Ami's Vegetarian Delicacies

Banana Peppers & Potatoes in Coconut Curry Sauce

2013-04-19T17:26:00.000+02:00

Have you ever got excited over a vegetable or an ingredient. I have, specially over banana peppers, because it reminds me of delicious curries made with them back home. My mom used to make different kind of dishes with them. Apart from this curry, she makes a stir-fry with banana peppers and potatoes and made a filling for toasts, then the other type is a starter i.e. deep fried stuffed banana peppers. Banana peppers has a strong peppery flavor hence it's also good for quick Chinese stir...

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Spicy Noodles with Multi Colored Vegetables & Tofu in Spiced Corn Flour Sauce

2013-03-27T21:27:00.000+01:00

Noodles has always been on our weekly dinner menu. But method of making noodles is evolving. My mum made it very simple, she served noodles tossed with stir fried leeks and carrot to add some color. I tasted different varieties of noodles when I lived in Southeast Asia. Some of these mouth watering varieties are mee goreng, hokkien mee, chow mein, lo mein, pad thai etc., Each of these varieties has its own unique ingredients and sauces. The Beauty of Broccoli Click to Read More »

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Coconut Sambol (Grated Coconut Salad with Chili)

2013-02-22T23:35:00.000+01:00

This is a staple dish in Sri Lanka. This salad is served with most of the main meals. Sri Lankans eat lot of rice and food made with rice flour. Typical Sri Lankan main meals are rice, bread, pol roti (flat bread made with wheat flour and grated coconut), string hoppers (steamed rice noodles), pittu (steamed rice couscous with grated coconut) and hoppers (half moon shaped pancakes made with fermented rice flour) Although coconut is not as big as Ceylon Tea plantations it is also one of...

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Pumpkin Risotto

2013-01-26T00:03:00.000+01:00

Best Wishes for the New Year everyone. (I know it's late, but better late than never) I've gone missing for sometime, But I'm back invigorated from my holidays back home in Sri Lanka. It's always great to be back with your loved ones, someone to pamper with all good food cooked with love and mere company of my parents. It's never enough and always feels very difficult to get back to routine in this foreign land. You may wonder if I had cooked all the recipes in...

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Pan Fried Eggplant with Curry Powder

2012-12-06T22:23:00.002+01:00

I'm sure all of you know by now that eggplant is my favorite vegetable. This is one of my favorite method of cooking eggplant. Its Jaffnese method i.e. northern Sri Lankan way of cooking eggplant. Typically I grew up eating this with Pittu for dinner. Pittu is made with red rice flour and steamed with grated coconut. It looks like couscous but in brown color. In North we also use Sri Lankan sesame oil to cook this dish. Sesame oil has a very strong nutty flavor that gets infused to...

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Roasted Butternut & Yellow Split Peas Soup

2012-11-01T21:01:00.000+01:00

Its getting cooler by the day, we had our first snow last weekend. This icy cold weather is making me crave for steaming hot soups or very spicy food. I have cooked pumpkin curry many times and its one of my favorite curry to have with rice. Making soups with pumpkin is a relatively new experience. I have tried this soup few times and has been a hit in our small nest. Click to Read More »

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Pomegranate and Walnuts Salad

2012-10-08T10:44:00.001+02:00

Back then we would eagerly wait to go to our grandma's house, so that we could meet all our cousins and play endlessly. There was a big garden in front of the house with lots of flowers and fruit trees. I fondly remember eating these red pearls (pomegranate) with my cousins. Click to Read More »

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Mushroom Biryani - Fragrant Basmati rice cooked with Indian Biryani spices & Button Mushrooms

2012-09-22T00:07:00.000+02:00

When my friends visited here recently we had endless stories to share. Part of our conversation also involved about our new foodie experiments. We were together in Sri Lanka and eventually we all moved into different directions. One girl came from Australia and other from UK. Never in our dreams we thought we would have our re-union here, in the most beautifully landscaped but land locked country. Ingredients for Mushroom Biryani Click to Read More »

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Seeni Sambol (Caramalised Onion with Ceylon Spices) & a Brief Note about Popular Sri Lankan food

2012-09-07T10:45:00.000+02:00

Seeni sambol, pol sambol, hoppers, string hoppers, kottu & chinese rolls are some of the popular Ceylon (Sri Lankan) food. Sri Lankan cuisine has many similarities with Kerala cuisine. We use lot of coconut milk, grated coconut and spices which are locally available ingredients. However even within Sri Lanka, there are minor differences among Jaffnese, Sinhalese, Muslims & hill country cuisine. My origins are from Jaffna, we eat red parboiled rice and make string hoppers and pittu...

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Bircher Muesli - Healthiest Breakfast Ever

2012-08-25T10:18:00.000+02:00

Bread with butter, marmite and another slice with jam is what I used have for breakfast regularly. Its definitely not the most healthy way to start your day. When we moved here, we often came across this breakfast meal named Bircher Muesli. We were curious try it out, as it was a popular Swiss breakfast sold everywhere from cafes, bakeries, super markets to office canteens. Bircher is the name of the Swiss physician who introduced this in 1900s. It was introduced to his patients as a part...

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Roasted Vegetables Pasta

2012-08-16T22:31:00.000+02:00

My relationship with baking is similar to meeting a good old friend after a long break. I have childhood memories of mom's baked goodies. She would bake buns, cookies and cakes. I still remember mom's lemon cake aroma gradually enveloping the whole house. We would just wait till the oven bell rings to grab and eat. Few years later, I started baking and became an avid baker of eggless cakes. But when we started moving, we never wanted to incur additional expense to buy an oven....

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Baingan Bharta (Roasted eggplant with Indian spices)

2012-08-03T22:54:00.000+02:00

My love affair with this vegetable began more than two decades ago. It was introduced to me as "katharikai Poriyal" i.e. stir fried eggplant. Since then I'm in love with this vegetable and our affair continues with many new experimentations ;) Click to Read More »

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Markets around the World

2012-07-27T11:45:00.000+02:00

As a foodie, I'm always excited to see markets in new countries. Be it a farmers market, a regular day market or even spice market. I'm intrigued by new vegetable or spices and I end up buying basket full of vegetables and fruits every time I visit these markets. I recently got a chance to visit Mullhouse Market which is in eastern france and an hour away from Basel. In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables from Alsace region there were also Moroccon and Chinese traders. I bought...

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Guacamole- Avocado Dip

2012-07-06T22:36:00.000+02:00

Finally after six long months, I'm happy to have my own space. I have my own utensils and a well stocked cupboard with spices and Sri Lankan ingredients. My kitchen smells so good :) Today's recipe is a result of me trying to incorporate Omega 3 & 6 i.e. good fat into our diet. As vegetarians this is one of the nutrient we may be lacking. We all know fish is one the main source of good fat, which is good for our brain neurons function. Some vegan sources of good fats are olive...

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Learning to make Apple Tarte & Pear Tatin

2012-03-21T19:15:00.001+01:00

Even though I have to wait for another few months, before I can cook and start shooting in my own kitchen space. I have been cooking, sharing and learning different types of food here. Something that I've bookmarked to try is 'Tarte'. I learnt to make tarte dough and to make both sweet and savory tarte's. Best part is if you don't have patience (like me) to make dough at home, you can buy tarte dough from store and add your preferred vegetable or fruit to make freshly baked...

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Cabbage Stir-Fry

2012-01-27T18:03:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed that I have not been actively posting over the past few weeks. This is because we have moved to a new country(in the middle of Europe). I am still adjusting to my new surroundings and tied up with the post-move chores. As a foodie this means tasting new food and experimenting. Unfortunately I still have not started taking photos in new place, as we are still in a temporary place with limited cooking space. But I'm eagerly waiting to capture and share all my...

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Mint Sambol (Spicy Mint Salad with Shredded Coconut)

2011-12-29T16:14:00.000+01:00

I wish I could share a seasonal cake or cookie recipe with you. There are seasonal sweets and desserts everywhere and also in food blogging world. Even though I indulge in all of them by buying from outside, I hardly make anything sweet because we are ‘weight watchers’. If I make them at home, it’ll be both of us indulging and it will not reflect well in our scale. So whenever there is craving / tempt we buy small portions. That way our consumption is limited to one piece a day. We satisfy our...

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Lotus Root Stir-fry

2011-12-07T11:03:00.001+01:00

First of all apologies for my short period of absence. It had been very challenging and struggling few weeks. Gradually things are coming back to normal phase and I'm getting back to routine. Lotus Root is not a common vegetable. As it is in the name, this is the root of lotus flower mainly used in Asian cuisine. It is used in soups, stir fries, deep fried, braised, pickled in hot and sour garlic chili sauce and also used in traditional herbal medicine. Click here to see picture of...

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Vegetable Kottu (Flat bread pieces mixed with spicy sauce & vegetables)

2011-11-03T05:02:00.001+01:00

Kottu Roti is a popular comfort cum street food in Sri Lanka. When you are strolling around in Sri Lankan streets, you cannot miss the sight, sounds and aroma of kottu. Kottu literally means “chop”. It’s made with flat bread called “Gothamba roti” mixed with meat, spicy gravy, and vegetables. Kottu is blended together in a heated iron sheet using blunt metal blades. Clashing of metal creates a distinctive sound. This sound and aroma of kottu will invite any passerby to stop and indulge in this...

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Dal Makhani – Black Lentils in Spicy Cream Sauce

2011-10-20T12:29:00.001+02:00

Dal Makhani is one of my favorite dish in North Indian Restaurants. I love its nutty taste in tangy cream, flavored with pungent garlic. I never bothered to try it at home. Didn't even know what type of lentils is used to make this dish. Later on only when I checked it with one of my Indian friend, I got to know the type of lentils used to make this awesome dish. I’m glad I like lentils and legumes, as it’s a good source of low fat protein for vegetarians. Quinoa is the best protein...

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Green Chili Chutney (Green chili Pesto made with Indian Ingredients)

2011-10-08T12:10:00.001+02:00

I always prefer shopping fresh vegetables on my own, but sometimes I do have to delegate it to my DH. He is ok, I would not rank him bad, compared to some other spouses I know ;) but he would sometimes buy things like 250g of long green chilies. He is one of those people who can eat raw chilies. But you can’t have them on a daily basis right? I only use green chilies to season curries or for salads, but what do you do with so much green chilies in fridge? If you get enough sun light you can...

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Zero Chili Curry Powder

2011-10-01T18:34:00.000+02:00

However much we master our cooking, Mom’s food is very special, and we often crave for Mom’s food. I don’t know, whether it’s her love or a secret recipe she’s yet to share with me, that makes her food so special. I attribute reasons to be her love and purity she practices. Let me give you a brief background. My mom is a converted vegetarian. All of us started practicing vegetarianism, when we were introduced to meditation by Brahma Kumaris. She strictly practices ‘Purity’; she only takes...

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Spicy Legumes & Tomato Soup

2011-09-23T13:05:00.000+02:00

We have been on a constant battle with our weight. We both feel if we lose couple of stones, we’ll look and feel much greater. Somehow this realization strikes in front of the scale and seem to disappear in front of food. Hence we are on a constant battle. Some time back I used to have notebook jotting down everything that went inside and calorie counting, rigorous exercise and having soups and stews for dinner. But after having soups very regularly I’ve lost appetite for them. I’m bored...

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Stir Fried Eggplant in Spicy Chilli Sauce

2011-09-17T16:41:00.000+02:00

Eggplant is my all-time favorite vegetable. There are variety of ways to cook them. You could make smoked eggplant salad, fried eggplant, eggplant gravy, mashed eggplant curry (North Indian Baigan Bartha) and this one is Chinese style. Even though I’ve tried similar style eggplant in Singapore Chinese vegetarian restaurant; I never bothered to try it at home. But once I saw it demonstrated by Kylie kwong in Masterchef Australia, I immediately noted it down and tried it no sooner I got all...

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Soy Marinated Curry Chicken (100% Vegan & Vegetarian)

2011-09-10T09:41:00.000+02:00

This curry is deceptive; because you can make them (non-vegetarians) believe that it’s real meat. I always make this curry when I’m entertaining non-vegetarian guests. Some of them think that I’ve prepared a meat curry especially for them. Mock chicken, lamb, chicken breasts, prawns and fish are some of the popular fake meats available here in Southeast Asia. They are made with soya, mushroom stems and other preservatives. Its texture is very much like meat. It’s a very popular...

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