I think this is a universal sweet. Everybody likes one or the other version of it. Namewise, its called as Sheera/Sanja (Konkani), Kesari Baath (in Bangalore-Kannada, it should be bhath, not Baath though. I wonder why it is called ‘bhath’ because as far as I know ‘bhath’ means rice) and Sooji Halwa. Recently we went out for lunch at ‘ Ruchi Indian Restaurant ‘ here in Overland park, KS, and I simply loved the food....

When I was doing my Bachelors in Belgaum, I tasted soya chunks for the first time. We used to get our lunch/dinner from a local “mess” (small restaurant). These soya chunks tasted like cotton and I hated it. But when I went to Bangalore, after my Bachelors, my brother always mentioned about soya chunks. He said it tasted like meat (chicken/mutton). From my previous experiences, I was not very comfortable trying it again....

We both are big egg fans. We can take them in any form(except for uncooked versions), anytime. I just cannot have the same dish each time, so I keep collecting all possible recipes for egg. But I have few which I like to cook again and again. If they are simple to make, I love them more as it gives me some time to relax on weekdays. This is a recipe which my sister-in-law R gave me....

Don’t we all have at least one version of uttappam/uttappa that we love? These are thick dosas topped with one or all of – onions, tomatoes, carrots etc. Usually I make uttappa (as we call it) with left over dosa batter , to just finish off the batter. Last year when aayi came to visit us, she made this version which she had seen in one of TV programs. We instantly became fans of these uttappas ....

This Varn is one of the most loved dal dishes at my home. This is the Konkani version with coconut in it. At my place, this is served with rice and lemon saru or kokum kadi . The saru or kadi gives the sour-sweet taste to the meal. While serving, first serve rice, then pour a ladle of varn on it, then on top, pour a ladle of saru ....

Many of you know about my love for baking. I love the aroma of baking bread and a fresh bread just out of oven tastes heavenly. I normally make spicy breads as we both enjoy them a lot. This recipe was in my drafts for a long time now, finally thought of posting it today. I had read about zucchini bread in many recipe books/sites/blogs. I zeroed on one particular recipe from a book, but it was a sweet bread....

Khatkhate (‘t’ s are pronounced as ‘th’) is a kind of Konkani side dish with coconut masala. Almost 90% of Konkani dishes have coconut in it and they have almost same ingredients. Still there is a huge difference in taste. All the dishes are unique and tasty. This is one of my favorite dishes from my childhood. This has an amazing taste due to the cooked peas and is a bit sweetish in taste....

Here goes one more healthy and easy to make soup recipe. These days I just love soups. Its very boring to have the same soups again and again. So I try a variety of them. Once I had seen carrot soup recipe on some TV show. When I tried it, I did not like the taste. It had a very strong flavour of carrots. But then while searching in the net for something, I found this recipe....

Don’t know why I took so long to post this recipe. I have been always a huge fan of kheema . It all started during my college days in Belgaum. My pacchi (mom’s sister) makes a killer mutton kheema. I absolutely loved it. Although I do not prefer eating mutton, that must be the only dish I truly loved. When I moved to Bangalore, I started making this regularly with ground chicken....

I have been cooking a lot of chicken these days. At my native, chicken is available in big portions and usually they cannot finish it on their own. So aayi cooks it very rarely. Since pappa loves it, I wanted to prepare some of my favorite dishes for him. Last week I prepared this chilli-ginger chicken. A very simple, yet delicious dish. For best results, make this on a high heat....

In the last few years, we have tried to document different festivals that we celebrate along with recipes that are very close to us. Here is one very important celebration which is very important to us. Monsoon marks the beginning of many festivities in our part of the country. With pouring rain, we can see beautiful greenery everywhere in the beautiful Konkan coast . This also marks the beginning  of Shraavan month (maas) ....

I like any egg dish. This is one of the easy dishes from my Pachi (Mom’s sister is called pachi in Konkani). She prepares this in those innumerable dinner parties at their home. A delicious dish with minimum work. Usually this can be served with chapathi or roti or rice. Ingredients: 5 eggs 1/2 cup onion 3-4 green chillies 1/2 tea spn pepper powder 4-5 strands coriander leaves Oil/ ghee Salt as per taste...

This is not the traditional Christmas cake. The bold letters for those, who came here looking for traditional Christmas cake. I don’t think I have ever tasted a traditional fruit cake that is associated with Christmas. I wanted to try one for a long time now. But most of the recipes I saw had rum in it. As I have never used any kind of alcohol in my cooking, I was a bit hesitant to try it....

There are many ways to utilise the left over idlis . Sometimes we make upma from them . Sometimes we powder them and add coconut, chilies, ginger, salt, coconut oil and asafoetida water to make idli puddi (idli-hinga-udak) . Sometimes we shallow fry them with cumin and mustard seeds. All the three taste amazing. I have also seen some people deep frying the idlis or make an upma of deep fried idlis, I am yet to try this version....

Many of you who eat eggs might think I have gone crazy to write this post. But when we take a moment and go back to those initial days of our cooking with an unknown ingredient, we will know how difficult it is for anyone to try a new ingredient. When 4-5 of my friends asked me the same question, I thought of posting this. I have been eating boiled eggs from my childhood....

Buthi is a Konkani dish which is unknown to me. I had heard about this before, but didn’t know how it is supposed to look or taste. When I saw this recipe in Kannada magazine in Konkani GSB food section, I was really surprised. Then I remembered Vee’s almbe buthi recipe . Since I love ivy gourds, I thought of giving this dish a try. I found a lot of different variations to buthi in different places....

Lunch for today is fruits(grapes, apple, strawberry,banana) and biryani with egg, potato, soya chunks. Lesson learnt : biryani is not something that should be cooked in hurry. I had already started cooking it and then hubby told me he wants to go early. It needs a lot of time to cook. To make it cook soon, I added more water and cooked on ‘high’. The rice grains got sticked to each other by doing this....

Which child does not like M&Ms ( Gems )? I loved these as a kid and still love them – although, I cannot stand the ones with peanut butter!. Ishaan became a fan when both set of grandparents pampered him with Gems, he continued his love for these chocolaty goodness after coming back. My parents sent some more with my brother last week. He gets some after his swimming class these days....

This winter has turned out to be a bit extreme. This week it was manageable, but last week we had very low temperatures. It was one such Sunday when the temperature was 2F (-16C) and we were getting really bored of sitting at home. To bring the spirit back, I made these koftas and naan , and it turned out great. I missed my parents a lot in the process....

Many times when I feel lost about what to cook, eggs come to my rescue. I like to make something new every time to keep it interesting. Recently, I tried this, where I used methi(fenugreek) in the egg curry. As I had imagined, they both were great combination. Methi egg masala with Aayi’s hot chapatis was a great combination. Ingredients: 7 eggs 1/4 cup chopped onion 1 cup fenugreek(methi) leaves Oil Salt...