EVENT: A- Z RECIPE CHALLENGE THEME : AN INGREDIENT BEGINNING WITH THE LETTER Q Apple Avocado Quinoa Salad I love how filling and delicious quinoa salads are and apple avocado quinoa salad is no less. The charming thing about quinoa is that it can be paired with practically any ingredient to make a filling, healthy and enjoyable dish. For the Apple Avocado Quinoa Salad, it was not a planned salad at all. I knew that I wanted to make a quinoa salad but the ingredients just sort of popped up when I opened my fridge. I am so glad that it turned really well. What is Quinoa? Quinoa(pronounced as Keen -Wah) is not a grain but is classed as a pseudo cereal. It actually…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: MEXICAN FOOD RECIPE: MEXICAN MOLLETE What is Mexican Mollete? Before we go into any other details let’s get the explanation of what is a Mexican Mollete out of the way. Basically, we all know that Mexico was colonized by the Spanish. So technically the word Mollete is Spanish word for a type of bread. However, in the Mexican Cuisine its an open faced sandwich. As we all know that the Spanish do not pronounce ‘LL’ as we do in ball. Double LL becomes Y. Therefore Mollete is pronounced as Mo – ya -te. Traditional Mexican Cuisine Authentic Mexican Cuisine followed by the Mayan Indians was healthy and nutritious as they believed in living off the land. Using naturally found ingredients…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: A- Z RECIPE CHALLENGE THEME : AN INGREDIENT BEGINNING WITH THE LETTER P Persimmon Salsa A different flavored salsa that can be enjoyed with some tortilla chips or simply relish it as a refreshing salad. What is Persimmon? Persimmon also known as Sharon Fruit, this tomato shaped fruit is actually a berry. Yes, a huge berry. Mostly persimmon is an autumn fruit. There are two varieties of persimmon – the more astringent one hachiya variety and the non astringent fuyu. The hachiya variety you need to wait till it ripens fully to enjoy the sweetness of the pulp or jelly like flesh. The fuyu one can be eaten like an apple and the flesh is a bit more firm. What is a Salsa?…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: SUMMER SALAD RAINBOW SALAD BOWL A bit about the group: Members of this group give their partners two secret ingredients according to the theme decided and prepare a dish. Once the dish is ready we add the photo only and other members try and guess the secret ingredients. Towards the end of the month the secret is revealed when we share the recipe link. This month’s theme SUMMER SALAD was suggested by Kalyani. Kalyani’s blog has a variety of recipes right from South Indian Dishes to other world cuisines. My Partners For this theme I had two partners, Seema who blogs at Mildly Indian and Shobha who blogs at Shobha’s Food Mazaa. Seema’s blog is full of recipes tried out…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #235 BEST FROM WASTE Best from Waste: A much required but hardly ever discussed topic. How can we reduce kitchen waste? Our Grandmothers and Mothers were a frugal lot, hardly ever passing off anything as waste when it comes to kitchen waste. What do we mean by kitchen waste? Its not all the wrappings that come with your food but green waste. Watch any cookery show and you will see chefs peeling away thick layers from a fruit and vegetable and throwing it away, trimming food to make it appear perfect, and in the process wasting food. Have you noticed how a huge chunk is cut off from carrots, cucumbers, beetroots, tomatoes… that’s not called trimming! Trimming means cutting a thin slice…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #231 CONDIMENTS MAGIC What are Condiments? A condiment is a spice, sauce or any preparation of several ingredients that is generally served with a dish to enhance or compliment the flavour of the dish or food preparation. For example different sauces or gravies are made to enhance the flavour of vegetables, meat, fish, pasta etc. When we make dips, dressings, chutneys, spice blends, they help to compliment a dish for example when we made podi masala to enjoy with rice, idlis, dosa etc. Condiments can also be simple ingredients like salt, pepper powder, chili powder etc. FoodieMonday/Bloghop Group The reason my topic today is on condiments is because this week’s FoodieMonday Group theme is Creative Condiments. Renu requested that we…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: A- Z RECIPE CHALLENGE THEME : A DISH BEGINNING WITH THE LETTER K WHAT IS A-Z CHALLENGE? It’s group started by Jolly Makkar and Vidya Narayan. What is required of in this group? Nothing too difficult but to cook a dish using an ingredient whose English name begins with the designated letter. This month we’re suppose to choose an ingredient that begins with K. My choice is Kiwi, the famous soft, seedy green fruit. While my favorite way to have kiwi is one its own, sometimes I make a cool healthy chia seed pudding to take care of my sweet tooth. A BIT ABOUT KIWI FRUIT We all normally presume that Kiwi fruit or Chinese Gooseberry originates from New Zealand. However, it actually grew in…
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Continue ReadingMY BEST, MY WORST AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN – 8 YEARS AS A FOOD BLOGGER Since I began my journey as a Food Blogger, my Blogging Anniversaries have come and gone without much celebration or pomp as it usually gets shadowed by new Year Celebrations. As a matter of fact, I started blogging on 2nd January 2012. As some of you may know, there were a couple of reasons I began the blog: A place where family and friends could access recipes world over To create recipes and jot them somewhere, recipes that I learnt from my dear mum, my mother in law who we fondly call Nunu and my aunt, my kaki to me. Having stopped working as a teacher, I had to put…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #212 SALAD STORIES Salads, what are salads? Salads are a combination of ingredients put together like grains, vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts,seeds. Vegetables and fruits are usually cut into small pieces, grained used are cooked, meats are usually boiled or roasted and nuts and seeds are either added raw or roasted lightly. A salad is usually enjoyed as a starter, as a light meal or with a main dish. Its the best way to eat your daily required vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. If a salad is consumed as a meal then its necessary to get your protein, carbs and good fat included in it. The more colorful a salad is the more tempting and attractive it is, making it a meal or side…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: SIKKIMESE CUISINE About this Group: As most of my regular readers may have noticed that through the Shhh Cooking Secretly Group we are taking each state of India every month and preparing a dish pertaining to that state’s cuisine. August was when the participating members cooked different dishes from the state of Sikkim. Get to know Sikkim Sikkim, one of the seven sister states of North East India is situated in the lap of the Himalayas. The third highest peak of the Himalayas, Kanchenjunga can be seen from Sikkim. Sikkim was annexed to India in 1975. 11 languages are spoken in this tiny mountain state, English being the official language.Its the home to the second highest suspension bridge in Asia, Singshore…
