Fruit and Nut Dark Chocolate Bark

alentine's day is still a few days but I couldn't help it when I saw this simply fabulous chocolate recipe. I kid you not, this was the EASIEST and most AMAZING chocolaty sweet treat I made ever! Decadent dark chocolate topped with crunchy roasted nuts, bits of crystallized ginger, along with sweet tart dried cranberries, cherries and finished with a sprinkle of sea salt. The salty, sweet chocolaty combination is totally addictive and exotic and it looks oh sooo pretty!  Oh and did I mention it’s also kinda healthy full of antioxidants and there’s no baking required. Now I am a chocolate nut (no pun intended) so you can take what I say with a grain of salt (no pun again... lol) but when hubs, who - to remind you - is not the biggest chocolate lover, goes "hmm... this stuff is really good" and asks for seconds, that you gotta believe.

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Saffron Rose Srikhand/Indian Style Saffron Rose Greek Yogurt

e Indians love our spices as well as sweets. Festivals, celebrations or any happy occasion for that matter is definitely accompanied with sweets or as we call them, 'mithais'. There is mushrooming of mithai shops and local halwais on every nook and corner wherever you go. There is usually such a variety of sweets that it is difficult to decide what you want to eat. It is said that culture in India changes every hundred miles. With culture comes its food. Every region 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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Mawa Pistachio Saffron Mini Bundt Cake - an eggless recipe

ne afternoon when I was sitting around thinking what I could cook up next, my baking genes started to flare up. The obvious question was what to bake. As I sat there and thought, I basically kicked myself for not having thought about the most common form of cake that I ate and made growing up - a cake with Indian flavors.

I remember back at home when I first started learning to bake anything, I tried to make a cake in one of those small counter-top electric ovens. It was a recipe that everyone in my extended family used when they had to make a cake! Nothing extraordinary, just your basic cake but kicked up several notches by adding key Indian flavors like mawa and nuts. That made the cake almost a cross between a cake and an Indian sweet dish.

Having baked several different kinds of breads and cakes, I decided to put a little twist on the classic recipe by adding pistachios and cardamom. Moreover, I believe this made the cake a bit more exotic, perfect for the upcoming occasion of the festival of Holi. 

So here is the recipe for this fabulous fusion cake. Also, if mawa is difficult to find where you live, I have also detailed a couple of easy ways of making your own mawa at home. The use of mini bundt pan is optional. You can use any cake pan, I just thought they looked cute and were handy to serve to my little princess.

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Crêpe with Strawberry compote and Pistachios

hen hubby introduced me to crêpes a couple of years ago, he called them the 'American Dosa'! These were the times when it had only been a short few weeks after I had arrived to the US after getting married and hubby was getting me acquainted with the local cuisine. There was this crêpe place near work that made the most amazing savory mushroom crêpes, he claimed. I totally loved them too. The sauteed mushrooms in a thick creamy gravy wrapped in a crispy yet soft crêpe. We went there several times. This was what seems like an age ago. Since then the place closed down and the exotic taste of the mushroom crêpe became a distant memory. Until one evening recently we drove down to a mall that is kinda far but we've always wanted to go there. We spotted a crêpe store in one of those food courts. This rekindled the memories of all the sweet and savory goodness of this great French dish.  We enjoyed all different kinds and now that I was a food blogger, I decided to make it for myself :)

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