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POMEGRANATE MOLASSES

If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you will have noticed that this is my second batch of molasses in the past month. I had no complaints about the first batch except that it yielded a mere ¼ cup of molasses (I got up to a ½ cup thereabouts on the second run). I wanted… Read more »

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ROASTED RED PEPPER AND WALNUT PESTO

This recipe is part muhammara (roasted peppers + garlic + walnuts) and part pesto (basil + garlic + Parmesan). A few things that influenced my decision to go down this eclectic route – I wanted something that would keep for a while: seven large peppers would make a bigger batch than we would be able… Read more »

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BLENDER BANANA OAT PANCAKES + BERRY COMPOTE

  Let’s face it, most recipes that substitute white flour with other options almost always turn out dodgy at best. At least for me they do. Processed-the-heck-out-of flour provides that aerated, light quality that its whole-wheat counterpart or other gluten-free options just cannot seem to compete with. Buckwheat tart shells, rice flour cakes, amaranth flour… Read more »

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ROASTED PEARS WITH BLUE CHEESE, WALNUTS & HONEY

Blue cheese, pears, walnuts and honey are a match made in heaven – that’s no revelation. But most recipes that combine these ingredients have other components alongside: lettuce or arugula in a salad, baked into a tart, sprinkled over pizzas, mounded atop crackers. They all taste great, I mean give me this combo in any… Read more »

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KOHLRABI AND APPLE SALAD

  Admittedly a boring photograph. In the (hypercritical) eyes of someone trying to make food look as good as it tastes, it falls short. Way short. A herb for contrast would’ve been great for this but nothing worked with the flavours here – mint, basil, coriander, parsley, nothing. My biggest food related pet peeve is… Read more »

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BAKED BEANS (USING BLACK-EYED BEANS)

Hate to break it to you, but baked beans are not baked and black-eyed peas are not peas. Baked beans are made on the stove-top with no baking or oven involved. The name came about because Heinz—one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of tinned baked beans—used to follow a method of filling cans with… Read more »

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OYSTER MUSHROOM PORIYAL

If oyster mushrooms are hard to come by where you live, button mushrooms are not a great substitute but they will still work. We find oyster mushrooms year round in Coimbatore but unfortunately not in Chennai, so I have, albeit begrudgingly, accepted the button mushroom as a half-decent substitute. As is the case with any… Read more »

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PEANUT, SESAME & COCONUT BALLS WITH JAGGERY

These peanut balls teetered precariously on the edge of turning into peanut butter but the desiccated coconut salvaged them. Not that peanut butter could ever be a bad thing, but I had my mind set on these. Peanuts, when blended, will eventually become peanut butter. These balls follow the same blending process, only, you don’t… Read more »

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COCONUT FLOUR FROM LEFTOVER PULP

This is a satisfying process: collecting enough coconut pulp—the bi-product or ‘waste’ from squeezing out coconut milk—drying it out (in the sun, no less) and blending it up to make your own flour! I don’t know about you but this is as up my alley as it gets. (Also another recipe to add to my… Read more »

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HOMEMADE GHEE

Contrary to popular belief, ghee is not clarified butter. Let me clarify. Bad puns aside, here’s what I’ve learned about this: butter, unlike oils, is not 100% fat. It is—in an approximate sense since you would have to factor in the quality of your butter—about 80 – 90% fat and 10 – 20% water. Butter… Read more »

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RAGI KOOZH (FERMENTED FINGER MILLET AND RICE PORRIDGE)

Finger millet (ragi) porridge has an infamous reputation for being dull, bland, and—especially if you went to my boarding school—a stodgy mass that you’d be forced to eat at breakfast every morning. Although I could always tolerate it, it definitely was not something that I particularly enjoyed eating. Fast forward a decade, and here I… Read more »

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COCONUT AND MANGO CHIA PUDDING

We eat eggs for breakfast every single day of the week, which as much as I like, is a bit of a shame because breakfast foods are the most fun to cook in my opinion (albeit not on a busy weekday morning). To get around this, a slightly more elaborate Sunday breakfast tradition has arisen:… Read more »

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GRANOLA BARS

I know. The world doesn’t need another recipe for granola bars. But I’m here to throw out some ideas and variations to the ones that you normally make, maybe change things up a bit? Specifically this part: dates. Dates are a common enough addition to granola bars for sweetness, but I find that unless you… Read more »

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VEGETABLE STOCK FROM KITCHEN SCRAPS

I don’t know if you can tell that I’m quite big on this nose-to-tail / root-to-shoot (?) concept of cooking. Not only is it a great way to reduce waste in the kitchen (and save money), but it also forces me to be creative; think outside the box and utilize as much as I can…. Read more »

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PRESERVED LEMON MARINADE

I try to refrain from using words like ‘best’ and ‘favourite’ to describe recipes. But that’s exactly what happened here, and I’ve had to delete two entire paragraphs lest I sound like a used-car salesman. Not a good place to start. Preserved lemons have been making an appearance in a lot of dishes in my… Read more »