Blogging seems to have a terrible pull. I have to agree. I was supposed to take complete rest today before I start the coming week with quite a bit of roaming activities, but then I’m back on here to do at least one post, so that I don’t feel that I am neglecting my little baby! 🙂 Weekends over here are normally supposed to be out, but then it happens to be one of the rare ones where I am stuck at home with the kids and have no mood whatsoever to do, whether it’s cooking or eating!!! After having had a hectic week of some marathon running around, sitting at home today feels strange!!! Hehe… Today, I am sharing with you a chicken recipe, which I am sure many of us have our own style of making. Chilli Chicken is one Indo-Chinese dish that everybody would lick clean. Normally,…
Zafrani Murg Masala | Chicken Saffron Curry
I feel so refreshed today, thanks to the long hours of sleep I got last night. My kids are very fidgety as far as sleeping is concerned. They hate to sleep! Seriously, what’s wrong with today’s kids? My umma keeps telling how much we used to sleep as kids and lamenting about the lack of sleep of my kids. I keep telling them, my darlings, you should understand that when the time comes when you really want to sleep, you will not be able to sleep, just like your ummi is!!! Hehe… I really miss my sleep… Those long hours of undisturbed sleep, waking up to the slight sun rays peeping through the curtains… Now life is so mechanical that you have to wake up when the alarm rings or else your whole schedule goes for a toss! Life is never the same always, right… hehe… Yesterday, a change in…
Naadan Beef Urulakizhangu Curry | Beef Curry with Potatoes
Today seems to be such a beautiful day. Even though the temperatures are not that low to speak off, still a look outside from my balcony speaks of a lot of serenity. Can be because it’s the blessed Friday!!! When the skies look clear with a beautiful tinge of blue, I feel automatically it would make anybody’s mood feel nice. I enjoyed my time in the kitchen, peaking out to see the beautiful blue time to time. By the way, my parents have reached safely back home and the kids seem to be missing them more than I do! I sometimes feel they also need a break from their current surroundings, right? 🙂  Normally when unmma is around, it’s easy to decide on dinner. She will decide on the main ingredient and then I have to do the rest. One day, while I came back from office, umma had…
Chicken Kadai
Sometimes I feel like I represent the weather of the place I live in. Sometimes, I am clear with no clouds, sometimes I am hot, hazy and humid, sometimes there are irritating sandstorms and then it all of sudden becomes calm. Is it the effect of the country I stay in or my basic nature? I don’t know… 😀 I wanted to ask you all a question: does your cooking represent your mood? Mine very much does. I will make super stuff when I am at a high and equally lousy stuff when I am mood off. What about you? I would really love to know… 🙂  Just like how it was while I was making this Chicken Kadai. I made it in a really good mood to cook. As time approached for the dish to be done, my mood took a downward trend and it hit the rut…
Murg Dopiaza | Chicken in Onion Sauce
Have you ever felt how it means to “let go”? We always keep reading, “Instead of holding things tight, let it go. If it is not meant for you, it will go away but if it is meant for you, it will come back.” Such beautiful words that are good for framing most of the time and easy to say. But when you are faced with a situation which requires to take action, many of us don’t know how to do it and how to react. Â Finally I have realized how it feels to “let go”. There were a few “demons” living inside my head which was inhibiting a lot of my actions. Finally, I got a nice big hit and I took the decision to “let go”. It was difficult but once I opened up and let it go, I am feeling very much at ease. It has…
Varutharacha Kozhi Curry – Chicken Curry with Roasted Coconut Paste
 What a beautiful day today!!! It’s summer and it’s raining! Can you believe that? I guess in my whole stay in the UAE, it must be the first time I’m seeing the rains in summer… While getting ready for office, I could hear the sound of the rain drops from outside and since I was really in a sleepy mood, I thought I was dreaming. But then, when the sound got a bit strong, I just went out and there… the roads are wet and the drops were quite large! I’ve been yearning to see the rain for quite some time and there you go, the Almighty heard it, it looks like! Though not as much as the rains in Kerala, this little rain came like a whiff of freshness… MaShaAllah… what bliss!!! 🙂 🙂  There are hardly any more days remaining in Ramadan. By Wednesday, we would…
Simple Chicken Roast
 Days are really hectic. Cannot but say! It’s a mad rush at office and even more mad rush back home… A small nap, prayers, time for recitation, Iftar, kids, Taraweeh prayers and all of a sudden it’s 11 pm and it’s time to sleep! Frankly speaking, 24 hours seems to be not much enough for all the activities happening, but Alhamdulillah, the spirits of everybody at home is high and it is indeed a blessed feeling. In fact, my umma who was pretty sceptic if she could take the summer Ramadan on, as for the past three years, she’s been fasting amidst the heavy rains in Kerala, is quite pleased that things are not bad as she was expecting it to be! 🙂 And on top of that, my little Rasha took five fasts for the first time! Amn’t I a beaming mother? Yes, it did not come without…
Murg Chanay – Chicken and Chickpeas Curry
One week of Ramadan has flown by and we are into the second week now. Isn’t it like that always, that the time you were so much awaiting for, comes by and flies by before you even realize? This is one such time for us… when blessing are promised in bountiful and when each and every good deeds with the right intentions will be taken into consideration… The Prophet (PBUH) has said: “Whoever fasts in Ramadan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah’s rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven.” (Sahih Bukhari) Further more, the Prophet (PBUH) has also said, “Fasting is a shield; it protects you from hell fire and prevent you from sins.” Both these Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet, as we call it) only goes to specify how important fasting is in terms of purifying one’s soul and mind. It all depends upon…
Malai Chicken
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…