Vaangi Bhat literally means eggplant/aubergine/brinjal rice. And that’s exactly what it is – a dish of eggplant and rice lightly fried with an aromatic and nutty spice mixture. Vaangi bhat belongs to the cuisine of Karnataka in South India. It is an excellent one-dish meal and one of my favourite ways of cooking small, purple eggplants. Choose your eggplant Eggplants come in so many shapes and sizes and it is…
A chocolate cherry clafoutis eats just as elegant, luscious and sophisticated as it sounds. It’s stone fruit season and I’ve been bingeing on darkly delicious cherries, which are at the cheapest right now. Apricots, plums, nectarines are filling fruit stalls now, jostling with mangoes, watermelons, litchis and melons. The abundance of fruit is my silver lining this scorching summer. What is a clafoutis? Trust the French to make even a…
The celebration of sour flavours in Hyderabadi food is the inspiration behind the recipe for kairi pulao in this post. The abundance of raw mangoes in summer is used to make sour khatti (sour) dal, chutneys, pickles, curries, raita, chicken and meat dishes and even a kairi mutton biryani. My recipe for kairi pulao is a lighter, summer-friendly, less spicy version of chicken and raw mango pulao (pilaf). It’s ideal…
This recipe for whole grain chocolate banana bread is another step in my learning towards developing, baking and eating more whole grain foods. I don’t always succeed in this and recipes don’t always turn out the way I had visualised them. But every once in a while something works and that joy and satisfaction is what keeps me going further on this journey. Baking with barley flour Barley or jau…
Watermelon tomato salad – cold, crunchy, sweet and somewhat sour with a whisper of spice, what could be better when the mercury is touching 43℃? I’m sure you’ve seen many versions of a watermelon tomato salad, this is my take on this hit summer salad. Pick your tomato A generous tomato harvest prompted me to make this salad. So I used the small, extremely juicy variety of tomatoes that grow…
Raw mangoes are celebrated in Andhra cuisine. Mamidikaya nuvvulu pachadi or raw mango chutney Andhra style is a delicious example of that. A pachadi, in Telugu, refers to a chutney rather than a yoghurt-based dish, typical of the cuisine of Kerala. Sour, green mangoes grow profusely in Andhra Pradesh and are available for quite a few months unlike in North India, where they are seen only in summers. Besides raw mangoes,…
On hot days, a serving of oven-grilled mackerel makes for a light, nutritious meal. One that doesn’t demand long hours in the kitchen. What makes this dish for me, is the tangy and herbaceous chermoula, generally slathered over the fish. Teamed with a helping of garlic-fried spinach, this plate of oven-grilled mackerel leaves you feeling sated, not stuffed. How to make chermoula Chermoula is a North African marinade/condiment eaten mainly…
A lifelong lover of lemons, I baked a lemon sheet pan cake with sorghum or jowar (hindi). It was a happy surprise with its light, flaky crumb. And so here I am, sharing it with you. With the summer heat steadily rising, I crave tart, lemony flavours and skinny sweets. This lemon sheet pan cake fits the bill perfectly. Why you should bake with sorghum Sorghum or jowar as it…
I’m happy to be finally sharing this Indian yellow fish curry recipe on the blog after life threw my routine off the rails for a few weeks. Now, you would think this to be a yellow fish curry from East Asia, and I wouldn’t blame you. In truth, I don’t know of any specific Indian yellow fish curry recipe, this one is just what I choose to call this curry.…
This spinach and corn quiche had to be made to use up some of the big batch of fresh, tender spinach from my garden. The rest went into a raw spinach salad and spinach pararthas. Whole wheat and olive oil quiche crust A quiche crust is meant to be a light and flaky shortcrust pastry made with cold butter and AP flour. Now, I love a flaky, buttery crust but…