(MOSTLY) WHOLE WHEAT WAFFLES

This is not one of those recipes that claims its whole grain and then when you scroll down it reads—¼ cup whole grain and 2 cups plain flour. Just wanted to get that out of the way right off the bat. Here’s the split up of these (mostly) whole wheat waffles: 1 ⅙ cups whole… Read more »

PASTA WITH SPINACH & CHILLI PESTO + QUICK ROASTED TOMATOES

I’m on a mission to 1) sneak spinach into everything. 2) take my spinach+chilli+cheese combo and apply it to as many variations as I can possibly think up. Cheese in question for said combo is usually paneer, but this is a slightly different take on it. I say ‘sneak’, but we actually love spinach. But… Read more »

CHICKEN SALAD WITH A SPICY YOGURT DRESSING

Okay first up, guess what makes the yogurt dressing spicy? PICKLE! I’m not talking about gherkins or brined vegetables, I’m talking about our very own ooruga! (South-Indian pickle for the uninitiated.) I figured if you could use curry pastes, harissa and other such punchy condiments to boost the flavour of dishes with one simple addition,… Read more »

SPINACH & PANEER STUFFED BANANA PEPPER BAKE

The main idea and concept for this dish comes from my aunt. It’s her adaptation of the Mexican classic – Chile Rellenos. In typical Rellenos fashion, her version uses only cheese in the filling (no spinach). After stuffing the peppers, she batter-fries them in an egg white-flour mixture before dousing in tomato sauce. Traditionally they’d… Read more »

ORANGE FRENCH TOAST

If you haven’t put it together yet—I’m a French toast junkie. Not only are they ridiculously simple to throw together, they are versatile too. Use any fruit that’s in season, switch up the spices, and it’s one of those dishes that’s comforting and easy to do while at the same time giving you something new… Read more »

THAI CHICKEN SALAD

If you’re someone that makes curry pastes and the like in bulk, there’s a good chance you’re also looking to use them in as many different ways as possible. I make and squirrel away huge batches of pesto, pasta sauces, curry pastes etc. and to be honest, as much as I revel in the idea… Read more »

MUSHROOM MASALA

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 »

THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE

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 »

BURMESE-STYLE GUAVA SALAD

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 »

GRITS + CHICKPEAS & SMOKY VEGETABLES

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 »

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Latest

  • GARLIC-SMEARED ROSEMARY ROAST CHICKEN

    The best part about doing a roast is that the leftovers can be reincarnated into multiple ways through the week – shredded into salads, sandwiches, quesadillas (kudos, Nigella), the bones used to make the best chicken broth..the list is endless. I recently stumbled upon a recipe that uses leftover chicken in meltingly cheese-y nachos (why… Read more »

  • Twenty six

    I celebrated my birthday last week. The big 26. Why the big hype for that? When you have an unwavering feeling of 18-going-on-19 sustained over so many years – and when you’re actually one and a half times the age in your head – I guess that’s kind of a big deal. I know something… Read more »

  • SPICY STIR-FRIED PRAWNS

    Chemmeen Ularthiyathu is the original name of this dish, but that’s the only hard part about this recipe; pronouncing it! I know I don’t have any Indian recipes on the blog – not yet anyway – so I thought it was high time I filled that void. This spicy prawn stir-fry made with coconut oil… Read more »

  • Cointreau-glazed orange bundt cake

    Today, we’re talking oranges and orange-flavoured liqueurs (again). We seem to have a bit of an unplanned theme going on here! In my post about Orangecello earlier this year, I’d talked about using liqueurs to spruce up a cake or a pudding. Here’s a go at that from my end! The Cointreau was, however, a bit… Read more »

  • VANILLA BEAN PANNA COTTA WITH PASSION FRUIT

    Panna cotta at this time of the year? You want to be hearing about hearty, comforting desserts and warmth-inducing drink recipes. Unfortunately, Chennai as we know it has a completely different season shift – hot, hotter, hottest. We are at the moment slowly but steadily gliding from the ‘hot’ to the ‘hotter’ threshold, with the… Read more »

  • CHICKEN KHOW SUEY

    I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to tell you about this stunner of a dish. If you’ve already skimmed through the list of ingredients, I know what you’re thinking. I won’t lie, this recipe does call for quite a few elements and steps, but I guarantee that you will not regret it. Khow… Read more »

  • ORANGE-SCENTED BUTTERMILK SCONES

    You know those important life-altering decisions that you take your time to ponder over? Like choosing your career path, moving to a new city, or getting married? I don’t think it’s normal that I say this, but I can handle those (We’re moving to Spain? Bring it on!) The ones that I spend agonizingly long… Read more »

  • BEER-BATTERED FISH WITH TARTARE SAUCE

    There are a lot of things that come to mind when I think of England. Tea houses. Knitting needles. Mind the gap. Dubstep. News agents. Chavs. Fish and chips. Black cabs. Quirky pub names (which I love, by the way – Bungalows and Bears?) James Bond. Chicken tikka (the irony 🙂 )..I could go on…. Read more »

  • ORANGECELLO

    I love the combination of orange and vodka. In this case, aesthetically, and taste wise. This is a spin on the traditional Limoncello, an Italian liqueur made using lemons and had as an after-meal digestivo. Orangecello has a very intense orange flavour and you’d be surprised at how much flavour from these citrus beauties gets… Read more »

  • PLUM CLAFOUTIS

    If you’re not familiar with clafoutis, you’re in for a real treat! I think it may be best described as a baked custard dotted with fruit, traditionally made in a cast iron skillet. A sort of pancake-meets-flan type affair. Fabulously versatile and very adaptable, this dessert can be made using whatever fruit is in season… Read more »

  • GREEK QUINOA SALAD

    I’m a salad girl. No, not the kind that would go to a restaurant and pick on some greenage for a meal (hell no) but definitely one that would get it as a side. That kind of salad girl. I had my first taste of Quinoa about a month ago. Until then, this obscure little… Read more »

  • CHOCOLATINES

    Is there anything better than a warm buttery croissant? Well actually, there is. Meet the Chocolatine (also called Pain au chocolat). Traditionally made in a shape that’s more cylindrical than crescent/crab-like, these delights are what got me through many a rough library night back in Uni. Scrambling to finish cramming a whole semester’s worth of… Read more »

  • PORTUGUESE TARTS

    On a bit of a whim, I decided to make tarts. Portuguese style. Speaking of whims, I also ended up indulging in three of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks. Known for his clever twists on re-creating classics in record time, it didn’t seem like the best idea to play around with one of his recipes. But I… Read more »

  • AUBERGINE AND BROCCOLI PASTA BAKE

    I love adding fresh veggies to my meal, and am constantly on the hunt to find recipes that can incorporate them. Ordinarily I find vegetarian dishes to be a real downer, so I had to pull out the big guns here..cheese! And not just one, but 2 types; Parmesan for the depth of flavour and… Read more »

  • BERRY FILLED CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

    I ended up engaging in some “insider trading” of my own with these cupcakes, by scooping out the center and filling it with a gooey mixed-berry preserve. Seeing that it was Martha Stewart’s recipe, I just HAD to point out the irony! (Read : Martha Stewart – Insider trading scandal) Personally, I think a good cupcake… Read more »