I have had a real hectic weekend. Since the next one month is going to be quite packed with Ramadan related activities, I ensured that I took the kids out and they enjoyed themselves to the maximum. I am still sure that I will receive complaints that I am not taking them out, but then slowly they will understand how hectic it is going to be… 🙂  Today I leave you people with this fantastic quote. Have you found somebody like this in your life? Think about it…  Off to today’s recipe – I had made this curry for the first time exactly two Ramadans ago. This was the first Ramadan I was without my umma, as she was back home. I really didn’t know ABCD about cooking – yes, it was the time when she had started her long stays in Kerala and I was just learning…
Kappa Biriyani/ Erachi Kappa – Tapioca with Beef
I still can’t believe this. I have had this pending very close to when I started my blog, I suppose!!! I had mentioned in my Kappa Masala post way back in February, how the kappa (tapioca) I had bought for the Kerala Kitchen challenge of that month got siphoned onto making this Kappa Biriyani. Now it is already June, and I have already made this three more times in these past months and still I haven’t posted it… Hmmm….  Actually speaking, if there is one dish of mine which umma adores – even though she wouldn’t publicly admit it!!! 🙂 – is this. Upon her request, I have made it for her those three times, despite the fact that she is diabetic and cannot have too much tapioca as it is majorly carbohydrate. In fact, all times I have made it, we have had guests coming over in the…
Jodhpuri Murg/ Chicken
Yesterday, I was seriously thinking about going on a blog break. After having crossed 100 posts, I feel I need to slow down a bit on this running around. Unfortunately, me being the person I am, I will actually not go for a break now. Why? Because I know that I am in for a break next month due to Ramadan. Yes, our month of fasting is fast arriving and that time, I know that I will have no time for the blog – at all. So when I have time for it, let me post as there are loads in my drafts literally staring at me! 🙂 This is the same situation that I have got to do with my leave at work – I have it pending since last October and I have to take it before it expires… really don’t know where to schedule it… hmm…  …
Kozhi Chukka ~ Malabar Chicken Chukka
In my previous post, I was so excited that I had no plans for the weekend, and I could “twist and tweek” as I would want it to. And “twist and tweek”, it did – literally!!! On Thursday, while excitedly walking towards my car and chatting to my umma, suddenly I don’t know what happened, I twisted my right leg so badly that  I lost my balance and held onto mom, hurling Azza who was holding my left hand away. Alhamdulillah, nothing happened to her but I was in total pain. Come Friday, and I had a nice big swelling on that leg with some pain, which is normal for any sprain, right??? I was at home for the whole day, resting my leg and bearing my howling kids, as my HD said, “No going out today, better rest!” Weekend gone…  On Saturday, still it was paining with the…
Madras Mutton Curry
Yesterday was a mad day – fast but fun. Office was busier than usual, considering that I had to leave by lunch time to pick my umma from the airport. The airport was crazier than usual – she took almost 2 hours to come out after immigration and baggage check, which was pretty maddening. I was alone to pick her up and waiting was making me going crazy. Finally, after braving the roads, we reached home by evening, after which I had a small rice meal and dozed off for almost an hour and a half, when I had thought of just half an hour. Woke up to find loads of guests at home, in the form of relatives who are in town as part of their summer vacation holidays. Â The best thing to happen was the compliment I got from a very seasoned tea drinker, my D’s elder…
Chicken Liver Roast
I took a break yesterday – from everything, so as to say! 🙂 Apart from my Facebook account that I kept checking (yeah, call me addicted! :T ),  I didn’t do anything on blogger or on Google + or on my emails. My elder one came back after her tiny vacation from India and they arrived early morning, so I had a lot of sleep to catch up, which unfortunately didn’t happen, thanks to the hyper younger one that I have. 🙂 She didn’t sleep and she ensured that she didn’t allow me to sleep. I took things very light, made light lunch and some dinner – yes, worth posting on this blog later! 🙂 But then come back to the office today and I regretted the leave I took yesterday. A leave ensures that at least the first half portion of your day is in a mess and that itself…
Chicken Mushroom Stir Fry
Let me start today with a quote I found online, which is so self-explanatory. Does it sound familiar? It does, isn’t it. I guess that’s the best way to find out where our interest lies in. When things were looking on the downslide, a new thing in the form of this little baby blog of mine came by and I am so overwhelmed with the responses that I get from all of you guys. Seriously, it makes me going. After having mentioned about the interview yesterday, my colleague came to view my blog and he told me that I write exactly the same way I talk, and he named it “the Raf touch”!!! 🙂 Somehow, I do not know to write with a lot of prose. But I love to type what I just feel and simply cannot camouflage it very effectively, I guess! 🙂  Coming to today’s recipe –…
Matar Kheema – Chicken Mince and Peas
Life takes very curvaceous turns. Sometimes you are on a high, and when you feel you have reached the peak, it can drag you down in the most awkward way. When life moves the way it wants (or the way God has destined it to move!), we realize how vulnerable we are, to the uncertainties of life. We do not know what is in store for us, coming up in the very next moment. All I do every time is to pray to the Almighty that He does not grant such surprises that I may not be able to take mentally, in fact, for everybody. Some people are strong, some may look strong but at the back of things, they are brittle. Yesterday was such a day for me  – I was excited in the morning but then in the evening it took a different turn. Alhamdulillah, things came back into place but then it made…
Kerala Style Baked Chicken
This was actually supposed to be my first guest post, but then the post for “Cooking with Thas” just happened without much planning and this post has become my second guest post in less than a week!Whatever said, this post is very close to my heart. I am just a little more than one month old and I am really honored to appear on a very well known and appreciated food blog for a guest posting. I do not think that Love2cook Malaysia – or Sri as is her name – needs any introduction. She cooks some of the most simple, yet amazing meals and her pictures are absolutely drool-worthy. She was one of the first food blogs I used to drool upon before discovering many many more. Her blog makes me feel that she’s somebody living right next door! I am sure all of us would agree to that statement……
Dahi Murg – Yogurt Chicken Curry
Sometimes, you feel things are not going well. But then, when you think a bit more deep, things are not that bad as it looks! That is my case now. Most of the time, I feel very negative about things but then when I ponder on matters on a different perspective, things don’t seem to be that bad. I believe that is a real good sign – the Almighty is with you, watching and guiding, ensuring that you are there doing things right and legal, and making things better. Â OK, philosophy apart – I sometimes like to go on and on, but then I need to put a full stop!!! Oops… that’s an exclamation mark. Hehe… Today it’s a chicken recipe again, that I adapted from a cutout from the Wknd magazine. We are a total non-veg family. That doesn’t mean we have chicken, mutton or beef everyday. But fish,…
Simple Chicken Shorba
I’m seriously excited about so many things happening on blogosphere. I got in with some skepticism but then I am so happy to get a lot of positive feedback and warm welcome from many of them. I really do not know how to jot down my happiness. 🙂 There’s so many events also that are happening, but I feel sad that I am not able to participate. I know that it is through participation that you get your blog to far more people, but then due to my current situation of not getting much time to tinker around the kitchen, I am forced to limit myself to whatever recipes I already have in store with me. But once things will get sorted out (I am sincerely hoping by April!), I should be able to participate in events. Today’s recipe is an easy yet flavor packed curry. I guess shorba is a…
Beef Dal Mash
Seriously, on Fridays, being at home in this part of the world is actually strange. For the last eight Fridays, I’ve been busy with my certification classes and now this Friday, finally when I am relieved to have ended that, my HD gets busy with his set of programmes!!! So here I am stuck at home and doing this post…  I stay in a place which is very multicultural. In fact, Dubai is known to market itself on the basis of multicultural coexistence. You can find the whole world here, literally in one place. Those who are living in Dubai or who have been here would definitely vouch for what I say. We have a Pakistani restaurant downstairs and we have keep ordering take aways whenever possible. Their food is very similar to our north Indian cooking and they have such awesome tikkas and kebabs. This is one such recipe….