Cooking&more

This is one dish that really celebrates the culinary diversity between my moms place and my inlaws place. Both my mom and mother in law have their own patented recipe for this dish and both taste equally yum. My moms recipe calls for stuffing the eggplant with a mix of powdered dals and spices, whereas my MIL's recipe uses a stuffing made of fried and pureed onions. Either way it's a perfect dish for the maincourse when guests arrive, and goes great with both rice and rotis. And what is more it's really quick to prepare with a microwave Guttivankaya koora (a la moms recipe) 10-12 medium sized eggplants take care to choose all of similar size for the stuffing 1 cup channa dal 1 cup urad dal 1 tbsp dhania salt to taste 2 tsp chilli powder Dry roast the dals and dhania. Cool and grind to a fine powder mix salt and chilli powder into dal mixture. Adjust for taste. Next make a deep cross on each eggplant to create a hollow for stuffing the mixture. Stuff the mixture in each eggp

Whenever someone mentions roasted eggplant, the first thing that comes to mind is Baingan Bartha. But one of the frst dishes I learnt to prepare at my inlaws, was a dish with roasted eggplant which is extremely simple to prepare and finger licking good. So continuing with my theme of eggplant based dishes here's the recipe. 1 large eggplant 2-3 green chillies 1 medium sized onion 1/8 tsp Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp Chilli Powder Salt to taste For Tempering 1 Tbsp oil 1/4 tsp channa dal 1/4 tsp urad dal 1/4 tsp mustard seeds 1/4 tsp Cumin seeds 1-2 dried red chillies pinch of asefotedia Roast the eggplant on an open fire. (Roasting it on hot charcoals will enhance the flavor of the dish). Place it in cold water, peel, mash and keep aside. In a frying pan, add oil, channa dal and urad dal, once dal starts turning reddish brown, add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds, once mustard seeds start to pop, add the red chillies and asefotedia, then add onions,green chillies, salt and turmeric po

I hated eggplant as a kid. My mom had to do a lot of camaflouging and convincing for me to even think of tasting a dish with eggplant in it. Over the years I have learnt to love this vegetable and have collected and tried out various ways of cooking it. So much do I love eggplant now that one simple post won't be enough for me to raise a song of praise to it. So I'm thinking of making this a serial post My all time favorite dish with eggplant is actually a very humble dish, the simple eggplant rice my father used to make with roasted eggplant. It was the only dish I used to like with eggplant in it as a kid. This simple dish was Daddy's own speciality.  It was his staple diet during his bachelor days. I remember Dad remniscing about his bachelor life as he prepared it. Everytime we had this dish on the table we were treated to anecdotes from his bachelor days Actually this dish is so simple it doesn't need a recipe at all. It's the ultimate proof that simplest thing

Speaking to my brother set me off day dreaming about all the things im going to eat once I get to Mumbai. Here is a list of food I want to eat on the streets. Of course Moms meals come top on my priority, but this list is strictly 'hotel food' as my bro calls it. Rishi this blog is for you :-) Vada pav from the shiv sena stall near my place vada pav from jumbo vadapav Ragda pattice from Guptajis outside Andheri Station Veg MacBurger from McDonalds (its a pity but there are no real veg macs here in US, the land of McDonalds) Pav Bhaji from shivsagar Pizza from Joeys or pizza hut Shezeuan noodles from any udipi restuarant Frankie from the Frankie stall in Lokhandvala Chole bhature and Arbi tuk at Kailash Parbat Gujarati Thali at samrat Some of my best and warmest memories are from eating out with my family at these places. Can't wait to get to mumbai and take DH on a personal culinary tour of my favourite places

 Grey skies, rain pouring down in sheets, chilly winds, Pakodas fresh off the stove, and piping hot adhrak chai, not to mention the holidays at school. Bliss it was to be in Mumbai on a rainy day. especially as it meant putting my feet up and relaxing with a good Enid blyton, while mummy dished out yummy stuff to eat. Those were the days!!! Here in Bellevue, rainy days mean, poor me slaving over the hearth in order to dish up yummy stuff ( Now I'm the mommy you see!), and DH and me taking turns entertaining our highly energetic 21 month old, while the other gulps down  the contents of the plate before it's knocked off our hands. In mumbai, the contender for the perfect food on a rainy day is a close race between pakodas, vada pav and kanda poha. So after making pakodas for the nth time ,or, atleast every rainy  Saturday uptil now. This weekend I decided to make kanda poha, the way it was taught by my friend Deepa's mom. Thank you aunty for the wonderful recipe  Makes appx 2

It was a week since my wedding, My husband had asked me to prepare dinner for the family. It would be the first time I was cooking for my new family. Eager to impress, I racked my brain for a dish that would be special but at the same time something that I had some experience in making. "Okay, I'll make gobhi paratha" I decided. I had made it once or twice before under the supervison of my elder sister and had a pretty good idea of how it was made.... And now starts the very worst adventure  of my journey through the culinary world I gathered flour, cauliflower, chillies, Ginger, salt oil....chopped the veggies, salted them, set them aside and mixed the dough. Rolled it out and tried to stuff the veg mixture in the rolled out dough. The mixture just kept seeping out and the dough kept falling apart. I kept adding flour but the whole thing kept getting very soggy. I kept on adding flour in desperate hope of salvaging the wreck. A small sandpit of flour was forming around m