Cake House

Missi Roti...Chickpea flour flat bread slathered with a good dose of desi ghee. This is what I am going to have for my lunch today. Mom and dad left today morning and with no other choice, I am back to my normal routine of looking after the home, running behind the kiddo to make sure he finishes his glass of milk, washing the laundry, watering the plants and hundreds of other chores which were very well taken care of when they were here. The self proclaimed Sabbatical from blogging has also ended and I am back in my kitchen once again.  My mom made this Roti just a few days back but since I was playing LAZY, I did not even bother to take pictures for the blog. The roties turned out so good that they made it to my  list of TO- MAKE- THINGS. Made these for lunch today and enjoyed them with a left over curry. These roties are healthy, easy to make and go very well with the Indian curries. Here is how to make these. All you need is Besan \ Chickpea flour - 1 cup Atta \ Whole wheat...

T his is one of the simplest pickles which I learnt recently. When I went to my SIL’s house for lunch, there were many dishes and among all the dishes, this one caught my attention since it was served in a small bowl. As you all know that I love pickles, I quickly tasted this and it was mind blowing. My SIL’s mom, who is a wonderful cook,made this as a combination with biryani. The other thing which amazed me was the ingredients which were so simple and easily available in our kitchen. I never thought something as delicious and mouthwatering as this can be made within minutes. So today, here I am sharing the perfect side dish with biryanis. Just try this out. Ingredients: Green Chillies- 10- 15 nos Red Chilli Powder- 2 tbsp Oil- 2 tbsp Mustard seeds- 1 tsp Tamarind Extract- ¼ Cup Curry Leaves- few Salt- as per taste Method: Pour oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the slitted green chiilies. Fry for sometime by adding salt to the chiilies. When it turns soft, a...

While cutting the cherry tomatoes into halves for sun drying, I was again taken back to the wonderful days when we were young. One of the many beautiful memories which keep on giving a sneak peek brought a smile on my face only to create another one for future. We had a huge open space in front of the house. With a beautiful manicured lawn in the center and flower beds all around, there was enough space left to grow all sort of veggies and it was very well utilized to grow different varieties of gourds, brinjal, lady's fingers, various greens and tomatoes. During the season when tomatoes were harvested in bulk, my mom used to make the most of them by making bottles of ketchup, tomato relish and the remaining were cut into thin slices and dried in the strong summer sun to be used through out the year. These came in really handy when during the peak summers, tomatoes disappeared from the markets and the curries that were made on an everyday basis could not be compromised. These dried...

Kiddos summer vacations are on and my house has become an adda for all his friends to gather, do some chit chats, play a few board games , set the army game and then fight over the disagreements. Amongst all this, they also get to taste the stuff I make in my kitchen and Bhavye is the one who is dictating me these days on what to make. The gang planned a pajama party last night and orders were passed to make some dips for the crackers that were bought a few days back on one of the trips to his favorite grocery store with his grand parents. When I think of dips to go with crackers, Hummus is the first thing that pops in my mind. I love guacamole too, but good avocados are really tough to get hold of here in Bangalore. So hummus it was. Tasty, healthy and such a versatile dip. Apart from using it as a dip for my crackers, pita bread or veggie sticks, I also like to slather it on my sandwiches and fill it in my tarts. I have made classic hummus a lot of time before and wanted a little twi...

O ne fine morning I got up with a wonderful aroma of this stew which my mom was preparing, to be served along with appams. I was really excited to have this mutton stew for breakfast. I usually prepare vegetable stew, by adding all the vegetables. My mom prepared this quickly before we got up, so that we can have hot hot appams and this stew for breakfast. This is an easy preparation and takes very little effort. Instead of mutton, this can also be made using chicken. We can also add whole spices instead of garam masala powder. To make this more spicy, just add more pepper powder or green chillies. Ingredients: Mutton- 250 gms Salt- as per taste Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp Pepper Powder- 1 tsp Potatoes- 2 nos Onions ( chopped)- 1 no Green Chillies (slited)- 3 nos Ginger and Garlic Paste- 1 tbsp Garam Masala Powder- ½ tbsp Fennel Seeds Powder- 1 tsp Oil- 1 tbsp Mustard Seeds- 1 tbsp Curry Leaves- few Salt- as per taste Coconut Milk- 1 Cup Method: Boil the potatoes and cube them into small pi...

Come summers and the vegetable and fruit shops are decked with my favorite fruit...Mango. As you all might know by now, I am an ardent fan of baking and cooking with seasonal bounties and so you will be seeing a lot of summer fruits recipes in the coming times. Coming to mango, this king of fruits is my all time favorite and I literally survive on sweet juicy mangoes when they are in season. Although ripe mangoes are available in market now, that sweetness is still missing. So instead of the ripe fruit, I got some raw ones and made an Aam Panna first thing :). Unlike many people, who like to eat raw mangoes as such or with a sprinkle of salt and red chili powder, I get goosebumps at just the thought. But I relish the various preparations made using the raw mangoes which kind of subtle the sourness a bit yet retaining the typical flavor. Kacche aam ki dal is one of those recipes. Very gently flavored with the magoishness, this dal is one of my favorite summer time recipes. Arhar or tuv...

The garden needed too much work to go shopping on Saturday, but the supermarket had just announced they would be open on Sunday morning. They were, but not their butcher nor the fish department. Bought some frozen cod, a packet of ready made Thai green curry. Still had some papadums and Basmati rice. Easy does it: cover the fish with some flour (put them together in a plastic bag and shake). Boil the rice. Heat up the curry in 5 minutes. In the same time fry the fish. Crisp the papadums in the microwave (1 min at 900 W). Serve as shown with some fresh coriander. Delicious! < Works with salmon as well. Or chicken.      Or sea trout>                  

Boil the potatoes. Mix mayo with horseradish and some capers. Boil the asparagus. Start plating with the potatoes, add some mayo mix. Then asparagus and salmon, and an extra dollop of the sauce

Normally I would serve this with crumbled Spanish or Italian ham, but as the guest was vegetarian I came up with the beetroot. Quite chuffed about it. Sweat some some shallot in butter till soft. Add a glass of Noilly Prat and reduce till 20%. Add a glass of desert wine and do the same. Add lobster or shrimp stock and reduce till a nice consistency. Keep warm. Cut a leek in thin match like strips, sweat in butter till soft. Set apart. Slice a fresh (uncooked) beetroot in crisps thin slices. Grill the scallops in a dry pan. Deepfry the beetroot, dry with kitchen paper and crumble.

Summers have hit Bangalore and the heat is unbearable. My apartment gets the morning sun which during the winters is a blessing, but for now it starts to get hot as early as 8 in the morning. Although I am complaining of the heat in Bangalore, to be fair it is nothing compared to what Northern part of India experiences. Temperature in May and June reaches a scorching 49-50 degree C and with the heat waves accompanying the high temperature, it is even worse. Aam panna is a very refreshing drink which my mom used to make on a everyday basis in the months of summers and it was the first thing which was served when anyone entered the house, battling the sun and heat. Although the temperature in Bangalore never goes that high but it is still good to sip on this delicious drink once in a while. As most of Indian recipes, the recipe to make Aam panna differs from person to person. Some add mint and some do not. Some peel the raw mango before boiling and some do not. I personally like to boil ...

My dad likes to eat this bhajji, so whenever we go out we used to check for these in hotels around and instead of this we used to get all other types of evening snacks. So I decided to try this out at home and googled, got so many recipes for this snack and my mom made this one evening. We thought that this is a big process to make but it is so simple that we mixed the batter in the morning and made it in the evening during tea time. We kept this batter to ferment from morning as we had mixed it as soon as my mom finished her kitchen work. It is not necessary to keep it from morning and we can mix the batter 1 hour in advance and then fry it in oil. This is a very popular snack in Karnataka, which is made up of maida, rice flour, baking soda and curd. It is crispy from outside and spongy inside. Along with coconut chutney, this bhajji is lip-smacking snack. Ingredients: Maida- 1 Cup Salt- as per taste Rice Flour- ¼ Cup Baking Powder- ½ tsp Curd- 1 Cup Cumin Seeds- 2 tsp Onions (chopped...

Naan... I love this bread with any kind of Indian curries. It is usually my bread of choice when visiting an Indian restaurant. It was one of the first things that I learned to cook in my kitchen and with time and making it again and again, I have finally got a fool recipe that works for me every single time. I made naan in an electric oven, I made it in a pressure cooker too. But after making it on a griddle which is turned upside down, no other method charms me anymore. I have found my trick. My naan now comes out wonderfully soft and chewy with the most perfect brown spots on the surface. I have already shared the recipe and trick to make plain naan sometime back, but this time I made butter and garlic naan and thought to share it as well. Here it is. All you need is Maida \ All purpose flour - 4 cups Baking soda - 1\2 tsp Baking powder - 1 tsp Salt - 1\2 tsp Sugar - 1 tbsp Yogurt - 1\4 cup Milk to knead the dough Oil - 1 tbsp Garlic - 3 tbsp ( finely chopped ) Butter  - 2 tbsp ...