I call this a breakfast salad cos, well, you know, it has bread and eggs. And I eat it for breakfast. (Food names and classifications are so arbitrary though – this could just as easily be eaten as a part of another meal too of course). Caesar salad – a classic. I didn’t mean to… Read more »
Keeping with the theme of salads for breakfast, here’s my charred broccoli with (dried) cranberries and a spicy tahini dressing. I had a general idea of the flavours I wanted to use here: the slight bitterness from charred broccoli, with pops of sour and sweet from the dried fruit. The tahini gives this dish a… Read more »
It’s been a minute since I’ve been on here, and in a move that will surprise absolutely no one, I’ve resurfaced with a recipe that features aubergine, tomato and red peppers. And chilli butter. And garlic yogurt. I’m nothing if not a one trick pony. BUT, in my defence though, I can’t think of a… Read more »
We eat all kinds of things for breakfast. Pancakes, waffles and French toasts—in all their various forms—make an appearance at least every other weekend, as do savoury porridges, quesadillas, honey chilli potatoes (brilliant alongside Turkish eggs), fritters, ratatouille and grilled vegetables. Salads too – both fruit and veg. Given this, classifying something under the breakfast… 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 »
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 »
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 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 »
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 »
There’s no real stone-fruit season in Chennai. Sure, you have those few weeks around this time every year that you get plums, peaches and if you’re lucky, cherries and nectarines. But other than plums and the odd batch of rock-hard peaches that come from nearby hill stations, stores rely solely on produce from… Read more »
I’d like to think of myself as an organised cook. Relatively speaking of course (I use the term very loosely and my husband thinks even that’s a stretch). I meal-plan and cook using locally sourced and seasonal ingredients for the most part and also try to minimize waste as much as possible. And those… Read more »
You’re probably on a first-name basis with potato hash but have you tried a sweet potato version? I try and substitute these sweet spuds in most recipes that call for potatoes not just because of their better nutritional profile, but also because I love their subtle sweetness especially when paired with something deeply savoury like… Read more »
Pears are surprisingly hard to come by in Chennai. Sure, you find the locally grown green ones—the ‘hill station’ pears—but those still run a certain seasonal cycle and you see them around for maybe one or two months of the year. These local varieties are usually not very flavourful however, and the texture is often… Read more »
I know ‘bubble and squeak’ sounds like a made-up name to sneak veggies into your toddler’s lunch. Unfortunately though—at least for those of us that enjoy quirky food names: oat-thappams, anyone?—it’s pretty straightforward. Bubble and squeak originated in the UK and was a dish of cabbage and fried meat. And the name came about because… Read more »
