Tomato Pickle | Indian Pickle Recipe | Quick Tomato Pickle Recipe

Pickles are my all time favorite, I am picky when it comes to pickles. I love love love mango, ginger, garlic, gongura, mixed vegetable, mango ginger, onion and tomato... yes yes no lime please. Its been really long since I did a home-made pickle. I was looking for a quick version of tomato pickle and I stumbled upon this video, so check the video to follow the recipe. The reason I call it quick is because you are done with making the pickle the same day and no need to sun dry or soak the tomato in tamarind pulp over-night. Its a super simple recipe, it took me an hour to do it may even take long for you. Totally depends how well your tomatoes reduce(simmer). Thanks Vidhya for your easy to do recipe, I totally love it!

This tomato pickle is moderate in spice and is great with curd rice. I found that it tasted great the next day. So try it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Dulce de leche Chocolate Burfi & Chit chat with Suja Manoj

I am so happy to have a dear friend to chit-chat today, after some busy days and a long event round-up, I wanted something to kick start my blogging and sure enough my dear friend Suja Manoj aka chechi that's how I call her, came forward with a lovely sweet post.

Suja Manoj is one person that I really admire for her versatile cooking skills and her down to earth nature. Truly the virtual world is not so cold as people think, blogging did give a good bunch of friends and of course being a food blogger we have many friends who share the same enthusiasm towards food. Suja is one among my good friends, do check out her blog Kitchen corner try it. You will find drool-worthy recipes from our very own Kerala and also innovative bakes to die for. Personally I have tried many of her recipes, few of them are Sesame Ladoo, Coconut Prawn fry and so on. Thank you so much chechi for taking your time off and sending a lovely recipe.

Today we do have a chit chat with Suja, with no further delay here is our conversation

60 Days to Christmas Round Up & Winner Announcement

Divya Pramil and I have taken so much time to post the round-up, we really apologise for the delay and also how can there not be a delay with so many entries? We had 695 recipes [323 + 2 from readers recipes, from Divya's space and 369 from mine] to analyse and we wanted the results to be genuine. A total of 122 bloggers and 1 reader has participated in this event making it a grand success.

We would love to thank each one of you for linking your entry to this event which is no doubt a massive event. We are so happy and proud to have hosted an event this big and no doubt this being my first ever event I was over the moon. Being a joint event we faced many challenges and despite all that we have come today to share the results with all. 

Custard Marble Cake | Custard Powder Recipe | Egg-free Butter-free cake

Marble cakes are my favorite and this time around I took an easy egg-free butter-free recipe and did a marble effect with it. The cake was hard on the sides when freshly baked but as it cooled down (after 2 hrs) it was moist and really tasty. The chocolate does do magic to this cake, you can also make it plain with just custard powder. We totally loved it for our evening snack, it is super light and a good treat.

Poori Masala | South Indian Breakfast Recipe | How to get perfect fluffy Pooris

Remember the post last week where I said I have not posted a deep-fried recipe in my blog. Well well not anymore, the reason behind doing Poori is my husband. He was craving for some poori's over the weekend and so here I am sharing poori recipe just like the way my mom makes them. 

Pooris are puffed up Indian bread which is deep-fried and served along with mashed potato masala traditionally. Although there are variations of sides at home, Amma used to serve poori with vegetable kurma, Channa masala, Egg curry and I used to even love it with coconut chutney/sugar. But for our breakfast I had served it along with a simple potato masala. 

Savory Semolina Cake | Snack Cake ~ My Guest post for Suman Arthy

I am so happy and excited to do my 3'rd guest post for Suman Arthy who writes Suman Arthy's Kitchen. When Suman asked me to do a guest post I simply jumped to the idea, although the post was supposed to be for the end of 2012 I took my own sweet time to send my recipe, thanks to Suman for understanding and also sharing her blog for my recipe today. 

I came to know Suman through her blog and I was really trilled to see lots of non-veg recipes which I would drool over ;-). I was actually surprised when she asked me for a guest post so I did this savory snack cake just for your Suman. Hope u like it

Potato Spinach Patties | Aloo Palak Tikki | Pan-fried Indian Snack

If you know me you will know that deep-fried recipes have never made an appearance in my blog, the main reason is that I just cannot stand the amount of oil that gets used up. Although I can't deny that deep-fried anything tastes great, my whole idea is to make it a lighter version so that its half-sinful. You might say then why bake cakes.... if there is a substitute I go for it else will follow the recipe. Cooking for 2 hungry tummies I just can't do the full deep-fried way. Well I didn't say I diet did I? diets and me are never friends. If you are like me then we are both in the same page :) 

Well today was one of those days I wanted to experiment in the kitchen and that's how this recipe came to the making. Potato, spinach patties with some simple Indian patties flattened and pan fried. Most Indian cutlets/ tikkis are based with potato as they make the patties more filling, tasty and help holding the shapes. Usually tikkis are dipped in cornflour and deep-fried. I have gone for a lighter version by pan-frying them.

Dates & Nuts Cake | Egg-free Butter-free Dates Cake | Super moist Dates Cake

We all have a love and hate relationship with food, likewise for me I love dates and the same time hate it, sounds funny right? well I love to have dates in hidden forms like cakes and smoothie but hate to have them as they are. We all know the goodness of dates and like most ambitious housewives' I picked a pack of dates that I never touched for quite a long time, thankfully dates do last a very long time if stored properly. I sure didn't have the heart to bin them and hence I was on the look out for a good recipe to put them to use. I was lucky to find an eggless and butterless version, something that is a sure hit to me. Trust me if you are someone who is never convinced on egg-free and butter-free cakes this is something you must try. I can guarantee that you would have never tasted a super moist cake as this.

Chettinad Chicken | Chicken Semi-dry Side | Chicken Masala Recipe

Weekends and non veg recipes are something very common in our house-hold. I make it a point to try few book-marked recipes and last week-end was no exception. I tried out the Chettinad Chicken Masala recipe posted by my dear sis and blogger Divya Pramil. Truly I was so intrigued by this recipe as it was authentic and also Divya's jaw-dropping pics. I know my pics aren't in par with Divya's still ask me why I posted? well its so so so good. Simple to do but requires a little patience. I followed the recipe without any changes and it turned out so well. Well it was a perfect dish for our weekend lunch, I served it along with Methi ghee rice.

Verdict - We enjoyed it so much, the spice level is perfect and goes well with any pulao recipe / white rice and curry

Methi Ghee Rice | Fenugreek leaves Recipe | Easy Mixed Rice Recipe

Indian Pulao / Rice recipes are packed with flavor. Usually they are made with Basmathi Rice, Coconut Milk, Curd, Ghee and so on. But today I am sharing a fusion of ghee rice and methi pulao with my own twist where the importance is more on the fenugreek leaves, ghee and whole spices that make this a quick version using raw rice/ everyday rice without any coconut milk. This Methi Ghee Rice is a great main that is not spicy and can be accompanied with kurma/ coconut curry or non-vegetarian side. Don't worry the recipe calls for just 1 tbsp of ghee and not any more ;-), I had made a Chettinad Chicken Fry to go with this main, recipe will be posted soon

Chocolate Nan Khatai with a hint of coffee

One of my favourite Indian cookies/ biscuits as we call it is Nan Khatai and I simply love it right from childhood. Right when I started to bake I always did variations with the recipe by re-creating it with whole wheat flour, chocolate chips, nuts and this time around I wanted to give it a totally different feel make it with chocolate. But I could not imagine doing a chocolate nan khatai with cardamom hmmm sounded a bit weird to me, so wanted to use coffee instead. Coffee and chocolate are a winning combination and being someone who loves chocolate and coffee sure I was not ready to wait. Oh did you know I did try a cake with chocolate, coffee and almonds check it out HERE

Prawn Tandoori | Prawn Bake | Seafood Starter

Prawn Tandoori is a scrumptious starter and so easy to put together, its coated with spices and marinated for 30 mins and lined into skewers and baked. The recipe can be done without oil and still be crunchy and crisp. If you plan to reduce oil in cooking this is a recipe for you, explore the same recipe with your favourite herbs or coconut to suit your taste. I made this when our friends had visited us and they loved it so much and got over in no time. You can even do a light mayo dipping for this and it would be a perfect combination.

Eggless Chocolate Vanilla Cake | Eggless Marble Cake | Snack Cake

2013 is here and hope its to a good start for all of you. My hearty wishes to all my friends, readers and supporters for a healthy and peaceful 2013, may our prayers and wishes be fulfilled and let it be a year of fulfilment in our lives. New year has been pretty good for me just that I had issues with my old laptop and after a good wait got a brand new one with tons of space. Life does have some hiccups but its ok we just got to go along and there are some blessings on the way that we enjoy and the troubles does not seem to be something to ponder about. One day I am all happy and the other day I get all upset, oh everything isn't perfect for everyone... so count your blessings and be thankful for your life. No matter where we are what we do, we must remember our Creator and be thankful for a family. I cannot imagine a life without them. So be happy and never trade your joy for anything less.