CHICKEN SALAD WITH TAHINI DRESSING

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 »

YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS WITH PEAR & GINGER COMPOTE

I lived in Yorkshire for a year and a half and never learned to make Yorkshire puds there (I did eat my fair share of them though). And here I am in Chennai fiddling about with ratios and proportions. I wish I’d foreseen this obsession a bit sooner. But thankfully these are ridiculously easy to… Read more »

OATMEAL CONGEE WITH MUSHROOMS

At this rate, I may as well make it official, pivot into a ‘breakfast only’ website and not worry about my lack of enthusiasm for anything else. If you’ll stick around, I promise to make it worth your while with (more!) French toast variations and nestling eggs into anything that even closely resembles a sauce…. Read more »

OVEN-ROASTED HONEY-CHILLI POTATOES

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 »

SOBA NOODLES WITH TOFU AND MANGO

Noodle salads have a lot going for them: they’re simple to throw together, versatile in terms of ingredients – vegetables, meats/meat alternatives and dressings, and they also keep really well for make-ahead meals. Any kind of noodle will work here but I’m partial to soba for its distinct nutty flavour. Try and find the Japanese… Read more »

BREAKFAST EGG SALAD (NO MAYO)

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 »

LOADED SWEET POTATO WEDGES

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 »

BALSAMIC FIG JAM

We make sure to get a good rotation of fruits and vegetables into our diet and not eat the same thing every week. So in this pursuit, I bought a whole load of figs when I chanced upon them. And then broke my head over what to make before they rotted on me. Typical. Nothing… Read more »

PASTA ROMESCO WITH KALE

What makes something a pasta sauce and not a dip? Or a soup, even? You roast and blend vegetables to make soups and dips, but can you not use the same emulsion to coat pasta? I don’t see why not. As an extension to that thought, I present to you my pasta romesco. Traditionally eaten… Read more »

ROASTED PLUM AND PANEER SALAD

    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 »

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Latest

  • 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 »

  • 10-MINUTE GARLICKY BOK CHOY

      Adding a time duration to a recipe title is a bold move, and I’ll admit that it sometimes makes me very nervous. Sure, if I were making say, guac, I’d freely tack it on, but for something that involves multiple elements of stir-frying and mixing and chopping, I feel the added pressure to make… Read more »

  • LOW-SUGAR MACERATED PLUM JAM

    I already have a recipe for plum jam on here, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it and it’s one that I’ve been making for years, this is an updated version. (I will be taking down the other post). Is it just me or do you tweak your own recipes more than you try… Read more »

  • DOUBLE BEAN TUNA SALAD

    I usually don’t hold back on posting recipes here that use ingredients like fish sauce and dried shrimp. They’re easy to get a hold of, inexpensive, and will last an age in your pantry. Basically ticks all my boxes. (Most grocery stores stock fish sauce and there’s a whole street dedicated to dried fish in… Read more »

  • ROASTED TOMATO & VEGETABLE PASTA SAUCE

    This is unlike any pasta sauce you may have made before. For starters, there’s no pan involved for the sauce itself; you will of course be cooking your pasta in a pan (yet to come up with a nifty trick to dispense with that step, but we’ll get there). Hate to sound like a broken… Read more »

  • THAI CHAYOTE SALAD

    Here’s a quick lowdown on this mysterious salad vegetable: chayote is a native Mexican plant and is a member of the squash family. (Chayote is called chow chow only in India; chayote seems to be the more commonly used name for it the world over).  I’m going to unabashedly give myself full credit for this,… Read more »

  • DOUGHNUT FRENCH TOAST WITH STRAWBERRY SAUCE

    I don’t have many breakfast dishes on here but that makes sense since breakfast most mornings is porridge and fruit. Every now and then I like a bit of Sunday indulgence though – pretty much all the breakfast dishes on here are as a result of that. The fact that I can recite every Nigella… Read more »

  • ZUCCHINI, CARROT & PANEER LATKES + CHUNKY TOMATO SAUCE

    It’s pretty incredible that what is essentially a shallow-fried vegetable disc takes on so many different forms: pancakes, latkes, fritters, hash browns, cutlets, boxties, patties. And this is just me naming a few off the top of my head. It gets a bit mind boggling especially when within each of those broad categories, there are… Read more »

  • BLUE CHEESE-YOGURT DRESSING

    I’ve never been a fan of mayonnaise. In fact it’s only more recently that I’ve been able to tolerate it in small doses and in certain dishes. It’s entirely possible that my bias stems from this background, but as expected, the popular mayo-blue cheese combination is not for me. I sub it with yogurt instead,… Read more »

  • ROASTED BEET PASTA WITH FETA

    I saw Nadiya Hussain make her version of what she calls ‘blender beetroot pasta’ on her new show on Netflix, and I was immediately taken by its simplicity, accessibility of ingredients, and if you know me—this gorgeous colour! She uses cooked beetroot, garlic, chilli, lemon juice and dill in her recipe, and I realize now… Read more »

  • MEXICAN-STYLE POTATOES + BEAN CHILI

    Okay so here’s the deal with this. I could eat beef chili for meals on end (and often do), so I’ve been on the lookout for a vegetarian-friendly version to make this dish work in our house. (Comparing a bean chili to a beef version does not add up in my head. This is clearly… Read more »

  • COCONUT THAI CURRY FRIED RICE

    When you look up ‘Thai curry fried rice’ online, the only method you’ll find follows this basic outline: cook the curry paste in the wok with the veg and meat, add cooked rice and toss it all up. Basically a regular fried rice but with Thai curry paste stirred into it. Not that there’s anything… Read more »

  • CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI STIR-FRY

    I should probably preface this recipe by saying that I’ve used chilli oil in this dish and I’m afraid it might be an integral component here. Since there are so few ingredients that go into it—oyster sauce, ginger, garlic, soy and chilli oil—I’m not sure it’ll taste the same without it. I’ve made this dish… Read more »

  • CHILLI OIL

    Chilli oil. Third batch in less than a month questions why I don’t have this up here yet. I’ve been meaning to make my own chilli oil for so long now, that when my friend posted her recipe a few weeks ago I took it as a sign and went for it. So easy to… Read more »