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Chaat - Bollywood style!
2008-05-06 08:04:00
Bollywood ... Crazy hindi movies ... guy and gal running around trees ... melodrama with moms and moms-in-law ... crazy villain dude coming after defenseless heroine ... hero flexing his skimpy muscles as he pounces on the villain and his cronies and beats them to pulp ... guy and gal dancing on a train ... the plots go on and on ... and on! :) The most popular question ever encountered about
More About: Bollywood , Style

Click a 'shroom or 3?
2008-05-01 08:41:00
Au Naturel. Endless possibilities ... Which just means I'm stumped. And it gives me infinite reasons to procrastinate :) 15 minutes till the deadline. Guess this will have to be it. Details: Pic: Hon-Shimeji mushrooms Camera: Leica Digilux 3 Kit Lens No tripod, but lots of gyrating was involved 10 minutes ... Damn, Bee is going to kill me! :)
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Mushroom Lemongrass Soup (Tom Yum Het Mangsawirat)
2008-04-30 07:03:00
No, I did not know the full name of that soup. Like most other people, all I call it is Vegetarian Tom Yum. I just looked up the name so I could increase my coolness factor tenfold :) I've often felt like writers' block is nonexistent when it comes to talking about food. Except for today. I read Mele Cotte's post about her Cooking to Combat Cancer event a few days ago and finally figured out a
More About: Soup , Mushroom , Lemongrass

Eat a cheesecake pop, will you?
2008-04-28 09:22:00
When I first read about cheesecake pops being the DB challenge for April, it took me a while to figure out what these crazy things were. I had to read and re-read the recipe before understanding how these pops got done. They're made of cheesecake, but there's more to them. They look like lollipops, but that isn't what they are. They need to be frozen, but they are not icecream. They're a crazy
More About: Cheesecake

Sweet'n'Tangy Kumquat Daal
2008-04-24 08:02:00
We chanced upon some kumquats at Uwajimaya a few days ago. And I couldn't hold my curiosity any longer. So, we bought a bunch of them even as we kept wondering what we'd do with them! I'd eaten them raw a couple of times and liked them as long as they were perfectly ripe and juicy (except for the damn seeds which are bitter and sometimes a weird blue in colour!) And I realized earlier today
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Trying to get wasted on drunken noodles ...
2008-04-23 06:10:00
Pad Kee Mao. Three magic words that can make me skip around in circles. Easily my favourite Thai food, I'm pretty much the informal PKM taster of the city. In fact, there are so many joints that dish up a killer PKM that I've hardly felt the need for attempting a recreation at home. Until today. We had this hankering for chef-fin' it out. We wanted to be the masters of our own Pad Kee Mao
More About: Noodles , Wasted

Silly Fusilli!
2008-04-20 21:44:00
Estelle Costanza: Where have you been? You were supposed to fix the stove! I've been waiting for hours! Frank Costanza: I fell on some Fusilli! Estelle Costanza: Fusilli? Frank Costanza: You know, the corkscrew pasta. It was a Fusilli Jerry. It got stuck in me. Had to go to the proctologist. ~Seinfeld, Episode: The Fusilli Jerry **** Could I ever cook fusilli with a straight face after
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Whole lotta nut love!
2008-04-14 21:12:00
There's no such thing as too much of 'boarding! Really! Even when my ass hurts after two days of sliding, gliding, rolling down the mountain :) But follow that up with an insanely long run ... hmm ... the body starts whining a bit. And wants some serious TLC. And the mind just wants to some long overdue blogging! And what could be be better than an insanely nutty comfort dessert? The minute we
More About: Love

Honey honey, how you thrill me ...
2008-04-09 09:35:00
I'm quite sure ABBA didn't have food on the mind while penning this song. But I usually do when I'm humming it :) A spoonful of honey is often enough to make me burst into song, if we're talking about a recipe centered on honey - that can just send me into raptures! Ultimate Dessert Cookbook by Rosemary Wilkinson - I *love* this book. Almost as much as I love honey :) And I've been hoping to
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I'm red but not embarassed ...
2008-04-06 08:35:00
I'm hot for you, baby I'm a big old beet I'm red but not embarassed and I'm good with meat Of course, I make an excellent borscht and I'm hot for you, baby! The Hot Beet Song from the Brak Show :) No meat or borscht today. But we're definitely talking about a red beet, red enough to stain our penne :) We're pretty big fans of penne - always seems like the perfect length for pasta, thick and

'Boreking' some bread :)
2008-04-04 08:09:00
"Mediterranean Street Food" - how can one not fall in love with this book? *sigh* As I turn the pages, I'm totally mired in nostalgia as I'm taken back to the souks of Fez, the bustling streets of Cairo, Monastiraki Square in Athens ... *sigh*. And then I start dreaming of wandering around Istanbul, sitting on a beach in Sicily and visiting the multitude of mediterranean destinations that I
More About: Bread

Dare to bake a mini cake? :)
2008-04-02 00:11:00
Ok, it is time to stop being so damn tardy. No more last minute bakeoffs. No more late posts. I'm s.e.r.i.o.u.s. I'll admit that I was initially disappointed when I found March's DB Challenge to be a party cake. Hmm ... I was craving savoury. *grumble* *grumble*. And then the baker kicked in :) Yay! A party cake! And tomorrow is Monte's b'day. Perfect. Wait ... more than perfect! That even
More About: Mini , Cake , Dare

Clickin' Hour is here!
2008-03-31 03:58:00
That crazy time of the month again - last day to Click away!The Jugalbandits (that's your new collective name, Bee & Jai!) picked a novel theme this month - Metal. My submission is this pic of a corkscrew lying atop a spoon rest- the former pretty much indispensable for us given our penchant for wine and the latter vital to restricting our cooking drippings! :)***Hey Screw, You! :)(Pardon my french!)Camera: Nikon D70, kit lens
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Mmm ... pancakes!
2008-03-27 18:01:00
Us siblings could be called children of a Disney generation - we grew up hooked onto sunday morning Disney cartoons and spent many a summer day perched on a wall or a tree branch reading their comics. And Mickey Mouse made me quite happy - I mean, who couldn't love those fabulously huge ears, that crazy Disney voice that sounded tailor-made for MM, a mouse with a dog (some insist Goofy is a cow!) for a friend, another dog for a pet, such insanity! As much as I've grown past this, and often view Disney productions with a much more skeptical eye, there are some indelible memories associated with this essential piece of our growing years.So, what does any of this have to do with pancakes? Or even with food? Really. Well, that was the first time we even heard of pancakes - when we saw Mickey eating a ginormous stack of pancakes doused with a mug of maple syrup! Whoa! A mouse can eat a whole stack of those oothappam-lookalikes? Really? And I was filled with this crazy urge to eat thos...
More About: Pancakes

Mélange - Soups
2008-03-25 05:38:00
Wow! This is the longest blogging break ever. Long enough that I started going into withdrawal! Guess that's what happens when work mania takes over. Long hours, little sleep, and not enough cooking - that does not bode well for me!Guess given how the drafts are piling up, it is time for another Mélange post. This time about a certified favourite subject - soups. We love soups - chunky, pureéd, spicy, hearty ... just bring it! And these bowls of goodness end up being even more appetizing on those cold snowy or rainy days - nothing like a cup'o'soup to warm the soul, huh?I'm actually having to rack my brains about these recipes as I start to type them up - we made them a few weeks ago and I never did get a chance to write about any of them. Guess that's just one more reason why this whole blogging mania is so awesome - the e-trail that I can use to look up recipes!All 3 soups featured here are relatively chunky or thick - guess that was a sign of wanting to warm the insides on a...
More About: Soups

Mélange - Appetizers
2008-03-16 03:51:00
Over the last couple of weeks, we made a variety of appetizers that turned out to be insanely simple and totally delightful. Delicious enough that every time I looked at the pictures, I went "Ahhh!" and then balked at the idea of writing a post about each of these :)So, the idea of this Mélange series was born. We often end up making an assortment of nibbles/dips/desserts, usually for a party, but these usually don't get written about. This consolidated post seems like a good idea for bunching together some of these long overdue posts.So, without much further ado, I'll start babbling about several nibbles that were insanely easy to assemble and totally kicked ass!***Lavash topped with Brie and Pear ChutneyLavash is a soft thin yeast bread of Armenian origin - really simple flavours derived from a combination of flour, water and salt. It makes for fabulous wraps and rolls, and even with dips. And last week, we discovered that it makes for a crispy baked base with a variety of toppi...
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Bread, Soup and happiness
2008-03-14 05:23:00
Sometimes, that's about all that's needed to put a smile on the face! A bowl of hot soup, some crusty bread to mop it up and soon life is all goodness.I was wandering around Columbus Foodie's insanely fun blog - brimming with a wide variety of recipes that I could pick from for T&C VII. Just as it seemed like I was going to drown in eternal indecision, I saw this recipe for beer batter bread. Whoa! That sounded really delicious. Plus I've been hankering for more baking lately, so this sounded perfect. And the plan was to try this recipe out right away - how insane would it be if I posted a recipe for an event a couple of weeks in advance? Do things like that ever happen?!!The Abster was coming over for dindin and said she was hankering for a soup. And when I mentioned bread, I could pretty much hear her jumping around on the other end of the phone line! But wait ... she *hates* onions! Well, the recipe could be reworked to use garlic instead, can't go wrong with that! And t...
More About: Happiness , Soup , Bread

Salad heaven ... *so* colourful :)
2008-03-12 04:37:00
If there was such a place, would it filled with fresh spinach, amaranth, rocket and many other greens? With crisp pears and apples, a plethora of nuts, varieties of olive oil, grapeseed oil, some truffle for fragrance? Maybe juicy meyer lemons and blood oranges? How about marinated beets and eggplant? *sigh* ...Ok, I'm back! But it was so good to be romping around in that field of greens :)I'm pretty sure I sound like I'm off the rocker, but this was just another of my crazy food dreams! I woke up with a smile and a serious hankering for some yummy salad. Which finally brings me to the subject of this post - a salad. Surprised, anyone?Every once in a while, we want a salad that is a little more substantial than just greens with a variety of garnishes - especially if that is going to be lunch following a workout. After puttering around the fridge and assessing possible salad options, my eyes fell upon an eggplant. Hmm ... was I ready to risk it?"How can people say they don't eat ...
More About: Heaven , Salad

A twist on Banh Mi Chay
2008-03-11 08:28:00
The sandwich world can sometimes be a bare desert for vegetarians - often one, maybe two items on a menu at a sandwich joint might be veggie friendly. Can be such a pisser! Until we see one of those silver linings on the meat-filled sandwich cloud - those fabulous vietnamese sandwiches. Mouthfuls of crunchy, flavourful goodness. *sigh*Tonight called for a quick fix. A quick, delicious fix. A quick, delicious and healthy fix. Hmm ... how about a Banh Mi Chay? That fabulous vietnamese sandwich. Wait, did I say that already?!Well, like always, any meal calls for variations, right? This one was no exception. I realized I only had this absolutely fabulous multi-grain bread to work with, no hoagie roll - which is what the banh mi usually comes in. That's cool, multi-grain makes me happy, am sure them vietnamese folks wouldn't be too insulted if I used it! And I figured it would be fun to add a few more twists here - maybe some marinated parnsnips? And spinach instead of lettuce or cila...
More About: Twist

Feelin' the bean love
2008-03-10 15:54:00
So, what do you do when you get a fabulously fresh batch of green beans from your CSA?Stash the beans in the fridge till you can find a recipe for itBe insanely magnanimous and give them to a friendSkip around in circles all excited about them green beansPore feverishly through all those cookbooks trying to find a new recipe that'll showcase the beansDo 3. and 4. - basically certifying that you're a minor nutcase! :)Well, no points for guessing what I did. Kind of hard to keep skipping around in circles while flipping through those cookbooks, but I did it nevertheless! :)I finally settled on a green beans and garlic recipe - not the traditional pan-asian one, but one with a bit more gravy - a bunch of chopped tomatoes thrown in, along with a batch of cannellini beans for more fiber goodness. A generous dash of white wine totally added a slurpy tingling aftertaste - much better than any vinaigrette could have.Bean s and Beans with Garlic and TomatoesSkip as you stir, makes it taste ...
More About: Love , The Bean

Got to love that pome!
2008-03-04 05:41:00
No, I'm *not* talking about any fabulous device from that AAPL :)A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon An Apple A Day hosted by Rosella. Her story is incredibly poignant - after having a stroke at 30, she seems to be doing well now and totally enjoying writing about her life and travails on her blog. And this event is extra special to her - she wants March 3rd, the day she had a stroke last year to be a celebration of healthy living and eating. It isn't any surprise that she chose to focus her event on apples along with a variety of other ingredients. Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. - Martin Luther KingAnd I'll be totally fine with that - can't quite imagine life without apples - guess that's one of the best things about living in Washington :)Apples, to no surprise, are way up there in terms of being a tasty source of goodness. They're full of soluble and insoluble fiber, the skin has a ton of Vitami...
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Vegetable Ribbons in gravy
2008-03-02 08:08:00
If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry? ~Author UnknownI felt like eating some pasta. And some vegetables. But if those veggies were my antipasto, does this mean I was going to end up hungry after my meal? Well, what if i combined my pasta and antipasto - or even better made my antipasto the pasta? Have I confused you yet? :)All this started when I stumbled upon a recipe for pasta-like veggie ribbons. Fascinating! Ribbons of zucchini and carrots in a lemony sauce. I could totally work that! Well, I did ... except it only took an hour and a half of peeling those damn vegetables into ribbons. Why didn't anyone tell me this was a ton of work? I want a vegetable ribbon maker *now*! Veggie ribbons in gravy Vegetable s a la fettucine Servings: 44 long zucchini - peeled4 long carrots - peeled8-10 brussel sprouts - halved1 cup silken tofujuice of 2 meyer lemons2 T fresh parsley1 t cayenne1/4 cup - grated feta cheesesaltfreshly ground pepperOk, get ready for applying some ...
More About: Gravy

Click some flour, will you?
2008-03-01 06:04:00
Click! Click!! Click!!!Like always, morning of the last day of the event. This has *got* to change! Seriously! :)Anyway, another bout of being creatively challenged. But a ton of fun, nevertheless! Thanks, Bee & Jai for organizing this. When Bee first announced the theme for this month - I got insanely excited. Flour ! Such a rockin' idea!I was reminded of our crazy get-covered-in-flour-while-pretending-to- help-with-roti parties! White and dusty all over, we soon start sneezing as we try to clean the flour off fast enough so we can start eating!So, I was trying to capture the image of flour falling and create a notion of it turning into these cute-as-a-button pasta shells ... I don't quite think I achieved what I wanted - a sense of the coarse (the flour) combined with the refined (that urbane pasta) ... but the idea has gotten me excited enough to want to keep working on it.Being a natural wheat junkie, I can't help but get excited about this theme. More so with the DB challe...
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Veggie Gratin + a twist on that mornay sauce :)
2008-02-29 08:24:00
Several days ago, I was reading about a mornay sauce - basically a bechamel sauce to which cheese has been added. I've made this a few times in the past - and the key is usually to simmer it gently and stir in the cheese right off the heat so the sauce does not get too thick, but is instead smooth and creamy.Well, all that sounds fabulous, but I wasn't really looking for a super cheesy/creamy sauce for dinner. But then again, the idea of a gratin of sorts sounded really yummy! Well, that's when I realized I had a bunch of silken tofu remaining from that fabulous chocolate pudding attempt. Hmm ... I could totally try using that as the base for the sauce! And season it with some cheddar and nutmeg ... would that work?So, what's the deal with this recent tofu craze, this health kick, some kind of fad? I hope not! :) I've mostly been trying to incorporate a lot more protein into the daily diet - without compromising on flavours. We eat pretty healthy in general - lots of greens and...
More About: Sauce , Twist

Swirly 3-Greens soup
2008-02-28 09:27:00
What do you do when your fridge seems to be bordering on empty and you're too hard-pressed for time to contemplate going shopping?(1) Call a friend or sibling and shamelessly pile on for dinner(2) Run to the first restaurant you can think of(3) Order delivery(4) Force yourself to drag your lazy ass to the grocery store(5) Close your eyes, make a wish and check the contents of your fridge again :)Guess which one I picked? Yep, #5 it was! I closed my eyes and willed my fridge to become a cornucopia! I opened my eyes and dug around the fridge again ... well, it didn't quite become a horn of plenty, but I did remember to check my freezer this time. Lo! An assortment of frozen greens left over from an overabundant PO delivery! Weeeeee!!! Could I ask for more?So, the fabulous freezer of plenty had 3 varieties of greens - kale, collard and beet. Hmm ... a green soup? And I found one plump juicy heirloom tomato waiting to be eaten ... Swirly 3-Greens Soup A red swirl ... a white swirl ...S...

Taste & Create VI - Chocolate Tofu Pudding!
2008-02-24 07:53:00
This whole idea of trying out recipes from fellow bloggers is really fun - I've been indulging in this a lot more lately, sometimes trying to follow the recipe as closely as possible, other times I add my twist - as is what I often do with most recipes :) Either way, it is always really exciting to try something suggested by a fellow blogger, see how it turns out and be able to talk about our successes and misadventures.So, when Chris suggested that I should check out Taste & Create started by Nicole, I was intrigued. This event basically pairs up food bloggers who proceed to try out a recipe (any recipe) from each other's blogs. The first time I checked out the list of bloggers who were interested in trying this out, I realized there were *tons* of folks out there who I had never visited. Obviously, we all reach a saturation point in terms of how many blogs we can check out, how many posts we can read, how many comments we can submit, even how many recipes we can try out! But...
More About: Tofu , Chocolate , Pudding

Burger Time!
2008-02-22 11:34:00
Homemade burgers have got to be one of the most cooking fun projects ever. Not only do they make for a tasty alternative way to work with varieties of beans, it is so cathartic to make those "burger-dough" rounds and flatten them into patties. Hmm ... burger dough - is there an official word for that? :) Black bean burgers have always been a favourite - all the more since I've managed to perfect that recipe to a science! This time around, I wanted to work with kidney beans - so incredibly earthy, chewy and flavourful. And I was contemplating making these patties vegan - just a little olive oil, maybe use soy flour instead of indulging in bread crumbs as a binding agent.Every once in a while, impromptu cooking works to perfection - no recipe to work off of, we just start throwing stuff together and things fall into place. Ingredients mingle and dance, flavours stand out, all happy goodness! Love it when that happens! Don't you? :)As the burgers started coming together, I started wo...
More About: Time , Burger

Paanch Mishuli - Bengali Vegetable Medley
2008-02-20 06:25:00
Rosogolla ... rasmalai ... sandesh ... mishti doi ... malpoa ... cham cham ... *drool* ... bengali sweets rock! I love making them, love eating them, love writing about them ... Wait! This blog doesn't have a bengali dessert post yet! That sucks! Note to self: Make some yummy rasmalai this week just so I can write about it!Ok, so this post isn't about bengali sweets. Sorry! But it comes close. It does involve bengali spices and a multitude of vegetables, all goodness. I haven't cooked much bong food, so it was fun to pick up one of those simple postcard cookbooks - this time Bangla Ranna was my choice. It has a slew of bengali recipes - reasonably well written out. I particularly like the fact that the author Satarupa Banerjee dedicated this book to the countless housewives in Bengal who keep the tradition of Bengali cuisine alive. Got to love that :) As I flipped the pages, page 75 caught my eye - Paanch Mishuli - a vegetable medley that uses a choice of vegetables that are ...
More About: Vegetable , Medley

Can 7 words be enough?
2008-02-14 08:30:00
Open a bottle of wine. And let it open up :)Swirl, smell, sip, savour, swallow ... and finally get around to describing it. IN JUST SEVEN WORDS!!!You got to be kidding me! We usually swirl...swallow and screw up our faces and spend the next many many minutes talking about how it tastes. And we don't even know what the hell we're talking about. Yeeaahhh ... I can taste the tannins, sort of ... wait, berries? cherries? leather? Whatever! Our noses are more nostalgia-driven than anything else - a fabulous sip or gulp often flashes back to some crazy memory, a place we visited, some familiar smell from childhood, or some food we enjoyed, early spring, late fall, basically anything - *so* much of fun!And now, with Wine Blogging Wednesday, Senor Spittoon threw out a novel challenge - he wanted us to taste an Italian Red and describe it in 7 words - no more, no less!One thing we learned - nothing as cool as a discarded envelope to get our word juices flowing :)Our very own vino almost-ha...
More About: Words

Roasted Bell Pepper'n'Squash Soup
2008-02-13 07:48:00
In the social state to which we have come today, it is hard to imagine a nation which would live solely on bread and vegetables.- Jean-Antheleme Brillat-SavariThe Physiology of Taste (1825)If tonight's meal was any indication, Monsieur Brillat-Savarin is totally in the wrong! Well, I'm not sure if a whole nation could survive just on flavourful soups and some tortillas, but I think I could.:-PSimply the thing that I am shall make me live.- William ShakespeareAnd so said the bell pepper to the squash :) And the squash nodded vigorously as she said "Me too! Me too!" And then, both of them jumped into a pan, got roasted and ended up living in this fabulously tasty soup.Roasted Bell Pepper'n'Squash Soup I'm easy, I taste good, what more could you ask for? :)Servings: 2 as an entree (or 4 as an appetizer)2 red bell peppers - quartered4 yellow squashes - sliced long and cut into chunks1 t thyme1 t marjoram1 t olive oil1 t red wine vinegar1 t red pepper flakes1/2 t honey1/2 cup yogurts...