Crispy Masala Vada

This past Thanks Giving weekend we got a much needed break of 4 days from the usual grind. With the temperatures continually dropping down it was a welcome break of not having to wake up during the wee hours of morning. We did not have any plans of going out of town, so we pretty much stayed at home and relaxed. (Click on the picture to see enarged view) One of those days, we also took up the arduous task of cleaning up the closet, sorting out old papers, putting some things to recycle and throwing away of junk things.…

Lemon Rice Recipe(Chitranna)

Lemon Rice also called Chitranna in Kannada is an easy to prepare yet flavorful rice dish. This is also a good way to use the left over rice or maybe a quick dish idea when unexpected guests arrive. The flavor of this depends on the strong seasoning (Tadka) that is prepared before the cooked rice is added. Even though the seasoning is prepared using simple and  readily available ingredients like curry leaves, asafetida, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, daals they combine together to form an aromatic, sapid base to accommodate the rice. Peanuts add a nice crunch while the coconut balances…

Seasoned Yogurt Rice (Mosaranna)

Diwali came by and went on in a jiffy as usual.  But along with that came flurry of activities, cooking, hoarding, more cooking and packing of caloriesJ. Diwali is just an excuse, but frankly the hoarding starts a week before when the preparation of sweets, snacks starts and ends a week later with goodies brought from guests.  This festival involves preparing so many different varieties of eatables that it is hard to resist the temptation. Why do inviting, decadent, tasty stuff have to be so bad for health? I wish I were transported to some unknown planet where oil and…