Samoon is a popular Iraqi flatbread that has a beautiful crust. Made with whole grain and topped with sesame seeds, this is a great bread to be served with soup. Looking for a recipe to bake with the alphabet S for my A to Z International Flatbread series, I had quite a bit of options. What attracted me to this Iraqi flatbread is the shape of the flatbread. I loved the diamond puffy shape of the bread and thought this would be something the boys would like to eat with some soup....
This spicy Air fryer tofu stir fry recipe is perfect to make as an appetizer for the holidays. The fried tofu is absolutely delicious and takes just under 20 minutes from start to finish. The Indian festival season is almost over and just like that it is time for Christmas. I wanted to get some normal everyday cooking done in the house before I started my holiday baking. So decided to make this quick and easy spicy tofu stir fry....
Brinjal rice or Vangi Bath is a delicious and easy to make Vegan Rice recipe made with freshly ground aromatic spices. This Eggplant rice is a great recipe to pack for lunch boxes or to enjoy as dinner. Eggplant / Brinjal happens to be one other vegetable that we all love at our house. That also means that we have planted plenty of eggplant plants in our garden and they have been giving us a lot of yield....
Ven Pongal is a classic breakfast dish in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu. This goes by various names like Khara Pongal, Savory Pongal, and Ghee Pongal. This Ghee Pongal with medu vada is a common menu for breakfast in restaurants. It is very filling and can also be a lunch or dinner item as well. While this is a savory pongal, there is a sweet version of this commonly known as Chakkara Pongal ....
Aavani aavattam falls on the 10th of the August for the Yajur Vedam and Rig vedam. Saama vedam celebrates this on the day of Vinayaka Chaturdhi. Aavani aavattam is the only festival for the Brahmin Men and hence it is celebrated in a very special and grand manner. Typically the men with the boys go to the temple or any priest home or place and get the new poonal. Boys who do not have the poonal get a false poonal or kalla poonal and they take immense pride in that....
One of the easiest raita recipes is this Aloo Raita. This potato raita recipe requires just a handful of ingredients and is a great side dish for whole-grain roti and biryani. I’m not sure why or how I missed out on making such a simple and delicious Aloo Raita. When browsing through recipes to make for the Haryana Thali, I came across this Potato Raita, and it caught my eye right away....
Bread Bonda is an excellent snack for kids and adults alike. The good thing about this recipe is that one can reuse stale bread for the outer coating. This is a very fulfilling and tasty snack that is sure to please everyone. Bread bonda was one of the first snacks that I learned to make when I was just beginning to cook. I have to admit that when I made this now, almost 12 years later, I realized how sloppy I used to be....
Candied almonds are the easiest and most delicious edible gift that is great for packing and shipping. One of the easiest recipes to make with just 3 ingredients. Almond, Sugar, and cinnamon are all we need to make this quick and easy Candied Almonds on the stovetop. This week my theme for BM is Easy Sweet treats ready within an hour or less. The first recipe I have under this theme is this Candied Almonds which just takes 3 ingredients to make and is ready in about 12 to 15 minutes ....
Bialys or Bialy, a chewy homemade roll closely resembling the Bagel is a classic Polish Bread. I have explained in detail how to make the most delicious and traditional onion and poppy seed Bialys. My family loves bread, and anytime I have a baking theme going on in my blog calendar, everyone gets very excited to try new bakes. This month, though, I am recreating many of the past bakes I have made....
A delicious and simple side dish made with fried eggplants that are added to a yogurt sauce. This Dahi Baingana recipe uses Panch phoran, which is an aromatic blend of five different spices, which is very popular in the North East cuisine of India. Dahi Baingana is a very delicious Orissa recipe that is made during their feasts. I was researching on few different recipes with eggplant, and that is when I came to the Wiki page about this recipe....
Skip the coffee chop and make this delicious Iced Caramel Macchiato at home. It is less expensive and much more delicious than the coffee shop version. When I am drinking coffee outside, there are few that are my favorites. Caramel macchiato tops my list. I like it hot as well as the cold. The specialty of the coffee is the layered effect that you can see in the cup. This specialty drink when you order outside can easily cost about $4 /small cup....
These Iced Ginger Cookies are so much fun to bake and decorate with kids. Love the flavor of ginger all along, and these cookies are perfect to pack in the cookie tins to distribute to neighbors and friends. Christmas is long gone, and since then, my little one has been asking me to bake ginger cookies for him. Yes, you heard right! My 5-year-old loves ginger-flavored cookies. I usually bake old-fashioned ginger cookies to give out as gifts during the holiday season, and he simply loves them....
This one-pot Vegetable Masala Khichdi (Instant Pot or Pressure cooker) is the perfect comfort meal for any season. This Gluten-free masala khichdi is a completely balanced meal made with rice, lentils, mixed vegetables, and assorted spices. Being a South Indian, for us any meal with rice is comforting. I am a lover of one-pot meals and this Masala Khichdi is the best example of a balanced and flavorful one-pot meal. It has vegetables, lentils, and rice and the spices can be adjusted based on individual preference....
When it comes to sweets, I prefer ones that are made with fewer ingredients. Kalakand basically requires just Milk and sugar, but making it from scratch takes too much time. I made this using ricotta cheese, which basically is the closest form of Indian cottage cheese available here, and condensed milk. Traditionally this is made by making fresh paneer from milk and then combining the paneer with condensed milk and sugar and reducing it further until it reaches the required texture....
Karacha Dosai or Godhuma Dosai is perfect for days when there is not enough time to cook a meal or dinner. This Instant Wheat Dosai takes less than 15 minutes to make and is a perfect filling meal. Story of my weeknights - what to cook? Kids have classes, would not be back home until 7 pm, and by 7.15 PM, Amma, I am hungry! This is the dilemma that every mother/woman faces....
With the summer abundance of Lauki / bottle gourd from our garden, we enjoyed many dinners with this Lauki dal tadka recipe. I love Masoor dal tadka and making my favorite with bottle gourd is a keeper. Also cooking it in the Instant Pot makes it very convenient and easy. When it is time to decide what to make for dinner, my first thought is some kind of dal. We love dal with rice as well as roti and also drink it as a soup....
Maambazham Mor kuzhambu is a delicious kuzhambu made with ripe mangoes. The tanginess of the buttermilk along with the sweetness of the mangoes makes this Mango More kuzhambu everyone’s favorite. I love mangoes and now that the mango season is here, I am totally enjoying the fruit. After moving to the South, I found a couple of different varieties of mango and I have been taste-testing them. During one such buy, the mangoes looked very ripe from the outside, but when I cut them they were quite sour....
Peerkangai Poricha Kootu is a delicious and Vegan kootu / stew made with ridge gourd / Chinese okra and Moong dal and freshly ground spices. A perfect dish with steaming hot rice. It was almost the end of the harvest season and one of my dear friends, Ranganayaki, gave me two lovely peerkangai / ridge gourds that had grown in her backyard. After moving from New York, one of the things that we most miss is gardening....
Shahi Gobhi is a creamy and delicious subzi made with fresh cauliflower and spices. The cauliflower curry has freshly ground masala paste that enhances the flavor and makes it a great choice with rice or roti. We eat a lot of curries and I am always looking forward to trying new recipes. Indian cuisine is a treasure for curry and different side dishes. This subzi / sabzi can be eaten with rice or with roti / phulka....
This simple Single serve fruit salad bowl is the best dessert when you have a sweet craving. A great choice of fruit salad to serve for breakfast as well as snack. Sometimes the simplest of the recipes are the best. When deciding what to make for the third day of single-serve desserts theme, my son asked me to make a Single Serve Fruit Salad Bowl. My boys love fruits and will eat them any time of the day....
