A Peek into my Life

For rakshabandhan last week, I decided to do a special maharashtrian thali for lunch. Rakshabandhan also coincides with Narali Poornima in Marathi culture. On that day, narali bhaat (coconut rice) is traditionally made. I also planned masale bhaat, puri bhaaji, and the famous khamang kakdi. My mother in law brought over sevai kheer which went really well with the puri bhaaji. I also bought some taak (buttermilk) to go with the masale bhaat. We really love Govardhan brand taak. Even their masala taak is not spicy but spiced in a very balanced manner. Here is the taat (thali) in its full glory. :) maharashtrian thali Sakhar bhaat There are many variations of this rice. My mother used to make sakhar bhaat (translates to sugar rice) with coconut added to it. It is one of the more complex recipes for this rice but is also undoubtedly more delicious. Sakhar bhaat Adapted from Sakharbhat Recipe By Tanuja Serves 12 Ingredients: 2 cups basmati rice 1.5 cups sug...

Summer is about to start here but I am still not ready to say good-bye to my favourite season of the year - winter. For me, the best part of winter is the abundance of beautiful vegetables. Sweet, red winter carrots are one such gem of a vegetable. We have been eating it raw every day for the whole season. I also made our favourite winter dessert - gajar ka halwa on a few occasions. I tried a few tricks and have streamlined the long process of making the halwa into a less time-consuming and less labor-intensive one. Gajar ka Halwa gajar ka halwa Ingredients: 1 kg carrots 1 ltr milk* 1 tbsp cashew pieces 1 tsp cardamom powder 1/2 cup sugar Method Heat the milk in a large vessel till it comes to a boil. Let it reduce on low flame stirring once in a while. Meanwhile, grate the carrots to a medium thickness. I outsource this to my husband who does it in 10 minutes. Add the grated carrots and a cup of the milk which was reducing to a pressure cooker and cook for 3 whis...

I am not really a religious person. So Shivratri was another reason to try out new recipes; fasting recipes specifically. Shivratri is one of the major fasting days in Hinduism that is followed by a large number of people. My thought process was that it is healthy and tasty to take a break from everyday grains like rice and wheat for a day. Instead of doing it on Monday as per the calendar, we did it on Sunday so that the husband would not miss out on the food. Here's what I made for the day: For breakfast, it was sabudana khichadi. It was certainly not a new recipe. It is our usual Sunday breakfast because the daughter loves it. The trick to perfect sabudana khichadi lies in the soaking technique of sabudana. I learnt this trick from my mom. After washing the sabudana a couple of times, soak it in enough water to cover it by an inch. Leave it for about 20 minutes. The sabudana would have soaked up some of the water by now. Drain the excess water leaving just a couple of table...

I have been thinking of doing a weekly food recap post for a very long time now. It would serve as an idea library for the eternal question "What should I cook for lunch today?". I also love to see these weekly recap posts on other blogs and it would also keep me accountable to post at least once a week. The daughter leaves for school at 7:15 am. She carries breakfast and lunch boxes with her to school. The husband usually carries lunch to the office. So I cook it in the morning. Dinner is mostly leftovers from lunch. The husband usually comes home late so he doesn't eat dinner most of the time. He just has a snack in office in the evening. This week I didn't click the daughter's tiffin. I hope to start in January when her school reopens. Here's the recap of week 17-23 December. On Monday the fridge was quite empty. So I had to improvise with whatever was in the fridge and freezer to come up with a meal. I made paneer and vegetable bhurji with parathas a...

You might remember my husband's birthday cake , way back in June. Well, today I am going to talk about the rest of the menu for the birthday lunch. He loves paneer and dal makhni like most vegetarian North-Indians :). But, my daughter and father-in-law do not like paneer. They prefer chicken to paneer any day. I saw that the common link between all the three dishes was - makhni sauce. That would make my work easier. Instead of having to prepare 3 separate dishes with separate ingredients, I could prepare the makhni sauce beforehand and on the day of the lunch, I could just put the dishes together. Paneer Makhni Dal Makhni Butter Chicken I made the makhni sauce on the previous day and stored it in the fridge. On the day of the birthday lunch; For Paneer Makhni, Combine a 3/4 to 1 cup of the makhni sauce with half the amount water to make it liquid. Brought it to a light boil Reduce the flame to slow and added equal (to water) amount of cream. I used Amul cream. ...

I had bought some mustard greens and was thinking of ways to cook them. The obvious one was sarson ka saag. I wanted to go a little simpler. I thought of pairing them with one of our favorite dried bean - black-eyed peas. I based this recipe on the famous palak paneer and followed a similar method. This has become our new favorite way to eat greens. I recently made kale this way too. I am so glad to have found another way to eat greens in a totally yummy way while still being so healthy. It never fails to impress the husband (and of course, me too) with its taste. Think of this recipe as a technique and use it on any of the greens, pairing them with different dried beans. Mustard greens with black-eyed peas Ingredients: 1 bunch (4-5 cups) mustard greens 1 cup black-eyed peas 1/2 cup spinach leaves (frozen) * 3 green chilies 2 inch ginger 1 small onion 4 large garlic cloves 1 tomato 1/2 tsp garam masala 2 tsp milk powder * S...

Last weekend was the husband's birthday. It had been a very long time since I made a nice decorated cake. This was the perfect occasion for a nice cake. Just a couple of weeks ago, I saw a video for Strawberry Charlotte on the Joy of Baking youtube channel . I liked the look and I loved the strawberry cream topping. I am totally in a strawberry phase. We have gone through 8 lbs of strawberries in the last month (Some of them are in the freezer, but I am sure they won't last long). I followed the recipe for the Strawberry Charlotte almost exactly. The sponge cake was made exactly the way it was shown in the video. The folding techniques are quite useful. Since the air whipped into the eggs and sugar is what makes the cake fluffy and you do not want to deflate the batter when folding in the dry ingredients. I halved the strawberry cream as I wanted it to be more like cake with frosting rather than being tart like with a lot of strawberry cream filling. The ratio of cake ...

This week I had a few unexpected highlights in the kitchen and outside. I thought of putting them together in one post. Beets sabzi with pickle masala It was just a normal afternoon and I made a simple daal and rice for lunch. These days, I do not feel right about skipping vegetables in any of the meals. So I wanted to add a vegetable element that I could get done real quick, to go with the daal and rice. I had beet root and carrots in the fridge so I thought of making a quick saute with them and then, it went in a totally delicious direction when I noticed the pickle masala in the fridge. The cashews and chana dal add a wonderful crunch. I love the aroma of the tiny bit of bell pepper but it is totally optional. rice, masoor dal, beet sabzi and pineapple chutney Ingredients: 1 beet root 1 small carrot 1 small onion 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper 1 tsp oil 1/2 tsp mustard seeds 1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida) 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1 tbsp cash...

I got a few raw (green) mangoes last week. I made a small batch of my mango pickle . With the rest of the mangoes, I made a couple of chutneys. My mom told me about this sour-sweet mango chutney which could work like ketchup with more of an indian flavor. I immediately got down to making it. I loved its tang. The husband loved it mixed with some sweetish yogurt. We are already halfway through the chutney in a week. I will have to make another batch soon. We enjoyed it with thalipeeth immediately after I made it. Mango Onion Chutney Onion gives cooling properties to the chutney, with the green mango providing the tang, making it perfect for summer. Ingredients: 1 large (2 cups) raw mango peeled and chopped 1/2 large (1 cup) onion 1/2 tsp chilli powder 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp salt 3 tsp jaggery 3 tsp dry coconut powder Method Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend into a chutney. Notes: Brown sugar can be used instead o...

We have started getting some really nice green mangoes at the local Indian grocery store. I use them in a few different ways but pickle is not at the top of the list. We are not a big pickle eating family since we do not eat very spicy food. But I love the sweet gujarati pickles like Gor Keri and Chundo. My mom and her mother (my grandmom) are expert pickle makers. My mom told me that grandmom made a few new varieties of pickles. Mango methi and Mango garlic pickles. I wanted to try them out. I adapted it though, and added both methi and garlic, in addition to adding a hint of sweetness with brown sugar and vidalia onions. My grandmom has also perfected the technique for keeping the mango pieces crisp year round, just like they are in a fresh pickle. The secret is not adding oil to the pickle. Just add the spices and salt to the mango pieces and keep them in the fridge. Take a small amount that you would use in a month or so and add oil to it. The pickle ends up tasting as fresh a...

Last week, I invited some friends over for a casual dinner. It was a chaat inspired menu. We started with a chana chaat and a drink I just doctored up with apple and lemon juice and some ginger ale and spices. We then moved on to paav bhaji. We ended the evening with custard topped with bananas, walnuts, and chocolate. Tangy Apple Lemonade (without sugar) I was planning to make an Indian style lemonade (nimbu sherbat). But then I thought I should try to make a drink without adding any sugar. I had an unopened jug of apple juice sitting around and frankly, we were never going to drink it straight. I thought of using the apple juice as a sweetner. It worked out great. The drink was very tangy. The salt and the spices made it taste a bit like jal jeera. It was a perfect match for the chaat menu. We mixed our drinks with ginger ale to add the fizz and sweetness. Method Mix 2 cups of apple juice with 1/2 cup of lemon juice. Add 1/4 tsp each of salt, kala namak (pink ...