I fashioned my own little spiral-bound recipe book before I moved to Chennai, and this is one of the first recipes that I jotted down in it. Sounds simple enough, but just you try getting a generational recipe from your grandmum whose main units of measurement are ‘palmful’, ‘fistful’, a very rough translation of a… Read more »
I already have a recipe for Thai curry paste on here. It’s one where I’ve used red chillies for heat and borrowed from the yellow and green pastes in terms of spiceage to make a kind of a hybrid orange version. I personally prefer a Thai red curry to its green counterpart, but that’s not… Read more »
I like guavas alright, but if you saw my fruit basket you’d think that I have some kind of an obsession with them. I don’t know what it is, but I seem to always have a few knocking about the house. I prefer the pink-fleshed ones to the white, but to be honest, that’s got… Read more »
Corn grits—albeit not a South Indian staple—are easily available in Chennai. They come packaged in a few different varieties in bigger stores and are also sold by the kilo, wrapped in newspaper, in smaller shops. They work as a great replacement for polenta, so if you’re someone that shells out ₹₹₹ for that expensive stuff… Read more »
Adding a time duration to a recipe title is a bold move, and I’ll admit that it sometimes makes me very nervous. Sure, if I were making say, guac, I’d freely tack it on, but for something that involves multiple elements of stir-frying and mixing and chopping, I feel the added pressure to make… Read more »
I already have a recipe for plum jam on here, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it and it’s one that I’ve been making for years, this is an updated version. (I will be taking down the other post). Is it just me or do you tweak your own recipes more than you try… Read more »
I usually don’t hold back on posting recipes here that use ingredients like fish sauce and dried shrimp. They’re easy to get a hold of, inexpensive, and will last an age in your pantry. Basically ticks all my boxes. (Most grocery stores stock fish sauce and there’s a whole street dedicated to dried fish in… Read more »
Here’s a quick lowdown on this mysterious salad vegetable: chayote is a native Mexican plant and is a member of the squash family. (Chayote is called chow chow only in India; chayote seems to be the more commonly used name for it the world over). I’m going to unabashedly give myself full credit for this,… Read more »
I’ve never been a fan of mayonnaise. In fact it’s only more recently that I’ve been able to tolerate it in small doses and in certain dishes. It’s entirely possible that my bias stems from this background, but as expected, the popular mayo-blue cheese combination is not for me. I sub it with yogurt instead,… Read more »
Okay so here’s the deal with this. I could eat beef chili for meals on end (and often do), so I’ve been on the lookout for a vegetarian-friendly version to make this dish work in our house. (Comparing a bean chili to a beef version does not add up in my head. This is clearly… Read more »
When you look up ‘Thai curry fried rice’ online, the only method you’ll find follows this basic outline: cook the curry paste in the wok with the veg and meat, add cooked rice and toss it all up. Basically a regular fried rice but with Thai curry paste stirred into it. Not that there’s anything… Read more »
I should probably preface this recipe by saying that I’ve used chilli oil in this dish and I’m afraid it might be an integral component here. Since there are so few ingredients that go into it—oyster sauce, ginger, garlic, soy and chilli oil—I’m not sure it’ll taste the same without it. I’ve made this dish… Read more »
Chilli oil. Third batch in less than a month questions why I don’t have this up here yet. I’ve been meaning to make my own chilli oil for so long now, that when my friend posted her recipe a few weeks ago I took it as a sign and went for it. So easy to… Read more »
When I was photographing this raitha earlier today, my husband came into the room and said “I can’t believe you don’t have this one up yet.” I make this so often during the week, sometimes as a side that we eat alongside rice, and sometimes—I’m a weirdo if you didn’t get the memo—as a snack… Read more »
I have recipes on here for oven-roasted sweet potato, taro, and now elephant foot yam. (Slowing inching closer to exhausting all the tuber options available to me.) Potatoes of course do very well in the oven: wedges, fries, baked potatoes, cubed and roasted, whole-roasted baby spuds – your imagination is your only limitation. And even… Read more »
