This is a nostalgic post. Some foods remind you of some people, doesn’t it? Similarly this recipe that I am going to post today reminds me of my grandmother – vellima, my D’s mother, who passed away of throat cancer more than 9 years ago. May Allah bless her soul and give her a peaceful life hereafter! Aameen… Visits to Kerala, when we were kids, used to be once in two years. We used to go during the summer vacation months of July and August, which means that it would be raining cats and dogs when we were back home and that is what we used to wait for. My D’s family is huge. The tharavadu (ancestral house) would be full of people, with everybody sleeping on mats on the floor. It used to be fun. All of our cousins used to chat ourselves to sleep, scare each other…
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. The best thing to happen was the compliment I got from a very seasoned tea drinker, my D’s elder…
Gajar Halwa ~ Indian Carrot Sweet
Some posts appear much before they have to actually appear. Just like this Gajar Halwa I made for my colleagues last week… I was definitely not intending to post this anytime sooner as there are so many recipes sitting in my drafts and I wanted to finish off the older ones before I go to the newer ones. However, when somebody is not willing to take down the recipe orally after eating it and insists on seeing it as a blog post, what do I do? 🙂 There she helps… 🙂 I had quite a bit of carrots sitting in my fridge and I had to finish it off. I checked with my colleagues whether they wanted halwa or kheer, and the response came in unanimous tone – HALWA! And it had been quite sometime since I had made it. Once I peeled the carrots and started grating it,…
Mixed Vegetable Curry
Even though weekends are meant to be for relaxing, for me, it’s otherwise. I try my maximum not to take up anything during the awaited Friday and Saturday weekend, but then somebody plans out something, and I automatically become a part of it. There goes Friday relaxation for a toss. Then Saturday will be filled with all chores you had earlier planned to be split between two days, and at the end of the day, you wish that Sunday was also part of the weekend. I never seem to get out of it somehow… So here I am, on a Sunday morning, feeling exactly like the dog character, Snoopy!!! *Read – my eyes!!!* I had a suggestion from Sini of Kitchen Magic to include more vegetarian recipes on the blog. When I was browsing through my recipe index, I did notice that there is a dearth of vegetarian recipes, meaning recipes where vegetables are…
Pressure Cooker Chicken Biriyani
Who does not love biriyani? I don’t think there are many who do not love to devour biriyani. But I know of many who are still scared to try biriyanis thinking that it is a very complicated dish. Even I was in that same category too. My earlier attempts landed up in “kanji” (the Malayalam word for overcooked and mashed up rice) format and it did not take time for anybody to let it down their system!!! Then I didn’t try to make biriyani at least for three years!!! Yeah, I know, that much dejected I was. I was satisfied eating it from my mom’s kitchen, my aunty’s kitchen or any restaurant but not from my hands. Once I learned the technique of making rice properly, I slowly got the confidence of making biriyani and now, I can finish cooking biriyani in flat one hour. That easy it…
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….
Choranga Puzhungiyathu ~ Bottlegourd in Coconut Milk
I’ve been playing along with the design of my blog for the past few days, and I finally seem to have settled down with the current one. However, I am not satisfied with the background. That is fine for the time being – I think I should take a break with all the blogger gadgets and just relax. I have to force myself to be 100% satisfied with what I have come out with now! 🙂 I guess this is the last post – not really, there is one more recipe, but then I would like to put that up with a better picture! – that will be taken from my previous blog, Me n my blues, which is literally an ignored piece now. Maybe I will post once in a while, but I intend to be active on this one for the time to come. I hope I am able…
Koonthal Chorum Parippum – Squid Rice with Dal
Some days are not meant to be the way it is meant to be. Like, for the past couple of weeks, traffic has been at its worst and reaching office and going back home has been a nightmare. I would sheepishly admit to my colleagues that more than working, it is the driving (or rather sitting in the car idle!) that is making me feel tired. Once you are home and you are late, you are definitely in no mood to do any cooking, but then you have to, so what you try is minimal cooking! :)This is my mom’s signature dish. My mom makes it to perfection and my elder daughter, Rasha loves it so much that this is the only meal that she goes for a second serving!!! I have made it a couple of times and it has turned out great, even though I will not compare it…
Chakkara Gothambu ~ Malabar Wholewheat in Jaggery
Actually speaking, breakfast is one meal which we do not have that heavily in this part of the world. With traffic starting as early as 6:30, you are forced to rely on quick fixes like oats, upma and the like to fulfil your breakfast necessities. It is only during the weekends that breakfast is lavish, but still it’s never the dosas and the idlis, but more filling variety, you can say. One of my mom’s favorite breakfast meal is what I am featuring today. Due to the ease of making it, it’s my favorite too. The thing is that you have to remember to soak the whole wheat the previous night and the remaining process is a cake walk, thanks to pressure cookers. I always wonder, what I would have been without a pressure cooker!!! OK, without much ado, off to the recipe… Updated on February 28,…
To bake a cake without an oven…
I know of so many people who do not make cakes, simply because they do not have an oven. I feel that is really sad. Even though home made cakes may appear inferior to store bought cakes, the taste and the love with which it is made cannot match the commercial cakes whatsoever. I truly believe in that. Even if it is a simple chocolate cake or vanilla sponge cake, the effect on the person who is eating it is unimaginable It must be because the maker knows what all goes into it and the interest with which it is made sets everything apart.This is a very humble attempt to demonstrate how you can make cake without an oven. All you need is a pressure cooker or steamer and an aluminium pan which will fit into your cooker/ steamer. It is that easy. My mom has been making cakes this way since the…
Chakkarkuru Mulakittathu – Jackfruit Seeds in Spicy Sauce
Let this be my first post on this blog. My favorite side dish for rice. I am seriously not fond of jackfruit. When I was young, I got an upset tummy due to overeating of jackfruit during one of our vacations to India, and from then, I stopped eating it completely. But my love for its seed has been undying. Whenever the seeds are dried, my mom ensures she makes this as she knows I love it. I also make it whenever I have the dried seeds avaiable, but unfortunately I got only a single chance to make it this time, as I didn’t have much of the seeds.Off to the recipe now… Linking it to Mom’s cooking event by Pure Vegeterian Bites… * Updated on April 6, 2013 with a better picture! 🙂 Linking this to the Mommy ka Magic event by Kachus Delight… Chakkarkuru Mulakittathu – Jackfruit seeds…