Throwing a dinner party is stressful. How-much-ever one likes to cook, the day of the party will always be so chaotic that will make one wonder more than once, why the heck didn’t I just order some take-out! But at the end of the day it sure is more fun to serve something homemade than the best restaurant fare in town. A small word of praise from the dinner guests is all it takes to forget all that hard work and makes you want to do this all over again.  …

I’ve been on a doctor recommended blog hiatus for the past couple of weeks. Well, he doesn’t know about the blog, but I was asked to cut down my computer time way down. As much as I wanted to cut the time I spend in front of the PC for work, unfortunately that pays the bills, so the so-called leisure activities had to suffer. I am still supposed to be staying away from here, but after a long time I took a look at the dwindling blog stats today and …

In my last post, I mentioned the fabulous grilled Japanese peppers at Kushibar. These are called Shishito Peppers and unlike the hot appearance these peppers are really mild in flavor. These are very much like their Spanish cousins Pimientos de Padrón aka Padrón peppers.  The flavor is mild, but once in a while you might bite into a spicy one, which is where all the fun is! As in the case of Padróns, we fell in love with these mild peppers on first bite, but unlike the Padróns the Shishito’s …

It’s been a few days since my last post and looks like a lot happened during this period. We hosted our first barbecue of the summer, I got a chance to see Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain live along with a blogger buddy and more importantly Siv & I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary last week. I didn’t do a special anniversary post this year, as the sentiments haven’t changed since last year. We had a great time on our anniversary this year, we took the day off and spent …

Aval is the Malayalam name for flattened or beaten rice. Growing up, one of my favorite snacks used to be Aval Nanachathu (which translates to wet aval), which is just flattened rice mixed with grated coconut and jaggery or sugar. It is very easy to make, so it was a frequent tea time snack at my house. But after I left home, I never bothered to make it myself, no idea why!  When I went to India in March, I found brown rice Aval at the store, anything brown rice …

I desperately need a muse! There are six different recipes in my drafts, but I can’t think of any story or introduction to go with any of those. So I am just going to serve this one up on its own, hopefully I will get over the rut in time for the next post. Sometimes I think I should’ve started an anonymous blog. If I did, I am sure there wouldn’t be any shortage of stories. There are incidents that happen almost daily that amuse or annoy me to the …

I’ve always had trouble cooking for my vegetarian friends – especially when throwing a dinner party. I can make the traditional stuff all right, but when I make some fancy-schmantzy meat and seafood dishes, I feel bad serving some generic vegetarian dishes to the few non-meat eaters in the group.  So last week when I had friends over for dinner, I decided to mix it up a bit and try out a couple of vegetarian appetizers. Of course I made some of my trusty mixed vegetable cutlets too, just in …

I can’t believe I still haven’t blogged about one of the most famous non-vegetarian preparations from Kerala, the good old beef fry! Succulent beef pieces cooked in freshly ground spices and sauteed dry with onions and coconut slices, this is one of those famous Thattukada dishes.
Thattukada is Kerala’s version of a fast food joint. While the beef fry is not fast food, the fact that time works in favor of the flavors in this dish and it actually tastes better after reheating makes it an ideal candidate for the fast …

This is my favorite way to eat green beans. This picture was taken a long time ago, I have been waiting to take a better picture since the beans look a little overcooked and tired in this version. I actually like my beans tender, but the normal restaurant version has the beans very crisp, which would make a better picture for sure. But after we got back from India, I have gotten real lazy, and haven’t cooked much. I have a bunch of pictures in the draft from before, but …

For me the main attraction about watching a movie in the theatre is the popcorn. I prefer watching movies at home, sitting in my favorite recliner, with a nice cold beer and some spicy snacks. But no snack goes better with a movie than the theatre popcorn, I could just stare at the screen and keep munching on the crunchy, buttery delight, and before I know it my large bucket of popcorn is gone. Somehow I have never managed to recreate the same taste at home…
Even though I don’t make …

Any White Castle fans out there? Every time I watch the movie Harold & Kumar go to White Castle, I get this unbelievable cravings for white castle burgers. It is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen, and I don’t mind watching it again and again. Yeah, I love stupid dude movies… Anyway, I have never had a White Castle burger ever, but Siv has and he never stops talking about how many he can finish in one sitting. For those who are not familiar with their …

Yahooooo, I won, I won!!!!! Okay, its been more than a month since I won, but I never got a chance to share my reaction with you all, so here I go again… YIPPPPEEEE!!!!!!! So, what’s the story, you wonder? Well, back in November, multi-talented blogging diva Jaden of Steamy Kitchen, ran a contest on her blog, to give away a cool new cookbook called Modern Indian Cooking to her readers.

It’s been a while since I posted a recipe, I am still trying to catch up with real life after getting back home. Since I couldn’t ignore the food part of my food blog completely,  I desperately wanted to come out and post a food post. What better way to come out of the recipe hibernation than present you with an authentic Spanish recipe? Have you guys had enough of Spain talk already? Well, we were so smitten by Spanish food that within a couple of days after we got …

I am one of those people who love the bone better than the meat. I actually eat the entire bone, especially soft bones like chicken.  With tougher bones like lamb/goat, I can chew on a piece of bone for hours on end, and have been compared to a dog on many occasions. Siv loves bones too, but he knows how much I love those, so he always leaves his bones for me to work on, isn’t that romantic?  When we eat at fancy restaurants, this is my biggest dilemma. I love biting on …

I know, I have way too many chicken recipes! I haven’t even published half of my different chicken dishes here. Most of my Indian chicken recipes call for very similar set of ingredients, but the ratio of ingredients, and the cooking method itself finally make these all unique dishes with their own unique identity. That is the beauty of Indian cooking I guess!
This chicken dish is special, because the chicken is first cooked in a gravy which is thickened down, and then most of the gravy is removed from the …

This is the first critically acclaimed dish that I’ve ever cooked. Long time ago, when I was still an amateur cook (ahem… you start a food blog, and immediately you are known as an expert, in my circle at least ) I used to make this dish for all my parties, just because this was the only dish I knew how to cook in bulk!
The best compliment I got on this recipe was when someone asked me a long time ago…
        You’re kidding me right? You actually …

I first had these at a local Mexican restaurant years ago, and it was love at first bite. From then on, whenever I am at a Mexican restaurant, I order these without fail if they have it on the menu; most places do. These spicy little things go so well with ice cold margaritas.
These also make a regular appearance in all my barbecue parties, being a no-fail recipe. There is no way you can go wrong with a recipe so simple! The process is simple, once you clean out those peppers, …

Chilli Chicken is a loose term used to describe a variety of dry chicken preparations in India. There is no standard recipe for it, everyone uses the culinary license to make their own versions of this popular dish. I have multiple variations of chilli chicken recipes, it is the perfect dish to experiment with. This particular recipe is based on a tried and loved Pepper Chicken recipe from Hooked On Heat. I This time I used Meena’s base technique of sautéing the marinated chicken pieces, and modified the rest of the recipe to make my …

The best Lebanese food I’ve ever had was in Ireland of all the places! I was in Dublin on a business trip and my Irish colleagues took us to their favorite Lebanese restaurant for dinner – may be because there were people from four different continents in our group - and the food was amazing! Next day I was out shopping , I wasn’t looking for it, but it so happened that there was a tiny pocket sized Lebanese cookbook next to the check-out counter and I had to buy it. This was two years ago, …

When I invite friends home, normally there is one vegetarian among ten hardcore non vegetarians.  Since the only vegetarian in the group is my best friend, she gets to make a personal request, and she always ask for my spinach cutlets. It is a very easy recipe, and the patties can be made a day in advance, so I’m more than happy to oblige. These cutlets are so yummy, even the hardcore carnivores hog these, I always end up making enough for the whole group in addition to the countless non-veg dishes we cook for …