CHEESY SAVOURY FRENCH TOAST + GARLICKY MUSHROOMS & SPINACH + CHUNKY TOMATOES

I’m back with *another* French toast recipe. No surprises there but it’s a savoury one this time! The title is a mouthful but there’s no other way to describe what this is: you sandwich melty cheese between two slices of bread, dip in a Dijon-spiked egg mixture and cook over a low flame for the… Read more »

BAKED PANKO & PARMESAN CRUSTED ZUCCHINI

I never know what to make with zucchini. I’m always tempted to buy them when they’re fresh at the store and then they’ll sit languishing in my fridge until I finally pull them out and turn them into..soup. Nothing wrong with zucchini soup, but I constantly feel like I’m undermining their potential. I can count… Read more »

(LOW-SUGAR) JAMMY STRAWBERRY CAKE

Two punnets of strawberries for a 9” cake might sound a bit mad, but trust me, there’s a reason for this: 1) as they cook, they shrivel up, so what looks like an excessive amount is actually just right to get nice big wodges of tart strawberry in each bite. 2) this cake takes slightly… Read more »

(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 »

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Latest

  • HERB CRUSTED SEA BASS IN A TOMATO-CUMIN SAUCE

    When I moved to Chennai 9 months ago, I remember making a mental note of all the things to do here to fully experience the ‘big city life’. At the top of the list right under street shopping, was to check out its diverse food scene. Restaurants, old and new, recommended and side-lined, I wanted… Read more »

  • Gambas al pil pil : CHILLI-GARLIC PRAWNS IN OLIVE OIL

    Hot summer days would mean a continuation of the salad theme. I’m not sure how and when exactly this switch happened, but it may have been something to do with my piqued interest after experiencing first-hand, the benefits of fresh and light lunch options. On an unrelated note, I bought some green tomatoes recently –… Read more »

  • BAKED STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE

    Vanilla and strawberry have had a love affair for as long as I can remember. Look in the dessert section of any restaurant menu, recipe book, or café window, and you’ll see them canoodling joyously like little else matters. But who’s to disapprove? This relationship was meant to be. Cheesecakes have taken over the world,… Read more »

  • 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 »