WHAT IS A PLUM CAKE? In India, specifically Kerala, Plum Cake refers to a type of cake made with either dried fruit (such as raisins, cranberries, figs, prunes etc.)with a hint of rum or brandy. In India, the plum cake has is served during the Christmas season, and those who are vegetarians, skip out the eggs, and those who don’t want alcohol in their cakes, generally use orange juice instead. This recipe came to India from England, but it is quite a popular cake around the world....

Vegetarian Jambalaya After the rich and scrumptious festive foods, all I want is some simple, light, healthy and comfortable one-pot meal. Today I am going to share one such recipe – Vegetarian Jambalaya with leftover rice, yes I prepared it with leftover rice. According to the wiki, Jambalaya is a dish of Louisiana origin of Spanish and French. For me, it reminded me of vegetable and rajma pulao. I served this with tortilla chips, and it became a filling and a complete meal....

I think I have posted quite a few Lassi recipes. :-) This is not a lassi recipe but another summer recipe following the concept of “Make Vadagams When the Sun Shines” – Lady’s Finger / Okra Fryums or Vendaikkai Vathal or Sun dried Okra. It’s a super simple recipe and this can be prepared in bulk and stocked up. These okra fryums can be used in Kuzhambu varieties or they can be fried and served as rice accompaniment....

Alternative titles for this post: the best thing I’ve ever eaten that one time I ate an entire onion tart myself (just kidding – but I could have!) sweet goodness in a pie crust do I have to share? This Vidalia onion tart with bacon and thyme – aka the best thing I’ve ever eaten – is another creation that my mom and I came up with. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but my mom and I love to cook together....

Xiaodianxin: X is always a tricky alphabet in these A-Z blogging marathons. Last year I named my post with an ingredient starting with X which I used in my recipe. It was the vegan mango ice-cream. This year I am not going with the component name but the generic recipe name – Xiaodianxin. Xiaodianxin means cookies in Chinese. The first recipe that crossed my mind for X is Xmas Plum Cake but it’s from the UK and as I had already picked two recipes from the UK I had to skip that option....

Theme: BM# 32 Bookmarked Recipes Dish: Zeppole by Sandhya Ramakrishnan As I was looking for a dish to make for the final day of BM# 33, I narrowed down my search by looking for recipes made with X, Y & Z instead of the starting from A. Isn’t that smart?? I think so too (patting on my shoulder right now 🙂 I got super excited when I saw Zeppole from Sandhya’s blog in the list for Z and made it for our evening snack today....

Super Easy Tartar Sauce Whenever I make my Maryland crab cake recipe, I always make this super easy tartar sauce recipe on the side (and coleslaw too, of course!). I don’t always keep pre-made tartar sauce on hand, and as usual, this DIY version is so much better flavor-wise. The best part? It comes together in just 5 minutes! This crazy-simple recipe tastes just like your favorite restaurant’s tartar sauce, only better....

A well-stocked pantry is essential. I keep a good variety of canned tomatoes on hand, especially diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. Canned beans, pasta, rice, and broth are also staples I like to have on my shelves, along with dried herbs and spices. When I have these fundamentals, I can always put together a soup, stew, or pasta dinner on nights when I don’t have a meal planned....

This Guide Will Be Helpful for You If… Your homemade cakes usually turn out dense, dry, lumpy, cornbread-like, or tunneled. You’re often left frustrated and feeling like you’ve wasted ingredients and time when making a cake from scratch. You tend to rely on box mixes because homemade cakes don’t turn out consistently for you. You want to learn how to make perfectly moist, tender, and beautiful cakes that taste and look amazing (like the pistachio cake pictured above!...

This post contains helpful notes and tips to help you make the perfect dish. However, if you are in a rush, please use the “Jump to Recipe” link above or the “Jump to” links below to get to the section you want. For my aloo beans posto recipe, I substitute green beans for broad beans and I definitely prefer a spice grinder over a stone grinder 😀. Aloo poshto has a special place in my heart because it brings back memories of delicious home cooked meals with other dishes such as aloo gobi, cholar dal, and jeera rice....

I can’t believe we are almost at the finishing line of this month’s mega marathon ‘Explore the Flavors’. Just one more day and we are done with the non stop posting and blogging. So for the penultimate day, I have a crunchy and addictive street food that is popular all over India.It is called Pidatha Kinda Pappu in Telugu. It is very similar to Jhal Muri that is made in North India....

(Mostly) Old Fashioned Apple Cake We took Luke apple picking over the weekend (scroll to the bottom of the page for a picture!) and after bringing home approximately 20 lbs of apples I asked on Instagram if there were any apple recipes that you’d like to see. In addition to apple fritters and apple butter, I received so many requests for a “good apple cake”. Fortunately, I already had this recipe planned to share with you today....

In our household, the meal never ends with curd/yogurt/buttermilk rice. When I make sambar or kuzhambu, we usually have that as a side for the yogurt rice. On days when I make dal or kootu or rasam, we opt for pickles for yogurt rice. But folks, thokku or the grated pickle is more than a pickle. You can use it as a spread for your sandwich, dosa, and pair it with idli, paratha, and upma....

There are so many reasons to love this recipe: it wastes no part of the vegetables—the stalks, stems, leaves, and all go into it; it comes together entirely in one oven tray, which means fewer dishes to wash; and it is not dainty in any manner—it requires chunky-cut vegetables (so less work here too!) and has bold flavors. Asian flavors are a huge hit with our daughters. Whether it’s a bowl of spicy ramen with vegetable stir fry or just some cooked noodles tossed with chili garlic oil, the spicy, tangy, sweet, and umami flavors are all-time favorites....

How long it takes: about a half hour Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowl, muffin tins Servings: makes 12 muffins A nourishing breakfast. Accompanied by fresh fruit and nonfat plain Greek yogurt, banana bread muffins will provide a healthy start to your day. They’re the perfect grab-and-go breakfast for those extra crazy mornings when you don’t have a minute to even think about sitting down with a bowl of granola or oatmeal....

“Fish n Chips” ~ it’s like pair made in heaven….. I’ve had many versions of this dish from many parts of the world but the best I ever tasted was in London. It was hot crispy beer battered fish along with hot potato fries sprinkled with pinch of salt n malt vinegar along with hot cuppa chocolate…..oh it was just perfect on a rainy morning !!! Infact this dish also originated from UK and you would find tons n tons of fish n chips takeaway scattered all over....

Ingredients to make Besan Ka Chilla: Besan/Gram flour: This is the most commonly used ingredient in India but you can also sub with chickpea flour for this. Besan/gram flour is a flour made from chana dal also known as split brown chickpeas, while Chickpea flour or garbanzo flour is made of white chickpeas that are ground up. They both have a similar flavor and behaviour and won’t make a difference in this recipe....

It finally is beginning to feel a little like spring as we make these Green Beans with Almonds. ” Green Bean Almondine ” was also one of the first things we tried during our visit to Paris a few years back and also a first, where Dad said ‘if Green Beans are cooked like this, I can have them everyday’ (lol..he didn’t know it would be a reality soon)...

This is a great dish to serve with roti or plain rice. Add some dal and raita for a filling and wholesome meal. About the Recipe First thing that comes to my mind when I think of stuffed veggies is stuffed eggplant. It is one of my favorite ways of enjoying brinjal. Each state has a different way of preparing this classic dish - like this Andhra gutti vankaya. As an ardent eggplant lover, I’ve tried quite a few stuffed baingan curry recipes like eggplant kurma....

I got the base recipe from R’s mom but I thought of trying this sandwich, either with Dabeli potato filling or samosa potato filling. But to my luck, I didn’t have any beets when I prepared those two recipes. When I was chatting with my friend (who gave me the Chivda recipe) regarding this Bombay sandwich recipe, she suggested the boiled potato slices instead of mashed potato curry. And also asked me to try it with Amul cheese and butter to make it utterly butterly delicious....