Chocolate Pastry Rolls

          Merry Christmas, I see a lot of posts of cakes and cookies in blogs, even I wanted to try some, but this time I couldn't make. I am yet to bake in my new built-in oven ( got a demo only a couple of days back, after calling the customer care more than 5 times) and then I am going on a trip tomorrow for 10 days. I made these Chocolate Pastry Rolls sometime back with the puff pastry that I had made for our Eggless Baking Challenges, I had stored the puff pastry in the freezer. This is so simple to make, especially if you have ready made puff pastry, it just needs under 30 minutes to make these. They came out really good, with a nice chocolaty taste and coffee flavor, perfect for parties, or as an evening snack along with your coffee or tea..

Spinach Curry

          I am really late at posting this month's challenge for the 'Shhhhh Cooking Secretly' event, I was paired with Amrita Iyer of The Food Samaritan. She had given me spinach and yogurt/curd as the two secret ingredients, there are number of dishes that we can make with this combo, but to do a dish, camouflaging these ingredients was a little tough, especially spinach. I tried something else with them, but then the dish didn't turn up to my satisfaction, so then I finally ended up with this curry. This is a simple, flavorful and delicious curry, I have cooked the spinach in an almond, poppy seeds and yogurt sauce, and it goes very well with rotis, naans and pilafs..

Mushroom And Peas Curry

          Today's dish is another curry, mushrooms and peas go very well together, I have already posted a kurma and a rice with this combination. In this curry, I have used a paste with fried tomatoes and onions, this gives the gravy for the dish and a nice flavor and color to the curry. It's a simple curry, other than the time taken to roast and grind the paste, it takes very less time as the mushrooms and peas get cooked fast and it goes very well with both rice and rotis..

Potato Stuffed Pavakkai ( Bitter Gourd, Karela )

          Not many people like bitter gourd, but I know people who really love it too, my family lies in between, as long as I make something with it which doesn't taste very bitter, they will have it. Today's dish is again my friend's recipe, I loved it, the first time I tasted it, before this dish, I've never seen baby bitter gourds which are slightly bigger ( the size of a lemon ), I have used only the very small ones ( you can check out the recipe here ). I think, this variety is available in Bangalore and cities in Tamilnadu that are closer to Bangalore. Anyway, coming to the recipe, we stuff the bitter gourds with a potato filling and deep fry them, of course, I agree this is not the healthy way of eating this vegetable, but you can make this as special dish for an occasion. They came out so crispy and delicious, would go very well with rice and dal or sambar saadam, but it tasted it so good, I can have this as an appetizer too..

Blueberry And Cream Cheese Muffins

          I can't believe, it's now 3 years since I started this blog, I just did it like that, though I was a regular visitor to many blogs, I never thought that I would start a blog some day. Now, this blog has become a part of my life, I am trying to be as regular as possible, in posting, visiting other blogs and also trying to present the dishes as best as I could. The comments and encouragement from my fellow bloggers and friends is my inspiration which drives me to keep doing this, I should thank you all for that. I would have loved to share a delicious multi-layered cake today, but I am a little lazy when it comes to frosting and cake decoration, so at least I thought, I shall do something sweet for today. These Blueberry And Cream Cheese Muffins are absolutely delicious, at the same time are very easy to make too and they are eggless and butterless, can have them for breakfast or as an evening snack along with your tea or coffee..

Potato Dishes

          The potato is a very versatile vegetable and is liked by most of us, be it kids or adults, very few people do not like this vegetable. Curries made out of it, either a dry, semi-dry or gravy go very well with both rice and rotis/flat breads, we can even use them in sandwiches, they are used as a stuffing for flat breads, along with other vegetables in rice varieties and also in desserts ( I have to still try them out in sweets ). I have a large collection of potato dishes, so thought of compiling them together and putting them under categories, so that it'll be easy to browse through them. In most of the dishes the potato is the main ingredient or it's used in combination with another vegetable..

Watermelon Curry

          I think, the first time I saw or heard about this Watermelon Curry was on a TV show, it was about Rajasthani food, till then, I never even thought that a curry can be made with this fruit. I knew that we can use the white part of the watermelon in cooking, but the most that I could think to do with the red part was in juices, sorbets or some desserts. The show didn't give the recipe, so I turned to the web and the couple of blogs that I saw used a recipe from the book by Camellia Panjabi, '50 Great Curries Of India'. The list of ingredients that I have used is the same but I made the curry in my own regular way. This curry has a sweetish taste, but it also has a little spice in too, since we add chilly powder to it. It would go very well with stuffed parathas, since it has the sweet and spicy taste like the Mango Chunda, that we serve with parathas, do give it a try the next time you buy watermelon..

Cream Of Broccoli Soup

          Cream Of Broccoli Soup, this has been on my do-list for a long time, now with the chilly weather outside, perfect one for a warm bowl of soup, I tried it out, some time last week. Though the name is Cream Of  Broccoli Soup, I have not used any cream in the soup, just some milk. The soup needs just a few commonly available ingredients and doesn't take much time to prepare too. It came out very well, creamy and delicious, just serve it with some bread and salad for a complete meal..

Raw (Baby) Jackfruit Curry, Palakkai Poriyal

          Raw Jackfruit or baby jackfruit/palakkai, I have never cooked this vegetable until now, and, of course when staying in the US, I could find only the canned version of this vegetable. My mother used to make a poriyal/curry with raw jackfruit and I had wanted to try it sometime, when I saw them here in Bangalore, I wanted to try it and my friend helped me to pick one and she also gave me this recipe. Initially I thought peeling and preparing the vegetable for cooking was a difficult task, but it's just peeling and dicing. This dish is very easy to make and tastes really good ( like a mix of potato and cabbage ) and goes very well with rice and dal/sambar..

Peanut Tomato Chutney, Verkadalai Thakkali Chutney

          It's almost every other day or at least 3 times a week that I make some kind of chutney at home, mostly to go with idlis, dosas and adais and sometimes, to be mixed with plain rice. Since the tomato onion chutney is the family's favorite, I make it more times than the other chutneys. Today's post is Peanut Tomato Chutney, already, I have a simple peanut chutney in my blog using just peanuts and a little tamarind, but this one, as the name itself says, has peanuts, tomatoes, onions and garlic. It's kind of a mixture of peanut and tomato chutney and it goes very well with all the South Indian tiffin varieties (idlis, dosas, adais, vadais)..

Sorakkai Dosai, Bottle Gourd ( Lauki ) Dosa

          Dosas are always welcome at home, any new variety, I am always ready to try it. When I first heard of this dosai from my friend, I thought, we would be just adding some grated bottle gourd/ sorakkai/lauki  to regular idli/dosa batter, but then the taste was different and awesome. Then I got the recipe from her, this dosa batter has only rice along with a little dal, the vegetable and some spices. I wanted to use millets, so I replaced half the quantity of rice with varagu arisi/kodo millet and made the dosa. It came out so good, very soft and crispy ( the perfect dosa texture ) with a nice unique flavor..