This is another popular Konkani recipe that I learnt recently. I have not seen this dish prepared in North Kanara Konkani homes, but this is one of the well known dishes for South Kanara Konkanis. This is very similar to Avial from Kerala , but does not have yogurt/curd in it. This recipe was sent to me by my friend Aruna . This dish gets its great flavor from different vegetables, cumin and from the coconut milk....

How much push a person like me (who loves cooking & baking) needs, to try something new? A year ago, I would have said, not much!, but I have become a very lazy person lately. I keep thinking about cooking something, but it never happens. I make something simple and get away with it. I do not like this phase at all!. I call it a phase because I want to get back to the way I was....

It was around 3 years back, we had arranged a baby shower for a friend. I decided to make ragda pattis and when I started to cook, I realized it would take me forever to pan fry all those pattis. So I baked them. Everyone enjoyed it and they did not know it was baked at all. When Ishaan was born, many of my blogger friends also had their first kids....

Few days ago I posted chicken nuggets recipe here. I had bought some ground chicken and half of it remained after making nuggets. It was those days when the child was refusing to eat chicken. I thought of making a different curry/gravy with it to see if he gives it a try. I made small balls out of the ground chicken, shallow fried and added them to gravy. It came out great and he wanted to try the balls – he called them soccer balls :)....

Deepa Pai, one of my dear readers, sent me a mail few months ago saying, “I was wondering if you have heard this recipe called ‘Dahi Misal ‘. It falls unders ‘ Chaats ‘ and its Maharashtrian Recipe. I can send it to you if you would like to try. Its made with sprouted moong . Its very very tasty and kinda healthy too. My mom tasted this when she visited Bombay some 30 years ago....

Ingredients: Bollied eggs (cut into half lengthwise) 3 Ginger 1 inch piece Garlic 3-4 cloves Coriander leaves 6-7 strands Onion 1 Green chillies 2-3 Rice flour 1 tea spn Salt as per taste Oil Method: Grind together ginger-garlic, coriander leaves, green chillies,onion. Mix with rice flour and salt. Apply the mixture to eggs. Apply oil to tava and fry the eggs. Serve hot. Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15min...

There are only few dishes/recipes which are associated with place so well such that they become synonymous with that location over a period of time. Ask anyone from Mangalore to Goa coastal belt, which is the most revered ice cream of that region – response cannot be anything other than “Gadbad”. If answer is different, perhaps they are not from this coastal region!! This ice-cream was ‘the option’ when we had our cousins visiting us during childhood....

Few years ago, I was in San Diego for a short business trip. That was my first travel outside India. One dish that I clearly remember from that visit is mashed potato that I had tasted at a get together. People would laugh at me for picking this dish, but that is the fact. I have loved potatoes in all its forms, so it is no wonder that I loved this simple dish....

Wish you all a very happy Ganesh chaturthi . Read about how Gauri tadige/Vayna pooja and Ganesh chaturthi is celebrated in Konkani homes(I am very specific to how it is celebrated at my home, every one has their own method of celebrating it, which is going on from generations). This festival is one of the very popular festivals of Hindu calendar year. From the day we came to US, we terribly miss all the festivities here....

I haven’t baked any cakes in almost a year’s time. I have been thinking about it for a while, but could not take any action. Yesterday, finally I decided to do it. I baked this cake which turned out to be awesome. I could do better with the decorations though. I started at around 9:30 and wanted to just finish it. Ingredients for cake: 1 and 1/2 cups All purpose flour 1 and 1/4 cups sugar 4 eggs separated 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 tea spn vanilla essence 1/4 cup orange juice 1 and 1/2 tea spn baking powder 1 tea spn orange zest...

I found a very good article about summer juices and drinks a few days back. These days we get very good pineapples here. I never really liked pineapple juice before. But this one tasted just amazing. Chilled pineapple juice for a hot day, what else can I ask for? Ingredients: Pineapple pieces   1 cup Saffron strands   4-5 Sugar  2-3 tea spns Water   1 and 1/2 cups...

Last year when I posted the recipe for carrot cake with apple filling , I got a e-mail from Deepa Raj, in which she had sent me the recipe for cream cheese frosting. She also mentioned that this was her favorite frosting and it goes very well with pumpkin cake. Since I was very curious about this combination, I asked her if she can send me the recipe. Somehow one or the other thing kept me occupied for a long time and this recipe got lost in huge number of e-mails that I get....

Raagi/nanchne ( Finger millet ) Neeru (water) is a drink served at almost all homes in North Kanara during summer. It is supposed to be the best drink to beat the heat. Since the heat becomes unbearable in the coastal areas, people usually drink this after working for long hours under the sun. The raagi powder is prepared fresh by frying the raagi(without oil) for a few minutes and then grinding it to a fine powder....

This is the last among this year’s sun dried items. I know summer is over and no one might be interested in making these in this weather, but still, if I don’t post these now, I am sure I will forget all about these by next summer. I definitely don’t want to forget one of my favorite vadis , so for my own reference and also for those who like to read about these, I thought of posting them today....

Appe huLi is a signature dish of Havyaks . I have been searching for this recipe for a long time now. There are many ways of making this HuLi . Most of the times, it is made with a special kind of raw mangoes called appe midi , salted for a long time. Apparently ‘appe huLi concentrate’ is also available in markets. Since aayi has tasted this dish at one of her friend’s home, she told me it is thin and many times people drink it like rasam ....

I love making/eating parathas. It is one way I load up everyday rotis. There are no talks at the table when parathas are on the menu. I usually serve them with yogurt or pickle. I usually make a big pile of them so that we can enjoy them for next days lunch also  – I cut them into strips/squares, whatever he prefers, next day for Ishaan’s lunchbox. Few days ago we visited Kansas zoo with our friends....

My love for the popular Maharashtrian dish Thalipeeth started in Belgaum. They are healthy, very delicious and the best part is, they are easy to make. As much as I love the thick bhakris and thalipeeths, V is not such a big fan. I have been trying to make different types of these bhakris/thalipeeths lately in the hope that he will start liking them some day. That would also give me loads of easy options for breakfast....

I donno the origin of this biryani. I learnt it from the cook(aapa) of my pachi’s house in Belgaum. I guess this is a traditional muslim dish. But for vegetarians my pachi uses vegetables(mainly potatoes) instead of chicken. Ingredients: Basmathi rice 2 cups Chicken 1/2 kg or Potatoes(you can even add cauliflower,carrot, beans along with potato) 3-4 Onions 2 Coriander leaves 15-20 strands Mint(pudina) leaves 10 Green chillis 5-6 Ginger-garlic paste 2 tea spn Curd 2 tbl spns Food color(orange or yellow) a pinch Biryani masala 1 tea spn Salt Oil 2 tbl spns Ghee 2 tbl spns...

Ingredients: 2 cups cauliflower cut into pieces 8-10 strands coriander leaves 1/2 tea spn ginger pieces 1/2 tea spn garlic pieces 1/2 cup onion 3-4 cloves(optional) 1 inch cinnamon(optional) Oil / Ghee 3-4 green chilies Salt As per taste Method: Grind coriander leaves, ginger, garlic and green chillies. Heat oil and add cloves, cinnamon. Add onion and fry till brown. Add the ground mixture for 1 min. Then add cauliflower pieces and salt....

I am a big fan of cooking shows. When I was in Bangalore, I used to watch them for hours. I wrote down most of the recipes that I liked but never tried them myself. In one such program I had seen this recipe. When I saw the small cherry tomatoes in grocery stores here, I thought of trying this dish. This came out really good, so thought of posting it here....