Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Whole Wheat Rye Maple Challah

2012-05-29T13:42:00.001-05:00

Challah is one of the bread I had wanted to bake for a long time. It is special braided bread eaten during Jewish festivals. I know it is bread rich with lot of eggs and sugar, both of which are considered as enemies in my kitchen. This month’s daring baker’s challenge by Ruth was to make challah. So I decide to make one this time. After studying several recipes that I found on the

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop: 102: 5/29/2012

2012-05-29T12:58:00.000-05:00

Hearty Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am happy to be part of this wonderful blog hop. We are looking forward to a delicious, healthy, recipes as all as health related information which helps to energize our body. We welcome posts that are shared in other events.Recipes should include healthy ingredients and can be old or new recipes or posts.

Taking a Culinary Travel to Gods Own Country: Kerala, South India

2012-05-27T18:14:00.000-05:00

I felt that for this month’s food buzz 24X24 it would be nice to introduce the cuisine from Kerala, my birth place. Unlike other Indian cooking it is not popularized in Indian restaurant abroad. Kerala has its own language, Malayalam, and a cuisine influenced by locally available ingredients such as rice, coconut, plantains, tapioca, jackfruit, mango, Gambooge / kodampuli etc.

Sweet and Spiced Pecans

2012-05-21T23:01:00.003-05:00

I got introduced to Pecans after moving to Texas. Pecans are glory of southern states. The pecan tree is also the State tree of Texas. When I was working at the hospital, I had a friend who made delicious pecan pie and bring it for us. But when I asked him the recipe, he told me it is a family secret, so it shouldn’t be given out. In the end I didn’t get the recipe. Last Christmas

Hearth and Soul blog Hop # 101 5/22/2012

2012-05-21T23:01:00.001-05:00

Jeera Pudhina Chawal: Cumin Mint Rice

2012-05-14T23:03:00.000-05:00

I cook rice everyday so what is big deal that I was the feeling when I cook Basmati rice. I learned the hard way that it is not. You need to be very careful cooking them otherwise; it will be risotto not rice. The Beauty of rice dishes stand out when each grains stands up and shows its presence. I cook parboiled red rice everyday and it is really forgiving, I can put it in the rice cooker

Hearth and Soul blog Hop #100 : 5/15/2012

2012-05-14T22:41:00.000-05:00

Pineapple Lemon Mint Juice

2012-05-13T00:32:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother’s day to all wonderful mother’s of the world. Mother is only relationship in the world which a child knows from the beginning. Dad is only known to the child, when a mother tells him or her about him. All mothers are great, wonderful, and unselfish, and who only knows to love and expect nothing in return, but a simple smile. I loved my mom a lot, but now when I

Apple molasses spice cake

2012-05-07T23:11:00.000-05:00

When I first saw this recipe in real simple I fell in love with it. I usually fall in love with recipes either King Arthur flour blog site or all recipes when they have very high reviews, but usually not any other sites. It is a really simple cake with apple and molasses as star ingredients. At first I thought instead of molasses, I can try with Jaggery (unrefined sugar). However, I

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop: 99 5/8/2012

2012-05-07T19:29:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Dear Princess

2012-05-04T11:19:00.000-05:00

My little princess is growing, she going to blow 3 candles today. One thing that has increased over these years is her sweetness as well as naughtiness. She wants to do everything that we are doing. She imitates even breast feeding of her little brother. She loves to play and also watch other kids playing through the window. She is crazy about water, and she helps her dad with

Semiya upma/ Vermicelli noodles cooked with Vegetables and Spices

2012-04-30T23:01:00.000-05:00

Sometime just like morning time, evening time also is crazy with two kids, one is running around pulling everything and other one crying at his highest volume testing the strength of vocal cords. Hubby comes home tired and gets ready to go to sleep as early as possible. Irony is that we are not able to go to bed until midnight or later. From morning I will be thinking what’s for

Hearth and Soul blog hop 98: 5/1/2012

2012-04-30T22:59:00.000-05:00

Nazook / Armenian pastry and Armenian nutmeg cake with cardamom and Pecans

2012-04-27T10:43:00.000-05:00

I have been out from Daring baker’s challenge for a long time, during pregnancy with my prince; first three month was full of morning sickness and then bleeding scares made my life complicated. Then after that I was even tired to cook, something which is a daily routine for me. Last month I made bread, but Dutch crunch looked like some failed artwork, and taste was not that exciting.

Maddur Vade/ Semolina rice onion fritters from Maddur District

2012-04-23T23:17:00.000-05:00

Maddur Vade is specialty snack available in Maddur district of Karnataka State, India. It is a fritter made of semolina, rice and All-purpose flour with onion, chilies and so on. It is a snack that you can enjoy during a train journey between Bangalore and Mysore. However, I never got a chance to take that route so far, but maybe in future if get chance I am going to take it. In

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop:# 97 4/24/2012

2012-04-23T19:48:00.000-05:00

Dry fruit and nut bars: High energy bars

2012-04-16T23:31:00.001-05:00

In India, there is a special postpartum diet, that contains only healthy ingredients, more calories (like clarified butter) but less spicy. However, when I left the hospital, the lactation consultant told me, watch for lentil, cabbage, cauliflower etc, as they tend to produce gas and little guy also is going to get gas, if I ate gassy food. He is not interested in burping, end up getting

Hearth and Soul Blog hop : 96 : 4/17/2012

2012-04-16T23:29:00.000-05:00

Palpayasam/ Milk Rice Pudding for Vishu

2012-04-13T23:46:00.003-05:00

One more festival of sharing and prosperity has come to visit us, so we will enjoy it with great fun. In Kerala, southern part of India it is celebrated as Vishu a Harvest festival, in neighboring Tamil Nadu it is celebrated as Tamil New Year and in Punjab it is celebrated as Baisakhi and in Assam it is celebrated as Bihu. During Vishu ( April-May, this year April 14th), Laburnums

Sukhiyan/Sugiyan/ Fried mung beans sweet balls

2012-04-09T23:31:00.001-05:00

In rural areas of my home state Kerala, political discussion and gossiping are done with morning newspapers and tea. In some tea shops (small restaurants) even sign will be there “Ivide rashtriyam samsarikan padilla”, meaning no political talks here. Mainly because even friendly talk about politics, could end up in fight over their favorite political leaders. The tea is always

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop: 95 4/10/2012

2012-04-09T23:27:00.001-05:00

Hearty Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am happy to be part of this wonderful blog hop. We are looking forward to a delicious, healthy, recipes as all as health related information which helps to energize our body. Now you can follow Hearth and soul blog hop at Facebook Pinterest and Twitter Please link to any one of the host

Mocha Brownies: Cakey

2012-04-02T23:25:00.001-05:00

I made brownies after a long research. In our house we love chocolate but are not crazy fans. So I wanted to make something which had an extraordinary taste, so that it would be consumed with in few days. Otherwise it will sit here and there and finally getting into garbage can. While growing up amma did not bake anything so there is no brownies nostalgia. I am not a fan of boxed brownie

Hearth and Soul blog hop : 94 4/3/2012

2012-04-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

Hearty Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am happy to be part of this wonderful blog hop. We are looking forward to a delicious, healthy, recipes as all as health related information which helps to energize our body. Now you can follow Hearth and soul blog hop at Facebook Pinterest and Twitter Please link to any one of the host

Undan Pori/Fried sweetened wheat flour balls

2012-03-26T23:14:00.000-05:00

I am back to the blogging world, after the birth of my second baby, my prince Nikhil. It has been a time of happiness and craziness, with very less sleep. Even after two moths, my sleep is not continuous, it is disrupted every 4-5 hours, but better than 1-2 hours. I can't follow the rule that you sleep when your baby is sleeping . I want to sleep, but my older one is wake during that

Hearth and Soul blog hop: 3/27/12

2012-03-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

Hearty Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am happy to be part of this wonderful blog hop. We are looking forward to a delicious, healthy, recipes as all as health related information which helps to energize our body. Now you can follow Hearth and soul blog hop at Facebook Pinterest and Twitter Please link to any one of the host