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…
Bagara Baingan ~ Hyderabad style Eggplants in Peanut-Coconut Sauce
I guess we all would love to travel some or the other time. I would love to travel, however having a spouse who is not very keen to go around and prefers to be stuck more with his work doesn’t make it a possibility. In turn, B keeps travelling on and off. After an expensive trip to UK last year, he took a break for six months to recoup and then travelled to Hong Kong and Tunisia this year already. My fridge is slowly filling up with his magnets. 😀 My girls keep cribbing that we go nowhere. I just tell them to be patient and InShaAllah, we will go someday. Travelling with a family isn’t cheap though, but with loads of options now, I guess we all must plan in at-least one trip a year, even if it maybe by skipping the trip back home. After having talked…
Tamatar Moonge Ki Phalli Ka Salan ~ Tomato Drumstick Stir Fry
By now, you may know I am a very impulsive cookbook buyer. Anything that catches my attention makes its way to my book collection. Most of the time I buy them through online sources, so usually it’s the reviews that get me through to the books. I must say that it has landed me into trouble by getting my hands onto really useless cookbooks. That’s a totally different matter… “The Jewels of Nizams” was one of my online purchases last year. I loved the way the book looked from the out, and then the phrase, “Recipes from the Khansamas of Hydrebad” really pushed me to get it through. The book is authored by Geeta Devi, whose other popular book is “Dastarkhan-e-Mughlai: 101 Easy to Cook Hyderabadi Recipes“. The book is done by Roopa Publications and the first edition released in 2013. In the introduction, the author does say…
Bhindi Do Pyaza ~ Okra Onion Stir Fry
Hasn’t it been ages since I shared a quote on the blog? Hmm… So let’s break the ice! I have been in this kind of a feeling for quite some days now. Life does get very stressful even though you want to take it slow. Sometimes, you really don’t know how to go slow too… That’s the condition I am in at the moment. With having started working out, weekdays are really hectic. I get home late and don’t know how time flies before I finally hit the bed. The best part is I sleep like a log, waking up only when the alarm rings. 😀 Anyway, at times, I don’t seem to like the fast pace, but I am trying my best to put less pressure on myself. InShaAllah, some day I will be able to go on with the slow pace of life… 🙂 Sharing with…
Jaisalmer Chana ~ Black Chickpeas Yogurt Curry
I have never known cooking black chickpeas rather than in this way that we make for puttu. This curry was a perfect discovery for my lazy bone. Apart from the cooking time of the chick peas, the whole curry comes through in hardly any time. Jaisalmer is a small town in the northern state of Rajasthan. I have read that Rajasthanis love using chickpea flour, known as besan, in many of their dishes they cook. It is no surprise that yogurt is added to this curry, since Rajasthan is a hot place with high temperatures – boasts of India’s largest dessert too – and yogurt is one calming, cooling food for sure. Apart from the soaking time for the black chick peas, there is hardly any cooking involved. There is no onion or tomatoes in this recipe, so you don’t need to do any chopping. The spices and…
Panchmel Dal/ Panchratna Dal ~ Mixed Lentil Gravy
At times, when I am typing my posts, I really wonder if anybody reads blogs these days. Unless and until you know the ways of getting the blog into public eye, usually it feels like a very hidden and protected section in the world wide web. The WWW is also a deep pit, so in between all the floating blogs, everybody is fighting for the same space and similar audience. It really makes me wonder why I am still blogging. The readership doesn’t improve and nobody seems to be interested in commenting too, and that includes bloggers! When I had started blogging, the blogging community used to comment on my posts and there are times when I had so many comments to respond back to, but now it is quite countable. I don’t know if it is a point to feel low on, but definitely blogging is not what…
Shahi Malai Paneer
My posts have been just popping up as per schedule to the current Bakeathon, so I haven’t been posting any recent happenings as such. My parents came around late last week, Alhamdulillah and will be with us for a month. They have come in time for the girls’ school closing for winter vacations by this weekend. They are already really loving their time with their grandparents and literally driving them nuts the time they are at home. Hehe… I have also decided to take a month break from the gym so that I can get home as soon as I can after work and spend some time with them, InShaAllah… However, as much as there is sunshine, things are looking pretty bleak on the other side. Life is never expected to be a smooth ride anyway, right? “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger…