Crab Curry
 Crab is one of my most favorite non vegetarian dishes. Growing up in a town close to the Bay of Bengal, we had no shortage of fresh seafood. In fact, my mom used to make crab atleast once in every 2 weeks.Crab can be made into delightful dishes in various forms and recipes. Crab Curry has to rank amongst the top contenders there. And this is another one of my sister’s (Suja) recipe and as usual it turned out to be a mind blowing entree. If you have a love for crab meat, I welcome you to try this recipe and let me know how it turned out. If you made your own modifications to it, also share it with me. After all cooking is part experimentation + part personalization (kai pakkuvam in Tamil). Ingredients: Crab : 2...
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Badam Kheer – Almond Kheer
Badam Kheer/Almond Kheer is a popular drink in India. It is so simple to make but also a rich and creamy dessert. My mom and I love it. I was just thinking about her when I made this today for a get-together. My friends enjoyed it and I hope you all like it. Here you go… Ingredients: Almonds or Badam – 1/3 cup Milk – 4 cups Condensed milk – 1 can (or sugar of required amount) Cardamom – 3 count Saffron – few strands Method of Preparation: Soak almonds overnight or in hot water for 2 hours. Drain the almonds and peel the skin off and grind it to a paste along with some milk. Add milk to a thick bottomed vessel and heat it to boil. Keep on stirring the milk to avoid burning at the bottom. When...
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Potato Fry
This is one of the easiest potato fry recipe. When I got married and started to learn cooking Potato fry was one of the few recipes that I’ve mastered. I’ve learned this recipe from my husband. He used to make this all the time when he was a bachelor as it is something very quick to make as well as tasty. Also it goes as a great side for plenty of dishes like sambhar rice, Porichakuzhambhu rice. Ingredients : Potatoes : 2 (medium) OIl: 1/4 cup Chili powder : 4 tbsp ( According to your spice level) Mustard seeds : 2 tsp Urad dal : 2 tsp Curry leaves : 5 to 6 Salt : required to taste Turmeric powder : 1/4 tsp Method of Preparation : Cut the potatoes in  half and pressure cook them for 2 whistles...
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Okra Fry
Okra/vendakkai fry is most popular side dish in south India. Okra is a love or hate thing for many. Some people love em (me) and some people hate em (hubby). But, if you are looking to convert those who hate it, Okra Fry is probably your best bet. Okra fry would make for a great side dish for a variety of rice dishes. My recipe is a simple and easy version, you can make it spicy and crispy and it will go great with Sambar/Rasam. Ingredients: Okra/Ladies finger : 2 cups (sliced into small discs) to thin circles) Onion : 1 medium Green chilies : 4 Curry Leaves: 6 Salt : required to taste Oil : 3 tbsp Yogurt : 2 tbsp Urad dal : 3 tsp Mustard seeds : 2 tsp Method Of Preparation : Heat oil in...
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Spicy Mutton Chukka
I am sure you have one of these obscure things in the vast array of food that we consume, that just hits the spot with certain dishes. Mutton chukka is one of those dishes for me. Being a southie, it tastes heavenly with rice dishes like Sambar rice, Rasam rice & even Briyani. If you make it a little not-so-dry you can even have it paratha or rotis. Ingredients: Oil : 1/4 cup Mutton : 1/2 kg (cut into small pieces) Onion :Â 2 cups Tomato : 1/2 cup Chili Powder : 2 tbsp Green chilies : 2 to 3 Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp Ginger : 2 tbsp garlic : 3 Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp Fennel seeds : 1/2 tsp Cloves: 3 Bay leaves : 2 Cinnamon : 1/4 “ Curry leaves : 8 to 10 Method...
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Jeera Poli – Sugar Syrup Pancakes
Jeera Poli is delicious South Indian dessert made by dipping layered fried Puris in Sugar syrup. “Jeera” means Sugar Syrup. “Poli” is more like flat bread. We make this on the day of Bohi, the day before Pongal festival. It is very simple and tastes yummy. Ingredients: Maida/All Purpose flour – 1 cup Oil – 1 cup Sugar – 1 cup Cardamom – 4 Yellow Color – 1 pinch Method of Preparation: In a bowl mix maida and 3 to 4 tbsp of oil. Add water litle at a time and knead a soft dough. Keep it aside for 2 hours. Heat oil in a small deep bottomed pan In another pan add sugar and water till sugar gets wet. Do not pour excess water. Sugar should be completely dissolved and when it starts boiling remove it from heat...
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Plantain Masala Fry
Plantains tend to be firmer and lower in sugar content than dessert bananas. Bananas are most often eaten raw, while plantains usually require cooking or other processing, and are used either when green or under-ripe (and therefore starchy) or overripe (and therefore sweet). In south India plantain leaves are used like plates for serving food. In Kerala, a food preparation called “Ada” is made in plantain leaves. – (Wikipedia) This is the first time I’ve made Plantain curry after my marriage. I love plantain my mother use to make lots of dishes using Plantain. After my mother-in-law visited us this summer our food habit changed a lot. Finally we are eating a lot of vegetables now  🙂 . She used to make this fry with her own magical touch. I got the recipe from her and it came out...
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Thiruvadirai Kali – Arudhra Darshan Festival with Kali
Thiruvathirai Kali (Rice Pudding) is South Indian sweet dish made on the festival of Thiruvadirai. Thiruvadhirai or Arudhra Darshan festival on the full moon day of Margazhi(Tamil calender month, between Dec 15- Jan 15) is auspicious to Lord Nataraja, the dancing Shiva. Arudhra is the largest of the stars. It is two-and-a-half crore times bigger than the sun. There will be 10 days of festival in Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu, South India) during this month which involves a grand scheme of traditional observances commencing with the hoisting of the temple flag on the first day, followed by colorful processions of the five deities (Pancha Murthys) on the first eight days on various mounts. The fifth day features Mount Kailasam, while the sixth day features the elephant mount. It is only on the ninth day when Arudhra star and new moon coincide,...
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Happy New Year 2009
Wish you all a very Happy New Year 2009. Hope you all had a blast. We had a great start with a New Year Party along with our Friends. 2008 had been a very good year for both of us and I wish 2009 to bring us all more & more Prosperity and Happiness. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our readers, fellow bloggers and subscribers for making our blog lively and successful. Without your support and love we wouldn’t have been this far and we wish it continuous forever. This year we would like to present more and more delicious and variety of food for our readers with interesting contests. So keep reading our blog and enjoy our food. Once again a Very Happy New Year to...
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Basundi-Creamy Milk Pudding
Basundhi is one of my and my Husband’s favorite sweets. We love  Adayar Anadha Bhavan’s Basundhi to the core. It used to be my favorite place to eat basundhi in Chennai. But luckily, after marriage I came to know that its my husband’s favorite too. But after moving to U.S we really missed it.  My elder sister used to make great basundhi, So I decided to make this at home and surprised my husband. You know what, it actually became  a sooper dooper hit and he loved it very much. A big thanks to my sister for sharing this recipe with me. Ingredients: Milk : 2 litres (I used 2% Milk) Condensed Milk: 1 can Pistachios : 4 tbsp cardamom : 1 1/2tbsp (Preseed) Sugar : 1/2 cup Method Of Preparation: Boil the milk in a thick  wide bottomed...
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Baklawa – The Sweetheart Middle Eastern Dessert
Baklawa is a signature middle-eastern dessert and is a favorite favorie favorite sweet of mine. I used to pester my hubby often to get this from a middle-eastern restaurant in town. It is even our make-up dessert after our little fights. That’s how much I like it. Even though I have tried my hand at baking a little, Baklawa seemed very intimidating to make it in my kitchen. And just the other day, I was talking to an old time school friend of mine, Subash. He is now a chef and when we started talking about food, he mentioned he had a simple to make yet an authentic recipe for Baklawa from a Labanese chef. He was kind enough to share it with me and a huge THANKS to you, Subash. Ingredients: Phillo pastry : 1 pack Sugar :...
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Pasta Con Broccoli
Pasta Con Broccoli is one of my favourite Italian food. I first had it in one of the best Italian restaurant in Edwards ville, Illinois. From then, I desperately wanted to try this at home. From the taste of the pasta, I could guess the ingredients to an extent. It was rich and creamy with cheese, sauce, butter, garlic, mushroom, lots of broccoli in cooked shells and seasoned with pepper. It is simple to make and delicious to have. You will definitely like it. My version of pasta is with less cheese and no cream. So it may not look creamy. But believe me the taste will be really good. Ingredients: Pasta shells – 1lb (I used Rotini) Pasta sauce – 1/4 cup Butter – 2 tbsp Heavy whipping cream – 1 cup (optional) Parmesan cheese – 1/4 cup...
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Tomato Rice – Thakkali Sadham
Time is passing like crazy and I apologize for my absence off late. Tomato Rice has to be one of those simplest of  variety rice dishes yet can be very fulfilling to your taste buds. It’s one of my favorite lunch box meals in my school days. This is the first year we had a little garden patch in our backyard and we got plenty of tomatoes this season. Tomato rice being like my most favorite of variety rice dishes, I made it from our own garden tomatoes. It’s actually very easy to cook too. This is my mom’s special recipe and I can’t believe I am letting the family secret out. Just kidding :-). I love sharing those secrets with you. Ingredients: Tomatoes : 2 (make it into puree) Onion : 1/2 ( Medium) Green chili : 4...
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South Indian Masala Fish Fry
Growing up relatively close to a coastal town in India – Pondicherry, we had plenty of access to fresh seafood. One of the main items in a complete South Indian seafood meal is fish fry. It has to be one of the easiest yet can made be made in different varieties. This particular recipe is from my mother-in-law and is very close to my tongue.. er.. heart. 😉 It goes great with Chicken/Mutton Briyani and Fish Curry. Ingredients: Fish : 4 slices (you can use any fish, but in this recipe I have used Cat fish) Oil : 1/2 cup Onion: 1 (medium) Tomatoes : 2 Ginger : 1″ Garlic : 3 Tamarind : 1/4 cup (Extract From a lemon sized ball of tamarind) Red chili powder : 2 tbsp (according to your spice level) Salt : required to...
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Pineapple Cake
This Pineapple Cake is a wonderful juicy two layered cake, with whipped cream frosting and a few pineapples chunks and maraschino cherries. Yesterday was my First Wedding Anniversary. So I wanted to surprise my hubby with his favorite cake. Both of us love the Pineapple Cake from La Bonne Bouchee, a popular French cake shop here. I thought I can order it from there. But then, it’ll always be special if we bake it for them with right? So I decided to search for a good recipe and I took a few tips from VahvrehVah. I made a two layered heart shaped cake. For that I used two baking trays of 13 by 9 inche. You can do any shape of your choice. First I made the base cake and then cut it into two heart shape layers. You can...
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Vadakari – Lentil Curry
When I was in India Vadakari used to be in our breakfast menu atleast twice in a month. It is one of my favorite sides with idli . But I never got a chance to get the recipe and live demo from my mom. After I got married I came to know it is my hubby’s favorite too. I tried it a few times but it wasn’t even anywhere close to my moms recipe. My mother-in-law is in town and now she made this last month for us and I was like this is it! It was just my moms recipe and the same restaurant style taste that I used to crave for. And now I got the recipe and tried it last week by myself and it came out really good. It is again one of the famous...
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Black Forest Cherry Torte – Black Forest Cake
Cake, when you hear the word, you can imagine all the mouth watering cream and toppings blended with the soft layers of the spongy cake. Black Forest Cherry Torte (torte is the German word for cake) is one of the popular German dessert. It is a chocolate layer cake with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate curls. The cake is further decorated with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate shavings. It is a pure heaven when it melts in your mouth. This is the first cake I have ever baked in my life and I am so happy that the output was good. I made this wonderful cake for my friend Satish’s birthday. Satish is my one of my best friend and luckily we happened to stay in the same city and he stay very close to my house. This was...
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Curried Shrimp Skewers
Our good friends, Romie & Peter had invited us over for dinner. Romie had made several delicious dishes for us. She is an excellent cook and every time we go over to her place, I am looking forward to a new dish she would have made. And this time was no different. She had made multiple mouth watering dishes and I really loved perai (Kerala dish) and Curried Shrimp Skewers. I couldn’t resist to take pictures of them and share it with you all. And I am posting the Curried Shrimp Recipe here on behalf of her. I will be posting the Perai (kerala dish) recipe very soon. The first thing that struck me, probably you too, is the presentation. Doesn’t it look so inviting? Here is an awesome recipe and pictures from Romie’s kitchen. Ingredients: Raw Shrimp :...
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