Peanuts are the best bar food, don’t you think? Every bar/restaurant either gives you some for free with your beer or has some options for nibbles that you can order with your drinks. They are easy to snack on, packed with flavour and balance out all the drinking you’re doing (kinda :)). Salted, fried, spiced – they all taste great! My favourite are the ones that are boiled and then made into a chaat – best texture and flavour combo for peanuts!
Paneer is one of those things which taste pretty good raw as well – just slice some and eat. It is ,after all, cottage ‘cheese’ 🙂
One of those times of nibbling on paneer, while it was being prepped for a meal, I added a little masala to it to boost the flavour. Was so yum! That made me think that this could be made even better with a little pan time. A little crispiness maybe? The chatpata paneer was thus born 🙂
One of K’s favourite things to eat is Chole. The Tamilian boy has found at least one north indian dish he truly loves 🙂 We cook it at least twice a month and if I’m not at home, he has been known to either cook chole for himself or order in the dish. He can eat this pretty much everyday!
With something we eat so often, just one go-to recipe won’t work, right? So I have been trying different ways to cook chickpeas to give us some variety and to help me learn more. One such experiment led me to this dish – Khatte Chole. Sour, tangy, spicy and super delicious!
For the first 10-12 years of my life, South indian food meant dosa, idli, sambar, chutney and rasam. Pretty much the basics. There was this restaurant called Naivedyam near our house (it still exists there) where we used to go fairly often and usually ordered the same standard food. The variations were limited pretty much to masala or plain dosa, paper dosa or smaller size dosa, rasam to start the meal or go straight to idli. Important decisions! 🙂 But we loved the food and these dishes became part of what we used to eat at home too.
Slowly as we started trying more things, at restaurants or friend’s houses, I got to know more about the beautiful food from the four south Indian states. I am still learning new things, new flavours, new names, new combinations and continue to fall in love with the cuisines even more. Helps that I am married to a Tamilian 🙂
One of the earliest things I tried, outside of the standard fare, was Lemon Rice. It was an easy thing to start with, given how much I love rice and lemon (Bengali-ness :)). It is light, delicious, textural and punchy. What’s not to love?
If there is one iconic Indian chutney/dip, it is this (and variations of this)! The hari chutney (green chutney) that goes with everything! With kebabs, chaat, chips, sandwiches, a meal. You name it, this spicy flavour bomb makes everything better!
My Tuck Box 