I am not a great fan of sweets. But if I have to name one sweet that I always loved, it would be definitely jamuns. I love the fresh jamuns which are a bit crispy but have soaked the sugar syrup well. I had seen the dry jamuns before, but never actually tried making them. But when one of my reader requested for it, I just gave it a try and the result was amazing....

This recipe was given to me by my friend Poornima. This was about 4 years ago. I rarely make deep fried items and kodbale making requires some time and effort. So I never got to it. What is better timing than Diwali for making such dishes? So I made these on the festival day. They were superb. Half the batch got over that day itself. I made few modifications to the recipe....

Congratulations India for winning an awesome match against Pakistan. While watching the match, I was working on this cake. When I saw India was about to win, I changed the plans and made this. Sending good wishes for finals. I baked this cake yesterday night and refrigerated. Took a day off today to get some of the stuff around the house done. I also wanted to decorate that cake, had no idea what would be the decorations....

These days, due to a busy schedule, my experiments in kitchen have reduced a lot. Though I cook regularly, I make something easy and quick. But some days are different. Last week, when I was very bored of eating same thing again and again, I thought of cooking something special. This “Indian restaurant special” paneer butter masala instantly came to my mind. I have cooked this many times and we love it....

In coastal Karnataka, we find Papaya trees in almost all the courtyards of the houses. We like ripe papaya fruit. It is full of A vitamin. As raw, it is used as a vegetable in many dishes. We use the half ripe ones for preparing these khadis. My grandmother used to prepare these khadis very often and we liked them very much. I used to make them a lot when my children were small....

Misal is usually a mixture of 2-3 dishes topped with sev or any such crunchy snack. “ Pharal (Marathi) or Phalar (Konkani)” – “ phal ahaar ” is the food taken on fasting days. The main dish on these days is Sabudana khichdi for most of the Maharastrians. This recipe is sent to me by Aruna . Here is what she has to say about this dish, “This is served in all Maharastrian restaurants in Mumbai....

Sukrunde is a very popular sweet among Konkanis. At our place, there is a tradition to make these for the baby showers (Guruvari Javan). We also have a tradition of inviting pregnant woman to home and feed them this sweet. They are also served as prasadam for Anant Chaturdashi at our temple. Sukrundes are prepared in two ways. One with chana dal and the other with whole moong. Chana dal version is more popular at our place....

I have used different pastas in this recipe. I have tried egg noodles, small penne pasta, farfelle, macaroni etc. I usually buy whole wheat pasta. I cook the pasta till it is soft, so that he can eat it easily. I use different vegetables to make it taste different. I used to buy marinara sauce earlier. Then I asked the expert . And as usual, he did not disappoint. Pelicano gave me a very easy recipe for marinara sauce and I have stopped buying the sauce ever since....

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. Ishaan had two weeks winter holidays and V took one week off from work. We stayed indoors mostly because of the cold weather. But we had lots of get togethers with friends. It was so much fun for all of us. We got up late, ate whenever we wanted instead of going by clock, slept very late and played/chatted with friends....

Are you a banana flavor lover? If yes, this recipe is for you. If no, please ignore it. Usually I buy bananas everytime I go for grocery shopping. But then I forget to eat them and they get black spots on them. So I use such over ripe bananas to make some dishes. One such dish is this banana rotti . My friend’s mom Mrs. Sheela Hebbal gave me this recipe....

MoLe means sprouts in Konkani. Every cuisine has it’s own very time consuming but heavenly tasting dishes. “Bagade randayi” is one such Konkani dish. This has a separate place in the hearts of every Konkani person. Making the dish itself is not very difficult, but preparing “bagado” for this dish is very time consuming. So this dish has almost become extinct these days. When I was a kid, mom prepared this frequently and every member of the house was given a heap of sprouted cowpeas to peel....

Wish you all a very happy new year. Hope you all have a healthy, peaceful and prosperous year. I am not going to make any promises on this blog, because I was not able to keep any of them in 2011! On the bright side, Pappa had his medical checkup last week and his results were better- which was such a big relief for us. Thank you for your prayers....

Sukkil(dried) sungta(shrimp) kismuri (chutney) is one of the most popular seafood preparation in coastal Karnataka and Goa . Our dear friend Vitz (who is from Karwar ) had requested for this recipe long back (He is one of the guys who is responsible for starting my blog. Thanks Vitz for your immense support). I had searched a lot for dried shrimp here (since hubby is also a great fan of this dish), but I was unable to find it....

I call it newbie’s egg biryani. It cannot get easier than this and even the people who have never cooked biryani can get it right. So if you want a first step in biryani making, you can very well try this. This was created out of necessity. We both are great fans of Mishmash’s Egg biryani . It must be one of the best egg biryanis I have ever tasted....

Living in Kansas for more than 9 years now, we have made some very close friends. We feel it is such a blessing when we are so far away from family. One of our friends invited us for dinner during Thanksgiving holidays. I was supposed to take a dish, but I had no energy to make anything that day. So my friend prepared the whole dinner. The dish that I loved most was a eggs in coriander leaves curry....

Sometimes it becomes big challenge for me to come up with a nice lunch which can be carried in lunch boxes. It has to be fast (as I get only 2 hrs to cook both lunch & breakfast, eat and get ready), not repetitive, and also taste good when reheated. So I often end up making things like tomato rice, lemon rice , avrekaLu rice , puliyogare etc. But it gets really boring after a while....

Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits. I like to eat it as it is or topped with some salt and pepper or cook some delicious dishes with it, use as topping on pizza. I am too lazy to cut it, but once that hurdle is passed, it gets consumed in no time. My recent way of eating it is by grilling it. I had seen pineapple being grilled many times on TV....

Wish you all and your family a very happy and prosperous new year. Hope this year brings peace and happiness to the world. We will try our best to keep this place interesting in the new year. We request all your support and blessings. We also have many plans for this blog, lets see how many of them we can actually follow. – Varada, Shilpa and Family Hope you all had a great vacation....

In my last post I promised to be more regular here, then at the last moment we decided to visit India. To say I was homesick would be putting it mildly. We decided to squeeze in the trip before Ishaan’s school started. Some of you asked to post pictures of food/garden back home. So decided to post this. We mostly stayed in Bangalore this time with few days trip to Belgaum and my hometown Kodkani in between....

I keep trying to make something different for my husband’s lunchbox. Few days back, on such a seach, I got this recipe which I had copied from Aayi’s diary. This is a great recipe to finish off left over veggies too. Ingredients: 2 cups vegetables (potato, peas, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot) 3/4 cup onion 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 2-3 garlic cloves 1/2 tea spn chili powder A pinch turmeric 1/2 tea spn garam masala 2-3 strands coriander leaves 1/4 cup dry fruits(cashew nuts, raisins) 1/4 cut pineapple Oil Salt...