This is my entry to “ Mistress of spices ” event hosted by Mythili . Why did I select this least known spice? When I read about this event, two things immediately came to my mind. The first was ‘Asafoetida’, the most famous spice used in most of the Konkani food. The second was Teppal, the most popular ‘Konkani spice’. Now, why am I calling it a ‘Konkani spice’? Because till today I haven’t seen anybody else using this spice....

Is there a food group that you wish you had included more in your diet? For us it is protein! Other than toor dal, I don’t use anything else in this group on a daily basis. I have been trying to improve this in last couple of months. I increased our intake of chicken/egg/fish to a level that we can tolerate – even if we love our nonveg, we are not one of those who can eat it every day....

Before learning this, I used to make soup from the ready made packs. But it is always good to make it fresh than making from ready made powder. This I learnt from Ajji(Mrs Diwan, unfortunately I forgot her name, used to always refer to her as Amit’s ajji). Ofcourse I have done some modifications to it, since I could not remember the exact recipe told by her ;). Ingredients: Tomatoes 4 Potato(small) 1 Ginger 1″ piece Garlic 2 flakes Corn flour or maida 1 tbl spn Pepper powder 1/2 tea spn Maggi taste maker(optional) 2 cubes Fresh cream(Optional) 1 tea spn Bread cubes(fried in oil or ghee)(Optional) 10 Salt...

Ingredients: Bhindi 1/4 kg Grated coconut 1 cup Jaggery or sugar 1 tspn Coriander seeds 1 tspn Red chillies 4-5 Urad daal 3/4 tspn Tamarind juice 1/2 tspn Mustard seeds Curry leaves Turmeric Oil Salt Method: Heat oil and fry coriander seeds and Urad daal. Add red chillies. Grind together with coconut, Jaggery or sugar, tamarind. Heat oil and add mustard. Add curry leaves. Then add bhindi and salt. Fry for 2 min....

Bittergourd/Karate is one of the vegetables that is full of medicinal values. I have tried including it in our diet as much as possible. Few days ago aayi told me about this delicious karate goaD nonche (bittergourd sweet pickle) prepared by my sister in law. Aayi usually prepares the spicy version of karate nonche , so this was new to me. I prepared it here and it was lipsmacking good....

These days,since I am not working, I have a full day with me to do whatever I want. It is a great change from working 12-14 hrs a day to complete rest. I am enjoying every bit of it. But there are a few days when I get bored, I wouldn’t want to go out. Then what should I do? Its very very predictable, atleast in my case.I would take up a new recipe (though I get some of the ready made ingredients easily, I would make them all at home)....

Fenugreek leaves are used in variety of dishes in Indian cuisine. In few recipes, they form base and in some other they are just used to give distinct flavor. In any case, they are of great nutritional value and if cooked in appropriate way, they become part of healthy diet. Needless to mention, healthy dish can be a tasty one too. In this category of ‘healthy and tasty’ dishes, this Fenugreek Salad(Methi palya) has remained our favorite for quite some time now....

Dear all, Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. I hope this year will bring peace and goodwill all over the world. Above is a beautiful picture of sunset taken at my native Kodkani. The year 2006 was a great year for this blog. I tried my best to post a lot of recipes, both elaborate and easy ones here. This was the year I took a break from my career and I used every single day to develop and enrich this blog....

‘Abhibhakri’ looks very similar to Uttappa/Uttappam, so I chose to call it as Konkani Uttappa. Unlike uttappa this dish does not need the fermentation time (though some people keep it overnight, but it is known for a fast-to-make procedure). It can be very commonly seen in many Konkani houses for breakfast. This is my entry to Nandita’s Breakfast blogging event. I omitted curry leaves in the above picture, but the unique taste to this dish comes from curry leaves....

My mother is called as ‘pickle specialist’ by all our relatives. She makes the best pickles I have ever had. The authentic Konkani mango pickle is prepared using the tiny mangoes called as ‘appi ambli’ (ambli – raw mango). It has a long procedure and I am not sure I would make it any time in my life. She uses very very less amount of oil, no artificial preservatives and the pickle remains good for 3-4 years!...

Fenugreek or methi is supposed to have anti-diabetic effects on human body. According to wiki – ‘ Several human intervention trials demonstrated that the antidiabetic effects of fenugreek seeds ameliorate most metabolic symptoms associated with type-1 and type-2 diabetes in both humans and relevant animal models by reducing serum glucose and improving glucose tolerance ‘. I like to try new dishes with both methi seeds and leaves. I saw this recipe on a cooking show few days back....

While growing up, I loved the spicy stuffed breads available in most of the bakeries in India. The aroma of fresh stuffed bread coming out of bakeries was divine. Even after more than a decade of living here, I can still remember the aroma/taste of it. I used to search for any savory breads here in bakeries, but so far I have not found anything close. So once in a while, when I want to eat those, I bake at home....

My long time readers know that I usually post pictures of my kids birthday cakes around this time. This year I took up a lot and made a very ambitious plan for the party. We had the party at home, in our backyard with water balloons, huge bubbles, big balls, dart games, piñata and more. Ayaan has been a huge fan of the series Super Why for last one year....

I was in between moving to a new place, so could not post anything here. Once I moved, I fell sick. I thought to go slow on blog front so that I could take some rest. I didn’t want to disappoint my regular readers by a long silence. So here I am back :). “ Narnga ” or “ Kanchi kaayi ” or “ HeraLe kaayi ” is a kind of lemon available in some(or all) parts of India....

Sabudana Khichdi Sabudana or tapioca or pearl sago khichdi is not very famous among Konkanis. The only Konkani dish with sabudana, which I can recall, is sabudana paays . Though many people prepare this dish these days, this cannot be called as a Konkani dish. I ate it first time at my friend’s home in Belgaum. My friend’s ajji (grandmother) used to make the best khichdi during the fasting days....

Last one week had been one of the busiest weeks of 2014 so far. Our little Ishaan is going to be 4 year old very soon. It feels so unreal!. It feels like yesterday I had posted about his birth! Our life has completely changed in these years. He has turned from a tiny infant to cranky toddler to a smart and very passionate boy that he is today. We feel so blessed to have him as part of our lives....

Spinach Chickpeas Biryani We are huge biryani fans. I usually try to make different kinds for variety and keeping it exciting. This Spinach Chickpeas Biryani is something I make often. It is full of nutrition and tastes delicious. I usually make this on weekdays, which means this has to be a quick dish or atleast something that does not need hands-on time. This works perfectly, with all the shortcuts I manage to take....

Surti lilva or avrekaLu was unknown to me till I moved to Bangalore. There, I started hearing about avrekaLu everywhere. Once I found out what it was and how it looked, I checked them out in the vegetable market. The whole beans( avrekayi ) look almost like green peas with shells on. The shells are harder than green peas. I tried these beans a couple of times and didn’t like them very much....

Wish you all a very happy new year 2016. There was a time when Ishaan was around 2 years of age when I used sweet potatoes very regularly. But that did not continue for a long time. He does not like anything sweetish, so I stopped. Now I am trying to include them back in our diet because of their nutritional values and also because Ayaan is almost that age now....

I love to make dosas for breakfast. There are two reasons for this, one – I feel they are very easy to make once batter is ready, second – they keep the stomach full for a long time. So any kind of new dosa is welcome at my home. This one is a super healthy version of set dosa , sent to me by my reader Neha Gokarn . I was a bit confused when I got this recipe because this was very different than the set dosas I have tasted in Bangalore....