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 »

  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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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. 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 »

My only real grief with gobi manchurian is that it’s fried. Not that I won’t eat it, it’s quite the opposite actually—I love it so much that I’ll eat it, and I’ll want to eat it every time I think about it. Oven-baking makes these a healthier option not to mention far easier and hassle-free… Read more »