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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Sweet and spicy Asian beef burgers? Spicy, sticky Asian beef burgers? Asian beef burgers with a sticky sauce? I basically considered all the possible permutations before settling on ‘Asian beef burgers’. This minimalism thing works for me in completely disjointed ways. I have a confession. I don’t post recipes on here that I haven’t tried… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Taro/taro root or colocasia as it’s sometimes called is a starchy vegetable of the taro plant. Native to India and South-East Asia, taro also forms a staple in diets in Hawaii, the Caribbean and Africa. Taro ‘root’ is actually the corm—swollen underground stem—of the plant, so technically not a root. Just some casual food semantics… Read more »

I’m not one for veganizing foods unless I’m cooking for someone who’s lactose intolerant or doesn’t like dairy (happy to report that I haven’t met anyone that falls in the latter category). Having said that, I do however try and reduce my dairy intake for a couple of reasons. One, most cheeses that are available… Read more »

Brussels sprouts in a South-Indian style recipe might sound terribly inauthentic. It is, and it’s probably why it comes as a surprise to most people when I tell them about this poriyal (as well as ones using oyster mushrooms, broccoli and lettuce). Growing up though, this was pretty normal. When I was at boarding school… Read more »

   When it comes to stock-making, there are no real rules. (I would argue that there are no real rules to cooking in general, but I’ll hold off on that one for now). Depending on whether you’re making a Western style of stock or an Asian one, the ingredients will vary widely. Western stocks usually… Read more »

   Until three years ago, I didn’t know how to make yogurt at home. What seems like a basic enough task now evaded me for a long time. I pulled out all the tricks and hacks I found on the internet from measuring exact temperatures using a food thermometer to setting it in ceramic, stainless… Read more »