Beetroot chocolate cake

Weekend treat. This cake is full of goodness. Though I really wished the colour of the beetroot came out better, but believe you me the beetroot has given the cake that extra moisture & gueeness. 

Sorry for the bad cake decoration. Not really very good at it. 

Cheese & Onion Bread

I guess its been a bready week for me, Some how every morning after waking up i have been wanting to do a bread. And i promise no more breads for a while after this post.

Mac & Chilly Chick

              A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.
 -Thomas Keller

Honey oats bread

After mentioning the honey oats bread from Subway in my last post,I just couldn't stop myself from baking one & converting it into my all time favorite tuna sub. Infact to add on to my craving, yesterday my friend & I had a girls day out hogging & shopping, we decided that we will go to this barbecuejoint which is very very popular here in India called the "barbeque nation" but as we searched our way to that place on the GPS,we both (my friend & I )saw our all time favorite restaurant "Mainland China".

Honey wheat bread with flax seeds

Off late i have realized that i have become quite a conscious person when it comes to eating healthy.( I know i just cant give up on my kfc craving) but as far as possible i try and eat healthy. I usually order wheat bread from the local bakery in the neighborhood, and recently learnt that they add more of all purpose flour and less of whole wheat. So i decided to do this bread with whole wheat flour. And while i was preparing for the dough, I saw this packet of flex seeds lying a in my pantry( really don't know its expiry) So i decided to do this "honey wheat & flax seed bread", though my favorite has always been honey oats bread from subway, the taste of freshly baked bread is unbeatable(ahh..the honey oats bread with tuna !! yummy )   

Chia seeds

Fish in mustard gravy

One of the very very commonly had fish curry in the eastern sector of our country. Fish & rice is a staple . As a kid I remember hating it to the core, I refused to eat fish. So did my hubby. We both being from east of India didn't relished it much, till we visited my maternal uncles house and we were served xhorio Maas ( mustard fish) & we loved it.

Tiramisu

Yesterday we had one of our very good friend visiting us along with his new wife. So i wanted to cook a special meal for them but but but its was Friday(pre-weekend) and my hubby had to order food from this small Indian restaurant/home delivery joint( i am giving it way too much respect by calling it a restaurant). He (my hubby) is a big digger for the food there(trust me its not worth it) and his usual is chicken 65(Specialty of Andhra) & ginger chicken(origin unknown).

Fudgy brownies

I remember my BFF taking me to this only brownie joint in Colaba Mumbai & the grey hair graceful lady supervising everything around. The brownies in that place were to die for. Atleast 20 different kinds.. wow that place sure was heaven on earth.Just cant recollect the name of the joint infact the following year when i took my husband along i just couldn't find that place. Made my hubby walk the whole of Colaba Causeway atleast twice.. but no joy !!

Lemon drizzle cake

Today while walking up till the ATM near my house i realized the summers are here and its gonna be a really hot hot summer this year. i nearly fainted while walking back. Drank almost 2 liters of water ... phew the summers are surely here !!! Opened my refrigerator to find half a dozen of lemon lying all around( remains of the party last weekend) So what better the a lemon drizzle cake. Frankly the lemons were going bad and i hate to waste anything especially if it could be recycled into something yummy & refreshing.

North meets east Phirni with a twist.

Phirni is a variant of the famous European rice pudding which in India is popularly known as payas/payoxh or kheer. Phirni is more popular in North India, Pakistan, Afghanistan & Iran.It has been one of my favorite sweet dish since childhood. My mum made it quite frequently & she is really good at it. My hubby loves kheer ( but avoids it because of all the calories of sugar )so I thought why not try a new version which had the texture and look of Phirni & tasted some what like the famous Eastern India  gur kii kheer (rice pudding with date palm jaggery, just a consolation that jaggery is healthier).

My version of this sweet needs only three ingredients and there you have a fantastic tasting desert on your table .

The Spread & The prep

Hello friends... Writing back after a crazy busy fun weekend  and it was one Hell of a weekend. To start with Friday we went to a get together which started with a slow begining but by the end of it it went totally out of hand ,  got my dancing shoes on ..... & then there was no end !! And phew got up with a  terrible party hangover (hangover without drinking) couldn't move a single part of the body & guess what I had a day full of cooking cooking & cooking !!!! Somehow motivated myself to get started after popping a pain killer off-course. The menu I had planned was totally indian tried to make each dish from a different state ( the advantages of being an Indian we have so many varied dishes to choose from)

Gutte ki Sabzi

As i wake up this morning & I realised it's already Thursday and I have a bigggggg day coming up on Saturday ....lots & lots of cooking to be done. We are hosting a dinner  at our place & have invited some(some is surely an understatement) of our friends . Still have to get the grocery in place,plan the indoors seating (it's still raining here in Hyds )  & generally motivating myself. Have planned an Indian meal & it surely need some prep. Doing a pure "apno Rajasthan gatte ka saag"(gram flour dumplings in yogurt gravy) as one of the dishes so here i prepare the dumplings before hand & on the finally day just prepare the gravy & serve it along.

Wheat banana walnut cake.

As the temperature in Hyderabad dips dramatically "all thanks to the weather god". Here i sit with my cuppa waiting for hubby dear to get back from work And then the thought ran by to BAKE.Went into the kitchen to just find some ripped bananas,a pack of whole wheat flour (apna desi atta) & some walnuts (Major stocking up is due) so i decided what better than a whole wheat banana walnut cake, hoping that my hubby would crib a bit lesser for it being Atta & not maida. Pheww he is one hell of a fitness freak!!!