Beetroot Kheer | Beetroot Dessert Recipe | Beetroot Milk Dessert

I love Beets, mainly for the lovely color and the unique sweet taste in them. I love to make different recipes using Beets and this is one such kitchen trials that turned to be so yum. We had guests at home and everyone loved it so much and asked for a second and third serving. They could hardly guess how I got the pik color to the Kheer ;-), later I told them that it is Beetroot, immediately they all got the recipe and plan to do it at home. Can there be anyother better compliment?

 Kheer are quick desserts to serve for guests, the preparation time is less and of course you need to serve them chill to enjoy every last drop. Milk is thickened and beetroot puree is added to it along with condensed milk, sugar and flavoring, cooled and later refrigerated to be served later. The addition of beetroot gives a unique taste to this recipe. Give it a try and 

Vegan Coconut Cake | Coconut Jaggery Cake | Egg-free Butter-free Dairy-free Cake

I love cakes! Period. Be it those creamed ones or simple plain snack cakes I am all game. Usually I love to have cakes as a snack rather than a dessert, only exception is when they are served with a scoop of icecream ;-). I am not sure why thought. I think for me cake is more of a snack or a tea time treat or mid morning hunger prank rescue. So the other day I was in this cake prank and wanted to bake something fresh and fragrant. I found this recipe so interesting as it uses wheat flour and jaggery along with toasted coconut. Just when I read that I started to dream the marriage of flavours in my mind, vola within minutes I started to prep for the cake.

Vegan coconut cake as it is called does not use any butter, egg or dairy (milk/curd). The cake is super rich and so filling that just one piece I felt was totally rich and satisfying. Great way to serve tea for the family or friends. The cake is super moist and I just felt if vegan bakes were so delicious may be I must take an oath to vote for them quite often. Since the cake gets its flavour from coconut milk and shredded coconut do use freshly done coconut milk and shred freshly cut coconut, this sure adds more flavour to the cake. The cake browned quite well on the outside and the inside gets its colour from jaggery, I used a bit of sugar too to be sure of the sweetness once its baked. But you can easily skip sugar if you want to. Nevertheless this is one of the best tasting vegan bakes I have laid my hands on.

Mini Breakfast Thali | South Indian Mini Tiffen Recipes ~ A Virtual Birthday Treat for Manjula Bharath

Today is another day for a Virtual Treat. We a bunch of blogger friends are up for a virtual birthday bash to one of our dearest and sweetest friend who is full of smiles, laughter and happiness. She is such a unique friend that anyone can have, that much friendly, caring and someone whom you will have a good laugh with. Her down to earth nature, fun filled talk, caring nature and her simplicity have always stunned me. She is a great cook too and can make recipes withing minutes, her love of sweets are endless, you must check out her space to see so many innovative recipes. Its none other than our dear +Manjula Bharath who blogs at Desi Fiesta. Its been couple of months since we became friends and I still get this feeling that we have been friends for a longggg time. Manju is such a fun person to be around with, we both are born and brought up in the same city and instantly we had this connection. You will be surprised that she is a Rajastani who can speak Tamil so so well. I am still amazed with her knowledge of my mother tongue and of course those crazy typologies that she makes ;-). She is a very beautiful mom and wife, I always pull her leg for her slim and trim figure :p which she never really accepts, but who cares ;-) So for Manju's birthday we planned to do a virtual thali treat of different course basically south Indian since Manju loves food from South India. I have made a mini tiffen thali for her hope you love this simple platter Manju

Happy Birthday Manju dear have one wonderful birthday as wonderful as you. Wishing you a year filled with all the choicest blessings from above. 

Carrot Cooler | Carrot Orange Juice | Healthy fruit & veg drink recipe

Since childhood I have always been this good child who will eat vegetables and fruits, I would never complain about food as such. I did have disliked to certain veggies like bitter gourd and drumstick but not anymore. Carrot juice is something that mom used to make for me often, using raw carrots. Today I wanted to share a cooked version of carrot juice with a combination of orange which makes a great tasting drink, you can even serve this as a welcome drink and keep your guests guessing what it is ;-). So I tried this drink and it turned to be too good and served it to everyone at home and no one could actually guess what the drink was :-) I was super happy. This drink is a great way to start your day, absolutely tasty and guilt free indeed. A must try if you are beauty conscious person as carrots are known to improve skin complexion and oranges for clearness of skin.

Pomegranate Milkshake Recipe | Pomegranate Juice Recipe

After all the cakes & bakes at home I am in no mood to eat anything sweet, so my breakfasts now are mostly drinks or fruits. I don't call this a diet but still I am just playing it safe :P. Usually I love to enjoy fruits as they are but I do love to have drinks/ smoothies that make its super simple yet delicious. So the other day I tried this pomegranate milkshake and it was super yum. If you have picky eaters at home and ones that will not eat pomegranate this is a great way to add this fruit to their diet.

We all know that Pomegranates are known as a blood purifier, they are best source of antioxidants and also aid in increasing immunity. Not only that they have the ability to reduce cholesterol, lower blood pressure and even in suppressing depression to a great extent. I must say that there is so much magic to colored fruits and vegetables that they are so good for our health. And me being a fruit lover, pomegranate comes handy ;-) although I must agree the job of seeding the pomegranate is sure some work but eventually I am sure we all do it right?

Asian Marble Bread | Chocolate Marble Bread | Roux Bread making method

Whoever said 'baking bread is therapeutic' is so right. Last week I was in a full time baking mode and that's when I tried to do this lovely Asian Marble bread. Firstly I have to tell you I am this big fan of Marble cake, I so love the chocolate and vanilla flavours together and not to miss those swirls you get to do with the cake batter. I was so excited to see this bread recipe. I have had many failures with baking bread and the big culprit would be the yeast, most times I would kill it. Thanks to blogging and a bunch of awesome bakers I fixed the issues and of all the bread baking method, I have always found the Roux/ Tangzhong method to be a child's play. No worries about the yeast and you are sure to get super soft bread. Although getting the roux right is something you need to master but tell you it isn't so complicated. 

Talking about roux method of baking it results in the softest bread that remains so for upto 2 days. A mix of flour and water gently simmering to form a paste that has ripples is prepared. Later it is brought to room temperature and then combined with other ingredients to form a soft dough, proofed and later knead to be baked. Breads prepared by this roux method doesn’t get stale and hard like other breads within a day of baking, it will stay soft and fluffy for several days. Mind you this marble bread is not sweet and hence you definitely need a spread to enjoy them.I think I need to master my skills in plating bread, hmm hopefully someday I will. I have learnt a lot from this challenge 

Kesar Pista Kulfi | Indian Kulfi Recipe | Frozen Indian Dessert

Frozen hands and melting Kulfi, this was something I did not anticipate while clicking the pictures for this gorgeous Indian favorite. I have never come across someone who does not love Kulfi, have you? Ever since I tasted this yum dessert there has never been a time that I have not collected those cute little earthern pots in which Kulfi's are usually served and ya not to forget how we used to scrape those cute little pots for those last bits of the creamy deliciousness. I never ever thought that there will be a day that I would make Kulfi at home :p I wonder why though...

Kulfi is a popular Indian frozen dessert, you can say its India's way of making ice cream. It is popular throughout places such as  India, Pakistan, Nepal and the Middle East. Taste wise Kulfi is much more creamier and also dense with nuts & flavoring. Kulfi was traditionally prepared by evaporating sweetened and flavored milk with slow cooking, with continuous stirring to keep milk from sticking to the bottom of the vessel where it might burn, until its volume was reduced by a half and thickening.

Lemon Rasam | Dal Lemon Rasam | South Indian Tamarind Curry

Of late I have become this crazy Rasam fan. With husband and me taking turns with fever and cold, the only thing that was pure comfort to us during these times is a simple flavorful rasam. I have never tried lemon rasam before so I was bit skeptical of how the taste would be. I even thought to myself how just few tbsp of lemon juice can make the rasam so unique. To be on the safer hand I checked for the Lemon Rasam recipe from my dear friend Sangee Vijay's blog. To my surprise husband and me felt that this is one of the best tasting rasam's ever so you know what happened right ;-) I had to make this rasam again the same week. Thanks Sangee dear for this lovely and delicious recipe.

Lemon Rasam is a tangy and flavor rich tamarind curry made with strong flavors of lime/ lemon juice. It has a unique and dominating taste of lemon and makes you enjoy every bit of the rasam from start to finish. The tempering of whole spices, tomato, lemon juice, tamarind pulp, cooked dal adds magic to this recipe. Give it a try and I am sure that this will be a rasam that you will keep making again and again at home.

Pink Guava Lassi | Guava fruit drink | Summer Drinks

Pink Guava are in abundance right now, so I wanted to make sure that I make good use of them, so the other day I tried to make a sweet lassi using pink guava and it was delicious. Right from childhood I have had this fond affection towards Guava fruit, the ripe kind. Amma keeps saying that when ever she wanted to keep me busy she would give me a ripe guava fruit and I would keep mushing over it for about an hour ;-). Now you know how much I love this fruit. Back then I had this fond liking towards the white variety of guava (green apple guava) but off late I have fallen in love for these pink beauties. If you have been following my lil blog you would know that I am a big lassi fan ;-), this time around I wanted to try a lassi using guava fruit. To my surprise it was absolutely yum and stayed fresh even after 1 day.

Guava is a tropical fruit that is rich in nutrition. The are low in calories, rich in dietary fibers, high in vitamin C and rich in potassium compared to bananas. Guavas also helps in weight loss and digestion, so I tried to combine it along with curd to make a great tasting lassi. Give it a try and I am sure you will keep making it again and again.

Paneer Cigar Rolls | Paneer Snack Recipe | Vegetarian Snacks

The past 5 months have been super exciting for us, yes us ;-) I am referring to all my dear blogger buddies. August month has been super busy with us planning for virtual birthday parties and back to back birthdays but its really fun to plan something special for a dear friend. Today also we are happy to host a virtual birthday party for our dear budding photographer and one amazing cook who rocks this blog world with her enthusiasm and her humble nature, yes I am talking about Preeti Tamil (PT as I call her) she is a great person to be around, fun to talk to and someone I have been waiting to meet in person. PT hope the day comes soon that we meet ;-). PT according to me is a great hard worker, be it blogging, cooking or photography she does everything with much passion and enthusiasm. I have always been stunned by the fact that in a matter of a yr she had posted 600 recipes. Can you believe it??? now isn't that really something? I am so glad to get to know more about her and talk to her.Today for your party I tried one of your recent posts Paneer Cigars, they were so addictive and was a perfect snack for us today. 

Hope your special day is filled with loads of surprises and memories to last you forever. Happy Birthday to you dear Preeti ;-) 

Chocolate Rice Kheer | Chocolate Pudding | Chocolate based Indian dessert

Chocolate Kheer, who can think of such a combo right? well I know this one person who can stir any recipe within minutes and come up with unusual combinations yet make the dish super appetizing. She is a lovely friend, sister, blogger, mother and someone who still surprises me with her down to earth nature and be the most approachable person on earth. She is beautiful inside out and carries a bright smile, I had the chance to meet her in person and spend time with her, that I know many would wish for. To me she is an amazing cook, bestest friend and an elder sister I never had. We've had many long endless conversations and I have always been the one holding the phone listing, wondering how to frame the words and to the contrary she would be this endless pom pom ball talking endlessly ;-). I must thank blogging world for adding some awesome people into my life who are so special and dear to me. I know you must have guessed who I am talking about its my aks Priya Suresh  :-). Priya aks you sure are one big gift to me. Aks I have always admired your energy, friendliness, blogging passion and your approach to life itself. Love you for who you are... 

Why chocolate kheer? and all the rambling? well its her birthday today and we a bunch of bloggies wanted to do a virtual birthday treat for her. This time around we wanted to do recipes of different colors and cook something that is her own recipe. So I chose Chocolate as my choice of color and there is a reason behind it cos its Priya aks favorite, I must tell you all this she is so crazy about chocolates that she came from Paris to London and the one thing she wanted to buy was Dairy Milk to take back with her to Paris. That chocoholic, chocolaty and chokywookey doo daa :P ! So you see I made her Chocolate Kheer and clicked pictures with a pink background cos she is a pink fetish personality. Priya aks I hope you are having a ball reading this post.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, charming and 

ever loving sweet Priya Aks. 

Wishing you blissful years with fond memories to keep you smiling always :-)

Suji Crystal Cookies | Biskut Suji Crystal | Colored Cookie Recipe

As a continuation of celebrating my dear Priya Aks B'day I made these colorful Suji Crystal cookies today. They turned out absolutely yum, to keep in mind the theme of doing recipes of different colors I went ahead with this recipe.  Aks I hope your day if filled with loads of surprises to keep you happy. And as excited as you are we all your friends are so so excited to share you all our virtual treats today. I hope they are pure feast for your eyes and that you virtually enjoy all the goodies we gobbled up saying your name :P.

Happy Birthday once again to one lovely Priya Aks. 

May your birthday and the days to come be as colorful as you are :-)

Suji Crystal Cookies as it is named does not contain any sooji/ rawa and I wonder why they were named so. A Malaysian delicacy made with melted ghee, flour, almond meal and raising agents colored and formed into marble effect cookies. They taste fabulous and simply melt in your month. Great for a kids party or any birthday celebration, these cookies are sure a hit with almost anyone. 

Chow Chow Kootu | Kootu with Moong Dal | Simple Vegetarian Curry

Chow Chow Kootu is my all time favorite, Amma makes this every fortnight along with a tangy curry like Kara Kuzhambhu or Pavakkai Puli Kuzhambhu. I love to mix this along with rice and snack with some papad. A rich and filling kootu with loads of vegetables and a good dose of coconut makes this a satisfying dish. R never used to like Kootu and he used to keep a long face but not anymore, since I have done the honors to bring some good tasting food into his life :p well I can say so right?. This chow chow kootu was clicked back home when Amma made it, somehow her consistency and the taste of the dish really varies from how I make it. Hmm I think it does take experience to get the perfect taste.

Watermelon Agua fresca | Watermelon Cooler Drink | Summer drinks

Watermelon to me is one gorgeous fruit, although not attractive on the outside, I love the color the pinkish red color fruit inside. When I was a kid I used to imagine the inside to be like the Beetle insect :P what do you think? the red fruit base and black dot seeds. I get really excited when I see watermelon during the summer times. Usually we enjoy this fruit cut or just blend it with some sugar as a chilled drink. I always love to try different refreshing fruit drink recipes and tried this Watermelon Agua Fresca and it was superb. This drink is from Mexico and very commonly sold by the street vendors, usually made with less sugar but I have used sugar for a sweet taste. I love the tangy taste of lemon in the drink and the frizzy taste from the soda. Its a perfect drink to welcome guests or enjoy with your family at home.

Mushroom & Paneer mixed vegetable Curry | Vegetable Coconut Milk Kurma | Vegetarian sides for roti/chappati

My husband loves Mushroom and I on the other hand love Paneer. We always have these arguments as to you never cook with mushroom / you never let me cook with paneer... does this happen in your house too? grrr. I have always found mushroom to be bland and tasteless, needs a load of other spices and ingredients to boost the dish. I know there are few of you who will say even paneer is almost tasteless, hmmm. Ok lets reserve this debate to another day!. So the other day I decided to do a curry with mushroom and paneer with a load of other vegetables like carrots and beans which we both love along with coconut milk, the result was a great tasting curry to go with almost any recipe like idly, dosa, chappati or even pulao. The curry is very mild in spice, fragrant and flavorful. Husband was happy and so was I ;-)

Kesar Malai Lassi | Saffron Lassi | Indian Summer Drinks

I am a huge fan of lassi's both milk and curd based ones. In this part of the world summer seems to be the ever present season and I have no excuses to prepare lassi's at home. When my dear friend Manjula Bharath posted her Rajastani Thali recipe for SNC challenge, I wanted to prepare this Keasar Lassi recipe almost the same day and somehow a month later I realised it was too late to post the challenge recipe and honestly speaking taking about friendship day that just passed, hmmm I am too bad a friend. So keeping behind the guilt I thought I will try few of her recipes from the challenge and then post it as I find time in my blog. Honestly I have never tried Rajastani cuisine and I am really intrigued by their list of vegetarian recipes that I want to give it a try in my kitchen. So that said I gave this Kesar lassi recipe a go and trust me its one of the best Lassi recipes I have ever tried. It was so flavorful, filling and refreshing. Thanks Manju for this super duper recipe, I am sure will make this quite often. I hope to participate in SNC's upcoming challenged, keeping my fingers crossed ;-)

Cardamom Cake | Bakery style cake | Basic Sponge snack cake | Tea Kadai Cake

I love cakes and all the simple kind. A perfect spongy simple snack cake with a cup of coffee or tea is my kind of snack. I have tried many such snack cakes and posted in my blog like - Custard marble cake, Vanilla marble cake, Eggless butterless sponge cake, Dates and nuts cake and so on. When my dear friend Sangeetha Priya posted this recipe of Cardamom cake / Tea kadai cake that too using a pressure cooker, I was so excited and wanted to try it. And me being me somehow kept postponing the idea so today as Sangeetha celebrates her birthday, a group of us bloggers planned to do a virtual treat for her by doing a recipe from her space and posting it on her birthday in our blogs. She is a lovely friend and blogger who is to me like a child although she has 2 cute kids. Very caring, friendly and although we have not conversed frequently I can say she is a lovely person to talk to.So you can guess what I made, her very own Cardamom cake :-) it was simply fabulous, on the flip side I used an oven instead of the pressure cooker and the result was it was a super moist cake filled with the lovely cardamom flavor. What was even more pleasing was the aroma of cardamom all over the kitchen as the cake was getting baked. Today being a Saturday husband was home and we both cut the warm cake and gulped 2 pieces :-P don't ever be like us ok wait till it cools down to enjoy. The cake tastes even more superb when its completely cooled.

Happy Birthday Sangeetha wishing you lots of health and happiness throughout the yr :-)

Verdict - Super moist and flavorful cake, I felt the cake was so soft like sponge ball :-) thanks Sangeetha we really enjoyed this cake, this recipe is sure a keeper

Kanyakumari Nandu Masala | Crab Masala South Indian Recipe | Seafood Indian Recipes- My 200'th Post :-)

My husband and me we both love crab, but I don't make it quite often. Did you know that crab can increase your immunity? this was something new to me, there are also other foods that help to increase immunity like curd, black tea, oats, fish and so on. So if you are someone who suffers low immunity you are sure to try these food stuffs. From the time I started to cook crab there is one thing I have learnt that is to clean crab properly, if you are a first timer in making crab curry please make sure you do it the right way. Today I wanted to try a different crab curry so went online and I found this lovely recipe by Chef Dhamu, he is a well known person down south. I found his recipe so basic just like the usual south Indian kurma but to my amazement the end result was a fingerlicking curry. I have posted few crab curries earlier in my blog like - Amma's Crab curry and Spicy crab fry but somehow this recipe by Chef really stool my heart. 

What really intregued me about this recipe is the name Kanyakumari Nandu Masala. This is a lovely place that I have been to in my childhood and I have visited the famous beach and the sunset point. I have had fond memories of those times, it was during my school vacation leave. Being the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu their recipes are a fusion of both cuisines and I really wanted to try my hand at it. I think I have said enough now lets move on to the recipe :-) Today being my 200'th post I wanted to share a super hit recipe with all of you...

Pavakkai Pitlai | Bitter Gourd Coconut Curry | No onion no tomato no garlic recipe

Today's lunch is today's post ;-) call me crazy and that is me. First time I try a curry and it tasted awesome and guess what I just could not resist clicked pictures and vola its on the blog. How I wish my everyday cooking recipes makes an appearance here sigh! If you are someone who has been following me you would very well know that I used to be this Pavakkai hater who turned to be someone who thought ok lets try to cook with pavakkai to someone who loved this bitter veg. I have had few recipes up in this space using pavakkai/ karela/ bitter gourd - like the Pavakkai puli Kuzhambu, Pavakkai Fry and Pavakkai stir fry. 

Pavakkai Pitlai is a recipe from South India I am not sure from which state it makes its origin. The combination of Thoor dal and coconut paste gives it a feel like a south Indian kootu but trust me the flavors are so unique and this is much more than a simple kootu recipe. If you have people in the household who don't like pavakkai this is a recipe to test and try with them ;-) they will end up loving the recipe just like me. It has a tangy, coconutty flavor with the unique taste of pavakkai not the bitter taste. A great company to white rice, today I had paired this curry with kovakkai poriyal and masala chips.