A popular North Indian vegetarian delicacy…

Long weekend seemed very short, holidays are never enough as a matter of fact. On Monday evening, I sipped iced cappuccino so tastily  and the caffeine in it screwed up my good night sleep. I am so sensitive to caffeine, if I have coffee or tea after 2 pm I wouldn’t be able to sleep as my brain will be working so hard. Hence, I felt so high and hung over on Tuesday, I was glad when Tuesday came to an end. I did sleep well last night, better I say I over slept so awesomely as my phone alarm failed to blare. I still can’t figure it out what went wrong as my phone was in full charge, it wasn’t turned off nor the alarm, scratching my head! Anyway, I feel much better today as I woke up naturally this morning without being bothered by alarms and other sounds. I worked so awesomely today and felt so fresh throughout the day. How I wish if I could accumulate sleep in my body and use it when it’s desperately needed. It doesn’t matter if we sleep sound three nights in a row, if we miss sleep the 4th night we would feel horrible till we get that sleep back. At times, sleep does rule our minds.

Last Monday, we went vegetarian; as part of that I’d tried a few veggie dishes. Rajma is a very popular vegetarian curry or gravy based dish in North India. The main ingredient in it is red kidney beans. A dish highly rich in protein and fibers. Traditional cooking of rajma calls for soaking up dried red kidney beans over night and cooking in the pressure cooker or in a dutch oven till the beans turn tender. Since, canned red kidney beans are widely available, I used the canned ones. This is a very flavorful veggie curry that goes well with chapati, appam, naan, roti or rice.

Step by Step pictures:

Red kidney beans combined with spices

Cooked Rajma

With a very few ingredients, a delicious chicken korma can be prepared…

Wohooo, this is my 600th recipe post! Giving myself a big pat on my shoulder

Enjoying the long weekend by doing nothing. I mean it, absolutely nothing I am doing and I feel very special. Well, my man has been down with pollen allergy the moment Spring has sprung. When everyone looks at the weather forecast, my man has been looking at the pollencast and it seems that the pollen is at its peak this year. Poor him, have been sneezing and wheezing even after taking the medication. He feels good relief when he sips chukku kappi, I am literally tired of making chukku kappi these days.

I made this chicken korma a couple of days ago, and served it with Appam. This time when I made the chicken korma, I caramelized the onions a lil more and added the other ingredients into it. It turned yummy and had a very different taste.

Recipe for making Appam, click here

Step by Step Pictures

Cooking onions

After adding chicken

After adding coconut milk

Soft yet crispy and yummy waffless…

Finally, I made waffles. Yes, I did it. It had been more than a month since my man had made a request for waffles. It seems he got a sudden craving for it, he even rushed to a store and bought the waffle maker. When he sensed that it’s not yet happening, he reminded me a couple of days ago: “before you go to work (at 6 AM) please make the waffles and place it on the island so that I can enjoy it for breakfast.” I am still not sure if he was serious or kidding. Either way, I said: keep dreaming, honey! As I am one heck of a lazy morning cook, let alone cooking at 6 AM, huh! This time he was confirmed that it was absolutely not happening. Yesterday, I found that the waffle maker was being put to use. I felt so proud of him thinking that he actually made the waffles. Well, my man was so proud of himself that he toasted breads in that waffle maker. Hence, waffle maker was turned into a bread toaster in our cozy kitchen. My man unwrapped other ideas as well: like making eggs in the waffle maker. Well, I can’t wait to see how far he would go…

Yesterday morning, he did convince himself to make the waffles, however due to the non-availability of some ingredients he couldn’t succeed in his waffle mission. The thought that he did make an effort moved me so much. This evening, after reaching home the first thing I have done was making waffles. I haven’t made waffles from scratch before and I did enjoy making it for the first time. It was pretty straight forward, all you have to do is making the batter and pouring it over waffle maker. In no time you will be enjoying homemade waffles. I made a lot, we did enjoy a few waffles as an evening snack and the rest will be devoured for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Homemade waffles at its best!

Step By Step pictures

Ingredients

Waffle Batter

Waffle maker

Soft, crispy and yummy Waffles

Oven roasted butternut squash, I devoured it…

I’d roasted butternut squash a couple of months ago, and this made a perfect veggie side dish. I often make soups using butternut squash, however roasting them has become my new favorite way of enjoying butternut squash. I added Asian seasonings to the diced butternut squash and oven roasted it. It turned out to be the best tasting veggie side dish.

Butternut Squash ready to be roasted

Crispy and crunchy chicken samosas, none can possibly resist this…

I had a long day today, on my way back home I thought I shouldn’t cook anything tonight. Instead I should dine out or carry out or make my man cook etc etc, so many thoughts I had. After I reached home, I tried to go with my plans and to sit on the couch doing nothing. After a few minutes of resting, I just went into the kitchen to take something. I did spend more time than I needed, I am not sure why I took a few more things out of the pantry and the refrigerator. Nothing happend as I planned, things were out of my control and I came out of the kitchen with these crispy, crunchy and of course delicious chicken samosas. I couldn’t be happier and my man couldn’t be happier.

I literally cannot remember the last time I’d made samosas,  I know it doesn’t sound that good when I say this as samosas are such delicious snacks that are very very hard to resist. Whenever, I got the craving for samosas I used to get from a small homely Indian restaurant in my city, they even custom baked the samosas for me. That’s how I succumbed to my cravings. So, today unknowingly I fried some samosas, it was so delicious.

Chicken Samosas

Step By Step Pictures

Warming up the dough

Warmed up dough (Do not cook it well, the sides should still be soft)

Stuffing with chicken

Edges are glued

Frying

Fried crunchy Samosas

Creamy, silky and delicious curry…

I made this shrimp and scallops malai for tonight’s dinner. It was incredibly delicious that I couldn’t wait any longer to share the recipe with you all. Delicious would be an understatement. I am in need of a new word to describe this silky, creamy dish. How about if I say it’s incredibilicious??? I feel better now. Anything that has shrimp and scallops are my favorites even if it doesn’t taste that delicious, I can handle just the taste of shrimp and scallops. Now, if it tastes delicious and if it has shrimp and scallops; I will get greedy and wild and what not…

I didn’t come up with this recipe nor I had any intentions to make shrimp malai for dinner. It all happened in the blink of an eye. I was browsing through some youtube videos and bumped into Vahchef’s video for making shrimp malai. I had everything to make that recipe and it was one heck of an easy recipe. I couldn’t wait, I just gave it a shot. Also, I had scallops in my  freezer so I added that as well. It turned out to be a terrific dish. I served this with risotto, but it goes well with almost anything: rotis, naan, pasta etc etc.

“Malai”  is a hindi word which means “cream”. Usually, cream is added for making malai dishes, but in this one coconut milk is added that’s what I liked the most. A terrificly incredibilicious dish that will make your taste buds go wild n wild.

Step By Step Pictures

Sautéing shrimp and Scallops

Making the creamy sauce

Adding cooked shrimp and scallops to the sauce

 Recipe Courtesy: Vahchef ( made some changes to the measurements)

Yay, I grilled whole chicken, Yes I did, Yes I did…

Last Friday, we fired up our grill, the first and the much awaited grilling of this Summer. I didn’t even let the thoughts of grilling chicken wings or legs or steak come near me. I wanted to throw something different on the grill and make it very special, that’s when the thought of grilling whole chicken hit me. As you all know that I love cooking whole chicken; well, it saves me some time slicing up the chicken and most importantly whole chicken will make a beautiful presentation. While serving whole chicken, most of the people would be targeting the legs, so if you are the host you might have to let go the thought of having the legs. If you are a guest, go ahead and make sure to get onto to the front or volunteer to carve the chicken and gently save one of the legs for you (LOL). I am not kidding, you can try that

I’d wished many times if there were many legs for a chicken, especially when I was young. Chicken legs being the tastiest part of a chicken, had always trigged a fight between my sister and I. If it was only one chicken, my mom always saved the legs for us, still we fought. Greedy sisters we were and still are !!!

Before grilling the chicken, it has to be marinated with a sauce, right? So, I made my own sauce with some basic ingredients. After massaging the chicken with the marinade, I let it rest for a few hours. Overnight marination is the best, since I wasn’t hit by this idea the previous day I only could marinate for a few hours. That was good enough for me. Throwing the whole chicken directly onto the hot grill didn’t sound that good to me as I felt the outside would grill fast and the inside won’t be cooked well. I wasn’t up for an experimentation, so I cooked the whole chicken in a pressure cooker for a few minutes till it was slightly cooked, not to over cook it was my goal. After that, it was placed on the grill. I flipped it over and over till the chicken was grilled to perfection and looked gorgeously brown in color. I did flip too much which caused one of the wings to fall apart, and I gobbled it up. The wing tasted so delicious that I couldn’t wait till the chicken was out of the grill. My man stood astonished. Before he could tear off the chicken I had to stop him so that I could take a few pictures of it. As I clicked pictures: he sat anxiously, his mouth watered, his hands tried to attack the chicken. Before he got really mad, I wound up the photo session. I don’t remember what happend to the chicken after that.

The marinade or the sauce that was left in the pressure cooker was cooked for some more till it thickened. While serving, poured the marinade over the whole chicken. Honestly, I have no words to say how delicious it was. The perfectly grilled whole chicken, the sauce;  it was a splendid treat for the eyes and for the taste buds.

Much awaited Summer is here, we did hit the beach on Saturday. The water was very cold, but the weather was very hot. Seeing the beach after around 7 months did bring out a lot of emotions in me: joy, excitement and fun! Sharing a picture with you all:

Port Stanley Lighthouse (Instagram Click)

Grilled Whole Chicken, with homemade Marinade (Note: One of the wings is missing, I flipped it over and over)

Step By Step Pictures

Marinated whole chicken

Pressure cooked chicken on the grill

Turning golden in color

Placed directly on the grill

Flipped over and more grilled

This is the 9th kind of fish curry that I am posting…

I am happy dancing, how could I not? Guess what’s the temperature over here??? We are enjoying 25 degrees C temperature since yesterday, I feel like a bird freed from its cage. I am super excited and want to do all those outdoor activities that I haven’t done since December. Our bicycle and motorcycle are out of hibernation and are put into great use.

Sitting in my backyard, enjoying the fresh breeze, chirping of the birds, swaying of the leaves and watching the Sun as it gets ready to set gorgeously. This is true Spring bliss for me!!! Today, I wished the day would never end. Then I thought, what if tomorrow is beautiful than today??? So, I wanted the day to end peacefully and stunningly.

It’s that time of the year when I’ll be seen adoring and embracing flowers, flowers have never failed to make me happy!

One of the things that I love to do in Summer is taking food pictures outside, in my backyard. Lots of sunshine and brightness makes the picture beautiful, I cannot stop clicking.

In this post I would like to share the recipe for making an easy fish curry: Kerala style, obviously. I don’t make fish curries quite often, but when I make, I try to make it differently each time. So, this time I pureed some spices and cooked the fish in it. I used a different fish this time, it was Porgy fish, very mild tasting and soft fish.

An easy to make fish curry which goes along with tapioca, rice, roti etc.

Here are the recipes for other fish curries, click here.

Refreshing rolls that has shrimp in it, perfect for seafood lovers…

This week feels like a drag to me, I know the week just started and it’s not fair to murmur already. Can you believe that April has come to an end? Wasn’t that pretty fast??? April showers bring May flowers, so I am eagerly waiting to see my garden in full bloom in May. This evening, I had a stroll in my garden and saw a few of the plants have sprouted out of the soil. That put a huge smile on my face and yes I clicked a picture or two as well. Here is a picture, I need to remove the snails in my front yard they look cute but they actually feed on the plants and destroy them. I am not going to let that happen. This weekend is going to be a gardening weekend for me, can’t wait to get dirty in the yard.

I’d been interviewed by Muslimah Media Watch a couple of days ago. The interviewer is one of my friends (we haven’t met each other yet, we got connected on FB through a mutual friend) and a very talented writer, she writes under the nick name Izzie for this wesbite. This morning she shared the published article with me, that definitely made my day. I loved the questions as it was quite different and I had to put some thoughts on it. Sharing the interview article with you all, read the full article here.

Talking about these shrimp rice paper rolls, they make a perfect appetizer for Summer. I wrapped the rice paper with shrimp and veggies. Any seafood lovers will fall for this and it’s quite refreshing too.

Recipe for making: Thai Chicken Summer rolls

Step By Step Pictures

Recipe for making Dipping sauce, here

Celebrating my blog’s 4th anniversary with these pink velvet cupcakes…

Happy 4th birthday to my blog. Yes, it’s been 4 years since I’ve started my blogging journey. What an incredible journey it was! I did learn and improve a lot over the years whether it’s cooking or blogging or food photography or connecting with people. One of my dreams was to be a food writer and I did work hard on making that dream come true. I feel content.

While one part of my mind was being nice to me and appreciated the things that I’ve done, all of a sudden I heard another part of my mind yelling at me  ”you haven’t done anything, you have a long way to go. Girl, wake up!”. There started a huge conflict.

I closed my eyes and thought for a while, tried to make peace with the conflicting minds.

I am very aware about my weaknesses and that I have so much things to improve and I have long way to go, at times I also feel that I am nothing when compared to those people who make a lot of difference in others life. I can keep talking about the things that I haven’t done yet. I believe this is one of the feelings most of us have “the not enough feeling”.

However, today I am not thinking about the things I haven’t done yet. I am not letting anyone and myself make me feel embarrassed. I am only looking at the bright side and I am appreciating myself for everything that I’ve accomplished over the years. I have no complaints whatsoever, I am happy with the way it is, even if it’s my website or the way I am. Everything happens for a reason. Appreciate yourself, strengthen yourself, motivate yourself, and most importantly surround yourself with positive and good people. Learn to say NO to certain things and ignore people who make you feel worthless, if you start doing this you are on your way to happiness.

I believe that none can take all the credit and keep it to themselves. If we succeed in doing something, it’s not just us and our effort but the support of a lot of people would be involved in that. Hence, on this day I would like to express my gratitude to my husband, my parents, my sis, my friends, my readers and everyone who take time to stop by my website. You all have helped me to grow this website to where it is today and motivates me to keep blogging. Heart felt gratitude!

Today, I had a small celebration with my friends with whom I did research in Chemistry for 2 years. They were total strangers 2 years ago, we belonged to different cultures, different backgrounds and different countries. All these differences melted away as we met and worked together, before we knew we became best friends. Now we live in different places, so today we had a reunion. I am so glad to have celebrated with my like minded friends with whom I can be myself. We 3 girls giggled, blabbered, cooked, ate, roamed around and had so much fun. My man over heard some of our talks and he couldn’t help thinking how crazy we were Yes, men should avoid listening to girls talk, they cannot handle it

I made an Asian themed lunch, the dishes I made were: Shrimp Rice paper rolls, Shrimp tempura sushi, Dragon chicken, Egg fried rice and pink velvet cupcakes. I always make a cake when there is a celebration, today I made cupcakes instead. I made an easy pink velvet cupcakes. I topped the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I used icing sugar instead of powdered sugar and combined with the cream cheese. The frosting didn’t turn thick, I guess it’s the icing sugar which also had corn starch added to it caused the problem. I wasn’t that happy about how the frosting turned out. However, the cupcakes by itself tasted delicious, not too sweet and very light.

Recipe for making Butterscotch frosting (half the recipe).

Step By Step Pictures