Ginger & Garlic

(Trader Joe's) Chicken Parmesan

2013-03-02T17:38:00.004-08:00

Chicken Parmesan has always been a go-to restaurant favorite at our place. Every time Chicken Parmesan craving strikes, we used to head over to a nearby Olive Garden for our periodic Chicken Parmesan fix. There are some dishes one for some reason thinks must be too elaborate and time consuming to make at home for our busy life-styles; Chicken Parmesan was one such misconception for me... With a toddler at bay, we are entering a phase of being very wary of fine dining places. Combined that with the fact that we were never the "takeout-types" means I now have an extra incentive to take a crack at making our usual restaurant favorites at home - there is always a bright side to everything in life, right?! I call this recipe "Trader Joe's" Chicken Parmesan because 1) ingredients picked up from TJ's makes this "recipe" an assembly task really rather than a real cooking task and 2) I just absolutely love shopping at that place! (I am not getting paid to advertise for TJ's,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

It's Not a Tomato; It's an Idea of a Tomato

2013-01-19T21:37:00.003-08:00

When did our food choices become so complex? From a society of people who spent majority of their time hunting, gathering, fishing and then turning their daily haul into simple delicious meals - to the society of people today who are navigating aisles and aisles of highly processed supermarket foods, packaged with attractive colorful labels and a long non-pronounceable ingredient list. Between food industrialization, clever food marketing and food lobbyists, collectively I fear we have given very little thought to what this ready-to-eat culture is doing to our own planet, society and our long-term health and well-being. "It's not a tomato; it's an idea of a tomato" it's a tagline by one of my favorite authors Michael Pollan from an old food documentary Food Inc. that struck a deep cord with me. He was explaining how the supermarket culture is erasing the seasons and the meaning of seasonal produce. Now a days most fruits and vegetables are available year long - shipped from...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Masale Bhat (Spiced Rice)

2013-01-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

Masale bhat in Maharashtra is a meal fit for kings! It has it's place secured in all the weddings and celebrations. Back home in childhood I remember my Mom making a large pot of masale bhat whenever guests were coming over for a meal. Traditionally it is made by roasting and grinding fresh spices such as whole peppercorn, coriander and cumin seeds and adding a bunch of whole spices such as cloves, star anise and adorned with whole roasted cashews. It is also not uncommon for masale bhat to be made with Tindora vegetable. Now a days however I take many short-cuts such as substituting cauliflower for hard-to-find tindora, using prepared goda masala instead of roasting and grinding fresh spices and altogether skipping on whole spices as we share most of our meals with our 1-year old and it always worries me having whole spices in her food. It is still very tasty - and when served with a yogurt dip or raita, it is still a meal fit for kings :) I am a big fan...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Picture Post: Saturday Morning Farmer's Market

2013-01-12T12:33:00.001-08:00

For a few years now we have been buying our family's fresh produce and fruits from local farmer's markets. We love our Saturday morning farmer's market routine. Fridge is always empty by Friday night and the Saturday morning visit to markets is not only the necessity in our household but has now become a tradition of kick-starting your weekend with a relaxing family activity. We reward ourselves occasionally by stopping by at a nearby coffee place to grab an egg sandwich and a hot cup of coffee on wintry days or a cold refreshing fresh fruit juice when the sun shines high up above. But on most days, a leisurely stroll through lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and surrounded by like-minded foodies, is all this foodie is really looking for! I consider myself extremely fortunate to be living in an area with a year-around farmer's market. We enjoy every season to our heart's content with locally grown fruits and vegetables - sweet berries in spring, lots of stone fruits...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Sesame brittle (Tilgul) - the easiest sesame candies ever!

2013-01-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love snacking on candies or brittle, right? But a lot of people shy away when it comes to candy-making. - and for good reasons, mind you! Candy making has had this perfectionist art aura to it. Not only that you need a special equipment such as a candy thermometer but also the preparation is very unforgiving to mistakes, a few degrees temperature difference here or there can make a difference between a perfect bite of candy to an unchewable mass. Fret no more however - this by far is the easiest candy/brittle that you can make and what's more, it does not require a candy thermometer either. Come January and most people in India are celebrating Sankranti - a festival which marks Sun's entrance in Capricorn zodiac by making various sweets with sesame seeds and sugar/molasses. Sesame seeds symbolize the bonds of togetherness while molasses or jaggery symbolizes the sweet bonds of all of our relationships. Offering your friends and family sesame sweets is very traditional...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

A tale of two chutneys...

2013-01-05T08:33:00.002-08:00

We love having friends over at our house for simple no-fuss parties. Earlier I never quite understood why my other-friends-with-kids always preferred hosting lunch/dinners at home instead of going to that new and happening restaurant in town, even though it looked kid-friendly - well, that was until I had a kid of my own! It is just so much easy lazily cooking through most of the day chatting with friends over coffee than the fuss of dressing up, getting kids dressed up, making sure they behave at restaurants and guiltily paying the waiter extra tip for a food-throw party that happened around the high-chair. So while we still eat out quite often for a couple with young kid, slowly but surely many of our social gatherings are finally moving towards home settings. Now a days I really enjoy hosting simple no-fuss meals with just one or two main crowd-pleasing dishes. It's less work for you and all the same fun. Some of my favorite such menus include a lunch over biryani/raita or a...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Aloha Pasta Salad!

2012-12-31T15:24:00.001-08:00

Aloha! We had a wonderful week at Hawaii during thanksgiving. It was also my daughter's first birthday. There is so much pressure on parents now a days to make your kids birthday special - don't you think? There are all these theme based parties to host, games and entertainment to provide during the party, theme based tablewares, buy perfect gift to the birthday kid, favors to trade for her friends and cakes to order..... the list of chores is endless. And for a kid who goes to daycare, repeat all of that for a daycare party - phew, just thinking about it was taxing enough. But still, we wanted to make it special being her first - something she will look back years later through the pictures and fondly cherish, so after days of mulling over we decided that a quiet beach-side cake cutting in the beautiful islands of Hawaii with Mommy-Daddy was a perfect plan for the special day! Not to mention Mommy-Daddy also needed a celebration for surviving the first year of being...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Happy Holidays!

2012-12-24T08:13:00.002-08:00

This has been a very special year for me. This year I cherished so many moments of my daughter's first year and all her subsequent firsts - her first smile, her first crawl, her first solid meal, her first word ("no" - can you believe it!) to her first wobbly step! When we welcomed 2012 last year, she was this tiny little newborn tightly swaddled in a blanket and look how grown up she is now, no more like a baby but almost like a little girl! The Mom in me is so proud and happy yet also silently saddened by how fast the time seems to be running. Just for a while I want to freeze the time and enjoy her baby days just for a little bit longer... I am so not ready to let go of her newborn smell or her gummy grins! hey, may be that should be my wish to Santa.. :) 2012 is always going to have a special place in my heart... but I know the next year will be equally happy and adventurous in it's very own ways and while I am not quite ready for her toddler days (read toddler...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Roasting chestnuts...

2012-12-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

(If you have never roasted chestnuts before, I highly recommend giving it a try this holiday season! Sure, there is some work in roasting and particularly shelling part, but what better way to spend your holidays chatting with friends or family camped in front of fireplace shelling and snacking on these delicious chestnuts.. give it a try if you can - it sure won't disappoint you. This post one of my very early 2009 posts; I had forgotten I wrote this until recently I was reading through my earliest posts and came across "Roasting Chestnuts" and had to re-share it again - 'tis the season after-all!) Come December all of my car's FM radio preset channels seem to be falling pray one by one to the ever pervasive Christmas music. Now I love the holiday tunes and enjoy them most of the time, but there just isn't something right when I am driving to work burdened with an impending end-of-year deadline and the lady on the radio is cheering happily "its the most wonderful time...!":-)....

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

2012-12-20T21:08:00.000-08:00

Winter has finally made it's appearance loud and clear. For last few days temperatures have been steadily dropping, evenings are chilly, mornings are frosty, my hot cup of chocolate is just that much more warming to body and soul - and that means one thing in our household, lots and lots of soups! On many winter days our quick lunch is a pot of soup with some thick crusted sourdough bread brushed with olive oil and broiled at high temperature with just a rub of a fresh garlic clove. Throw in some salad (my favorites are couscous with butternut squash and dried cranberries salad or quinoa salad or a simple greens salad topped with some fruits and nuts dressed with an easy olive oil red wine vinegerate) and it's a perfect meal any time of day.. The recipe below is a slight adaptation of an old recipe I had posted earlier (but no new photos this time - what with a warm aroma of soup and garlic bread wafting your way sometimes all you can do is...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Banana Nut Muffins

2012-10-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

The weather Gods have been quite unpredictable recently. It seems we can not quite decide whether to take that leap forward into chilly fall evenings or lapse into those gorgeous bright sunny summer days. I do not mind either. Rainy days like this week is just another excuse to spend hours cuddling with my little doll while the kitchen fills up with a wonderful heartfelt aromas that only bakers can rejoice :) I was home early today and spent most of my early evening reading a book I have been planning to finish for a long time (Sister of My Heart - good read, not exceptional but very catchy). The weather was getting cloudier by the hour but once in a while sun would shine through the tiny pockets between the clouds basking the surrounding yellow hills with a warm glow. It was so tempting to just give up the book and take a nap for a while or just stare outside mindlessly. I lost count of how many times I refilled my coffee cup after two. Just as I was finishing up the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Summer Lentil Soup with Garlic Bread

2012-09-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

It is such a tick-off when you start feeling under the weather right on the eve of a long weekend... not to mention the _last_ long weekend of the summer and the one where you had plans for beach picnic and doing tourist-y things in San Francisco. But that is exactly what happened - right around Friday afternoon was when I started feeling some early onset of cough and sore throat. Not very surprising considering the little one was coughing on and off sporadically last few days. Before I became a Mom I used to wonder how grown-ups can have cold and cough multiple times a year, unfortunately now I know only too well how the chain of germ breeding ground moves from sharing toys to hugging Mommy & Daddy :) Anyway, after my third cup of coffee on Saturday morning (all to sooth an itchy throat), I decided to make a large pot of hot soup - and that too my favorite soup, the one I always turn to for comfort on cold winter nights or whenever someone in family has cold or fever....

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Romano beans sabji and A Year of Local Eating

2012-08-25T17:40:00.001-07:00

It has been close to a year since I switched-over to buying and cooking local and seasonal produce. Mostly that means buying my week's fruits and vegetables at farmer's market and supplementing only as and when needed from Trader Joe's. One of the perks of living in bay area is that there is an Indian grocery store right around the corner - doesn't matter where you are! So its always very easy to hop into car and buy whatever you need at nearest supermarkets or Indian groceries. Most of the produce here though is shipped from miles away and has the dreaded high food miles. Right around when I was entering the second-semester of my pregnancy last year that I thought of making this big change in our lifestyles. Part of it was sustainable eating for ourselves and the environment we live it, part of it was supporting local farmer's community but the biggest part of it was changing our lifestyles so the new addition to our family would get to enjoy not the only the fresh seasonal...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Summer's Peach Cake

2012-08-19T18:18:00.002-07:00

Well, hello again! Hope you are all doing great and enjoying the wonderful summer's bounties with your family and friends. This is my first summer as a Mom and it has been a blast so far - Sun Gods have been unusually good bestowing us with sunny but relatively mild perfect weekend picnic days; farmer's markets are overflowing with sweet peaches and plums and nectarines and my own tomato plant (which I had planted two summers ago and thus far thought to be dead) somehow miraculously propped up again start of the summer making my day.. So much for the life's little pleasures :) Needless to say we are treating ourselves to a whole array of delicious and super-sweet stone fruits from farmer's market this summer. In all the midst of the summer, one of our best friends are relocating across the country and I thought what better way to treat them than some home-made stone fruit cake. I rarely bake cakes. The last one I baked was six years ago - yes, that long! Not that I don't like...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Methiche laddo (Fenugreek sweets)

2012-02-28T16:15:00.002-08:00

It was such a blessing to have my Mom help us out those first few post-delivery weeks! I think its the only time you have to be babied up while you settle into a rhythm caring for your own little baby :) While she was here in addition to the fresh lunches and dinners she also made a big batch of methiche laddo (fenugreek sweets). It is traditional in our region of India to gift fenugreek laddos to the new nursing moms. Benefits of fenugreek for lactation are well know. No one quite knows how it works but fenugreek is famous in many cultures as a milk-boosting herb. While fresh fenugreek leaves can be added to the daals and sabzis; the easiest way to get enough dosage of fenugreek for its lactation benefits is to either take fenugreek in capsule form or a better-tasting yummy alternative would be make these fenugreek ladoos which are made from powdered fenugreek seeds. While fenugreek seeds or powder is easily found in Indian grocery stores; for those in...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Pumpkin cranberry muffins

2012-02-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

I am on my maternity leave at present. My parents were here for the first 2 months with the baby and it has now been close to a month of three of us managing by ourselves. While there have been rare days with the baby fussing and crying and dishes pilling up in the sink; in general we are managing great - spending majority of the time cuddling and playing with our little girl, eating very simple home-made food everyday, resting whenever we can and housekeeping and cleaning as time permits. Life is setting into a rhythm. I make fresh dinner daily and the leftover dinner serves as my lunch the next day - works great for me as I get to spend the whole morning with my little bundle without worrying about lunch logistics. My little girl naps in the afternoon. After her nap I take her out to a stroll nearby; then we come home, she plays in her baby gym while I take a quick coffee break (gotta have caffeine!). Then we play together some more; spend time in the backyard...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Chocolate covered strawberry bride & groom & other treats!

2012-02-13T16:57:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day is just around the corner and to a foodie like me that means chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates! I love how everywhere around this time one starts seeing the bouquets of beautiful roses, various chocolate treats and all sorts of beautifully wrapped gifts. Strawberries and chocolates are two of my most favorite things so its only logical that chocolate covered strawberries happen to be on the menu whenever I am in the mood for making something cutsie without a whole lot of effort. With plump fresh strawberries and white and dark chocolates, your imagination is the only limit when it comes to making designs for strawberry chocolates but here are some of my all time favorites (and something I have blogged previously here) which sort of differ from the usual chocolate covered berries. These chocolate bride and groom are the perfect treats if you are in the mood for a more delicately worked strawberry designs and perhaps a perfect gift for a dear friend's...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

20-minute lime-orange cookies

2012-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, can't believe it has been so long since I last posted over here! For the past few months I have been a blog lurker, drooling over all the scrumptious recipes which have been making the rounds. Continuing to post was always on my mind but somehow or other different priorities took over. Never mind though, I suppose better late than never! There really is no excuse for being absent for so long - however time flies by so quickly! It seemed only so recently that I heard I was expecting and needless to say life's priorities took over and now I am a proud mommy of a month and half old cutie pie who is entertaining us all throughout the days and nights :) So many things change so unexpectedly with a little baby and the life as you knew before changes so utterly and completely - but you know what the best part is, every time she looks at you and smiles or holds your finger with her little fingers, you know for sure you won't be treading these moments for anything else! I am...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Banana nut muffins

2011-02-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

Let me just say its so nice to be back - cooking, eating and of-course blogging! After many months of craziness I am basking in happiness at getting back my weekends, all the lost sleep and the desire to spend hours and hours planning and cooking something not-everyday. I know I have missed all the action in the past few months, but I definitely plan to get back in the saddle as soon as possible. Thanks to all of you blogger-buddies who left messages and encouraged me to continue to keep posting; you guys are the best :) Today is a holiday in US and for a lazy brunch I made these banana nut muffins. These muffins are very similar to the banana bread recipe I had posted earlier. They are toasted and crunchy on the outside while still very moist inside. The original recipe called for 1/3C butter and 3/4C sugar; I reduced butter to 2Tbsp and sugar to 1/2C because I like my muffins very lightly sweetened, but you can increase to 3/4C if you like it better that way. As always I love...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T10:57:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a very happy holidays and a wonderful new year ahead! Here is an edible fruit tree I had made last year, hope you enjoy it too... have a safe festive season.Check here for instructions of how to make this edible fruit tree.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Celery root soup (Celeriac soup)

2010-11-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever cooked with a celery root or a celeriac before? It resembles the shape of misshapen turnip with beards growing here and there. At first glance to be frank it is not very appealing, particularly when seated next to the rows and rows of beautiful pink perfect red carrots of the season; but since I had heard so much about the delicate celery like flavors of these root vegetables, I could not pass up the chance to pick one up in the farmer's market yesterday. Celeriac is a root vegetable in celery family. For a long time I thought celeriac is the root bulb of celery but that is not quite the case! The stalks and leaves attached to a celeriac are _not_ actually celery; I was planning to use them up in my soup but a bit of Googling told me that they may not be edible so I skipped them and used regular celery instead. In texture celeriac is simlar to the Mexican Jicama with a dominant celery flavor with a slight bit of sweetness like an apple!Preparing celery root is very...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Couscous with roasted butternut squash and dried cranberries

2010-11-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you but I have always been a side-dish kind of person. What do I mean by that; well, for one, I usually relish the side-dish just as much as I like the main-dish! Infact, I have been known to be making meals out of side-dishes.. one pot quinoa salad for a quick lunch, smashed yams with a drizzle of honey for desert, soup as the main-course for dinner.. well, you get the idea. Needless to say, whenever I am invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, I am perfectly happy bringing a side-dish. Nothing screams fall to me like this dish with roasted, camelized butternut squash and dried cranberries with couscous! The dish is wide open to variations and experimentations. I tried it with orange flavored dried cranberries from Trader Joe's and loved the orangy after-taste it gave. Occasionally I also add pumpkin seeds or pistachios for a crunch at times. As for the herbs, I suspect fried torn sage leaves would pair really well with the squash but I haven't tried it myself. I...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Buttermilk pancakes

2010-11-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Pancakes is the ultimate lazy Sunday morning breakfast for me. I get up late (hey, daylight savings ended!) then spend another half an hour gazing over my morning cuppa mindlessly peeking at my friends' posts on Facebook while watching the rains drizzle outside on a gloomy Sunday morning. After an hour or so my tummy rumbles in protest which is when I go to the kitchen and start randomly opening and closing cupboards and refrigerator until I see an about to expire buttermilk carton that I used last week to make some very tasty whole-wheat pumpkin muffins. Buttermilk is not a regular ingredient in my pantry so finding it on Sunday morning meant this was a sign... to make some buttermilk pancakes. This is a recipe I followed from Joy of Baking. I usually prefer banana pancakes but having buttermilk at hand I decided to give buttermilk pancakes a try instead. The pancakes were moist and fluffy and had a slightly tangy taste of the buttermilk. You can easily substitute...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Batata rassa (Potatoes in curried gravy)

2010-10-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

People deal with stress in different ways. I have a few friends who splurge on chocolates or sweets when they are stressed, then there are others who go nuts for snacks and still a few others (and now the pie-chart is dwindling) who work-out a lot or take walks during lunch-time to beat the stress. I have never been a sweets person (note the 's' in sweets, less you would think I am not a sweet person :D) I rarely if ever crave anything sweet and I like dark chocolate but don't really crave it either. For me it has always been savory comfort food from my child-hood which acts as an instant stress-buster. It is unfair how a few regional cuisines (like Maharashtra for example) are just so absent in the array of cuisines featured under the global "Indian cuisines" tag. Even in the heart of the bay area, there is hardly any restaurant which serves authentic Marathi food that I can turn to. Anyway, so as a result of a few stressful work weeks, I have been craving and cooking a lot more...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Pumpkin dal

2010-10-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

I have always been the one (shamelessly so you might add!) who sneaks in a new untested recipe on unsuspecting guests. It always scares my Mom whenever I tell her I am 'experimenting' on a new recipe when there are guests in-house. But really, for me, trying out a new recipe is like a cook's reward, something that keeps me going. Sure, there have been a few mishaps and last minute runs to Safeway to activate backups, but more than often the new dish has been a great hit and has kept the fun going for me in entertaining! So we had an unplanned visit from a few close friends last night. As luck would have it all I had on hand was pumpkins - two small sugar pie pumpkins which I had picked up on my morning TJ's visit. Together we brain-stormed a lot about what to cook and finally decided to be brave enough to make it a pumpkin night.. afterall isn't Halloween just around the corner! I made the traditional Marathi lal-bhoplyachi bhaji (red pumpkin sabji) with some left-over butternut...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]