HD is a sucker for anything traditional. As far as food is concerned, he is less fussy – the only requirement he has is the food has to be fresh. But nothing is best for him than a homely meal of rice, curry and fish for lunch, and even better, some pathil with mutta curry (egg curry). In our side of Kerala, it is nice pathiri or the thin rice pancakes. Nope, I still don’t have a recipe on the blog. Such a shame, right? 🙁 I hardly make it, and each time I make it, I want to get done with it! I have received requests to make video of it too… I sincerely hope I can do it soon. My first experience with this thick pathiri was when I got married. My first impression was definitely not good. It was thick and any amount of curry…
Andhra Punugulu | Idli Batter Bonda
There are certain things in life that make you happy. They may necessarily not be something that makes you spend millions. Just the simple things in life… I haven’t shared any slides on this blog for so long. I thought I have to save this one up, since it has a list that really excites me, though for sure, more can go into this list… There are times when I end up with extra idli batter, that the kids don’t want it to be made into more idlis or loosened up for making dosas. That is when I discovered this fantastic street snack, so famous in our neighboring Andhra Pradesh, called “Punugulu”. Cute name, right? 🙂 Punugulus are basically made of freshly prepared or fermented rice batter, with some spices and extra ingredients added and then deep fried into fluffy and crispy fritters. Instead of…
Banana Cocoa Waffles
The feeling of emptiness is a real tough one. After having a chirping noisy house for the past one month, and a back breaking crazy sessions over the past 12 days, my house is empty. Yesterday afternoon, my kids left for their vacation along with my parents and then at night, my sister and her son bid farewell. It felt all too soon… The house looked so deserted, with everything just left as it is. Today, I have to slowly start putting things in place and make the house look like how it did before. I am looking at the whole thing positively. Last year, my kids and I were apart for more than 5 weeks, but this time, it is shorter. I will be travelling by month end, and it’s not that far away. Moreover, it’s a good time to get back to my routine. The past…
Thengapaal Meen Curry | Malabar Fish Curry with Coconut Milk
Love for fish is engrained into a Malabari’s blood, at least majority of them. I am not an ardent fan of fish, but if you ask me to select between chicken and fish, I would go for fish. Fish is lean meat, so much more healthier to eat and far more delicious too! So when the theme for the Fantastical Food Fight was declared for this month as “Seafood”, I “fished” out from my drafts this delicious fish curry that is a regular in our home. Sarah says that June is the National Seafood Month in the US. I am not aware if we have anything like that back home. 🙂 For us, seafood is a must everyday. Umma needs a fish fry to go with her lunch, or else she feels totally incomplete. My sister has taken behind her with regards to her love for fish. She can have…
Ghorayeba ~ Arab Shortbread Cookies
I can’t mention how relieved I am. My blogging mojo has just not picked up as much as I would have loved. Last year Ramadan, if I filled my drafts with as much as clicks I could take before the sunshine vanishes, this year, I have done nothing. My blog is moving with drafts that I had clicked last Ramadan – I am being very honest here! This Ramadan, I have been time tight and locked. Over and above that, I have no mood to click anything new or cook anything new. I am sure, this too shall pass… So when I put up the Muslim Food Blogger challenge post for this month, which is based on the theme “Eid Specials from Around the World”, I searched up a bit and pinned up on my kitchen notice board the easiest cookie recipe in the world! But I procrastinated…
Mohabbat Ka Sharbat | Watermelon Roohafza Drink
When I signed up for the Blogging Marathon this month, I had totally forgotten that in my schedule, I had placed to do the 3B2B series on the blog too. While trying to fit through my schedule, it popped up and I had to do it. The theme I had chosen was “Cold Drinks for Ramadan”. Most of the countries are having summer during this blessed month and all you need at the time of Iftar, is something cold to wash down your throat. Even though there is no substitute as good as timid water to elevate your thirst, we always look out something sweet to get going. Even if somebody tells it is unhealthy, we would prefer to have something sweet to go down. Watermelon is something that gets eaten by a tonne in our house daily during Ramadan. How much ever is cut, it is never…
Mughlai Dal Kabila | Urad Dal Tadka
After the Muringakaya Parippu Curry, here’s the second recipe under “Dazzling Dals” for the Blogging Marathon #88. I don’t have a single recipe on the blog which features urad dal as its main ingredient, so I am glad finally it is being featured! For us, urad dal is for idli batters. Period… I never knew it was used in curries till I was wondering what to have for lunch one day in the office, and our Pakistani office boy mentioned, “Aapi, mash ki daal order karoo?” (Can I order “Mash Ki Dal”?) I had no clue what it was, but since it was “daal”, I told him OK. When he got it with a roti, I was shocked to find urad dal. Mash Ki Dal is what it is called in Urdu. I was like, “Esse curry bhi banaathe hai?” (Oh, we make curry of this?), he gave…
Beef Burger
How’s Ramadan going for all of you? This time, I have consciously taken the effort to post less on the blog. Doesn’t mean I will keep it empty, you will still see posts rolling on, but I clearly don’t want to be in a rat race to be posting what is called as “Ramadan specials”. I am not a person who advocates thoughtless eating during this month, whether it is now when I am taking care of myself, or before when I was negligent of myself. I never liked the concept of eating fried food and heavy meals during this month. When the gyst of the month is to practice restraint and patience, how can we go overboard with our food especially? Somehow that thought defeats my logic. I know many may disagree, but when we think deep, we will understand it. After all, hasn’t our beloved Prophet…
Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad
“Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you many learn piety and righteousness” (Surah Al Baqarah:183) Ramadan is on us, Alhamdulillah… InShaAllah, with the sunset today, it will start – the time when every aspect of our life is looked into and disciplined… Actually, I always feel that we limit our good deeds and discipline only to these 29 or 30 days. It is said that it takes 21 days to create a habit, so in case we sincerely want to create a good sustainable habit in ourselves, this one month should help us with it. After all, there is even a Hadith in this regard: Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Take up good deeds only as much as you are able, for the best deeds are…
Amrood Chaat | Guava Chaat
I discovered this guava chaat when we had gone to visit my cousin’s wife’s parents. She is the one who introduced me to those yummy chicken croquettes. 🙂 We had dinner from there and then her mother bought some huge Vietnamese guavas for us. They weren’t sweet at all, had a thick skin yet soft interior. We weren’t really keen in eating them. Sensing our dislike, her mother immediately took it back, chopped it into pieces and bought it back to our tables with all those sprinklings. Sensing it was red chilli powder on top, I was a bit hesitant. She pestered us to try. The first bite, and oh my goodness! I can’t explain the plethora of flavors that danced in my tongue! Actually, we ended up gobbling down that whole plate shamelessly. 😀 This is the time when the market gets filled with the large guavas….
Omelette in Microwave | Mug Omelette
If you have a microwave in your home, then there is no excuse of missing breakfast, isn’t it? 🙂 When I selected eggs as my “Protein Rich Ingredient” theme in the Blogging Marathon #88 – the other posts being Double Cheese Omelette and Akuri, I really wanted to try the omelette in mug, which has been doing rounds for quite some time. With the microwave oven becoming a part of almost all households, despite what all negative image it may have, we all still use it for something or the other. It makes a lot of cooking quite easy especially when you have some time constraints. I wouldn’t say that this omelette tastes as good as the one you make slowly on a frying pan, but for breakfast on the go, this is such a good option. My only advice if you are trying this is to…
Akuri ~ Parsi Scrambled Eggs
I love umma’s scrambled eggs so much that I have never tried making any other way or even trying to eat it from out. 😀 So when this month’s theme came in for the Blogging Marathon #88 and I decided on choosing egg as my “Protein Rich Ingredient”, my attention went into trying a creamy scrambled eggs, associated with the Parsi community, called “Akuri”. The name of the dish is itself very cute, isn’t it? The difference between the Egg Burji and Akuri lies in it’s basic preparation method and ingredients. The Akuri is quite spicy, with the green chililes and red chilli powder used, so if you can’t take the spice, disregard the green chilli. I actually regretted adding the only one I used. I kept biting into it, and gulping down water to tame my tongue. 😀 The main thing for your Akuri to be…
Double Cheese Omelette with Sauteed Mushrooms
I seriously needed some push and motivation to continue my blogging. Even though you can see posts appearing on my blog, there is a lot of mental struggle behind it happening. When Valli’s post on the Blogging Marathon #88 was up, I decided to let my lack of motivation get a hit and signed up for two weeks. This week, the theme is “Protein Rich Ingredients” and I chose to focus on something that I am having on a daily basis now – eggs. Eggs is one ingredient that wasn’t without a bad name until some time. Eating eggs on a daily basis was taboo, especially considered to be a source of fat and weight gain. When I had my first attempt at losing weight, which happened when Rasha was 2, I was told to eat maximum three eggs a week. When I am repeating my attempt to…
Chickoo Lassi | Sapota Lassi
I was actually planning to leave the blog empty, but two exciting things came up yesterday, that I couldn’t keep quiet about it. 🙂 I had hinted in my Thari Unda post about a recipe testing I did for Mrs. Ummi Abdullah‘s upcoming cookbook. It is exciting that finally the cookbook is taking shape! InShaAllah, it is scheduled to go for publishing by this month end and guess what, this humble blogger is going to be a part of the credits! It is such a humbling experience for me to have my name being featured as a part of a prominent cookbook. Ummitha is considered to be the mother of Malabar cooking and I can’t wait for the book to come out in actual touch. If you would like own this once-in-a-lifetime book, then do click on the link above and order your copy now! Yesterday evening, I…
Wholewheat Buttermilk Waffles
Remember the Secret Recipe Club? I was able to participate only in very limited challenges before the club called it a day. It was a pretty saddening time for almost all participants of this amazing club, since it was a really interesting challenge and everybody who participated in it enjoyed it to the maximum. When Sarah declared on the group FB page that she would be conducting a Reunion Reveal Day for this challenge, I had to jump in, even though I wasn’t sure how I would manage the challenge in between my hectic schedule. However, knowing me, I know I wouldn’t rest till I finish the challenge off. Hehe… So finally the email arrived, I was assigned Amy’s Cooking Adventures. She and I were in different groups during the SRC times so I never got her blog. As soon as the email came, I jumped onto her…