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?

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.

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.

Purple Grape Jam with White Bread Loaf

I had been eyeing this jam for a couple of months now and i had been sceptical of baking bread for even longer. Then i saw my friend bake bagels from scratch and knew it was time for me to draw some inspiration. I had been telling her that i would bake a bread from her blog because she was doing it all too easily and all too frequently.  I may have been postponing it because nobody was asking me to do these. If i did make both bread and jam from scratch, it would be solely for me. The husband won't touch bread especially when it has jam in it (will eat Subway breads only!). And is not much of a breakfast person either. I decided i should do it for my own satisfaction. Boy was i happy. I finished making jam at 5 in the evening, then made these for the husband to snack on and finally pushed my bread into the oven. Fresh bread came out at 8 pm. And i didn't have the patience to wait till breakfast to try these out. So my dinner came in the form of purple jam lathered over freshly baked and sliced bread. I have no complaints. Making something from scratch going slightly out of your comfort zone gives tremendous satisfaction. And for me, i have not done anything so elaborate just myself after getting married. Usually when the husband is out and i have to cook only for myself, i have only ever made Maggi noodles or eaten left over rice from the morning or convinced him to bring me takeaway. So to go out to such lengths to prepare something only for myself wasn't bad at all. I should try it again sometime.

Eggless Fresh Mint Ice Cream (Philadelphia style)

When looking up recipes for mint ice cream i gained enlightenment (or just information?) about naming of ice creams. And like i said before, when i learn something new i am compelled to tell you about it. Now if you 've tried making ice cream at home from scratch, you know that you can either make them with or without eggs. Ice creams made with eggs are cooked into a custard base and are supposedly richer and creamier than their egg less counterparts. Now did you know that the richer style of ice cream with eggs is called French style ice cream and the egg less version is called American or Philadelphia style ice cream? There, that's my revelation for today that i 've been bursting to tell you. When i write it down, it doesn't sound that great. I guess my surprise was that Americans are credited for creating a low fat ice cream and the French for the high fat ones but people of the two counties don't seem to bear testimony for that. Or maybe the quantity of ice cream consumed makes all the difference. Or my sample size is too small. I will leave it to you to decide.

Multi colour pasta in alfredo sauce

I stopped making pizza at home for almost a month now. Not because i was bored, but because the man in the house thought i was making pizza too healthy and the flavour was supposedly turning Indian instead of Italian. (In his defence, for my latest attempt i had replaced half the all purpose flour for the pizza base with whole wheat flour and added an extra teaspoon of ragi flour. I loved the crust that day.) Now shouldn't he have been thanking me for taking care of his cholesterol. Instead he said "Look, why don't we just eat out whenever we feel the craving for pizza". Needless to say i was shocked and mad. Because, he is the health nut in our relationship, but turns out he wants his pizza in the most unhealthy way. Most friends i have talked to preferred pizza making at home so they could control the amount of cheese they put into it. My man prefers (or used to prefer) home-made pizza for the exact same reason, only he wants more cheese than a double cheese pizza at Pizza Hut. What do i do? Simply switch to my other Italian favourite - Pasta.

Mashed plantain fry (aratikaya fry)

I remember even when i was very little that i have been interested in new foods. Not as much the cooking as the eating part. And it helped that mom was a fantastic cook willing to experiment. She even had a recipe book where she had jotted down recipes that caught her fancy and there were all sorts of things from curries to snacks to desserts including jams, jellies and sauces. It used to be a good time-pass to go through that book and dream about all sorts of foods. I distinctly remember one such Sunday afternoon when i was twelve or thirteen. I was browsing through the recipes and found one recipe for 'potato latkes' that sounded easy enough to me and volunteered to cook it for the rest of my family. I did make those cutlet type snacks that evening but had undercooked the potatoes. The outside was turning from dark brown to almost sooty black but the potatoes refused to become soft. I was so disappointed. I don't think i ever offered to make a new dish again until many many years later.

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?

Button Mushroom Fry (Dry Curry)

A few years ago i used to take up a pen and paper only when i was unhappy, writing was almost therapeutic. But these days, i don't touch the blog when i am not in a good mood. I don't do philosophical musings anymore because i am not sure how people will react. We go online to spread happiness and good cheer, to share in the joy and not to hear other people's troubles. And so when i lack inspiration to write cheerfully, i have been giving up trying to write entirely. Today i decided it was high time you see something else on my homepage than week old wishes for a festival that has long been celebrated and even the festive cooking leftovers have long disappeared from the fridge. So i come back to you with something i have cooked last year, i mean last month, i mean it was just a couple of weeks ago. I chose this dish to share today because i loved the photography while cooking this as much as i loved the end result in food.

Cauliflower Tomato Rice

Its been so hot in Hyderabad the last few days with the day temperatures hovering around 33 degrees centigrade. Hyderabadi winter was supposed to cool, cold even and if not until February, at least until the middle of January. Sure, its ideal weather for my home made ice cream to be gobbled up, but please believe me i was not praying for hot weather just to enjoy my ice cream. And now because i am wondering if the weather Gods are changing the temperatures to suit my cooking, I am going for a spicy hot Cauliflower rice.

I love rice. A good fried once remarked that it was my favourite not just among food items, but my most favourite thing in the world. So much did i love it, that he was considering gifting me a big bag of rice as a birthday gift. No, i ended up with a cake that year, but it wasn't out of consideration if you must know. 

Homemade Eggless Strawberry Ice cream (No Cooking)

My love for sweets not withstanding, i didn't think i could get addicted to ice cream. Not until i made one at home with fresh strawberries in the peak of their season. And i discovered whole new limits to the quantity of ice cream that can be consumed in one sitting. My limits at least. At recent trips to the farmer's market i could see street side vendors selling packs of strawberries at rates much less than in super markets. And when i found that the cost of a pack was coming down with every visit over the last two months, i found myself buying increasing quantities of these red beauties. I ate some as dessert, just the fruits, but wasn't satisfied. And froze some because the rate at which fresh strawberries were coming into the house was more than the rate at which they were being consumed.  (By the way they freeze extremely well, i take a peek at the ones in the freezer once in a while and they look temptingly fresh). So as the year was coming to a close, i decided i was going to welcome the new year with a big bowl of ice cream, an irresistible one.

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?

Coconut milk pudding with vermicelli (Kobbari palu payasam)

An incredible thing happened last week. My mother-in-law had an evening snack. Now before you start wondering if i might be a little crazy, you need to listen to me some more. She never has an evening snack. In her own words "even if you give me gold, i will not eat anything between lunch and dinner". And this rule she has been diligently following for as many years as she can remember, probably more than a decade. When i give her samples of my cakes, cookies or other speciality foods i make, she will eat them as part of her main meal, lunch or dinner, reducing the rice portion. She usually has one cup of tea in the afternoon (substituted by milk earlier this year because the doctor advised her to eat more when recovering from a serious illness). Even at that stage she staunchly refused to eat anything between lunch and dinner. Then last week, coconut milk pudding happened. Every time i cook something new, i get my feedback from her. And I couldn't stop smiling when she told me how she broke her rule of no evening snacks, how the aroma lured her to taste one spoon, how she came back for a second spoon within minutes because she was now distracted with how good it tasted, how she finally relented and served herself a cupful, and how my father-in-law followed suit. It was incredible, people!

Simple Tomato Chutney

If you are regular reader, you might think that i have talked enough about my love for chutneys, but then you probably still don't know me too well. As i recently found out what the husband discovered about me - that i tell a story with such gushing enthusiasm, then get a little disappointed when i notice that i am not getting the expected reaction, it usually turns out i have told him that same story at least twice already. Either my brain's getting old before i even turn thirty, or i have a childlike enthusiasm,despite advancing years, where i can talk without worrying about my audience's reactions. You decide if that's good or bad. I mean for me. Of course its not the best of things to happen to an interested audience, so i shall try to keep my memory good. Otherwise you will remind me, no?

Amla Murabba - Gooseberries in sugar syrup

I have always been one to identify my situation with songs, one who loved to express her current state of mind with a song; singing aloud when i was by myself because the poetry of the songs sounded so apt and beautiful, even if not originally mine. And when i had company, understanding friends would put up with my bad singing, i could never sing a song in its original tune. And as much as i profess to like songs, i can't really appreciate music. Its the lyrics that get me. When i was first introduced to old Hindi movie songs by my Rajasthani friend (who had a great voice and sang beautifully) i couldn't have enough of them. I would make her sing for me and ask the meaning of difficult words and I so loved the lyrics of those songs, that i can now sing along a lot of those old songs. And all this ranting is because i happened to listen to one such song a little while ago - main zindagi ka sath nibhata chala gaya. I was just starting a new blog post and wondering what to write about, paused to check my email when i found a friend sent me a link to this song on the Internet.

Cauliflower Pickle - Andhra Style

I was sipping delicious sweet water with a straw from a fresh tender coconut a little while ago while staring into the sunset from a window at my home. And the idea of a tropical beach holiday described in some book or television or somewhere on the Internet flashed into my head. This was the not first time i had coconut water straight from a tender green coconut, nor was this the first time i admired a sunset at home (having even tried to capture it with my camera several times, precariously balancing the camera outside the third floor window), but it was the first time it struck me as something romantic. That a lot of things in everyday life seem interesting only when they are described in beautiful words by a stranger. That our perspective of everyday events can determine our happiness, not the events themselves. And i am surprisingly happy today, maybe just happy to be surprised at what my mind can throw at me to ponder.

Hello everybody and seasons greetings to you all.

Beerakaya Senagapappu Kura/ Ridgegourd Curry with Bengal Gram

Anybody like ridge gourd? I mean like, love ridge gourd. Jump and squeal when you hear that's the curry for the day. OK, maybe not jump and squeal but really love it. I for one had never been in that category. For as long as i can remember when mom was cooking our meals, i wouldn't turn to look under the plate that was was covering ridge gourd curry. I knew it was easy to cook, i knew it had great many nutrients and was light on the stomach (making it a perfect curry for convalescents). Those were just not enough reason for me to eat this green vegetable. I mean when made into a curry. Of course i would devour the chutney made with ridge gourd. That's because i am very partial to chutneys, but you already know that. So what convinced me to eat ridge gourd in curry form finally. Well, i have not one but two reasons. 

Home-made Rasgulla/ Roshogolla

I told you about my huge sweet tooth in my last recipe post. But i wasn't always this fond of sweets, and definitely not when i was a kid, so i pondered about it some more. I think my love for all things sweet came from my stay in the eastern state of West Bengal for four years, two years for study and two years in my first job. Until my stay in Kharagpur, i was this good, traditional South Indian girl who always finished her meal with rice mixed in plain yogurt, with maybe a pickle or chutney on the side. And in Kharagpur i discovered mishti doi (yogurt prepared in an earthen pot with melted sugar mixed into the milk) and i was converted. So much that during my first semester holidays back home, i refused to eat plain yogurt with rice anymore and insisted on adding sugar to it in a small cup to enjoy as a dessert. Till date that is how i enjoy eating yogurt, with some sugar or honey sprinkled on top. And only because i don't have a Bengali sweet shop around the corner to sell me some mishti doi.

Honey Baked Figs with Cinnamon and Almonds

I didn't realise how big a sweet tooth i have until quite recently, i guess until i started blogging and started talking to you so much. Truth is i do have a huge sweet tooth. While I love my chocolate desserts very much, i am not picky at all. I don't think i would ever refuse any kind of sweet you want to offer me. Unless i am on a self imposed sweets ban that is, like i was for two months in 2008 when i found out i had gained too many kilos in too few preceding months. (so many in fact that unsuspecting colleagues with whom i only made polite conversation were telling me i look fat!) And as far as i recall, it was a while ago, that restriction was only that i should not buy any more sweets for myself. Which means i gladly ate a piece of cake at work, one that was brought to celebrate my boss' 50th birthday - it would have been rude not to, right? After all the man rarely spoke in office and had just confessed that he had spent more than half his life in that same company. One had to raise a toast (i mean eat cake) to this man's commitment i say, whether you were on a self-imposed sweets ban or not.