I know I posted a broken wheat recipe just a couple of weeks ago, but I just had to share this one as soon as possible. After the first successful experiment with broken wheat, we were totally smitten by its crunchy texture. It can take some serious abuse without going all mushy on you, so we talked about trying a chicken fried broken wheat (for lack of imagination to come up with a better name) in the lines of chicken fried rice . Then Mamatha came along and suggested adding …

Another Sunday wasted away, it was gorgeous outside but I just lazed around the house with all the shades down so that the sunlight doesn’t get in the way of my TV viewing. I did have a busy Saturday with a bit too much sun, so I didn’t even feel guilty about not getting out of the house. Unlike me Siv had spent the whole Sunday outside playing golf, so he was taking his well-deserved beauty nap after coming home. He looked so peaceful sleeping, I didn’t feel like waking …

I am a bit skeptical about trying out a brand new restaurant after a few disastrous experiences. With so many great places in and around Seattle, once we have a bad experience in a restaurant, the chances of us going back there is very slim. And everyone knows that most restaurants won’t have all their kinks worked out in the first few weeks. But last weekend we decided to give Bastille a try even though it had been open for just a couple of weeks. Lucky for us, we had …

In my last post I ranted about folks who don’t respond to my oh-so-very-helpful e-mails. But to be honest, I have to say that I am no saint either! I have promised many things on e-mail to readers which I never delivered. One such undelivered promise is about posting an Indian themed South Beach Diet menu plan. It is one of the most frequent queries I get after I started sharing my SBD experiments here.
Many Indians -even the non-vegetarians- are not comfortable with eating meat or seafood three times a …

I came home early to go out for a much needed Friday evening Happy Hour but a certain someone is running late as usual. I was bored out of my mind, so I went through and replied to a bunch of pending e-mails from my blog account. I get a decent amount of e-mail in this account, not a lot but it does take some time to go through and reply to all these. I used to be very good at replying to mails on time before, but I’ve lost …

You know you are going to love a restaurant when you are greeted with a complimentary glass of champagne as soon as you walk in the door. That too after you’ve announced that you are just going to wait for 45 minutes till a table at the restaurant next door frees up. Then when you are not pressured by the hovering staff to order something as you wait for the rest of your party to arrive, you really start loving the place. When you feel guilty about the free champagne …

This one is a rather boring looking curry, but it was really tasty for a quick fix dish made with this and that from the pantry and refrigerator. I have never really combined chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with eggs before, I wasn’t planning on it this time either. As the chickpeas were simmering in the gravy inspiration struck me and those eggs poached in the spicy coconut gravy was just so delicious.
 
Ingredients

1 can cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) washed and drained
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp …

Hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend! We stayed in town this long weekend and celebrated the holidays with friends. I had way too much food and way too many drinks that I could go a couple of days without any food.  Not that I am going to! I even tried to make some extra food to last us through the middle of the week. These muffins were meant to be breakfast for this week, but they disappeared before the weekend was over.
Siv frowned at the idea of Mango …

Wishing all my US readers a Happy 4th of July weekend! If you are planning a party this weekend or just going to chill out, I am sure you could use some cooling cocktails! I thought it is the perfect time to share a new easy-breezy cocktail recipe and highlight some of my older recipes from the archives. Have fun and stay safe!
Passion Fruit Mintini

(For 2 cups)
Ingredients

1.5 cups passion fruit juice (available in canned form in Asian stores)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup ginger flavored vodka …