With the season now changing, the girls always want something cold. I always have a tussle with them to avoid anything cold since Rasha always ends up with throat infection, due to her sinus issue. But then kids being kids, really aren’t bothered of how much they will suffer in case they take something cold, right? It’s the same in my home too! Most of the time, it’s easier to make simple popsicles at home. Most of the time, they just need Tang popsicles and that’s so easy to make, isn’t it? Hehe… Once while flipping through a magazine, I saw this really simple recipe. It reminded me of the vanilla pods Priya had bought for us, that I am using like gold. I decided to use them up in these really simple popsicles that has just three ingredients and no added sugar, apart from just some honey!…
Daqoos ~ Garlic Tomato Sauce
I don’t know what to name the struggle I am going through. The first few posts of the month came through rather easily but at the moment I am fighting a demon inside me that is growing very rapidly despite my fight. At times, I really feel I am ready to give up on the blog but then I think to myself that it was my solace during my tough times, how could I give it up when I don’t feel like it. A complicated question to the confused soul… hehe… I guess I will keep it at that for now… I had promised to post this recipe for Daqoos when I posted it along side Fami’s Bedouin Rice. I guess it’s time has just come now, hehe… Daqoos is basically a cooked and garlic flavored tomato sauce, which is served along side meat and rice in almost…
Chocolate Avocado Mousse
I sometimes wonder what makes good food bloggers stop blogging. There are many that I follow that have successful blogs and have been consistently blogging for many years, but there are some who have left it midway due to so many reasons. Sometimes I wish to ask and know why, but everybody has their personal reasons to keep aside their hobbies. I feel that for many, food blogging starts like a click. It just happens, just like it happened with me too. As you go ahead with blogging, you start realizing that getting people to read your blog and continuously keep coming to it is not easy. In fact, it is a lot of hard work plus a few flashes of good luck! I still haven’t got it, since I am not able to give time to promote my blog as much as I find time to do my…
Quinoa Breakfast Porridge
Remember my quinoa salad post? I had mentioned in that post that my first experience with quinoa was not really encouraging. It was this quinoa porridge that I had tried first, and I hated it to the core. But I still ate it since I knew nobody would touch it and I don’t like food going into the bin. While eating it, I sat searching on Google as to where did I go wrong, and it was one basic error – not washing the quinoa properly! Most of the grains doesn’t have any change in taste when washed. It just ensures that the dirt is gone. However, for quinoa you have to wash it as much as you can to remove the bitterness off it. Once you feel that it is good to go, go ahead with cooking it and it becomes a pretty looking pearl texture, ready…
Thai Mango Pudding
After sitting out of the Blogging Marathon last month, here I am participating in two weeks this month. Since I will be travelling back home next month, I thought of not missing it this month. The first theme I have chosen for the Blogging Marathon #78 was “Oceanic Cuisine”. Oceanic countries are basically countries which are surrounded by two or more oceans. I did skim through the list several times to decide on which country to cook from. Although my head had millions of ideas, I settled down for the easiest options that I could search for. 😉 Here goes the first one… The first country I chose to cook from is Thailand and since mangoes are still available, I decided to make this delicious mango pudding with a coconut milk base. Searching on Google gave me several options of puddings set with agar agar/ China…
Thakkali Thokku ~ Spicy Tomato Relish
If you had seen something red peaking out in my Ari Dosa post, then it was this delicious “Thakkali Thokku”. Thakkali Thokku is basically a tomato chutney prepared in parts of South India – not Kerala though 🙂 – and goes amazingly well with anything – chapathis, as side for rice, with dosas and idlis. You name it, it goes really well with it. I am not a tomato fanatic but somehow blogging tempts you into staring at certain recipes and it keeps replaying in your head till you make it. That’s how the Thakkali Thokku happened and now keeps happening when tomatoes are available at a good price. I don’t need to tell you how expensive these red roundels have become off late! The best part about this recipe is its adaptability. I have kept it as mildly spicy as possible for my whole family to…
Thari Unda ~ Malabar Semolina Laddoos
Malabar has so much variety of food that sometimes it is so difficult to bring all in one fold. Despite blogging for four years, my aim at collecting as much as Malabar recipes at one place seems to be moving at a snail pace, mainly because there is too much to explore! It seems to be a never-ending pit, however since I have taken the dive, let me go deep into it. 😉 Thari Unda is nothing but Malabar style semolina laddoos. While the North Indian version is loaded with ghee, this version is without even a drop of it! These undas are made by mixing roasted semolina into sugar syrup and rolling them into balls before the mixture hardens. The process is a pain. The heat of the mixture can cause burned hands, so it is something that is not very frequently made at home. I…
Vegan Biscoff Cheesecake
After the Gulab Jamun cheesecake shots, here comes the second cheesecake in the Blogging Marathon #76 under the theme, “I love, you love Cheesecakes!”. And it has to be vegan! 😉 I have been wanting to try a vegan cheesecake since very long but somehow I never liked the idea. Maybe it is just the mental thought. I have been seeing this recipe and the amount of cashews that go into them, somehow doesn’t appeal to me. However, while this theme was declared, I had already decided I would try to make one, to know the feel and texture of it. The recipe is very easy to make. The crust of the cheesecake is dates and walnuts, while the “cheesecake” portion is blend cashew cream, made up of soaked cashew nuts, coconut milk, some coconut oil and your choice of flavoring. I chose to make this with…
Simple Quinoa Salad
It is the month end and time for the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge! This challenge was initiated by Priyaakka and then moved on to be managed by Mayuriji. I must say that she is doing a good job keeping everyone motivated to participate in the challenges, even though the group is small. This month, the theme is “cool salads” since it is summer in almost everywhere in the world. I am teamed with Priya Satheesh (there are too many Priyas in the bloggy world! 😀 ). I admire her for all the innovative combinations that she comes up with, for almost all her recipes. This is the second time I am teamed with her, the last time being when I made the potato frittata. The two ingredients she gave me was avocado and tomato. I was fine with the tomato but avocado always gives me nervous…
Palak Pakodas ~ Spinach Fritters
At times, the feeling of numbness is intense. It tightens you, it makes you feel so helpless and hopeless. Alhamdulillah, life is good but at times, when you think about certain things, you feel a void in front of you. I am talking about death… not an interesting topic to talk about or hear about, isn’t it? “Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your [full] compensation on the Day of Resurrection. So he who is drawn away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has attained [his desire]. And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion.” (Surah Aal-Imraan:185) This is a verse we all know, we stick to, and we tell ourselves. During a weekend, when we were on our drive towards Umm-ul-Quwain, we stopped by the mosque to pray Asr. We were surprised that there were many women…
Halawat Timman ~ Iraqi Roasted Rice Flour Sweet
It is the 15th of the month, and time for the MENA Cooking Challenge! This month, we are going to Iraq. If you remember, I started participating in this challenge with Iraq, so now it has literally taken a full circle. I must say I have enjoyed my journey for this challenge and wish to continue as much as I can… For this month, we were given three options – Pardah Pellau: a rice dish, preferably a biriyani topped with a pie crust, Lisan El Kathi: a baked dish with eggplants with meat mince, and Halawat Timman, a roasted rice flour dessert.. The suggestions were provided by Noor’s friend’s grandmother and were heritage recipes. No wonder I had a tough time trying to trace out the recipes, I don’t know how it was for all of them. Finally after searching a lot with various names on Google, I…
Strawberry Jelly Pudding
It is the third Monday of the month and time for the Secret Recipe Club post! I didn’t participate in the August month challenge due to my vacation. When the challenge was emailed for this month in August, I had all the time to go through the blog assigned for me, “The Gluten-Free Smith“. Tina, a Portland based blogger who went gluten-free for health reasons, makes her blog speak for itself, with some delicious gluten-free eats and treats and how much she loves cooking for her grandchildren – I somehow agree to that statement, since umma loves cooking for the kids and they adore her food a lot, even making comparisons of my food to hers! After going through almost the whole blog, I finalised on these brownies and these amazing looking waffles. Once I was back from my vacation, I kept procrastinating on making one of them….
Naan Berenji ~ Persian Rice Flour Cookies
A little while ago, I had an FB conversation with Lubna. I was actually frustrating at my lack of understanding of the basics of photography. How much ever I try, I feel I am not hitting what I want to or maybe I have hit a plateau. I am not able to get rid of my habit of clicking night pictures, since most of my best cooking happens at night. I know there is no point in me running behind sunshine at a time when I am just tired from work, and I try to limit my cooking over weekends not to overdo myself. Those are my shortcomings – I cannot go without it so I have to learn to live with it. She asked me just one question – what do you intend with the blog? Is it a recipe blog or is it a food photography blog?…
Flourless Clementine Cake
“Those who avoid the major sins and immoralities, only (committing) slight ones. Indeed your Lord is vast in forgiveness. He was most knowing of you when He produced you from the earth and when you were fetuses in the womb of your mothers. So do not claim yourselves to be pure; He is the most knowing of who fears Him.” (Surah An-Nahl:32) Finally the last ring of the chain was broken. Sometimes, even if we know it is not worth it, we like to cling to our past, just for the feel of it. We know what we are doing is not beneficial in any way for us and would only bring a lot of stress, but still the feel-good factor that it had given during a specific period of time makes us go back to it or hold on to it without any good reason. I am human, I…
Puttu – Kerala Steamed Rice Cakes
Before I proceed with this post, let me tell you – I have won my first giveaway through blogging!!! 🙂 🙂 When Vineetha from Malabar Ruchi announced her first giveaway after five years of blogging, I gave her a very honest feedback. As far as blogging is concerned, I really feel that the content of blog is always the choice of the blogger. I should say that I absolutely love her blog, for its simple contents, lovely pictures and most of it all, for the lovely person she is!!! When she messaged me mid July that I was the winner of the giveaway, I was really thrilled. She couriered it to my home address in Kerala and eagerly waiting for my B, who was on his little vacation enjoying the rains at home, to come back so that I could get hold of that lovely thing. And it…