Now, let me get back to the recipe. I never knew we could make chaklis with cooked daal of any kind. So when I got this recipe from Aayi, I was a bit hesitant to try it. I tried it day before yesterday. They came out so well that we finished more than half of them in two days, I mean one and quarter day 😉 (looking at the speed by which they were getting over, the remaining chaklis were confiscated from me by my home minister :D)....

Moringa Leaves Dal Moringa leaves or drumstick leaves (Maskasangi Pallo) is the new health food craze. Drumstick is the humble vegetable that is a must-have, at least once a week, on the menu in most Konkani homes or for that matter, any South Indian home. The leaves were not used in cooking in my home but I use them very regularly now. This moringa leaves dal is one of our favorites....

Few days ago, I asked you all to suggest some recipes that I could post here. I got many requests for salads. It is one of those areas that I have not ventured much. Salad for me was something quick, where I threw in lettuce and some other things like cucumbers, tomatoes and added store bought dressing. Very recently, I started making my own salad dressing. Now, any salad I see online asks for a new ingredient – balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar etc....

Wish you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi. We had great festival celebrations at home today. We brought home a small Ganesha idol yesterday. We spent last two days shopping for pooja materials and getting everything ready. V built a beautiful mantapa . I prepared a traditional spread as offering. We did the pooja to the best of our knowledge. For the most part, we followed this vidhi . We had a nice ceremonial pooja....

Baking good bread at home has been quite a bit of challenge. I have tried my hand at it couple of times and I don’t say I had great success. Some times they turned out good and other times, total flop. But it is definitely something I always loved to learn. So here was a golden opportunity for me. Our friend Cindy had called us for lunch few days ago....

This is again my mom’s recipe. But my anna(brother) did some modifications to it. He used to add garlic which gives more taste. He is a very good cook. He has a lot of interest in cooking & keeps trying some new dishes. Normally though cooking is taken as only girl’s job, my pappa(father – he is a doctor) & brother(he is an s/w engineer) are two very good male cooks I have ever seen....

Kolmbo is one of the most popular dishes of North Canara, a traditional Konkani Sambar . My Aayi makes delicious Kolmbo. This is my all time favorite sambar. When I was a kid, I used to ask for this dish almost 3-4days a week. All others in the home got so bored of it that, they all used to object when I asked for this. I used to eat it continuously for 2-3days....

‘Narnga’ or ‘kanchi kaayi’ or ‘heraLe kaayi’ is a kind of bitter orange available in some(or all) parts of India. These are slightly bitter in taste, we have not seen anyone eating the ripened fruit. We always get the green ones which are used for sundried items or pickle. This is the season on Narnga here, so I prepared a big batch of narnga batte this year. Every year we get few of fresh narnga from our neighbors....

Over the last few years, we have made some really good friends here in Kansas. Since we all have kids of almost same age, we try to meet often for potluck or get-together. My friend Subhashini makes very delicious Tamil food every time we meet. My food intake usually doubles when I am at her home!. My latest favorite is her tamarind chutney – that’s how she translates it to me....

I have seen making parathas is one of the most difficult tasks for beginners. In fact not only beginners even the experienced cooks have hard time in making perfect stuffed parathas. The outer covering of parathas should be in perfect texture or else it just breaks while rolling them. So it takes a lot of experience to get it right. Few months back my cousin Usha sent me link from Bawarchi....

It has been a long time since I baked any cake. Though V loves cakes, I hardly bake them anymore due to my busy schedule. All I am managing is to prepare some day to day food. Now, there were two reasons to even attempt this cake. One, we had a big batch of apples at home, which needed my immediate attention. Two, V was not keeping very well and he wanted to eat some cake....

Puran poli (Marathi/Konkani) or obbattu (Kannada) must be one of the most popular sweets in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Usually it is not always possible to make the outer wrap or the stuffing in exact amounts. Many different dishes can be made with such left over things. The most popular among them is HooraNada saru , also called as obbattina saru . HooraNa is the sweetish stuffing used in puran poli ....

Today we had a small party at home. We had invited five of our friends. Initially we had thought of making it “seafood special”. Then one of them said he does not take sea food, the other friend liked chicken compared to sea food. So finally decided to combine both. I was a bit worried about chicken as we don’t eat it, hubby eats just one piece once in a while....

When I was doing my bachelors in Belgaum, I used to go to my mom’s sister’s – Pachi’ s house almost every weekend. She cooks some of the tastiest dishes. I learnt many dishes from her when I started cooking, since her dishes are always simple. Most of the times, she cooks non vegetarian dishes on weekends. One particular chicken dish that I loved was a simple chicken gravy – chicken rassa ( rassa meaning gravy)....

Recently I have been trying my luck with chicken dishes as well. When I was preparing this one, I thought it might not come well. But the end result was good. Our guest for that day, who was a hard-core non-vegetarian, liked it very much. Ingredients: Chicken ½ kg Onion 1 Coriander leaves 3-4 strands Garam masala 1 tea spn Red chilli powder 1 tea spn Coriander powder ½ tea spn Jeera powder ½ tea spn Turmeric powder a pinch Ginger-garlic paste 1 tea spn Oil/ghee 1 tbl spn Salt...

Saar or Saru(in Konkani) are watery dishes like rasams. They are very easy to make and amazingly tasty. I had not tasted this dish until recently. I was asking aayi for some easy recipes which could be prepared within 10mins. So she gave me this recipe from my grandmother’s collection. I absolutely loved the look and taste of this dish. The other similar recipe is tomato saru . Ingredients: Tomato 1 Coconut(fresh or frozen) 2-3 tea spns Coriander leaves 2-3 strands Green chillies 2-3 Jaggery 1/2 tea spn Ghee 1/2 tea spn Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn Asafoetida a pinch Curry leaves 4-5 Salt...

Ever since we started shopping at Farmer’s market, we have very fresh vegetables on hand all the time. These days we get tons of fresh corn for very less price. I love corn, so I usually buy it every time. I usually do trial and error and change few ingredients to get a different taste every time. This is one such dish I prepared that was inspired by my corn sagu ....

Finally, here I am with my all time favourite crabs gravy. I have observed that people who are very fond of fish, dont prefer crabs/prawns much and vice versa. Obviously I am in the second category. At my native Kodkani, its very rare to find the crabs in the market. These are usually caught by people for their own use. Usually we ask Thimmappa to catch them for us. Many of the people at our native know how to catch them (No....

I studied my Engineering from Belgaum, Karnataka. Most of the people I know (both friends and relatives) have also done their BE from the same place. It is the place where I had the chaats for the first time(except Pani Puri. My mother and grand mother are experts in pani puri and I grew up eating it). You name any chaat and Belgaum had the best of it. One thing I missed eating there was the famous omlet available at the railway station....

While going through Bunt/Nadvar’s special recipes, I came across this recipe of motte/thatthi (eggs) paladya (I think it is a type of gravy, not sure). I have heard a lot about Nadvar/Bunt non-vegetarian dishes. So I gave it a try. I changed the recipe according to our taste. Check at the end of the recipe for the changes I made. This gravy turned out to be very aromatic. Fenugreek seeds give a very nice aroma to the gravy....