Methi Thepla

Methi Thepla is favorite Gujarati bread made with besan and whole wheat flour. It is very flavorful and aromatic. It tastes best when served hot or warm with yogurt or pickle or as is. I got this great recipe from here. The recipe is very quick and can be done in less than 30 minutes. This recipe makes around 6 to 8 theplas. I have used dried kasoori methi as that is available year round. You can also do this with fresh methi leaves. If fresh leaves are used, then they look picture perfect with the green color showing a lot…

Arisi Upuma

Arusi (rice, in English) upuma is a very simple, yet very tasty tamil tiffin which tastes best when served hot. Best accompaniments are puli kuzhambu, tomato urugai, mango pickle, sugar, vathal kuzhambu etc. I actually eat it as is. I love this upuma when my mom makes it. It is one of those recipes which I always ask her to do it for me. Yummm… I never get bored or tired of this yummy one... How many ever times I do it, I still do not get that perfect taste that she has... You can also add grated coconut in this and it will enhance the flavor even more.

Aval Payasam

Today is Krishna Jayanthi. It is Lord Krishna's birthday. Lord Krishna is very fond of butter and aval. There is a story of friendship which also talks about the liking Lord Krishna has towards aval. Sudama, who is very poor comes to see his friend Lord Krishna who is the King of Mathura, Sudama's wife sends some aval for Krishna. Sudama brings it wrapped in an old cloth. When Sudama reaches Mathura to meet Lord Krishna, the guards at the gate cannot believe he is the friend of their king. They send a messenger inside the palace to inform Lord Krishna about the visitor. When Krishna heard the name Sudama, he immediately gets up from his throne and comes running to see his friend and welcomes him with a big hug.
Sudama is very happy to see Krishna and vice versa. Lord Krishna asks Sudama - what did he bring for Lord Krishna. Sudama is very ashamed to take out the aval which is wrapped in an old cloth. Still Krishna gets it out of Sudama and eats the aval happily.. Lord Krishna loves aval very much. When Lord Krishna eats a few handful of the aval, all the problems of Sudama is vanished.
There are many sweets and savories made on this day to celebrate Krishna Jayanthi. Simplest is this aval payasam which can be done in a jiffy and is also Lord Krishna's favorite.

Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks

My daughter loves Pizza – hey most kids do.. I remember going for a birthday party and all kids (age 2 – 12) were excited on seeing the big cake and they all wanted to pounce on the cake.. It was really difficult to hold them back.. After the cake was cut, the kids were served the cake and all of them were very happy to receive a big piece of cake… But that was only for 10 seconds until the Pizza and Garlic Bread boxes were opened and all kids wanted to jump on it.. They were given a slice of Pizza and one Garlic Bread. After many servings, the kids did not eat the cake after the 10 seconds, but ate the Pizza and Garlic Bread!!!!!!!!!!!!!. My daughter gets excited when I make Pizza, but if we order from outside, she is next to the phone reminding me every 10 seconds to order garlic bread also.. She will say – Pizza and Garlic Bread… I made these Garlic Breadsticks today and it was a big hit. My husband and daughter loved it and wanted more!!! That is good review and I was happy to see the bread sticks vanish in minutes!!. I started to do the recipe from here but changed a bit for our preference.

Kathirikkai Thayir Pachadi (கத்திரிக்காய் தயிர் பச்சடி)

Kathirikkai Thayir Pachadi is a very flavorful and elegant pachadi. I was actually skeptical on how this will taste but it was very good. Prepare the pachadi and mix the brinjal with curd mixture just before serving to ensure crispiness. This is a great accompaniment.

Shrikand

My blog views have crossed 2000.. yay!!! . Celebrating with a sweet.. Shrikand is a simple and delicious Indian desert. It is made with fresh curd. Curd is very rich in calcium and probiotics. This is a desert which needs a lot of time (when seen as start to finish), but the work involved is very less. Most of the time involved is waiting time. The flavor of this dish comes from the aroma of saffron and cardamom. Traditionally shrikand is served with puri, but we enjoyed it as is…. I got this recipe from here

Baking Partners: A new Baking Group

A group of home bakers helping each other to achieve perfection.
Baking a home made Baking a homemade bread, cake or cookies will give the best outcome. However in order to achieve the best results, a perfect recipe and right techniques are required. We are a small group of home baker friends, who love and want to learn more about the nook and corners of baking. We are planning to try out recipes from books/magazines and cooking shows. Every member gets a chance to present their choice of recipe and share important points with the rest of the group. Main purpose of this group is to learn the techniques, critic the procedure if there are ways to improve, and to eat a delicious food. Rules are simple, we will choose one recipe and send it out to the group by 16th of every month and the reveal date will be 15th of the next month. On that day we will blog about it. A linky tool will be open during that time and each member can link their post.