I want to focus on this pesto cheese for a minute before I go any further. You know how you end up buying a big bunch of basil, use a tiny amount in your dish and the rest just rots in your fridge? My solution to this recurring problem: pesto cheese. Having pesto in your… Read more »

This won’t come as a surprise at all. Even if you’ve only seen a tiny glimpse of my posts these past few years, you’ll know that I’m a bit obsessed with tapenades. Especially the olive kind. A traditional tapenade (Provencal, I believe) is served as a spread to be slathered on bread, or used to… Read more »

Let’s be honest. You don’t ever have a dedicated ‘soup season’ when you live in a place like Chennai. Unless they’re of the chilled variety of course. Those we can do anytime of the year. But come October, when the weather turns and the rains set in, it’s the best time as any to get… Read more »

I don’t know what category of foods this dish falls under – is it a dip? A salad of sorts? A side? None and all of the above? Who’s to say, but we ate it piled high on homemade garlic bread, so I’m leaning towards it being a dip. Making labneh at home is nothing… Read more »

These are my go-to flour tortillas. With a ratio of 2:1 of plain flour to whole wheat, they are straightforward to make and don’t dry out and harden upon cooking. They also don’t feel like there’s even a trace of whole wheat in them. Basically we’re avoiding all the things homemade tortillas are notorious for…. Read more »

I like my scrambled eggs just set. Holding its shape and all the watery bits cooked out, but with soft, large, barely-set curds. They cook in under a minute and you need a non-stick pan for the job (kudos if you’ve managed to do this in cast-iron; they come out like rubbery pucks in mine)…. Read more »

Caesar, but not quite Caesar. I’ll elaborate: this salad has all the makings of a typical Caesar salad—lettuce, toasted bread, Dijon, anchovies, garlic, lemon and olive oil—but with one wildcard ingredient..tahini! Sounds strange to be adding this Middle Eastern sesame paste into the mix, but its nutty creaminess really complements the punchy hit of Dijon… Read more »

I lived in Yorkshire for a year and a half and never learned to make Yorkshire puds there (I did eat my fair share of them though). And here I am in Chennai fiddling about with ratios and proportions. I wish I’d foreseen this obsession a bit sooner. But thankfully these are ridiculously easy to… Read more »

At this rate, I may as well make it official, pivot into a ‘breakfast only’ website and not worry about my lack of enthusiasm for anything else. If you’ll stick around, I promise to make it worth your while with (more!) French toast variations and nestling eggs into anything that even closely resembles a sauce…. Read more »

I often replace potatoes in recipes with yams, sweet potatoes and plantains. Not just for their better nutritional content, but also to get some variety in the food that we eat at home. Needless to say, I obviously wouldn’t replace them if they didn’t taste good. They do of course taste good. Dare I say,… Read more »

Noodle salads have a lot going for them: they’re simple to throw together, versatile in terms of ingredients – vegetables, meats/meat alternatives and dressings, and they also keep really well for make-ahead meals. Any kind of noodle will work here but I’m partial to soba for its distinct nutty flavour. Try and find the Japanese… Read more »

Had to add the ‘no mayo’ banner to the title to make it loud and clear that creaminess can be achieved without dousing everything in (my very biased, crude opinion)—goop. From being a downright rejecter of the eggy dressing, I’ve now become somewhat tolerant to it in a few, very specific things. But either way,… Read more »

Think loaded nachos with all the fixins—peppers, corn, onions, tomatoes, cheese—but with sweet potatoes instead of tortilla chips. Keeping with the Tex-mex theme, I also sometimes add olives and pickled jalapenos to the mix. Choose your own adventure and go with what you want/have on hand. The assemblage: I do a double layer here. You… Read more »

We make sure to get a good rotation of fruits and vegetables into our diet and not eat the same thing every week. So in this pursuit, I bought a whole load of figs when I chanced upon them. And then broke my head over what to make before they rotted on me. Typical. Nothing… Read more »

What makes something a pasta sauce and not a dip? Or a soup, even? You roast and blend vegetables to make soups and dips, but can you not use the same emulsion to coat pasta? I don’t see why not. As an extension to that thought, I present to you my pasta romesco. Traditionally eaten… Read more »