Cauliflower Au Gratin

          Cauliflower Au Gratin, this has been on my do-list for a long time, there are so many recipes on the net, but all of them ( at least the ones that I checked ) called for Gruyere cheese, which I was not able to find here. I even tried to find it online, but the closest that I could get was Emmental Cheese Slices, but I still wanted to make this Au Gratin, so I went ahead and made it with the Emmental cheese. This is a very simple dish, just baking cauliflower with cheesy white sauce and topped with bread crumbs and more cheese, an excellent side, serve it with a light pasta dish and some soup for a complete meal..

Puli Chutney, Tomato-Tamarind Chutney

          As I had mentioned in my previous post ' Vendiya Paniyarams ', this is the chutney that I served them with. Those paniyarams would go well even with coconut chutney, but I personally felt that this chutney was the best combination with them. As we add some tamarind to the chutney, it's more tangy and the coriander and cumin seeds give a nice flavor too and of course, this chutney would go well with idlis and dosas too..

Vendaya Paniyaram, Fenugreek Paniyaram

          We love Paniyarams at home, both the sweet and savory versions, I have posted a couple of them in my blog too. Usually we use the leftover idli/dosa batter to make the savory paniyarams, we add some sauteed onion, chillies to this batter and make the paniyarams, today also for these Vendiya/Fenugreek Seeds Paniyaram, I have used leftover dosa batter, but in a slightly different way. This is a friend's recipe, she made this for me once along with some Puli Chutney ( will post it next ), hot, hot paniyarams with that chutney was simply too, too good. As usual, I got the recipe from her and tried it out, it came out really well, do try this out, the next time you have some dosa batter left..

Eggplant And Paneer Curry

          I make paneer at home, at least once in 2 weeks, since my daughter likes it very much and mostly instead of doing a curry with paneer alone, I cook it along with some vegetable. I usually add capsicum, peas, spinach or even cabbage, this time I wanted to try it with eggplant/brinjal. Sauteing the eggplant and then mixing in paneer pieces would have worked too, but I made a curry with grilled and mashed eggplant and paneer. At home, we like the smoky flavor from the grilled eggplant, if you don't like it then peel, cook and mash the eggplant. The curry was delicious with a nice flavor, we had it with rotis but it would go very well with naans or even with some light pilaf..

Sigappu Aval Payasam, Red Poha ( Rice Flakes ) Kheer

          Happy Tamil New Year ! usually at home, on this day, apart from a special puja and going to the temple, the afternoon lunch is a traditional one with rice, sambar, curries along with vadai and payasam. As we're in Bangalore now, it's not a holiday today, both my husband and daughter are not at home for lunch, so I just made some Aval Payasam/Kheer. I have used organic red aval, since that's the only one that I buy now and I have used jaggery and coconut milk. I can say, this is the most easiest of all payasams/kheers, a little time for soaking the rice flakes/poha and extracting the coconut milk and hardly 10 minutes of cooking. I thought, I'll keep it ghee-free, so instead of the usual ghee-roasted cashews and raisins for garnishing, I have used some chopped dates..

Strawberry Compote ( Coulis, Spread, Jam )

          Back from a small vacation, thought I should schedule some posts, but somehow didn't work out, in fact I had planned to do this post on last Friday, I had edited and uploaded the pictures too, but didn't find time to do the post. Strawberry Compote/Coulis/Spread or jam, I had made this when strawberries were still in season. I had wanted to do this after I saw it in Anusha's Tomato Blues, so when I got chocolate and strawberries as the two ingredients for the 'Shhhh Cooking Secretly' challenge, I decided to make this and use it as a filling for the cakes. This is a very easy recipe, needs just 3 ingredients and can be done in under 30 minutes, a delicious spread that can be used as a topping or filling for cakes, can be served with pancakes or toast or even to make milk shakes..

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes With Strawberry Filling

           For quite sometime now, I wanted to try out cupcakes with some filling inside, but being the lazy me, I didn't do it until now. Well, this time I was paired with Janani Krishnakumaar of Red Chilly Curry for the 'Shhhh Cooking Secretly' challenge, she gave me chocolate and strawberries as the two ingredients. After some thought, I decided to make these cupcakes with strawberry filling. I decided to make the cupcakes vegan and made the filling with fresh strawberries ( my next post ), of course, you can use any fruit preserve or store bought jam or jelly instead of the strawberry filling. Though I have called them cupcakes, I didn't make them too sweet, you could have a couple of them for breakfast too, they were moist, soft and delicious..