but umma says that they would have it during their times. In fact, my SIL also had a whole goat while she rested after delivering my niece in May this year. The ‘braath’ – the colloquial Malabari term used for…
Vegan Sweet Corn Soup
The winter is slowly coming. Or should I say it is coming in slow motion… The mix of warmth and the nip of coolness is actually causing a havoc with the health of majority here. So when the Blogging Marathon #106 themes were declared, I obviously had to choose “Stews and Soups” as one, as all of us will now be looking at warming options for the body and soul. Hehe… So you will find three super easy recipes related to this theme back to back… You can browse the already existing soup recipes here… The first one is a very simple corn soup. I always keep packs of frozen or tinned corn, since my girls love a quick snack with it, most of the time in the form of this buttery pizza corn or this corn chaat. When this theme was declared, I wanted to make use…
Kheema Seviyan | Khare Sevayan ~ Spicy Vermicelli with Minced Meat
Time for the final post for the Blogging Marathon #105 theme of “Pasta and Pizza”, after doing the White Sauce No-Knead Pizza and the Chicken Fajita Pasta. Vermicelli over there is categorized along with pasta. So I dropped an email to Valli asking if I could cook something with vermicelli for this theme. And she mentioned a yes! I was thinking of making something sweet first, and then I gave up the plan. A little browsing and brainstorming later, I finalized on making this Keema Seviyan. This dish, also called as Khara Seviyan, is usually made in Hyderabadi households for Eid breakfast or lunch. It easily can double up as a filling breakfast or even a lazy lunch or dinner! The dish has vermicelli and mince meat – I used chicken – as main ingredients but you definitely add the vegetables as an extra to it. 🙂 For…
One Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta
After the No-Knead White Sauce Pizza, here is the next post for the Blogging Marathon #105 for the theme of “Pizza and Pasta”. I love one pot meals, because I hate washing up after cooking. Moreover, my kitchen isn’t the most comfortable place to be in. 😀 I mostly make the pasta in a jiffy each time I am in a hurry. But pasta isn’t something the girls are very fond of so it features once in two weeks. I sometimes wonder why they don’t make my life easy by loving food like pasta and daal. *crying inside* I have this habit of binge watching the Tasty app. I sincerely wish cooking and baking would happen in two to three minutes just like they show in it. 😉 During one of the session, I came across this recipe which was so easy and fit into my bill. My…
No-Knead Pan Pizza with White Sauce
Time for the second week of the Blogging Marathon! For this week of edition #105, I chose the theme “Pizza and Pasta”. Valli has a monthly Kid’s Delight event happening and this is the theme for this month. My girls are very fond of pizza but they don’t share the same liking towards pasta. However, slowly and steadily with time, they are finding their interest towards pizza. However since they are my girls, I know that they would get bored of it fast, so I am not getting overly excited about the scene. 😀 So from today for the coming three days, you will see three recipes for this interesting theme… Pizza is something my girls really love. I really don’t consider pizza as a meal. I feel that despite paying so much to buy it, it hardly fills the stomach. Please raise your hands if you agree…
Haleeb Mal Zafran ~ Emirati Saffron Milk
After the Qahwa and the Laban – which are relatively no-brainer recipes – I was planning for something else as this post for the Blogging Marathon #105 for the theme of “One country, one category, three dishes”. But fate had it that I wasn’t to make the elaborate drink that I planned. I fell ill last week and I still had to prepare for this post. The lack of energy and mood reigned in and I gave up on myself. When you feel ill, there are certain drinks that play such a soothing role on your overall wellness. If we are back home, it has to be this turmeric milk aka masala paal. But when it is here in the UAE, I would vouch for this saffron milk, called colloquially as “Haleeb Mal Zafran”. Saffron is an expensive spice. It is definitely not something that we would use…
Laban ~ Salted Yogurt Drink
For the Blogging Marathon #105, for the theme of “One country, one category, three dishes”, after having chosen the Qahwa as my first Emirati drink, I chose a rather easy one for today. The reason is obvious – I was literally running against time to do more research on the drinks I would love to make. I would rather say that I procrastinated over my task, that I almost hit the panic button. I am not very fond of leaving things to the last moment, but of late, I feel that I am changing into someone I am not liking. Hehe… Maybe I need to buckle up myself a bit… Anyway, coming back to today’s post. “Laban” is a watered down yogurt drink that is flavored with salt. You heard it right – just three ingredients, served chilled. This drink is literally the most demanded during the hot…
Qahwa | Gahwa ~ Emirati Black Coffee
Each time I take part in the Blogging Marathon, I try to make sure I select easy themes so that I don’t struggle to finish up the cooking. But still, thanks to my lazy bones, I still ended up skittering through at the end! 😕 This week, for its edition #105, I chose “One country, one category, three dishes”. While I chose this theme, I had no other intention than to cover the country which is my second home – the UAE. After moving in between the category to choose, I ended up choosing “drinks” since that wouldn’t take much time to make nor shoot as well. 😉 The first drink I chose to make was the Qahwa or Gahwa. Qahwa is very well known all throughout the Arab countries. In fact, it is the sign of their hospitality. Every local home would have ready-made Qahwa in a…
Avil Milk {No Sugar Added!}
As for the final post for the theme “One Bowl Dishes” in the Blogging Marathon #102, I had no doubt what I wanted it to be! Avil Milk is something very synonymous to Malappuram. VH Bakery is the first one to introduce and make it a craze among the whole of Malabar. If you are wondering what this is, then it is a layered concoction of mashed small banana, crispy roasted aval (rice flakes/ poha), some ice cold milk and peanuts for an additional crunch. Anything over and above that are add ons. I wouldn’t call it a milk shake, since it isn’t blended together, but it is very close to being a falooda without any catches to it. Each time I go home, I would miss exactly that time when my family would go to Kottakkal for something or the other. Last year, for the first time…
Arseeyah Rubyan ~ Emirati Prawn Rice Gruel
It’s been long since I have posted an Emirati recipe on the blog, so when the theme of “One Bowl Dishes” was declared for the Blogging Marathon #102, I couldn’t think of any other dish as one-pot as Arseeyah. The cooking is done in one large pot, so what more for this theme! 🙂 Arseeyah is considered to be comfort food for the Emiratis. It is usually made with chicken, and has rice cooked along with it, with some mild spices and then ground to make it like a gruel. Just like Harees, it is eaten warm with a generous drizzling of ghee. When I landed up with some fresh huge prawns during Ramadan, I decided to make this as dinner for the folks. The inspiration to make this dish came from an article that I had printed out and kept in my archives, but can’t trace the…
Quick Chicken Fry ~ No Marination!
For the coming three days, you will see me posting for the theme “One Bowl Dishes” for the Blogging Marathon #102. Now the problem with this theme is that it can encompass a wide range of dishes. Either you cook in one dish, or you serve everything together in a dish, or you do from start to end in one dish. After scratching my head a bit and confusing Valli with my emails, I finally decided to stick to three recipes from my draft that I thought will justify the title. So here we go… Chicken fry is something that any household with a carnivores family would hog on. I mean I could fry a pot full and still see it empty. When compared to curried chicken that takes time to move out, fried chicken is always welcome. I am not a fan of deep frying, though it…