Leafing through my untidy pile of scribbled notes and ingredient lists, I chanced upon a tattered piece of paper from when I was travelling in Turkey. It said ‘dolmas’ (stuffed grape leaves) on the top, and ‘rice, beef, garlic, sumac, raisins, and tomato paste’ jotted below. Not a recipe by any means, but ingredients that… Read more »

The lip-puckering tartness of lemon curd never fails to excite me. Be it in a tart, dolloped over pavlova, or in a parfait like this one I made a while ago, if there’s a dessert with it on the menu, that’s invariably what I’d end up ordering. Some like their curd more sweet than tart,… Read more »

This recipe has been a long time coming. Ever since the mango season began this year, I haven’t been able to stop buying these luscious beauties. Deceptively so, most of them however. Vibrant, voluptuous, and yielding, they are seldom as sweet and flavourful as you think they would be. Freezing and adding them to smoothies… Read more »

If I had to pick one favourite salad, I think this would be it (with Caesar coming in a close second). When my mom and I were travelling in Bangkok and Pattaya many years ago, we ate Som tam (raw papaya salad) in almost every street-food stall that we went to, accompanied with aromatic bowlfuls… Read more »

Korean corn tea, or Oksusu cha is a classic Korean beverage. Although called ‘tea’, it isn’t tea in the normal sense; it’s essentially boiled corn water. Corn kernels are slowly roasted until almost blackened and charred, and boiled in water until the water takes on the slightly nutty flavour of the corn. Drunk hot or… Read more »

I grow tomatoes all year round in my little terrace garden – grape, cherry, heirloom, pear-shaped ones, black plum ones, I’ve tried the whole range. Although I do get a steady harvest all year round—owing to the soaring heat and humidity levels in Chennai—this time of year, in the months of March – June, I… Read more »

Two times in a row I’ve written about pudding with cooked fruit (this is more a porridge, but it’s so good that it could pass off for a pudding!) and two times in a row I’ve written about breakfast foods. A little monotonous I know but bear with me, we’re onto something here. Stewing fruit…. Read more »

  Pudding for breakfast? Best case scenario. This might be the healthiest ‘dessert’ that I’ve ever eaten. Seriously, there isn’t one ingredient in here that isn’t good for you – the sweetness is derived from honey, richness from coconut milk, and the subtle heat and flavourings from the spices and dried apricots. No sugar, butter… Read more »

This salad has been a part of my husband’s lunch box for the past two weeks now. Going on his third today, I was considering at least trying a different dressing to break the monotony, but he says he’d like to stick to this. The man can eat curd and rice for every meal for a whole month without getting sick of it! But back to the salad, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it, right?

  Every so often I come across recipes that boast baked versions tasting better than their originally deep-fried counterparts. Either I haven’t been making them right, or my love for deep-fried food is so great that nothing stands up to it. I’d rather eat it occasionally in its ‘unhealthy’ form than compensate for a dish… Read more »

My dad loves kimchi. The Chinese restaurant we used to frequent in Coimbatore used to serve sliced cabbage (not Napa, the regular variety) tossed with chili powder with some garlic and ginger I think, and serve it as a condiment at the table. Every single time we went there, we’d end up asking for a… Read more »

I’ve talked about harissa before; about its endless possibilities of using it as a marinade for meats, in hearty stews, and to flavour soups with. I considered for a moment using chickpeas and making a stew instead of this soup, but after a quick cupboard rummage proved futile, soup it was! I love the flavour… Read more »

  Have you ever wondered what would happen if you switched up your good ol’ crumble recipe for one that uses ground almonds instead? Delicious things, that’s what. I made this cake with ground almonds instead of flour, and it tasted so good that I made a mental note to do the flour-ground almond switch… Read more »

I’ve become a bit of a hummus fiend at the moment, and have been experimenting with a few different variations: harissa mixed in, with/without tahini, dried/canned chickpeas; next – roasted beets. This middle eastern condiment is so versatile, the possibilities of adding and omitting ingredients are endless. Two things when I started out with this:… Read more »

Who would’ve thought making your own vanilla extract was this easy! Until I recently stumbled upon a recipe that stated that all you needed were vanilla beans and alcohol, I’d been completely oblivious to the fact that you could make it at home! I feel like my food blogging rights are hanging by a very… Read more »