Sweet Lime Yogurt Cake

I have a toddler whose favourite phrase is "i don't want food", translated into the vernacular, of course. His entire diet consists of milk and three different semi-solid foods which he eats day in and day out, with no change in the menu. When people wonder why the mom who dabbles in a food blog cannot get her kid to try a sliver of anything new, without said toddler throwing up his entire last meal; the irony is not lost on me either. As realization keeps creeping in on how unnatural it is for my 2 and 1/2 year old to have never eaten cake, or chocolate, or ice cream (or almost every other food that toddlers take for granted) in his whole life, my enthusiasm for new foods keeps ebbing away. 
But then, in life, new doors open from unexpected quarters. My sister's son turned a year old last week, and thankfully, he was a normal kid not averse to trying out new foods. It was the perfect opportunity to wake up the hibernating baker inside me. So i plunged into the opportunity with much abandon. It felt great to get back into action and accomplish a little something. And the best evidence of the cake's success came when it was polished off by the little one's parents and grandparents within minutes after the birthday boy had his first taste. Delighted me!

Baked Samosas - a party snack

While i am idly browsing through food blogs, songs from the movie 'Baazigar' reach my ear from far. Suddenly i feel nostalgic for a Shahrukh movie. I feel an urge to write, sudden inspiration from an unexpected source. I used to be a big fan, used to enjoy the silliness; i have become indifferent. I can't claim to be a fan anymore when the last movie i watched on the big screen was some five years ago and that too in a movie theater in London. There it seemed important that 'Billu' be given his due. Back in India i don't care; I can't make time. I should go watch his next release, just for old times sake. Anybody wanna go watch with me? And sponsor the popcorn ? Or some samosa?

My first party with homemade snacks

We don't get many visitors at my home. When they do come, they don't stay long. When they do stay its usually unplanned and with no time to cook a meal at home. We'd suddenly realise it was dinner time and order some biryanis. And this was never for more than four people. You can now safely assume that i don't have much experience in entertaining people at my home. You can also probably imagine how tensed i was when i had to host a pre-planned snacks party for eight and it was expected that whatever was served would be made by me.

Garlic dough balls

Turns out i am a very sensitive person. I will ask you to give me your honest opinion about something and if you honestly agree with my point of view, all is well. If instead you were to tell me you don't like what i did, i can get cross with you and pretty upset too. This state of being may not last for a long time, but that is the first state i get into. Of course i know better than to let you know i was upset. Because you see, after everything's said and done, i still want only your honest opinion. If you found out i got upset, and you really have a regard for my feelings, i can never trust your honesty again the next time you agree with me. The lesson to be drawn from this is that sensitive people have no business asking for honesty. And if honesty is really your thing, you have no right being sensitive. Unless you are me and you are stuck with both, you just gotta learn to live with one honest opinion at a time.

Mom's favourite Banana Oats Wholewheat Bread

Let me come straight out and say it. My mom is a health nut. I know i am supposed to value half my audience when there are only 2 people reading this whole thing, but hey its true. And she doesn't look like she is going to get cured of it anytime soon. I mean i 've been waiting for what thirty odd years now. I 've learnt to pick my battles when discussing what food is good for you. That is, not pick any when the person on the other end is mom. It's then easier to change sides and quickly jump over to the winning side.

So while my bakes have been commended by one and all, mom has, at best, been quiet about them or gently chided me on why these sugar laden goods with white flour are not really the best for me or anybody. Consequently, when picking a recipe to bake for mom, i hesitantly picked one that i thought had a fighting chance. Little did i know that it was going to be a huge triumph. That this simple bread would be raved about and second helpings would be asked for. And i would finally get unequivocal praise on my bakes from highly health-conscious mom. Of course, she did suggest that i could have done completely without the sugar in this recipe. So there :-)

Homemade Fried Chicken inspired by KFC

I never really wrote for myself. Though i loved writing prose from as long as i can remember. Writing a good piece made me happy, but it was never enough. I needed the high from someone else telling me how good it was. And so i never wrote without an audience in mind. Now i sit in front of the computer to update my blog and find that i have lost my audience. (understandably of course, because who waits a year and more to find out what you are up to and what eats interest you) And i realize it really is time for me to write for myself. To get lost in my words, so that they may make me happier than what i am. To find paths through my mind that will excite me, as i walk the same old roads everyday in the physical world. To accept that it's alright to not always have to be proclaimed as the best, just to be the best within your unchangeable circumstances without giving in to despair. I need to put these into written words to believe them, to read again when that despair starts to creep up.

Fresh Pineapple Upside Down Cake

It's not that all i do is bake cakes. Its just that baking cakes gets me excited enough to come here and leave a record of it. And so a couple of months after my last post i come back here to talk about another new cake i baked and how good it turned out. This was my first attempt at baking the much famed pineapple upside down cake, my first attempt at making caramel and i had absolutely no expectations about this whole attempt resulting in an actual cake. I had lots of hopes of course, but no real expectations. I was prepared for a gooey mess that would fall apart when taken out of the cake mould and was then delighted with the perfect colour and shape of the entity that proudly stood in front of me at the end of 45 minutes in the oven.

Healthy Carrot Cake for a birthday

I have been MIA (been so eager to use that word) and will stop trying to justify my absence. You are used to my apologies by now, aren't you? Its just that i have been lazy and uninspired. You know, that realisation that i am adding nothing to this blog by talking about what i eat. Then again i read recently in another blog's comments that the purpose of a blog is to write and not about others reading it, that's what inspired me to finally make a comeback and put my thoughts out here.

What i would like to remind myself today is that i have started out on this mission of trying out new foods and documenting the results here a year ago and it has been a fulfilling experience, especially when not much else was happening in life. Not only have i cooked up new foods that i would otherwise not have, but i would like to think that i brought happiness to people along the way with my baking experiments. So in keeping with the tradition, i baked a healthy carrot cake for my mother-in-law's birthday last week.

Easy Home-made Frech Fries

I have been cooking so much lately, i have had no time to talk about it. And these french fries have been featuring prominently as evening snacks most days of the week, ever since i discovered them about two months ago. I saw them featured on The Pioneer Woman and they looked delicious. Not its easy to say no to fried potato whether they are really in front of you or just virtually in pics. But then i am also one for shortcuts. I usually don't have the patience for pre-planning. So while the source recipe tells you to soak the potato cut into fries for at least an hour and then fry them twice once in hot oil and next in very hot oil, that sounded too long winded and cumbersome to me. And it asked for a thermometer to measure the temperature of oil. There i gave up. But i didn't give up entirely.

Eggless Potato Chip Cookies

Last week i crashed my computer and then proceeded to do the same to my husband's laptop, all because i was searching for a curry recipe to make lunch that afternoon. One minute i was looking at curries using spinach as gravy and the next minute there were dozens of small boxes filling up the screen asking me to say OK to whatever they were doing. I promptly shut my computer down, wishing that whatever was wrong would go away when i restart. (Isn't that how computers are supposed to work?) I then borrowed the husband's work laptop and continued my search there. A small part of my brain was telling me that one particular blog might have been the culprit, still i shushed the little talk in my head and opened the same virus spitting blog. Immediately little yellow boxes were invading the screen. When i sensed what i had done, i promptly handed over the laptop to my husband and told him to fix it. And when he finished reinstalling everything on his computer, i slowly persuaded him to do the same to mine and to save all my food pictures. He was kind enough to do the re-installing on my computer too. But now that i know he can fix it, i don't have to listen to the little warnings from my brain while browsing anymore, do i?

Red and Green Peppers Pizza

For the first time since i started blogging, i got inspired to cook for a blogging event. The event is "Lets cook for Christmas - Red and Green". I didn't even read the blog rules that apply for participation, i simply wanted to cook something using red and green ingredients and with a finished product that looks red and green. I was so very happy when the pizza came out of the oven the day after Christmas, and not just because during the previous week i had baked my first inedible pizza (I really don't want to talk about that disaster. It happened because i decided i didn't have to knead the dough, at all! Yeah, after baking about two dozen pizzas, i baked one that went straight to the trash can). This one though was miles ahead of the last one, the thin crust with whole wheat flour included was not only healthier, it was delicious too. And staying with sauteed bell peppers, without overloading with all sorts of toppings, brought out those delicate sweet flavours absolutely perfectly. When the soft mozzarella was bubbling away without burning during the last two minutes of baking, the house smelled amazing too. One of the best pizzas i have eaten in a long time.

Bottle gourd kofta curry (Sorakaya Kofta kura)

Maybe I am getting lazier, or maybe i am taking mom for granted, or both. Why else, as one who stays at home all day, everyday, would i ask mom to type in the recipe and send it to me by email, when i was right next to her when she made this for me on my last trip there. I have surely become lazier. And taking advantage of the fact that moms are always trying to be there for their daughters, even when the said daughter has quit her job after a mere five years in the corporate world. And  then when the said mom is having a one week leave from her day job (one that she has kept at for almost thirty years), she is asked to kindly type in the recipe because her daughter is too lazy. OK, i hope you get the point that i am very guilty right now. But can i be forgiven, please? I am not saying i deserve it, I am simply asking you to be magnanimous. Its the season for that too, right? Pretty please?

Wholewheat Oats Raisin Cookies

I can't say which i love better, baking cakes or baking cookies. Cookies are easier to bake, more difficult to get wrong and store for longer. So they are great for gifting. Cakes need a little more attention to pull them off correctly and so would have taken second place, except that i now have the cutest cake mould and i want to try out more varieties of cakes. This battle within me continues, while the winner may ultimately announce itself on the blog based on the number of blog posts dedicated to cookies and cakes. Today makes them even.

Varalakshmi Vratam - Ulli Garelu/ Vada

In continuation with my previous post, this one is to share with you my recipe for vada. These are called garelu, minapa garelu or ulli garelu in Andhra Pradesh. It is a mandatory offering to the Goddess Lakshmi for Varalakshmi vratam and after the worship (puja) is over it is also offered to another married woman assumed to be the Goddess.

Other than as an offering to Gods, it is also kind of a royal breakfast item. If you visit an Andhra household and you are served Garelu for breakfast, it means that you are being treated as King or even God. When the bride-groom first (and every subsequent time) visits his in-laws' house, he will be served Garelu along with lots of other foods of course. Garelu are a favourite in my family, both before and after marriage and i seemed to be the exception. It was only after i started making them myself that i started to appreciate the taste, texture and richness of this fritter type snack. Now i look forward to making them, for more opportunities to serve to my husband and in-laws, and to eat them too :)

Varalakshmi Vratam - Semiya Payasam, Pulagam

Varalakshmi vratam is considered an auspicious day for married Hindu women. It is observed on the second Friday in the month of Sravan of the Hindu calendar and Goddess Lakshmi (the Goddess of wealth and prosperity) is worshipped on this day. The details on how this festival is celebrated is written very well here, so i won't re-write the whole thing again. I would only like to share with you how i have celebrated it in my home with my mother-in-law, what we cooked and recipes for some of those. It is considered auspicious to offer the Goddess five varieties of cooked delicacies and five varieties of fruits. We made Purnalu (Boorelu), Payasam, Garelu (Vada), Pulihora (Lemon Rice) and Pulagam. And the fruits were bananas, apples, grapes, pomegranates and sweet lime.

My mother-in-law made Purnalu as i am yet to learn the process for it and i cooked the remaining four items. The recipe for lemon rice, i have already posted here. Only this time, there were lots of cashews in it. In this post i will tell you how i made payasam and pulagam. And you need to wait till my next post for the recipe for Garelu.

Mushroom Manchurian - Wet and Dry - step by step

On the last day of our recent holiday, an hour before boarding the train, we went to a nearby restaurant to have some snacks and to get dinner packed for the overnight journey. Having had our fill of dosas and puris over the previous three days, we ordered a plate of Mushroom Manchurian which was listed under 'Chinese snacks'. Indianised version of Chinese food is huge in almost all parts of India. From small mobile street stalls to fancy restaurants, there are many who serve "Chinese" food in India. But if you have ever been to China, you would know that it is something completely different. No is the answer, if you are asking me if i have ever been to China. But i talked to a good friend who did go, who was there for a few months for an IT project. And heard him complain about how there was nothing to eat in China. He never expected a problem when going there because he was eating "Chinese" in Kolkata (or you may know it as Calcutta) all the time. Eventually, he did adapt quite well and bragged about being able to eat peanuts with chopsticks. Apparently that's not the easiest thing to do.

Tandoori spiced chicken legs

My go-to chocolate cake is in the oven as i begin to write this. I needed to do some baking so i could coax myself back to cooking. Back from the short holiday, i have become a reluctant cook. Suddenly i want to be served hot food without having to cook it. Not that i had to start cooking as soon as we came back. I wasn't even asked to cook the day we returned. We went out for lunch and the husband generously bought me my favourite biryani even though it wasn't his favourite. Or maybe it was (t)his pampering that turned me into the reluctant cook. To see how much more pampering i could get away with! Didn't have to wait long to find out. I had to cook lunch yesterday and today but we have plans for Sunday. (We finally booked our tickets to watch the Harry Potter finale in 3D on the largest screen in Hyderabad. I can't wait!) So to get me through the rest of today and tomorrow, i am baking. Somehow baking has always felt like fun. Unlike cooking that can sometimes be a chore, especially when cooking the same curries for lunch repeatedly week after week. And it is not the repetition that i am complaining about, because i can bake the same chocolate cake every week and not get tired of it. Any thoughts on why that is?

I was digressing. Anyway, about the whole reluctant cook thing, last night the husband surprisingly understood my predicament and said he would cook the tandoori chicken legs by himself for dinner, the chef didn't even want a helper. And i think for the first time in two years, i accepted the leave granted and sat in the living room watching the new season of Masterchef Australia.

Since i didn't go into the kitchen, i don't have clicks of the husband's masterpiece from last night, though he repeatedly told me what delicious juicy chicken he had prepared. The pictures you see here are from a few weeks ago. And i was so hungry at that time, i could not bring myself to get an extra clean plate for the final pic. Excuse the laziness, please.

Simple Upma with Semolina/ Rava

We have been away on a short trip early this week. To visit the Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala, Tirupati. The richest God in India for many decades until quite recently when the secret treasure of Lord Padmanabhaswamy was unearthed. The train trip to another city meant no cooking for three whole days and eating lots of the South Indian breakfast items not just for breakfast but for lunch and dinner too. I love south Indian breakfast items. As much as i love rice, i can go without it for days if you feed me poori, dosa, upma, idly and variations of them and not necessarily in that order. You would think three days of eating them would be enough for anybody. Oh no, not me. It left me longing for more. So much that i woke up this morning with a craving for a hot breakfast. And served in bed, preferably. OK, who am i kidding. That's not going to happen anytime soon.

Crispy Fried Prawns

I usually try to record the happy and funny things that happen to me in this blog, and sometimes think for ages wondering what will make interesting reading, am i boring my occasional readers? And especially the odd reader who comes back. And in this quest, i read a lot of blogs. So many that my husband is amused at my addiction. And sometimes not so amused when i forget to cook lunch or dinner losing myself in a really interesting read. Two days ago, i somehow found my way into this non-food blog that wasn't telling you the happy things. It was about talking truths that people usually would not talk about, mostly because it is not considered polite conversation. I loved her writing so much, i ignored all else, my own blog included, and spent a whole 72 hours going through her archive and old blogs. I am glad there is a person like that who shares her experiences to the world, making it easier for people like me who will never open up as much.

Fluffy Puri/ Poori/ Indian puffed fried flatbread

Would you believe me if i told you that i have not cooked puris even once in almost two years of married life, until last night? And its not even that i am not fond of them. My mom loves to recount how i would sit next to her in the kitchen when she was making puris and ask to be served fluffy puffed puris straight from the frying fan. It was a favourite breakfast item growing up. And yet i was afraid to make them in my own kitchen for the fear of not getting  them right. 

Last night, i found out all my fears were for nothing.I did make wonderfully puffed up puris and the process was not at all difficult. It is here that i should admit i read through a lot of food blogs in the last six months and read puri tips and tricks at different places, of course some contradicting each other as is bound to happen when there are so many people talking about it. So i will tell you the tips i have followed, also having talked to my mom and mother-in-law before making these. Oh, and it would be remiss if i didn't mention here that my mother-in-law makes the most wonderful puris i have ever eaten, every single one of them always puff up, they are all evenly golden brown and taste delicious. Every single time!

La's Tips

• Mix the dough and allow to rest for 30 minutes to one hour. This will make the dough softer and allow for softer puris. This process will NOT cause the puris to soak more oil.