Xacuti Potato

One of the letters that was difficult for me was X.. I did little search on the internet and found this delicious Goan dish. I then looked through my bookmarked recipes and had Priyas Xacuti Masala. This is originally done with seafood or chicken.I I used the masala and added them to the potatoes.. This was delicious dish and very eye appealing with its rich red color from the Kashmiri Red Chilis. I served this with Jeera Rice for dinner. We liked it a lot... I got the masala recipe from here. This is my choice for X – Regional

 

Walnut Pesto Pasta - Pesto Di Noci

Pesto Di Noci is a Pesto made with Walnuts and Ricotta and is also called as Walnut Pesto Pasta. The pesto is rich and creamy from ricotta and is a quick, easy and great dish. The recipe can be made in less than 20 minutes from start to finish. Make sure to reserve at least 1 cup of the pasta cooking water as this dish can dry in a few minutes, so add some cooking water to the sauce and save 1 cup. Also serve this IMMEDIATELY – Even a few minutes will be late for this one. I made this with Multigrain Pasta.. This is my choice for W - International / Fusion

Vegan Mango Cake

I love baking and most of the times I try to do a bake which is healthy or healthier!!! But sometimes, I also love to do sinfully delicious and calorie rich goodies.. Now we are talking the second one here. Mango cake is a great flavorful cake which is easy to put together and tastes great. This is my choice for this month's Vegan Thursdays. Submitting this for V - Baked....

Ulutham Maavu for Bakshanam/ Urad Dal Flour for snacks

Why do a post on flour? Well I have had doubts at least 3 to 4 times about how to do this one.. So I am writing this on my blog, so next time I need to check, I know where to look.. When we do savory snacks at home, we use ulutham maavu and generally it is home made.. So you need to do any South Indian savory items at home, you will need this flour. Amount of this flour required depends on the recipe. I use this flour in Uppu Seedai, Thattai, Murukku etc. This is my post for U - Miscellaneous

Thenkoodu Buns / Khaliat Nahal (Honeycomb Buns or Bee’s Hive Buns)

Bread baking is fun and sometimes tedious with the wait time for the proofing.. When Aparna announced this month challenge for We Knead to Bake, it so looking so tempting and wanted to try it immediately, but then kept postponing.. And when I was deciding on recipes for the A-Z, it so happened that recipe for T had to be either International or baked.. So I chose this thenkoodu designed bread for T - Baked. Thenkoodu meaning beehive or honeycomb is the design this bread resembles and thus the name for this delicious sweet stuffing bun. Khaliat Nahal translates as Bee’s Hive in Arabic. This is because the buns are baked close to each other in a round pan where they form a honeycomb like pattern. They’re traditionally made sweet and glazed with honey flavored syrup, though savory versions are also made. I chose the sweet one which has cream cheese as the filling. I chose to use hung curd instead of cream cheese and also added some dry fruits and nuts to it..

 

Strawberry Jam

What a perfect way to use up the seasonal fruits than Jam.. It is a great idea to make jams from fresh fruit and you can store these jams (canned) throughout the year.. Winter comes and it is strawberry everywhere... They look so pretty with a very beautiful contrast of Dark Pink color with the very fresh green leaves. You want to grab them all from the store, but then how do you use them up without going waste!!! The answer is jam. Some rules about Jam that I follow in my house are - 1. Canning should be done for Jam if it is more than 200 grams quantity. 2. All Jam jars should be labeled about contents, date of preparation. 3. Only clean and moist free spoon should be used to scoop the jam. 4. No artificial colors or preservatives to be added. 5. Spoon that touches bread or anything else will not re enter the jam for another scoop. Use a fresh spoon. This jam is very tasty and has a great flavor and aroma of strawberry. It is also very easy to make. My choice for S - Others / Miscellaneous