December for me is an exciting month of the year. Even though the days are shorter and colder than usual, the spirit of the holidays lingers on; it is hard to ignore the excitement going around. But as days draw closer to the end of the month and as the clock resets to a new year and, it is but natural to reflect back on the things that happened the past year, ponder over the what if’s and also hope for an exciting and fruitful next year. These last few days I have been pondering about what 2008 has…
Madhuram’s Eggless Buterscotch Cookies
Happy Holidays Everybody! After seeing the baking spree and the goodies baked on other blogs, I simply could not resist sitting on the sidelines and drool over the virtual creations. I wanted to join the bandwagon myself and try my hand at making some cookies. Now I have had not much luck in baking, more so because I first look for easy recipes, then look for eggless version and then I look for low fat alternatives. By the time I have narrowed my selection I would have lost half the battle and the end product is not scrumptious.…
Coconut Corriander Rice
Coriander is one of our favorite herbs and I use it for garnishing Daals, Sabjis, curries, rice, salads etc pretty much everything else. Even though I say garnishing in a light sense, I sometimes get overboard and even use half of the coriander leaves just in one dish especially daal. The herb wilts in heat and its volume is lost but imparts its wonderful aroma in the process. Because of our special affinity toward this herb, depending on the size I usually buy 2-3 bunches of the coriander from the grocery each time. Last week I had lots of…
Black Eyed Bean/ Chawli Dill curry/Lobia Curry
Weather seems to be getting gloomier by the day. It is getting colder here each day to the point that it is freezing. The already bad commute is getting even worse and it takes hours to go back and forth between home and work. Also it is pitch dark and cold by the time we get home that sometimes there is no motivation to cook or even to do the normal chores. That said the gloom is also not all that bad compared to the people in the North East part of United States where there is no power…
Akki Rotti / Thalipeeth and Coconut Chutney
Akki Rotti means rice flour pancake in Kannada and is a rice-based specialty breakfast item from the sate of Karnataka. This is also very similar to “Thalipeeth” made in Maharashtra. This is served along with chutney and a dollop of ghee or butter on the side. As with every other recipe there are so many different ways of doing this “Rotti”, some add shredded carrots, papdi liva (avarekai), dill etc to the dough. I pretty much follow my mother’s recipe here using the basic ingredients like onion, coriander, cumin seeds. She adds some oil/butter and cream to the…
Vegetable Cakes for Kids
Kids are fun to be with. It is a joy to see their innocence, sweet blabbering and their tiny working minds. They are unpretentious and just about everything seems to make them happy. Oh wait, I forgot to add a golden “if” clause to the statement above, so let me rephrase it; they are joy and more only if they are well fed and not hungry. Otherwise their tantrums and outbursts are joy to none. But then here is the eternal conundrum; even though they are hungry, they don’t eat anything offered to them which is healthy. They come up…