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…
Kalonji Aloo | Potatoes with Nigella Seeds
The current pandemic had put a temporary stop to a few challenges and that included the AtoZ Challenge, that is hosted by Vidya and Jolly. After posting this recipe for the letter “M”, the tough times came through and taking into account the lock-down back home and non-availability of ingredients, the post for the letter “N” was moved. Finally, we had a declaration from Vidya that we could do our posts this month. During this pandemic, I decided I would cook up with what I had in my pantry – “Nigella Seeds” aka kalonji. This ingredient is actually something I rarely use in my cooking. I keep a little stock in my pantry so that I can sprinkle it into my pazhampori. I totally love the little bitterness it gives when you bite through it along with the sweet plantains. My impulse was to try Fami’s banana bread, but…
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…
Batata Batemjaan ~ Potato Aubergine Casserole
I was contemplating whether to post this now or later. But during Ramadan, even though we love to eat a lot of non-veg dishes, there are times when you would like vegetarian fare and you would prefer eating something that wouldn’t make you miss non-vegetarian food. This casserole perfectly fits the bill in every way. Let me start with a story. Last January when my parents were here, we were invited for dinner to HD’s local friend’s sister’s house. It is the first time I am eating at a local’s house. Expats in the Gulf countries may understand when I say “first time”. I do have a couple of local friends but we always end up meeting and eating out. The beauty of most of the Gulf countries is you do not feel like you are living in a foreign country, especially if you are an Indian, and…
Aloo Gobhi | Easy Cauliflower Potato Curry {Version 2}
How’s the current lockdown treating you all? With Ramadan right across the corner expected anytime on Thursday or for sure on Friday, it feels really different. We have already received notifications that the masjids would continue to remain closed, so all prayers would still be at home. Even though I have been pryaing Tharaweeh at home ever since the girls came their way, I always love going to the masjid for the Tharaweeh. It gives a real Ramadan feeling. For the past couple of years, even though not every day, I would go on and off whenever I have been able to settle up work. But this time, there is no hope. Let us wait and see how things fare as days pass by, InShaAllah… I am all in for gravies that don’t need too much work. I already have a version on the blog, which umma loves…
Borani Banjan | Baingan ka Borani ~ Afghani Eggplant Yogurt Dish
Ever since the work-from-home has started, I have been trying a lot of new curry recipes that are easy to cook and are budget friendly. I am sure many of us have been doing this a lot. We buy vegetables for ten days and stretch whatever we have and utilize everything we have. Since it is slowly moving into summers, the chance of spoilage is high so it becomes even more imperative to cook everything and finish, before it lands up in trash. I have been noticing that a lot of my curry recipes and easy baking recipes have been doing extremely well, and hence I thought, why not share three back-to-back easy curry recipes that all of you can incorporate into your daily cooking, or maybe as a different menu, but with pantry ingredients. So let me start off with this Borani Baingan… I am sure like…
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…
Batata Harra ~ Lebanese Skillet Potatoes
This week, I am doing three posts related to the Blogging Marathon #106 for the theme “Choose a vegetable, prepare three dishes from different states/ countries”. I have no clue why I chose this theme, but I am sure it was with the good intention of making some nice vegetarian dishes for the blog. I first pondered around using eggplant as my ingredient and even mentioned three recipes I would try. Alas, nothing materialized and to make sure that I have posts ready for this week, I went with the easy to work with, world famous tuber called potatoes, which was incidentally Valli’s example for us to explain the theme. 😀 I was supposed to be doing another dish to start off these three weeks. But I skittled through last moment, and realized I only had saved up the pictures of this post in my pen drive. I…
Capsicum Zunka | Shimla Mirch Sabzi
For this week’s Blogging Marathon #101 theme “Cooking with Besan”, after a lot of thought, I decided to make this dish, that has been in my mind for quite some time. Zunka is a dry dish with besan, made on its own or including vegetables, and is a part of the cuisine in Maharashtra and some northern states. I didn’t want to make a gravy on its own, because I was vary of the interest of my folks. So I ended up making it with capsicum. Capsicum is a vegetable that I have been eating almost everyday ever since I have cleaned up my diet. Not that I am diligently sticking to it and being a saint on a daily basis, but if I don’t eat at least a vegetable a day, I feel as though I am missing something. I have become this from a person who…
Besan Aloo Mirchi ki Sabzi | Potato Capsicum Curry
I wish I didn’t have to crib. Everyday I have a tough time trying to decide what to cook for dinner. I seem to find that it is getting tougher as the girls grow up. When I started blogging, they were small so they would eat anything that was given to them. But now, they frown and scorn for anything that I make, except pizzas. 😕 Being a mother, this is totally frustrating. With a totally tight schedule these days, I look forward to cooking meals that get done in 30 minutes. Rasha loathes eggs and any dal curry, while Azza is indifferent towards chicken and meat – I wonder if there are kids like that these days! Vegetables are an even big no-no, except for a cucumber daily. My girls don’t even like whole lentils or potatoes. Sometimes, I feel so lost… but then I pull out my…
Paneer Matar Masala | Matar Paneer
For this week’s Blogging Marathon #93, the theme I had chosen was “One Ingredient – 3 ways” and the ingredient I chose was “paneer”. After the first recipe of the Kadai Paneer, here is another paneer gravy. If you really go to see, there is one standard way of making paneer gravies. A ground paste of onion and tomato is used as a base and the seasonings are adjusted as per your needs. Since paneer in itself is rich, you can skip the use of cream in the gravy. But to make paneer taste and look more tempting, the use of cream or yogurt – to make it more guilt free – is always recommended. I would like to emphasis on the use of kasuri methi. A sprinkling of crushed kasuri methi just lifts up the whole spirit of a simple paneer dish. So whatever said and done,…
Kadai Paneer
I always look forward to doing the Blogging Marathon. Last month, the group had a mega marathon of 26 flatbreads and every one who participated did an amazing job with compiling them on their blogs. I, for one, would never be able to do it! Sometimes, with the way my interest in cooking is spiralling down despite cooking on and off, I sometimes wonder if I will be able to pull up even posts for the BM. Hehe… I guess we all go through such a phase in life where we just loose our interest. I am trying hard to hold on to it and hopefully it doesn’t slip through my fingers… 😉 Coming to the topic I chose for the next three days for this first week of Blogging Marathon #93, it is “One Ingredient – 3 ways” and the one ingredient I chose is paneer. There…
Vegetable Kurma | Cheat Version!
With life getting so hectic, cooking has taken a back seat. I do a lot of meal prepping for myself and for the family, I settle down with meals that are really easy to cook. I am trying to update some 30 minute meals on this blog and hopefully will try to update my old posts with the tag so that I can feature it on my sidebar for easy review, InShaAllah. There’s a lot of polishing to be done on my old posts, I will slowly work on that part and try to update all the categories and tags by the end of this year. I am hoping I will be able to look into those by slowing down on my blogging. Let’s see… 🙂 Meanwhile, bringing you one of the best easy fix curries I have made… There was this blog called Chef El Dente that…
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…
Paneer Butter Masala
This post is long overdue. Let me tell you why… I rarely receive requests for recipes. Many bloggers write on their blog that they try recipes due to requests received, but somehow, I have never received requests as such. I always receive mails and messages about the recipes that are already on the blog or what they have felt after reading what I have penned down in my moods, but never a request for a recipe. Believe me, I have no complaints about that too…. 😀 But, I have a very faithful reader. One day, I got an email from her, saying how much she loves my blog and how, as a newly married staying with her husband, with no relatives in Bangalore, has made her browse through my blog, search recipes and try them. Each time she tried them, they turned out amazing – Alhamdulillah! Slowly that…
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 7
- Next Page »