Aloo-Kala Chana Chaat Recipe | Warm Potato and Black Chickpeas Salad

Learn how to make Aloo-Kala Chana Chaat ~ Warm black chickpeas and potato salad with spiced tamarind dressing

It was a cold winter Sunday morning when a teenager was woken from her sleep with a gentle touch of her mother’s hand caressing her hair.

“Open your eyes love. It’s time you learn to make a decent cup of tea!’” said her mother.

“5 more minutes Amma”, the sleepy voice begged.

But her mother knew that these 5 minutes will drag on and it will be 15 minutes or 30 minutes or 1 hour before her daughter finally opened her eyes!

“Oh no! You don’t get 5 minutes!” mother said while literally dragging her first born into the kitchen to prepare 2 cups of Indian Masala tea.

Potato and Peas Kurma Recipe | How to Make Vegetable Kurma

Learn how to make Potato and Peas Kurma ~ Potato and green peas cooked in creamy and mildly spiced coconut gravy

For the first 6 years of my life I never tasted north Indian food! My mom although is a wonderful cook, her knowledge was limited to south Indian cuisine at that time. One reason could be that we lived in a small town and grew up in a close knit community. Till I turned 6 years old, we lived in a joint family and the simplest food to cook was a south Indian food which she grew up eating and cooking for 30+ members of the family with steady flow of guests every single day. Our regional food of Udupi-Mangalore is something that everyone enjoyed in our family.

Travel with me to The Lakes...

My initial plan was to post my Amma’s signature dish today, but my heart is not really into sharing fond memories of my childhood for some personal reasons. Instead I am sharing few photographs I clicked during our recent visit to one of the most beautiful and scenic holiday destination in the UK during first week of this month. I am hoping that revisiting this natural, untouched beauty of Mother Nature will bring much needed calmness and peace to my troubled heart and soul.

Plum Chutney/Relish Recipe | How to Make Plum Chutney or Relish

Learn how to make Plum Chutney/Relish ~ Sweet, spicy and tart yellow plum chutney/relish made using jaggery, unrefined sugar

First time I tasted plums were when I did my under graduation course in Dharwad, a beautiful city in north Karnataka. I was instantly drawn to these ruby red plump fruits the moment I my eyes spotted them piled high in a wooden carts and bamboo baskets. The old lady selling this fruit offered me one as soon as she spotted me walking towards her cart and gave me bright smile with red Paan stained teeth. I looked at the round, plump fruit sitting on my palm and took out the clean tissue from my colourful cotton sling bag hanging loosely from my shoulder and cleaned the plum. The ruby red plum looked glossier with all that rubbing with tissue paper and I just couldn’t resist it anymore. My teeth sunk deep into the glossy red plum and bit into the tiny brownish seed in the centre. The sweet nectar with a hint of tartness from the juicy flesh along with the crunch from the firm peel with every bite made me fall in love with this divine fruit and from then onwards Plums became one of my most favourite fruits to snack on whenever my stomach refused eat the hostel food, especially in late monsoon months.

Mangalore Buns Recipe | Deep Fried Banana and Whole Wheat Poori From Udupi-Mangalore

Learn how to make Mangalore Buns ~ Mildly sweet deep fried whole wheat banana poori from Udupi-Mangalore

I am 80’s Indian child and feel extremely blessed and fortunate to have one of the best and memorable childhoods! My younger sister was my best friend and my partner in crime and we grew up with bunch of same aged children in the neighbourhood whose only mantra was fultu masti! While leafing through old photographs on weekend, I saw myself going back in time and walking down the memory lane… All that fun, adventure, mischief, break ups, make ups, bonding, arguing, laughter, tears, in brief my childhood flashed before my eyes in a techni colour film…

The Winners of Prashad Cookbook Are...

Kaushy Patel's Prashad

Hello All,

Thank you all for participating in a cookbook giveaway. After counting out the duplicate comments and leaving out my own comments, here are the two winners selected using random number generator.

The Winners of Mrs. Kaushy Patel’s cookbook Prashad are commenter #15 Manasi and #58 Naveen. Congratulations guys :) Please email me your shipping address to siakrishna(at)gmail(dot)com so that you can cook delicious meals from Prashad as soon as possible! If I don’t hear from you in week’s time I will randomly choose another winner(s) on 17th of April, 2013.

Warm Regards
Sia

Toor Dal Kichidi Recipe | How to Make Simple Kichidi

Learn how to make Toor Dal Kichidi ~ Mildly spiced split pigeon peas or tuvar/toor dal and mixed vegetable rice porridge, traditional dish from Gujarat

It feels like a long time since I got a chance to sit down in my favourite spot in our home to write a blog post. After a week long break at one of the most scenic places in the UK, the Lake District, we are back to the daily grind and routine. After waking up to songs of birds twittering in the morning breeze and sun shining brightly on clear blue skies for whole of a week, we found ourselves waking to the shrilling noise of alarm clock and tumbling down the bed still trying to rubbing away the slumber weighing heavy on our eyelids! For the little fella whose day started with jumping on the bed and ending with running around the holiday cottage in merry, Lil Dumpling cried when he realised that the merry days of doing what he pleased at what ever times he pleased were over! Ah… why do holidays have to come to an end?!