I think when the head feels empty, the best thing to do is to write about the weather. 😉 I love the month of October for that change in the feel that comes with the month. The transition from the harsh summers to the cold winters is always the best time – for long rides, for outdoor dining or chai sessions, for beach time, or for simply feeling lazy! The only thing I can’t stand is the longer nights. Somehow, light makes me feel active. I feel like I can accomplish and complete more tasks during the morning hours. But as soon as the sun sets and darkness hits in, I go on switch-off mode. During winters, that mode is longer and quite tough to manage as well. I hope I can be a little more steady this year, even though I am not very positive about it… Hehe……
Sugiyan / Sukhiyan | Green Gram Jaggery Dumplings
HD is a huge fan of Tik Tok. He can continuously keep watching videos on it at any time. I do not seem to enjoy it much and I get irritated when I see him wasting his time on it. At times, he shares videos to my Whassap. There was this video which had two dogs. One was constantly barking on the other, the barking dog was referred to as ” the wife” and the silent dog “the husband”. :/ Then, one comment below it from the Mr., “Don’t they remind us of ourselves?” Yeah, right… At times, he would send me some interesting cooking videos he would see, and among one of them was the Sughiyan. I was in the kitchen, when he screamed out, “I have shared a video, watch it!”. I usually don’t watch all that he shares. I am not an avid video watcher…
Mixed Vegetable Sagu | Karnataka Style Vegetable Stew
For this week’s Blogging Marathon #114, when Valli published the themes and I saw “Bring on The Curry!”, I picked it up right away. I struggle with making curries especially for dinner. For lunch, we have a standard rice-curry-fish-stir fry combo, that is still manageable, but for dinner, to keep the folk’s interest, it is a tough task. Anything non-veg gets accepted with gusto but when it comes to vegetarian fare, I have a roller coaster ride. I guess anybody with a carnivorous family would agree to this. So you can imagine my excitement, when I made this sagu and it got wiped up from the plate. Such a joyous moment! A sagu is a rich gravy that is very specially made in Karnataka, usually eaten with set dosa or pooris. When you go through the list of ingredients, you may figure out the richness. The coconut and…
Mashed Potatoes
It is good to see the surroundings opening up. With Covid 19 cases on a downward trend and the all facilities slowly opening up, people are slowly coming back to normalcy. Over the weekend, we went for a long drive. We did see a crowd, but we could generally sense that people aren’t still comfortable with eating food from outside or being outside for too long. Even we didn’t walk around for too long. First of all it is really hot and then having the mask on is the most uncomfortable thing in this weather. With the upcoming months going to be really hot, this is something we may need to get used to. Over the weekend, I was really wanting to make some steak and sides. But I am not very knowledgeable about the steak to be used for such meals. I did get thin steaks and…
Aloo Baingan | Potatoes with Brinjal
Even though I have a lot of curry recipes already on the blog, somehow my mind always rotates around my sister’s complaint that I don’t have many “serious” recipes. I still fail to understand what she means by it. Hehe… With the last couple of months teaching a lot about the management of time and resources, it has become really important to learn to cook with whatever is available in the pantry. Alhamdulillah, we never faced a situation where we were short on anything. We still could order online and recieve stocks, we could move out and get the grocery we wanted, but I do know of a lot of friends and acquaintances who stayed in complete lockdown areas and had to adjust with whatever they had with them, and with no option of getting in any deliveries. I never knew that a combination of potatoes and brinjals…
Easy Haleem | Spicy Wheat Lentil Mash
I am just feeling really blank as I open this post and sit to type something. This Ramadan has been so different, that it had been initially difficult to digest but we took it in and accepted the change. Earlier this week, Lubna had bumped up her guest post on the blog, and as I read through it, I had gone back to some of the earlier posts like this Masala Aleesa I had done for her blog during one of the Ramadans. How much is Ramadan a celebration here, but had gone really sobre this time, thanks to one virus. There are a lot of matters to ponder on this. It just took a miniscule matter, that is not visible to the eye, to topple everything that we had called “normal”. We are slowly but surely adjusting to the new normal. Having said that, there are still…
Tadka Dal Khichdi ~ Spiced Lentil and Rice Mash
This month, again I am back at participating in the A to Z challenge hosted by Vidya and Jolly. The letter for the month is “L” and I was tempted to go simple. My initial idea was to use limes, which are in abundance now, and make a limeade or maybe even bake a cake. However, I ditched the idea. I don’t know why but I just did. Sometimes, you have no explanations to sudden cancellations to the initial plans, isn’it it? It was when I was reminded of this kichdi which has become my staple almost every weekday as dinner. It features a lot of lentils, but I was doubtful if it would be acceptable. A couple of messages to Vidya and she confirmed it is OK, provided I place the emphasis on the lentils. It was a “yay” moment, since I was sharing it a lot on…
Lahm Machboos | Majboos ~ Emirati Mutton Rice
I guess it is time to get back to reality after basking in some glory after the Chocolate Mousse Cake. Hehe… This week has been quite busy with guests from HD’s home. My whole schedule has gone for a toss, but for that matter, from November end, nothing has been as per schedule. It is just being twisted and tweaked as per how circumstances are coming and falling in place. But InShaAllah, after they leave on Saturday, I should be able to come back into my routine of everything, especially my workouts, that I am struggling to come back to. I always feel that I eat better the time I workout and vice-versa. I really don’t understand my thought process, when most of the time, it is the way around for many people! So let’s see how it goes… The climate has been kind. It is kind of cozy…
Aloo Gosht ~ Meat and Potato Curry
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…
Masala Pattani Kadala | Spiced Green Peas
Usually, I start to like posts with something that is happening in life, like maybe the weather, or some interesting happening. I don’t know why these days, life is a haze. It becomes morning, then it is the usual rush to work. Once work is done, then I go for my workouts and then reach home just in time to make something for dinner. Days just seem to be moving in super speed, from weeks to months. Before we even know, 2019 will come to an end, in fact it is almost close to. I did give a sigh when I noticed the date today. It hasn’t been a kind year, to say the least but Alhamdulillah for everything. We have survived through it and InShaAllah we will surely go ahead with His grace… 🙂 But something interesting has been happening and that is – finally winters are…
Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry | Easy Chicken Curry
I am wondering how should I start this post. Most of the time, these days my head is really blank. There has been a lot happening – good and ugly and my thoughts are all muddled up in that process, not knowing which way to think and keep my mood. But one thing I know – that what is destined, good or bad, will surely come our way, come what maybe. Sometimes thinking that way makes sense more than becoming tensed about what is going to come. I keep telling HD that we have always been relieved of the tensions we face, so maybe we just need to stay positive and hope that everything will settle, InShaAllah. Having said that, winters are slowly sweeping in and is releasing a very laid back air in all. I find it hard to do anything, forget about cooking. Even though I love…
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…
Beetroot Chicken
Did this month go away so fast? I feel I haven’t been much away from the blog as such. I stayed almost four weeks back home, but it just felt as though days flew by. We had a little flood threat this time through but Alhamdulillah, it was fine on our side, though there were areas like Nilambur and Wayanad that were badly affected by the heavy rains and mud slides. The unexpected mud slides caused very heartbreaking deaths in those areas. Apart from the heavy rains, the climate was otherwise pleasant. I slept quite well throughout the days, since it was nice and cozy. I had a few doctor visits to make, and to top it all, was the splint that got placed inside my mouth due to my TMJ problem. It feels very odd and I have to be on a soft diet for one month, the…
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