Baked Red Velvet Donuts!

My kitchen drawer where I keep my bake ware is almost always in a disarray. All the different shapes and sizes of pans and trays oftentimes do not play very well together when it comes to staying organized. Then to top that I just cannot resist buying a baking pan or tray that I come across and it catches my attention. The donut tray I used for this recipe was another such thing that I had to have when I saw it the other day at the store. It was a Wilton brand pan and this recipe was in fact right on the packaging itself. They make the perfect shaped donuts and whats better is that you can actually eat a few since they are baked and not deep fried. To kick it up another notch, if the donuts are the red velvet kind, what's not to like, after all who doesn't like red velvet cake. These came out really nice and soft and velvety and then with that cream cheese glaze on top, you just go 'yummm'. They are perfect  treat for the upcoming Valentine's day too.
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English Muffins!

Another ode to my love for bread. As much as I love eating different kinds, I love making them too. Take a look at the 'Breads' category and you will know what I mean. Talk about some serious bragging rights. Bread baking for me is almost therapeutic. The kneading is the best part (if you are mad at someone, this is the best way to calm yourself down. Yes, it works every time for me... lol). To be able to get out a loaf of delicious bread from a few everyday ingredients is a wonder - not to mention the smell of fresh baked bread that fills the house. The excitement to see the dough rise and then finally cut into it and see how perfect it came out... aah it is almost a high for me (I know I know this is probably the hundredth time I am writing this)... but its true :)
The english muffin got my curiosity only recently. It is not something that is commonly known in India. That one day when hubs got it for us at the mall food court I have wanted to make it ever since and am proud to declare they came out really good.
With some butter or jam spread, they are perfect for a quick breakfast and can even be quickly made into a burger for a light lunch. Whats more is that you do not need and oven to make them, they can be made right on your stove top in a regular pan. I had a batch ready when my little one got back from school all exhausted and hungry. She ate a couple before even getting her shoes off and invented a new kind of sandwich while she was at it, english muffins with cheddar slice and butter!

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Rasam Vada/Crisp lentil dumplings in a spiced tomato soup

This has been in my drafts folder forever. Not sure why it never made it out the door, well at least not until now. Guess I was waiting for the right moment. Talking about the right moment, these crispy dumplings soaked in the spicy soup is just perfect while you wait in the comfort of your home for that first snow, not that it ever snows here in south Florida. This dish hails from southern India but has come to be popular in all parts of the country of course with the details varying on how its done every couple hundred miles. Here I present how I like to do them. Hubs is a big fan of this and when I pulled out this recipe from my drafts, I did get to hear a mouthful on how I haven't made these for him in a while. When you take a spoonful into your mouth, while you enjoy the crispiness from the dumplings, the spicy soup kicks in and makes it just a delightful mix of flavors on your palate. The recipe is not too tricky either. It uses simple ingredients including the Rasam powder that are easily available in any Indian grocery store. And yes, if you cannot get the  donut shape right, it is perfectly okay to just shape the dumplings as regular dough balls.

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Thai Spicy Chili Garlic Noodles with Basil and Peanuts

As I have said several times before Thai food is my favorite after Italian (and of course Indian) cuisine. I like everything about the cuisine - the ingredients used, the flavor, the way it is cooked, the fresh herbs and aromatic spices and above all the way it tastes. Another reason for my soft corner for Thai food is the familiar spices that inspire flavors similar to my very own Indian cuisine. Among the different Thai dishes the variety of curries definitely top the charts. The unique burst of flavors and the gorgeous color is so appealing and appetizing. Hubs, kiddo and I are all BIG into noodles so the Pad-Thais and other kinds are definitely the highlight of our trip to any Thai restaurant or takeout. I have shared quite a few Thai recipes that you can see here and this is my very own version of spicy Thai noodles with aggressive yet subtle flavors and simple basic ingredients. The chilli-garlic oil is definitely the highlight of the recipe. It gives the noodles the clean and crisp taste and yet the spicy kick it renders definitely kicks it up a couple of notches.

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Pizza Hut Style Breadsticks with Dipping Sauce ~ All Homemade

Those among my readers that like to cook and experiment in the kitchen will surely agree that recreating a dish that you had somewhere just by memory and getting similar results, if not better, has that extra special kick. You get to eat what you like and can do it whenever you like without having to drive out, not to mention at a fraction of the cost. If you have followed my work, you would know I am a bread lover. Every now and then we take kiddo to our local dine-in Pizza Hut for her fix of pizza. I hit the salad bar and mostly load up on that while hubs and the little one tear open little packets of grated parmesan, sprinkle on their slice and devour it while emphatically claiming how good it was. They offer me a slice which I gladly accept. Every now and then we order a side of breadsticks as well. It would probably be no surprise to you when I say I love those. This weekend I pushed my memory a little and attempted to make them at home. Yes it a success story and a nice one at that. They came out just perfect. Light and fluffy, slightly crispy at the bottom and perfectly seasoned with cheese and spices. I had a taste and instantly knew they will be a hit. My proof came when kiddo, who never wants to eat, took one stick and walked away. Couple of minutes later she returned to the kitchen saying 'mommy can I have one more please'. I did not need to hear any more.

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Cookie dough ice pops!

he world famous Florida sunshine is at its best right now, temperatures soaring every day, school closed for summer and an overactive hyper kiddo with an attention span of not more than 7 minutes. Enough things to keep me sweating, no pun intended. These days I am always on the look out for some fun project for her to get busy with. Today was the day to make these pops and FIFI the monster sock puppet! LOL.
She just turned five, a very curious, sensitive and observant girl all geared to start her kindergarten very soon. She questions everything, tries to find a reason behind anything that happens or does not happen around her. She doesn't like to be told what to do (yes she is our drama queen) and believe it or not already has developed a great sense of humor. Like this one time she asked me "mommy what kind of car does Mickey mouse's wife drive?".. "a cute pink car", I said. "No! A mini van" she screamed giggling :)) She is learning to write cursive and she LOVES math (much to my relief lol)

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Pink Lemonade Bar

ay for me! This is something I have wanted to try for a while now. Ever since the advent of spring this year and with red ripe strawberries showing up everywhere, pictures of various strawberry based recipes including some perfect gorgeous strawberry lemonade bars all over the web. After extensive research on the internet bookmarking a lot of recipes and cooking them through in my head (or 'soft-cooking' as I like to call it), I eventually came up with my very own version of these beauties. I like to call them Pink Lemonade bars. Love the reddish purple-pink color. They are really easy too. During the soft-cooking process in my head however, they seemed a lot tricky - getting the right texture, tartness, sweetness and then cutting them into the perfect squares. They are in fact a breeze to make, gorgeous to look at and taste amazing! Hubs described it perfectly when he said it tasted like an exotic and complex sweet dish, tart and fruity balanced just right with sweet and creamy with the crust adding a playful texture. Delightful!

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Mango Coconut Ice-cream

ango is undoubtedly the king of summer fruits for me. Now summer is not my most favorite of seasons but there are a few things that make the memories of summer good. Be it the long vacation away from school, being allowed to just go out and play, visiting grandparents, all the pampering, several of these things that I often talk about in my posts. These along with a lot of fun and cool food and fruits and berries - jamun, lassi, a million varieties of kulfi, soda pops, ice-chuski and the list goes on. The mango definitely figures in there somewhere as well. For some strange reason these things are what I think of first when I think of summer (of course followed by the reminder of the scorching Indian sun that I used to hate). Any conversation on food and summer is incomplete with mango featuring in it. Especially with its versatility, the mango is a fruit well loved in my family. Eat it raw, just peel it, chop it up, mix in a little salt and red chilli powder and tantalize your taste buds, or roast it, pulp it and make a nice cool drink with it or chop it up and cook with brown sugar to make a nice sweet and sour chutney... and then the 'achaar' of course, pickle it if you can't think of anything else to do with it. When in ripe form it of course can be had as a fruit but its pulp is also used to flavor many dishes.
Ice-cream is one such dish. It can be made using different kinds of mangoes however the pulp of Alphonso works the best. Use a sweet, ripe and a non-fibrous mango for best results. This time around I wanted to try the classic combo of coconut with mango to give it a nice tropical twist.The best part with this recipe is that it is extremely easy to put together without the need of an ice-cream machine.

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Homemade Ferrero Rocher

ot a lot has to be said about this iconic chocolate delight. We all know it and love it. The extraordinary chocolate fanatic that I am, it has a special place in my heart. So when I saw the recipe here I could not believe that it can be attempted to be made at home. I always believed something that tasted so exotic must have a grand secret recipe that was guarded very closely. I just had to try it. Valentine's day was around the corner and that was all the excuse I needed.
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Chilli Paneer dry/Paneer cheese in a spicy chilli soy sauce

o tantrums and food have any relation for you? Well, in my case, growing up they had quite a lot to do with each other. This is what my dear mom used to cook especially for me when me - the brat - used to tell her "mom, you don't love me anymore", count to her all the occasions when I was refused an ice-cream, a barbie doll, Shahrukh's poster and the bestest most expensive dress in the mall! She knew how to get me back to behaving normally... lol.

I love Chinese food but I have a certain (very strong) bias towards Indian-Chinese (aka indo-chinese) cuisine. We Indians have had a long-lived love affair with Chinese food. Long before pizzas, burgers and junk food became popular, it was Chinese food that most of us wanted when we craved something exotic and different. One may argue that Indo-chinese is not really chinese food as it is not very close to authentic chinese food. It has been totally adapted and re-flavored to suit an Indian palette. But hey, that is what fusion food is all about, right? Who knew the marriage of a little soy sauce with Indian spices could be so delicious! A big bright star of the Indian Chinese cuisine, featured on almost every menu of an Indian restaurant, be it upscale or roadside.

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Chandrakala/Stuffed Sweet Festive Pastries

ere is another recipe from me that gives me an intense sense of nostalgia.

The start of 'navaratra' marks the beginning of the festive season in India. Navaratra culminates in Dussehera after which comes the much awaited Diwali with Dhanteras and Chhath between and immediately after. These followed by Christmas and of course the welcome of the new year. Festivities in India are associated with pomp and fervor, family, dressing in your finest, prayers and worship, time off from school, carnivals, guests and of course food, lots of food. How is that for nostalgia!

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Pyaz Ke Pakode Wali Kadhi/ Onion fritters in spicy yogurt curry sauce

ou can cross the seven seas and eat the food served by the best chefs from the most celebrated lands but I believe my foodie friends will agree that there is nothing like a bowl of that most loved comfort food that you can snuggle up in the comfort of your home and feed your soul with.
You may think the above is too strong a sentiment for a bowl of kadhi, but that is how I feel about it. Comfort food doesn't have to be complex or even exotic, you cannot explain it. Just the aroma of a hot bowl of simmering kadhi gives me a strange sense of comfort. It always elevates my mood, pulls me out of the clutches of a bad day and reminds me of home, mom and good times spent with family. Give me a choice between the bestest dessert in the world and a bowl of hot kadhi trust me I will always choose the latter. That is how much I like it, you get the idea. Kadhi is classically paired with plain rice or 'chawal' and is especially pure bliss on a cold rainy day.

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Roasted Baby Potatoes Indian Style!

here is something to be said about the versatility of potatoes. Fry 'em, bake 'em, roast 'em, saute 'em, cook 'em in a curry, mash and stuff 'em, well just mash 'em, heck if you fermented them right, you could even drink 'em :) There are a few people I have come across that don't like them but I can count them on my fingers. The biggest potato lover I have seen among them all is hubs, so much so that his friends tease him of being one. This will give you an idea - I made these roasted potatoes this past Sunday afternoon intending them to be a side with lunch. He ate a whole piled plateful and he emphatically declared that to be his lunch.
It wasn't just his love for potatoes, this recipe is out of this world. Very simple and elegant yet completely full of flavor with an added twist of Indian masalas. This recipe is out of a cookbook from the celebrity Indian chef Suvir Saran. I recently became a proud owner of one of his best work, (incidentally) named 'American Masala'.
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Paneer

n popular demand in the form of a number of queries via comments and several emails, here I am with my very own recipe for Paneer. This should not come as a surprise as I believe I have made myself a reputation of sorts for my love of Paneer through the numerous paneer based dishes on my site. The idea of making any basic ingredient for me is exhilarating. It is such a rewarding and stress relieving experience. With my love for paneer, making my own has a special place in my heart and my kitchen. It is one of those beautiful things which you never really know until you actually do it.

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Gobhi 65/Spicy Cauliflower Tempura Indian Style

ummer is at its peak and the sun scorches the earth every day. Its almost midnight here and its 86 degrees outside *phew*. In the relentless heat however the rain gods do peek in every other day to provide some very welcome relief.
It was such an afternoon on Saturday this past weekend when the rains were especially merciful. As it rained cats and dogs, we sat on our patio on a Saturday afternoon - which usually means shopping afternoon - and marveled on how beautiful nature was (yes hubby and I still get corny sometimes about that stuff). Somehow the conversation changed very quickly to food (are you kiddin' me) and we were talking about how nice it would be to get something hot and crispy to munch on. I was immediately like 'lemme go and make some pakoras'. Hubby not being that much a fan of pakoras, I instantly sensed that on his face. That is when I was reminded of this fabulous appetizer that we had had at an Indian restaurant during our last vacation a couple of months ago. I had totally loved it then and my analyzing taste buds had read the recipe right then and there and kept it somewhere in my head. Yes I recalled it then and here's the result for you to see and enjoy.
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Cherry Peach Cobbler

tores are abound with luscious and juicy fruits these days. Hey what do you know, its summer. It is especially the time for stone fruits like cherries, peaches, plums, apricots and the like. Although modern grocery stores carry them in all seasons, this time of the year they are at their best.

The other day I asked hubs to get some regular grocery stuff from the store on his way back from work. I usually make a grocery list on my iPhone and email it to him and he carries the phone in his hands around the store, yes he's cute. I call it my high tech grocery list. Anyway, so this other day besides the usual potatoes, bread, milk and other stuff that was on the list, he got me a box full of ripe plump red cherries. After eating a few right after washing them right out of the bag, the only thought in my mind was 'dessert'. I have made and blogged about Cherry Crumble before so I decided to make my other favorite, the cobbler.

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Imarti

ave you ever wondered what the royalty of yesteryears ate. Especially in India where the land has seen its fair share of kings and queens of over the last couple of thousand years. If you think what they ate had to be rich, tricky to make, used expensive ingredients and extremely delicious, you are absolutely right.
The Imarti is one such sweet dish. It originated as a dessert for the royals in the ornate state of Rajasthan. Legend has it that this delectable sweet dish was created as a gift by the Rajput kings for the Moghuls during the Moghul invasion of India over four hundred years ago. The dish is now ever popular all over the country although in some parts of the country it is known as Jangri. It is almost as popular as its even more popular cousin the Jalebi. So much so that every sweet shop around the corner of every street that makes jalebi will most certainly also have imarti.
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Gajar Halwa/Carrot Pudding

his delicious and classic Indian dessert is a huge favorite with dear hubs. The warm aroma of the sweet succulent carrots cooking in the milk with saffron, cardamom, all slowly cooking and simmering in pure homemade ghee fills my house with a wonderful pleasing and festive aroma that always draw him to the kitchen... always.

We Indians love our spices as well as sweets. Any celebration or happy occasion for that matter is definitely accompanied with sweets. There is a mushrooming of mithai shops and  local halwais on every nook and corner wherever you go and there is usually such a variety of sweets that it is difficult to decide what you want to eat. Each part of India has its own sweet specialties and varieties so you can imagine how vast and expansive the world of Indian sweets can get.

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Thai Massaman Curry (Vegetarian)

his one time, soon after we got married and I came to the US, hubby and I went to a wedding ceremony of one of his colleagues. Strangely enough they did not have much food. Only some light snacks and drinks. So after the ceremony on our way back we decided to get lunch. He said he knew a Thai-Japanese place that was pretty good. At the restaurant we saw they had vegetarian sushi on the menu. I got all excited about it and we ordered it. When it arrived, it looked really pretty, got me even more excited to try it out. Hated it. I almost spit it out in my napkin. I kid you not. To my surprise though, hubby seemed to like it. Well anyway that was end of Sushi for me for a very long time. Well that was until we went to another Thai restaurant and this time hubby knew better than to order Sushi. So he ordered, you guessed it, Massaman curry. That was the day I was completely hooked to Thai cuisine. Thai is now definitely my favorite after Italian (and of course Indian) cuisine. I like everything about Thai cuisine; the ingredients used, its flavor, the way it’s cooked, the fresh herbs and aromatic spices and above all the way it tastes. And another reason for my love affair with Thai food is the familiar spices flavors with my very own Indian cuisine. Among the different Thai dishes, the varieties of curries definitely top the charts. The unique burst of flavors and the gorgeous color is so appealing that I order it over and over again whenever I am at any Thai restaurant. Not quite so popular as its more popular cousins Red curry, Green n Yellow Thai Curry, but heartier and a lot more aromatic is the unique Massaman Curry. It’s a sort of fusion between Thai and Indian food :)The tamarind, coconut and spices give it a distinct Indian flavor.

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Cardamom Pancakes with Mango Saffron Compote/Chutney

ather's day this year was special as it has been for the last four years since we were blessed with our little princess. Now she is daddy's little girl so this Father's day I figured I'd make something that would be manly enough for papa and would be fun for his little princess to make and eat and they can sit together and enjoy. Little and I made these incredible pancakes for dearest papa this Sunday ~ warm, fruity, rich, decadent and gourmet breakfast/brunch with the best mango compote/chutney ever (dad is a BIG mango lover)... and yes if you look closer, these are pancakes with no eggs! The feedback from both of my critics was very positive :) Hubby later explained how amazed he was that the pancakes were as light and fluffy as the ones with eggs except only better as they did not have the eggy taste. Me personally am not much of a pancake fan so cannot say much about it but I surely have a thing or two to say about the compote. If this is any proof, every time I open the refrigerator I lick a fingerful of this chutney :) Tangy and sweet, very fruity taken to the level of exotic with the dash of saffron flavor. You will never go back to your syrup again.

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