Medu Vada | Pongal Festive Recipe
Medu Vada | Ulunthu Vada ~ South Indian Lentil Fritters Happy Pongal All! To those familiar with the festival, and the dish ‘pongal‘ itself, these fluffy crispy urad dal fritters, medu vada, are the thing happy childhood memories are often made of… and medu vada has a way of turning simple meals into feasts (a … Continue reading
Thenkuzhal Murukku | Crispy Fried Rice Flour Snack
Thenkuzhal Murukku | Crispy Fried Rice Flour Snack It’s been busy, to say the least, with everything seemingly spinning around the ten tiny little fingers and toes we have bundled up here at home. And frenzied Diwali planning with a mommy-brain did not go well. Well, lets just say I barely managed to whip up the … Continue reading
Oreo Truffles
Oreo Truffles ~ Cookies and Cream Cheese balls dipped in melted chocolate I had never heard of these until I tasted them at a friend’s holiday party last December. Mind-blowing! And I really couldn’t believe these gourmet-looking, gourmet-tasting, home-made chocolates were made out of just 3 ingredients?! Turns out these are all the rage on the … Continue reading
Zebra Bundt Cake
Zebra Bundt Cake What’s not to like about a marble cake, patterned like a zebra and baked in a bundt pan? So it was an easy choice for a cake experiment… plus, if I get it right I might even be able to play with the colors (imagine making this in black and orange for … Continue reading
7 Cup Barfi
7 Cup Barfi | 7 Cup Cake with Besan and Coconut It’s Diwali today and I am super-excited cause my little guy is actually excited about the festival this year.. yayy! It’s definitely not the same way it feels when you’re back home in India, where the streets and cities all light up days leading up … Continue reading
Javvarisi Semiya Payasam | Sabudana Seviyan Kheer
Javvarisi Semiya Payasam | Sabudana Seviyan Kheer Have you noticed how food has the ability to teleport you to places that only exist in your memory from the past? I only had to think of sago (javvarisi / sabudana), and in no time I was transported back to the sunny kitchen at my grandmother’s home. What’s … Continue reading
Flan | Caramel Custard
Flan | Caramel Custard This post would hands down win the longest-time-in-blog-drafts award, if there was one. The first time I put together this post was in 2012, sometime around the holiday season when a friend of mine asked me if I had a good flan recipe. I gave her what I considered my best … Continue reading
Rich Chocolate Beetroot Cake
Rich Chocolate Beetroot Cake Every once in a while there is a recipe or dish that takes over you such that it becomes the centerpiece of every party or special occasion in your life. For me, it’s this cake right now. When I was tasked with being the cake-maker for a dear friend’s baby shower, … Continue reading
Atta Laddu | Whole Wheat Flour Laddoo | Diwali Sweets
Atta Laddu | Whole Wheat Flour Laddoo | Diwali Sweets ~ Sweetened balls of roasted wheat flour, bound together with clarified butter If halwa season is here, how can laddus be far behind? Well, it’s that time of the year again – when you just want to tell yourself that gluten-free, low carb and bio-metric numbers … Continue reading
Gajar ka Halwa | Indian Carrot Pudding
Gajar ka Halwa | Indian Carrot Pudding ~ Grated carrots slow-cooked in milk, sugar and ghee Did you know that carrots can sprout flowers if left in thriving considerations (i.e., produce drawer of the refrigerator) for a really long time? Well, I just found out. So between a bunch of carrots pleading to be used, … Continue reading
Butter Biscuits
Butter Biscuits ~ Egg-less soft white butter cookies Earth – Round. Sun – Hot. Butter biscuit – Buttery white, bunny soft. Growing up, every one must have had their fill munching on butter biscuits at one time or the other. I had many. And they were always these super soft cubes of melt-in-your-mouth white biscuits … Continue reading
Badam Halwa / Indian Almond Dessert
Badam Halwa / Indian Almond Dessert Diwali’s here. I know, it hardly feels that way especially if you are reading this from the US or some other place far from home. And that’s how its been every year that I’ve been away as well.. but I expect this one to be different. Reason? Well, I’ve … Continue reading
Pattani Sundal / Dried peas salad with green mango and coconut
Thenga Maanga Pattani Sundal / Dried peas salad with green mango and coconut Another Navratri special and a snack that just might bring back beach memories for those from Chennai đŸ™‚ My favorite part of this beach sundal, given I’ve never had it in a beach setting, is the tanginess that hits you every time a bit … Continue reading
Pasiparuppu Vella Payasam / Indian Pudding with Lentils and Jaggery
Pasiparuppu Vella Payasam / Indian Pudding with Lentils and Jaggery Navaratri season is here… well, even if you are not going to be observing fasts or doing poojas every one of the 10 days of this festival, it sure does set the mood for the holiday season. Festive season is in full swing in most … Continue reading
Sweet Kozhukattai / Vella Kozhukattai Recipe / Ganesh Chaturti Special
Sweet Kozhukattai / Vella Kozhukattai ~ Sweet dumplings of rice-flour filled with coconut, jaggery and other goodies. Lord Ganesha sure knew a thing or two about good food. His favorite dish is this sweet dumpling made with steamed rice, called Kozhukattai – also known by these other names: Kozhakkattai, Vella (jaggery) Kozhukattai, Modak, Kadubu, Kudumu, … Continue reading
Aish Cooks 