Pistachio Cake (Gluten Free)

Do you know I love hosting people at home? It’s one of my favourite things to do for people I am close to. It doesn’t need to be any specific occasion, just a normal weekend or even weekday dinner (if work isn’t too crazy). I love to cook a nice meal for them and we usually end up having a super time eating, drinking, playing games and generally chattering non stop. Best way to spend a evening or even a lazy afternoon, don’t you think?

For New Year’s Eve last year (welcoming 2018), I decided it will just be much easier to call people home and avoid the usually NYE madness. I invited around 15 people and after much research and debating (with myself), decided on serving a mediterranean menu. Being the uber enthu cutlet I am, I planned an extensive menu : hummus, souvlaki, falafel, meatballs, moussaka, chicken wings and cake. It was a lot of food! I cooked for 2 whole days, but loved every minute of it! While the savoury courses were relatively easy to finalize, I struggled for a long time to come up with the dessert. I didn’t want to do traditional sweets like baklava because they are super tough and I’ve never made them before. Cakes are my strength and I figured it would be easy to go that route, given I figure out flavours that work. Much research later, I landed on pistachio as my hero ingredient for the cake. And what a cake!

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Home Style Chole (Chickpea Curry)

When you’re from Delhi, Chole is pretty much a staple part of your diet. At home, at friend’s homes, at restaurants – because Chole is delish. And there are many ways to cook this. The standard curry, the tangier curry, the drier version, the darker version, the one with other vegetables added to it etc etc. I shall attempt to cover all of these in the blog, over time. Today, I am covering my version of the standard, home style chole/chickpeas curry.
Our family is not Punjabi, even though we live in Delhi (yes, that is quite common!). So our standard home food, isn’t very high on the garam masala, the spices. The chole we use to have at home was quite subtle. It was all I knew until I met B, my oldest friend. We have been friends since we were in class 4. So yup, we pretty much grew up together! The food at B’s house was slightly different from that at mine, more spicy, tangy and yumms! Given that we grew up together, I have spent a ton of time at her house. Days at a time even (summer vacations!). Both of us love food and spent a lot of time eating the various delicious things her mom and sister would make. Chole was one of my favourites.

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Nimki (Namakpara/Whole wheat cracker)

Welcome to my childhood!

Nimki, as we call it, is an integral part of my childhood. Be it festivals, relatives visiting or general summer vacation love, my grandmom used to make Nimki as a special treat. These aromatic little diamonds of fried goodness are best had warm. And with pickle or ketchup. Yes, ketchup (I’m a little weird that way).

My sister and I would keep going into the kitchen when we knew prep was on, sneaking in tastes of the dough and waiting for the fresh, hot, crispy goodness to come off the stove. YUM.

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Dahi Chicken (Chicken in a yoghurt gravy)

Till the time I was maybe 15, the only kind of chicken curry I’d had anywhere in India was the tomato-onion gravy, slightly spicy variety. These are delicious, without doubt. But sometime after that, I can’t exactly remember when, I had this other curry. No tomatoes. Not brown in colour. Not heavy on spices. Light, refreshing but still chicken curry. WHAAA!?!

Our help at home, who has been with us since I was born (so a LOOONG time) came up with this recipe. I think she learned it from somewhere and then added her own touch to it.  It is amaze. It has the sourness from the yoghurt, the tenderness of the chicken, the bite from the onion and the hint of aromatic spices. It’s a perfect dish when the summers are yuck and hot and you can’t bear the thought of a heavy/spicy curry but want chicken curry nonetheless.

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Roasted Potatoes

So if there is only one thing you must know about me, it is that i LOVE potatoes! LOVE, not love. Really Really Love.

Being half Bengali, half Bihari might have something to do with it. Just maybe.

My granddad used to eat the same thing for lunch every day – roti, dal and aloo ki sabzi. Everyday.

This version of potatoes is something I’ve experimented with more recently, given that I have an oven and am trying newer ways to cook my dear potato.

Its got the familiarity of all the masalas that are common to north indian cooking along with the crispy, crunchy feel of fries (which I adore) and the feeling of being healthier, since it’s baked not fried. WIN!

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