It tastes like a brownie, in cookie form – PLUS peanut butter frosting! I don’t bake much because I am more of a savoury person than a sweet person. So most sweet things I make are “fast and easy” type treats. But this….this is worth every second of effort. It is crazy indulgent and ridiculously scrumptious. The brownie cookie is just like a brownie in both texture and taste. The surface of the cookie has the familiar thin crinkly layer....

Make a big batch and refrigerate 4 days or freeze 3 months. Buttery Seasoned Rice I tell my friends this is the rice version of Potato Salad – you make a big batch, stash it in the fridge and bring it out night after night to serve with everything. Except unlike Potato Salad, this rice recipe can also be frozen. Whip it out of the freezer, pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes....

A very simple and protein-rich cabbage curry recipe with the addition of moong dal. Usually, moong dal is added to increase the volume of the veggies. Also, that will give a nice taste to the curry. Usually, they add carrot, peas along with cabbage as it will give a nice volume to the curry. I remember my grandmother used to make this curry during my childhood days. Also in most Tamil Brahmin weddings, they used to serve this curry....

Cashew Chicken This is takeout made at home that truly stacks up to your favourite Chinese restaurant. No false promises here! Just read some of the glowing reviews from the many people who have tried this. 😇 You’ll have it on the table faster than ordering home delivery, it’s healthier (way less greasy!) and it’s versatile so you can add or switch the vegetables as you please. So much easier to just adapt this yourself rather than trying to explain what you want over the phone to your Chinese takeout place…… right?...

Winner, winner … Chicken with Mushroom Gravy! I looked at the homepage of my website the other day and all I could see was golden, brown, yellowy foods. Working backwards from the most recent: Cheesy topped Spinach Ricotta Cannelloni (mostly yellow), Spring Rolls (golden brown), Crispy Roasted Parmesan Potatoes (golden brown), Baked Vegetables and Rice (some colour, mostly brown seasoned rice), 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (100% brown). I vowed to share something colourful this week....

I’m about to tell you a love story. I first met (tried) chickpea sundal at a cute little wine bar (called Indian Paradox) in San Francisco. I was there. It was there. I called for the sundal to come over to my table, and it did. I’ll never forget how it looked – all decked out in grated coconut, black mustard seeds, and curry leaves. The moment my eyes met it, I realized I was about to fall mouth over spoon for this dish....

Easter is one of my favorite holidays! When I was a little kid (and well, basically until I graduated college), my mom would hide Easter eggs all over the house for my brother and me to find. I remember one year when I was pretty young, we were traveling, and I was so worried that the Easter bunny wouldn’t find us… he did, of course, and he left us circus tickets....

While it’s sheer perfection fresh out of the oven, this is one of those rare cakes that is still truly great 3, 4, 5 days later! Cinnamon Apple Teacake I call this a teacake because it just seems like the perfect cake to serve at a quaint afternoon tea with friends. Filtered sunlight streaming in, a rustic table laden with baked goods (scones essential), freshly brewed tea served in teacups, sitting around with my friends, chatting and laughing gently....

Crispy pea fritters This recipe was born from an emergency breakfast situation. The fridge was extremely bare, I didn’t have bread, I only had one egg and I don’t eat cereal. A freezer rummage produced a scruffy bag of peas leftover from last weeks’ Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup and it will surprise no one that I had plenty of cheese on hand. Cheese can solve any meal dilemma, my friends! 😇 And today, we’re using it to turn an un-assuming bag of frozen peas into a stack of crispy cheesy golden fritters....

Crunchy crumbed chicken drumsticks I have a soft spot for chicken legs. Juicier and more flavourful than lean chicken breast, and more economical at that. With the bonus that there’s something extra enjoyable about food that has to be eaten with your hands. Nobody eats drumsticks with a fork and knife, do they?? Surely not! Way too civilised and way too much meat wastage. There’s no way you can pick the bone clean of every scrap of meat with cutlery!...

Urad dal 1/4 cup Yogurt|Curd 1 cup Green chilli 1 Ginger A small piece Green chutney As needed Sweet Chutney As needed Chaat masala 1/4 tsp Red chilli powder 1/4 tsp Jeera powder 1/4 tsp Salt As needed Coriander leaves Few Sev For garnishing Oil For deep frying Video of how to make dahi vada Method: Soak the urad dal in water for 1 hour. Grind this into a smooth batter along with green chilli and ginger....

🎉🎉🎉HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!🎉🎉🎉 And…. SURPRISE!! A late Christmas present / Happy New Year gift for my readers – my Asian Takeout eCookbook! A couple of months ago, I put up a vote for the theme for the next free eCookbook. Oh bugger, wait a sec. I just checked….and it was waaaay more than a couple of months ago, it was back in August when I put the vote up. Let me start again....

Milk 3/4 Cup Water 1/2 Cup Tea or tea leaves 1 and 1/4 tsp Ginger A small piece Cardamom 1 Sugar As needed Method: Crush the ginger and cardamom using a mortar and pestle. Crush the cardamom seeds nicely so that it will give a nice flavour to the tea. Boil the water in a sauce pan and add the crushed ginger ,cardamom and tea leaves|powder. Let this boil for 2- 3 minutes in a very low flame....

How I cut butternut pumpkin Butternut pumpkin is called butternut squash in the US, UK and pretty much the rest of the world other than in Australia and NZ! It’s part of the squash family and tastes pretty much like pumpkin, though usually it is a little sweeter. It’s got softer skin that pumpkin so it’s easier to cut. Here is how I cut butternut pumpkin: Peel off the skin using a potato peeler....

What in the world is a cutlet? Well, in Indian cuisine, a cutlet can be made with either meat or potatoes or both. I grew up in a north Indian family and we called a “cutlet” something else: “tikki.” We usually made “aloo tikki” or “potato cutlets” at home. I didn’t realize that my husband, who is south Indian, and I both grew up eating almost the same thing until I finally tried my first beef cutlet....

This recipe is also known as bharwa karela, which means stuffed karela. You can stuff bitter melon with anything (onion masala, chutneys, etc.), but today, I’m sharing a recipe that calls for a spiced potato filling! Something you should know: I have three other bitter melon recipes on my blog, and in all posts, I share a warning with my readers: bitter melon is a love it/hate it kind of fruit....

This Chicken Bhuna Masala is FINGER LICKING GOOD. I’m a little embarrassed for using that phrase on my blog, but it really is finger-licking good! You will literally be licking your fingers as you eat this. Okay, I think I have emphasized that there will be fingers and licking and chicken involved. Moving on… Do you guys see how the onion and tomato masala is all up on this chicken?...

I used my 6-quart Instant Pot to cook a bone-in spiral cut ham and it is the best ham I’ve ever had. Really. This ham is better than those honey-baked hams I used to spend a fortune on back in the day. Back then, I never cared much for the ham itself but rather always looked forward to using the ham bone. This ham recipe has changed that for me....

Kaju Pista Roll, brings back a lot of memories to me. As we have seen the kaju pista roll in mithai shops, it is always tempting. I first saw this in Krishna sweets when I was in Chennai. Also the different shapes of Kaju katli like apple, watermelon will be very fascinating for me. Actually, I wanted to do the kaju watermelon but thought first will post the kaju pista roll....