Tiffin Sambar

 This can be easily one of the best tiffin sambar recipes I’ve tasted. I get so happy when I find these kind of gems(aka recipes) online(link given below). Savor this with some steaming hot idlis in this cold weather. 

Enjoy! 

Street style Veg Fried Rice

 Just like pulav, I am struggling to get that THE flavor of fried rice that’s available in Indo Chinese restaurants. Every time I see a recipe with slightest difference than what I’ve tried before, I try again. 

So did this particular recipe pass my taste test? It kinda did, but not 100%. But to be fair, this is supposed to be street style fried rice(which I’ve never tasted), not restaurant style, and also I didn’t stick to the recipe 100%. This recipe is very close to what I want to achieve. This gives me a good base to work upon. 

This recipe is from a Chef Ranveer Brar(link given below).

Do try! 

 

 

Gobi Manchuri

 This recipe is from one of the first blogs I stumbled upon, many many many years back.  

I’ll be honest, ordering this from a restaurant is much, much, much easier than making it at home. Frying gobi takes FOREVER!! If not for this step, everything else is manageable. I wanted to invest in an air fryer just for this purpose alone. Never got to it though. Anyways, here’s the recipe. 

Savor this tasty dish in this cold weather. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Vangibath - 2 (from scratch)

 Here is one more recipe for vangibath by making vangibath powder from scratch. This recipe(link given below) uses stone flower, which gives a very distinctive taste to the vangibath. I have tweaked(guessed) the quantity for one time serving and given it below. Do try.. 

Easy Rave paayasa/ Easy Semolina Kheer

 Stuck on what to do for DeepavaLi? Try this easy peasy payasa(kheer) recipe. My mom always made this along with puLiyogare or Lemon rice, and my brother and I just loved this combination. 

The only catch in this recipe is the amount of rave(semolina) to be used, as rave tends to thicken no matter how much water you put. The trick is to use as little rave and as much as liquid as possible. 

Another beauty of this recipe is that you can adjust the recipe as you go along without too much of a hassle. For the same reason, I don’t have exact measurements of ingredients as I tend to adjust along the way. So I’ll just give here a rough estimation and you can build upon it according to your taste. 

Do try! 

Happy DeepavaLi!! 

Drakshi Godambi is getting sucked in like in quick sand :)

Avalakki Oggarane - Poha - (No onion)

 Generally in Avalakki oggarane one cannot skip onions. Onions is one of the main taste giving ingredients to the dish. But this particular recipe is made without onions, without impacting the taste much. The chef uses a paste of green chilies and coconut, instead of adding them separately, and roasts it nicely, which gives this dish a unique flavor. 

Avalakki can be made this way for festivals, also for no rice diets. 

Enjoy! 

Happy Dussehra! 

Kaayi SukrunDe

Kaayi Sukrunde is one of my all time favorite sweets. It is basically made for thithi/shraaddha in our community. It is coincidental that I am putting this in pitru paksha. VaDe, Paayasa and Sukrunde is standard in every shraadha. Hence my mom never made it at home as regular sweet. Recently got to know that people make it as devi prasada too. I have to check if this is the case in our community too. 

Anyways, this particular recipe I found online(link given below) was spot on. My mom also gave me certain tips, which I will update later, or probably make a different post. Sukrundes stayed crunchy even after few hours. 

Gojjavalakki mix

 Happy Janmashtami!! 

Here’s an instant gojjavalakki mix I fell in love with. This gets ready in less than 20 mins. And with the mix ready, all you need to do is add in hot water. This mix comes in real handy while traveling, or for lunch box in busy mornings, or for just quick breakfast/lunch or dinner. 

This is one of my favorite breakfast items. Do try! 

   

Set Dose - 2

Found this another gem of a recipe online. I already had one recipe for set dose, which turns out good as it is[Recipe can be found here]. 

But this new recipe I came across(link given below), looked equally good, but used different ingredients which gave me an incentive to try.. 

It turned out extremely good. And with lots of extra ghee/oil it tastes hotel-like. 

This is my current goto recipe for set dose. 

Do try! 

Mango Pudding

 The one thing I miss about Indian summers is the king of all fruits, the one and only, Mangoes. I preferred eating them directly, biting into the skin and sucking its juice and all. Cut mango doesn’t give the same experience.  

But now as I am aging and probably getting more and more used to the easy lifestyle, I no longer want to deal with the mess of eating them like that. Even for desserts I prefer using canned pulp more than the fresh ones, just for convenience sake… Or sometimes buy cut fruits over whole fruits. I think in the process of building a comfortable life, I am becoming more and more lazy *sigh*..  

Anyways, found this extremely easy Vegan Mango dessert recipe in one of the FB groups I follow. If you use all readymade ingredients like me, then this recipe is as simple as putting all ingredients together and serving. But the consistency will be more "payasa" like than pudding :) 

You can prepare this well in advance, making this perfect for potlucks and parties. Enjoy!!

Veg Chow Mein

 Summer holidays is going on in full swing and my teen seems always hungry for something special(read: junk food). 

Veg Chow mein, I would say is a good mix of healthy and kid friendly. In the sense, you can add as many vegetables as you want and kids don’t seem to mind because it’s noodles. This recipe I got from a YouTube video(link given below). 

I generally substitute noodles with spaghetti. 

Enjoy!

Cabbage Dose

 Try this very yummy, and popular dose from coastal Karnataka region. This is basically heerekai chatti hittu, with finely chopped cabbage as vegetable instead of ridge gourd. I didn’t know it could be made with cabbage as well. My mom makes it with ridge gourd, spinach and dantina soppu(amaranth leaves). This recipe is from Hebbar’s kitchen [link given below]. 

This pic was taken when I made it for the very first time, hence the poor color and scarce veggies :). Now the color is lot more better and I am adding lot more cabbage, sometimes a mix of veggies like cabbage, spinach and onion too. But alas! the photographer(aka my husband) is showing a lot of “nakhara” these days to take pictures! 

Banana bread

 Here’s a fool proof recipe for banana bread, the one I have tried many many times. This recipe is from one of my favorite blogs for baking(link given below).

Bread comes out super moist and you can hardly tell any difference between this and the store bought ones. I have used milk and butter in this recipe, however the original recipe is for vegan banana bread[with suggestions for substitutions]. 

Do try! Happy baking!!

Nargis mandakki

 My husband and daughter love snacks like chivda and mandakki. So I always have either of them handy in the house for healthy snacking. Perfect with evening coffee. These are so easy to make and yield big batches with minimal effort - totally my kinda snack :)  However in my house, how much ever I make, they somehow manage to finish it up in 1-2 days, that’s a different story!!

Anyways, this particular mandakki recipe I tried is called nargis mandakki(video link given below). Apparently famous in Davangere region of Karnataka. You basically make dry green chutney, fry and mix with mandakki.  

The sweet added was little too sweet for me, but I haven’t eaten this before so I don’t know how exactly it should taste. But overall a very tasty snack. 

Do try! 

Antina Unde/ Gond Laddoo

 I always complain I never get things right the first time. But let me tell you how my mind works. Take for example this particular unDe. I see in the recipe that I should roughly chop dry fruits. Being the lazy/smart a** I am, I try to do this in the mixie. I pulse and see that it is very unevenly chopped, so I run couple more rounds and unintentionally powder them. For some reason, I do this with all the nuts, even after seeing that it didn’t work the first time. So instead of having coarsely chopped nuts, I now have their respective powders. 

To fix this I take couple extra and chop them by hand. Then I beat myself up for not doing this in the first place. Now I have double quantity of these, and I am not sure how much jaggery syrup to make to accommodate these extra things, that too in powder form!! So I add little extra jaggery, you know just in case, and turns out I added lot more than needed. So now to fix this I add almond flour to adjust the consistency. At this point my head is hurting, and I know that the littlest of the littlest thing can trigger me any minute…tick, tick, tick :))

Seriously, if I get a penny for every time I use almond flour to fix my dessert…… 

God bless that person who thought of selling almond flour ready made. Almond flour ki jai !! 

  

Coming to the recipe - this is a very poushtidaayaka unde, especially given to women during postpartum care, or when girls hit puberty. I would say women any age should consume these to keep ourselves strong.

Happy Mother’s Day ladies!! Stay strong!!

Rave Rotti - 2

 Tried this delicious rave(semolina) rotti recipe some time back. We as a family love our rottis. Rottis are basically thick pancakes made with stiff dough(batter) often made with rice flour/ ragi flour/ rave(semolina). Check out their links. 

Traditionally rottis are patted on a banana leaf and transferred to the hot tava. But this rotti is spread with your hands(or ladle), more like a dosa. So one step made easy. I got this recipe from vegrecipesofkarnataka (link given below).  

Enjoy this traditional breakfast with some coconut chutney and some butter. 

Dabeli - 2

 Dabeli is basically pav buns stuffed with spicy potato masala. Very tasty chat item, which enlivens your taste buds with sweet, spicy, garlic, sev, nuts, crunchiness of fruits and whatnot.

Recently tried this Dabeli with a mix of different powders for Dabeli Masala(link given below). I have another recipe for Dabeli which makes dabeli masala from scratch. It can be found here. 

Enjoy! 

Masala Vade

 Masala vade is basically fritters made from chana dal. Recipe is fairly easy.  You can skip onion and increase other masala if making for festivals. 

Happy Ugadi! 

Fig Milkshake

 

Fig-Banana-Strwaberry milkshake is a great after-school or breakfast drink for school going kids. I was not too fond of strawberry taste in this milkshake, I’d rather add only fig and bananas, but my daughter loved it. So hear goes - 

KadlebeLe Sabbakki Payasa/ Chanadal Sabudana Payasa

 I just love the feel of Sabbakki(saabudana) in payasa. Visually they are so appealing. This is one of my favorite payasas. Do try!

Happy Shivaratri!!

 

Hasi Moolangi chutney/ Raw Radish chutney

 This is one simple chutney made with raw radish that can be had with dosa, rotti and rice. Hasi moolangi(raw radish) is supposed to be good for piles(and related issues:) ). 

This recipe tastes very close to regular chutney, with some pungency of radish.  Do try!

PS - I am posting this at 2:22 on 2/22/2022 😁:D

Congress Kadlekaayi

 Never knew congress kadle kayi was sooooo sooooo very easy to make at home. Here I was, waiting for my India trips to savor these delicacies. You can make it even more easy by bringing de-skinned peanuts. Enjoy with some hot coffee.

Easy Sabudana-Chia seeds Dessert

 I’m a little late in wishing, still, 

Happy 2022! Or, as they joke Happy 2020 too!

[bidtu, bidtu, bidtu, thoon, thoon, thoon] 😬😬😬

Happy Sankranti! 

Want to start this year with a sweet note, try this easy peasy Sabbakki dessert. It’s basically fruit custard, made slightly differently. You can prepare this well in advance, making it a perfect potluck dessert. Addition of Sabbakki and chia seeds gives a nice contrasting texture to the dessert. Enjoy!