We simply love eggs. So at least once in a week, I give eggs in lunch box. Todays box had chapathi, boiled egg burji and fruits(apple, cantaloupe and grapes) topped with honey. Aayi does not cook chicken very frequently. She makes it only 3-4 times in a year. She always cooks chicken gravy , because we all love that. But due to her immense interest in cooking, she has a big treasure of chicken recipes....
Kosambir or kosambari or koshimbir are no-cooking, mix and match recipes with raw vegetables/lentils, are healthy and easy to make. I love to eat these occasionally when I become all health conscious and also when I don’t want to cook any complicated dishes. When I was doing my bachelors in Belgaum, I used to go to my friend’s house to study. There I used to have one of the most amazing meals....
It is hard to make time consuming dishes during the weekdays. But with all our daily work, it is very important to have the right nutrition. I pick easy but nutritious dishes on such days. This Pulav with Green Moong and Coconut Milk is one such dish. It is very similar to the other Sprouted moong pulav I posted few years ago, but I made some modifications. I make this Pulav with Green Moong and Coconut Milk in Instantpot....
I always loved to cook recipes from other cuisines. Have learnt hundreds of new recipes from all the fellow foodbloggers in last one year. The other major source of new recipes for me, are my readers. I have been getting so many mails from my readers that almost daily I come up with a new dish for lunch/dinner. This recipe is from Aruna . I didn’t know her two months back, but these days we exchange 2-3 mails almost daily....
One of my readers had this request few days back, “Can I have the recipe for mangalore charmure (puffed rice) upkari ? My friend wants it. Chumure upkari is sold in karstreet Mangalore opposite Venkatramana temple. It is made in konkani households. It tastes different from bhel and coconut oil is used. Now many adoptions of the origional recipe are made with adition of tomato etc. But I want to know the origional recipe....
This recipe is inspired by other Spinach-Coriander Pulav recipe . I made this yesterday morning to take in our lunch box. It came out really well. We both are not big fans of spinach taste, but I like to use it frequently because it is very healthy. This pulav masks the taste of it, which we loved. I used red and yellow bellpeppers(capsicums) in this instead of green ones because of their mild taste....
Appe is one of the very popular breakfast loved by adults and kids alike. We make different kinds of appe like urad dal appe , boiled rice appe , sugarcane juice appe all of which a little planning ahead. My sister-in-law makes these sweet appe with sooji which can be made instantly. This is a nice and quick breakfast when you need to come up with something for breakfast quickly....
After making so many sweets, I thought it is time for some deep frying. I had bought some sweet potatoes last week, as I like to eat boiled sweet potatoes. But they sat on the counter without being touched. Then I saw this shankarpali recipe in a book. So I thought of giving it a try. Shankarpalis are small parallelogram shaped deep fried spicy or sweet treats. Many people make these for Diwali....
Basundi is a very popular Maharashtrian sweet dish. I have tasted it couple of times when I was a kid. But since I am very intolerant to sweets, I never actually gave any attention to any of the sweets. Though I had seen this recipe a million times in my recipe collections, I never felt like trying it. All changed when Aruna went through recipe request page and sent this recipe....
Ingredients: Ripe Tomatoes 2 Onion 1 Green chilles 2 Mustard seeds , cumin seeds 1/2 tspn each Ginger(optional) 1″ piece Curry leaves Sugar 1/4 tea spn Salt Oil Method: Heat oil. Add mustard, cumin seeds. When they splutter, add curry leaves. Add onion and green chillies. Fry till onions turn brown. Add tomato and other ingredients. Cook till tomatoes become tender. Grind to a paste. Goes well with dosa. Serves : 3 Preparation time : 15min...
Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Deepavali/Diwali. Ever since we returned from India, I have been thinking about making something for Diwali. But somehow it never went from just a thought to action. One month of not stepping into kitchen, has it’s effect on me still. I asked V to hang the Diwali lights in our patio. I was planning to call that our celebration. But then,I wanted to have something special for this festival....
Today was one of those days when I tried to do a little more than my usual weekday work. I left work early and decided to do grocery shopping, so that I don’t have to spend time on it over the weekend. By the time I reached home carried everything to our apartment on 2nd floor, I was tired. Then I picked Ishaan from daycare and reached home totally exhausted....
Third class of Wilton’s first course was about ‘flowers and figures’. We were asked to bring the clown heads(available in baking section). We practiced rose, though it was not even anywhere near to perfect. We practiced shell borders. I wanted to practice as much as possible since I hardly find any time for this in the entire week. So I have extensively put in whatever came to my mind. This cake might not be attractive, with the not-so-symmetric lines and dots....
Soyi(coconut) khadi(burfi) is famous sweet dish at our native. It is prepared either with jaggery or sugar. Anu requested me for this recipe. This is the easiest of all coconut burfis. She even sent me the recipe, I am yet to try it out. So I thought of posting my mom’s recipe of this dish. I think this is the perfect dish for the row of festivals that have started in India (may be best dish for ‘ Raksha bandhan ‘ which is tomorrow)....
From last few days, due to weather change I am suffering from fever and a severe throat infection. Though fever went down soon, there is this weakness and my taste buds have gone for a toss. In this condition, I would be more than happy to make a great tasting, very easy to make dish in no time. That’s when I got this recipe from Pelicano. I tried it immediately and it tasted heavenly....
I have a strong aversion for any ready made frozen stuff. I am ok to eat them once in a while on vacations, but I try not to buy them when I am at home. So I have been trying to make chicken nuggets at home. We have recently started ordering nuggets for Ishaan at restaurants and he eats them sometimes and just walks away some other times. The only thing I have ever prepared with ground chicken was kheema , since it does not look like chicken no one wants to touch it (other than me, who is a big fan)....
Here are a few remedies for Constipation, I have collected them from different sources. Any of my readers can add to this by leaving a comment and I will update this post. Eat lots of peanuts. Eat prunes (dried plums) Eat lots of greens especially spinach. The best herbal medincine for constipation is, drinking Isabgol mixed with hot milk (Isbgol is taken with curd to cure loose motions!!! ). Read more about Isbgol here ....
Valasangi or Alsande or yard long beans are one of the very popular beans used by Konkanis. I have very fond memories of my grand father growing these in our garden. We liked to eat them raw when they were still very tender. Those that my brother and I left, would be made into a simple upkari . I even remember we would put some fully grown beans in fire and then ate the charred seeds....
All Konkanis are familiar with Vali bhajji (Malabar spinach or basale soppu in Kannada). Many of us grow it in our backyard so that we can use it whenever we want. It is very common to see a wooden structure called mantov on which bhajji grows abundantly. These days we get them abundantly in market or brought to our door steps by vegetable sellers. Following picture is from our backyard....
My cooking has changed a lot in last couple of months. I tend to make more simpler dishes these days. In a day, I get about 30mins-1hr sometimes to cook. Whenever I cook, I try to make it in more quantity and eat left overs next day. But there are some days when we crave for something special. Last week, we had one such day. After Ishaan went to bed, I stepped into kitchen thinking what to make....
