Having lived most of my life in North India , non vegetarian food has mostly been Chicken and Mutton. Seafood was restricted to fish and that too fried fish. I was lucky to travel alone, a bit once I joined work, and on my trips I used to experience all the local cuisines. I had crabs for the first time in the US a couple of years back. After that, although I have been eating crabs in India , it is mostly as crab cakes or in mixed sea food pasta , pizza or soup. I got introduced to this…
pepper
Beans on Toast
Baked Beans on Toast is my husband’s favourite breakfast. Luckily its one of the dishes that I need not put in a lot of effort as I used to buy the canned baked beans. In the last few years , as I have moved away from packaged food as much as possible I started making Baked Beans with easily available Rajma / Kidney Beans, at home. Though the name indicates that the beans are baked, they are usually slow cooked in slightly sweet tomato sauce. Over the weekend when I have more time on my hands I like to prepare…
Paneer Butter Masala – Cottage Cheese Cooked in Cashew and Tomato Gravy
In a Punjabi household, Paneer or cottage cheese preparation is a must, if one has guests coming over or for a grand meal at home on special occasions. This is one of the recipes, which comes to my rescue, when I have guest coming over for a meal at short notice or if I am making an elaborate meal and have many dishes to prepare that are time consuming. The recipe is quick to prepare and comes out well with little effort. I learnt this recipe from my second guru, my sister. Over a period of time I have learnt…
Barbeque Chicken in Orange Sauce
My mantra is to keep meals simple, use as many fresh ingredients as possible and not to use many flavours. The advantages of having an air fryer are that you can also use it for various other functions such as barbeque. This is one of my favourite barbeque recipes, for an air fryer. It is important to marinate the chicken for a minimum of 4 hours, such that the chicken absorbs the juice and all the flavours. Sweetness of orange juice and chilly is an interesting combination- sweet and spicy. Rosemary gives it a very distinct flavour. This dish can…
Baked Fish
I start planning what to cook over the weekend on Thursday. Make a list of ingredients needed and check the availability. On the way back from work, on Friday, I buy the items that are not at home. Weekend lunch is a very important ritual at our home. Weekends are the only time, we get to eat together, so very special for me. Also, as I am into a full time job, I hardly get time to cook over the weekdays. So while deciding what to cook for lunch, I also try to ensure that the dish is liked by…
Purple Cabbage Salad
Salad is an integral part of my daily meals. Ever since I consulted a nutritionist for to manage my daily nutrition “raws” ( raw vegetable ) cover a large portion of my plate. Though I like my plain tomato , cucumber salad with lemon and crushed pepper dressing, but to avoid monotony I also keep adding colours to the salad. I strongly feel that food should be appealing to all the senses, but try and keep the recipe easy and quick. This salad is very refreshing. You can prepare it and keep it in fridge. The Passion fruit and honey…
Aloo Pyaaz Ki Sabzi
 Like my previous post on toor daal side dish made from potato is a must for many house hold in India. Daal , Rice and Aloo ki sabzi is all that you need , especially in summers. We had a hectic week and weekend turned out to be even more stressful as dad in law was not well. So i decided to go for a simple meal . For some odd reason under stress you get a lot of comfort doing things that you did as a kid, or eating the simple home cooked food.
Chatpati Toor Daal
( Tangy Curry made with Pigeon Pea ) Toor Daal also known as Arhar ki daal or Tuvar Daal is a most common daal used in Indian Household. In many families it is cooked daily. Gujarati’s make it slightly sweeter, South Indian make it with Vegetables and spices and call it sambhar. In our family we are the first generation who ate toor daal. My grandparents were from Pakitsan and in northern states like Punjab and Himachal toor daal was not used. But since my grandfather came to India during independence, and settled in UP , we got introduced to…
Cajun Spice Grilled Chicken
For a light dinner…the kid loved it. it was a joy to see the two year old kid pick & eat on her own and say ” Nice”
Fried Fish or Fish Fingers
Hubby likes fried fish and complains every time he orders it in restaurant and says ” they don’t anymore food fried fish”. At a friend’s place he liked it , so I took the recipe and made it. My day is made when he said ” Wow this is the best I have ever had” 🙂
Have already made it four times in a month.