Eggless Spiced Pumpkin Rolls

Pumpkin, this squash marks the fall season in most of the countries. I just love this fleshy squash, trust me anything i do with pumpkin goes directly to our family favourite dish. Most of the time i do soups, though sometime i make puree out of this squash to make baked goodies. One of my recent bread rolls with pumpkin puree is this spiced pumpkin rolls. Am sure this rolls will definitely please everyone. Not only the tastebuds also a real treat to eyes, this spiced pumpkin rolls makes an excellent dinner rolls to decorate your thanksgiving dinner table and they looks very much prefect to attract anyone especially the kids.This spiced pumpkin rolls are this month's  We Knead to Bake, monthly event by Aparna, My Diverse Kitchen.

Chettinad Paneer Masala/Paneer Chettinad/Chettinad Paneer Curry

Paneer is our family favourite Indian cheese, i have already cooked couple of delicious dishes out of this popular cheese. Paneer is definitely a interesting cheese to work with and its completely versatile, you can cook many rich dishes from cake to desserts, from biriyani to side dishes. Many dishes cooked with Paneer are quite famous in North Indian cooking. Though South Indians do make many more flavourful rich curries or masalas with this ultimate cheese. Weather is getting too chilled here, obviously our tastebuds beg for hot and spicy foods. When you want something hot and spicy,Chettinad style of cooking will definitely tickle your tastebuds. Hence my today's post goes for Chettinad Paneer Masala.

Baby Bittergourd Fry/Midhi Pavakka Poriyal/Kuruvi Thala Pavakkai Poriyal

You might have already cooked with bittergourd atleast once in your life, though this gourd is bitter in taste they are super healthy and highly recommended for diabetic peoples.We get bittergourd in Indian groceries but i have never seen baby bittergourd here. But i got a chance to cook with baby bittergourds during my stay in India.Trust me a kg of this baby bittergourd costs just Rs 15 which i bought from a grandma who never fails to sell her homegrown veggies in market. I have became her client and never failed to get her super tender fresh vegetables whenever i go to Pondicherry farmer's market, seriously i miss those fresh produce here.

Chettinad Mushroom Masala/Chettinad Kaalan Curry

Chettinad cuisine, doesnt need any introduction. Its quite an important cuisine of Tamilnadu region and this cuisine is very well known around the world for its flavoursome, delicious and lipsmacking dishes. They have numerous traditional dishes and nothing can beat their flavourful rich and hot spicy dishes. Chettinad cuisine is one of my favourite and have been pampered with many beautiful dishes from my childhood by both my grandmas. Yes though i have been born and brought up in Pondicherry, our cuisine is a interesting mixture of various cuisine from Tamilnadu,Kerala, French and Andhra  obviouslt my cooking style will definitely have chettinad touch, and my love for this cuisine pulls me always to cook different dishes from this cuisine. One among those chettinad fame masala i cooked from this cuisine is this Chettinad Mushroom Masala.

Vendaikkai (Okra) Podi Curry/Bhindi Curry With Spiced Dal Powder

Few posts back, i have told that during my stay in India i tried many delicious dishes with fresh vegetables which were easily available in every farmer's market. During my stay, i prepared couple of easy and healthy dishes to share with you all, with those fresh vegetable. You cant just resist to make simple but yet comforting dishes. I usually get okras/Bhindis/Vendaikkais everytime i go to Indian groceries in Paris, though they are not cheaper when compared to India. This vegetable is one of our family favourite and my kids just love it. When i saw 1kg of Bhindi costs 10Rs in India, i couldnt resist to grab a kiloeventhough i was alone and back home i tried many interesting dishes out of it. One among those dishes is this podi curry, a prefect side dish for rasam or curd rice. The spiced dal mixture used in this curry makes this curry more flavourful and definitely a interesting  curry to try.

Roasted Rice Tea/Japanese Dark Rice Tea & Pimp My Rice - A Cookbook Review

Rice is a staple food of Indians, we cant survive without rice and we need it for our daily menu. Recently Sam collins and Gemma from an English cook book Publisher pinged me in Facebook to review a cookbook. Cookbook to review who will say 'no' obviously i immediately said yes and this book came all the way from England to Paris. When i opened the courrier, the book cover attracted me immediately, there was no attractive food pictures over the cover, a black background with brass letters saying Pimp my rice was seriously interesting and pulled me to check out the content of the book.

Baked Mathri/Baked Sesame Mathri/Baked Salt Crackers

Mathri is a popular North Indian fried snacks usually served with spicy pickle or along with a cup of masala tea or coffee.These mathris exists with different ingredients, from dry fenugreek leaves to sesame seeds, many flavourful, crunchy and delicious mathris do exists. These crackers are prepared easily with basic ingredients which is quite easily available in everyone's pantry. Usually fried, these crackers makes an excellent evening snacks, a crowd pleaser or just as an appetizier depending upon how they are served. You can simply serve this mathris with spicy chutneys,flavoured cream cheese or simply with your favourite drink.

Eggless Colour Pencil Cookies

I have already tried many varieties of cookies but still they do exist many which are quite creative, interesting, cute and effortless cookies. One of my recent bake is these attractive shaped cookies aka Colour Pencil cookies. Actually i baked this cookies for an event, as a member of this baking group i baked this colour pencil as this event goes for weekly baking. When i saw this colour pencil cookies, i couldnt resist myself to bake some. Obviously i opted for an eggless version though the original recipe calls for an egg yolk. However even without egg, this cute cookies came out absolutely buttery.

Nankhatai/Wheat Nan Khatai/Indian Nankattai

Nankhatai is butter Indian shortbread cookies have their important place in most of the Diwali sweet list. These cute cookies makes an excellent buttery snacks as well, its quite easy to make and obviously super dangerously addictive. So many versions exists, some goes for all purpose flour, while other makes with a combination of gram flour and all purpose flour and some makes these cookies with wheat flour. The word Nankhatai is from Persian word Nan meaning bread and Khatai from an Afghan word meaning biscuit.Traditional Nankhatai was made with gram flour and maida, the most important flour mixture which is now can be replaced with wheat flour, some add semolina to make this cookies aka biscuits more crunchy.

Chicken 65 Biriyani/Chicken 65 Biryani

Have you ever tried combining chicken 65 and biryani together as one pot meal?, if not then you are missing something. This chicken 65 biriyani makes an excellent meal for a party get together, family get together or else simply for a special sunday lunch. Actually i love to serve biriyani cooked with chicken,mutton or prawn along with chicken 65 and raita but imagine how delicious this biriyani will be if both chicken 65 and rice gets cooked in a spiced aromatic paste. My family members are great fans of chicken 65 and briyani obviously this one pot meal was their favourite since ever i served them for their sunday lunch.Though this briyani goes for both frying chicken pieces and cooking kuska like biriyani, dont forget to give a try to this interesting and delicious one pot meal. If you are a vegetarian, do try this biryani with Paneer 65 or else with vegetables like baby potatoes or cauliflower, the choice is yours.

Navadhaniya Pulao/9 Beans Pulao

9 beans, usually i make them myself as i always have beans in my pantry, beans are rich in proteins and obviously i love to add them quite often in our diet. Earlier HD wasnt a great fan of beans but finally he started loving them as i never forget to feed with beans. If you are a regular visitor of my blog, i have already shared tips for freezing beans, actually dry beans are much needed to soak a day before to dish out dishes with them, but i have been following a simple method since few years. Yes i usually soak them in huge quantity, the next day i'll drain the water and pat dry them. After pat drying i'll freeze them in freezer friendly zip lock bags for further use. While pressure cooking, just drop enough frozen beans directly to the cooker, wash it with enough water, add salt and cook them. Your beans are ready to make dishes out of it.Do follow this method and see how handy this method is.

Spicy Watermelon Seeds Rice

So many Cookery Tv shows do exists in my mother tongue 'Tamil', obviously i dont have that much to follow each and every cookery shows. Whenever time permits, i check those shows and try to recreate few dishes if they sounds different from the usual one in my kitchen. Recently i saw a famous cookery show in one of the regional tv and got hooked to a rice dish where the host of this show used pumpkin seeds to make this quick rice. Since i dont have pumpkin seeds, i tried the same rice dish with watermelon seeds which i bought during my last India trip. Pumpkin or melon seeds, am sure this easy breezy rice which definitely tickle your tastebuds and you can pack them very well for your lunch.

Sweet Potato Gulab Jamun/Shakarkandi Gulab Jamun/Sakkaravalli Kizhangu Jamun

Happy Diwali wishes to you all.. Have a safe and joyful festival!!!!

Indian cuisine is vast and varieties of sweets do exists especially during festival time. Obviously its not that much easy to make all the sweets which exists in Indian cuisine, though  many of those sweets are easy to make. Gulab jamun, this sweet is a star among the sweets. We Indians make often this sweet for the festival especially during Diwali.Even i have tried couple of jamuns and still i have few more to make. You can make this succulent,juicy and spongy jamuns with different methods, the easiest one is with store bought mix which is quite often in every Indian stores. If you want to make the traditional way by simmering the milk and making khoya out of it, which is later used for making the jamun dough asks for a long cooking process, else one more method of making jamuns is with milk powder, i have already tried these methods and even a jamun with potatoes, yes you read it rite, i have already prepared Aloo jamuns aka potato jamuns.

Wheat Ribbon Pakoda/Godhumai Ola Pakoda

Hope you guys are busy in making sweets and savouries for Diwali, just two more days to go and once again i miss celebrating this fantastic festival of lights at my hometown. However its again a working day for us, seriously we are going to miss the fun here. What to do, thats the disadvantage of living in abroad. But fortunately this time Wednesday is a holiday for us, obviously we are trying to arrange a get together among our friends atleast to have fun after a day of this popular festival. I have been making couple of sweets and savouries for this get together and this time i have opted for an interesting ribbon pakoda with wheat flour aka our Chapathi flour.Sending to Srivalli's Kid's delight - Cooking with Wholegrains hosted by Kalyani.

Kala Jamun with Khoya/ Mawa Kala Jamoon/Fried Milk Sweet Dumplings

Gulab jamun, this succulent spongy fried milk sweet dumplings are our family favourite. For any special occasions or during festivals i dont forget to make this ultimate jamuns. Even a huge box of this jamuns gets vanished very much quickly at home especially when they are served along with vanilla icecream. Am sure most of us have already tasted this combination, needless to say how delicious this combo will be na. Though am keeping myself away from deepfrying and sweets, i couldnt resist to make this Kala jamun with khoya. Yes this jamuns are not made out of the storebought packets, i prepared my jamun dough with homemade khoya. Kala jamun makes me nostalgic, when we were kids mom usually go and get this dark jamuns from a Sweet stall owned by a old man who never fails to make this succulent jamuns everyday at 6pm. Though this stall doesnt exists now, i still remember the taste of those juicy kala jamuns. Kala Jamuns was my personnal favourite, and finally after having a kala jamun even my better half fallen in love with this dark beauty.

Barnyard Millet Maa Laddoo/Kuthiravali Maladu/Kuthiravali Pottukadalai Laddoo

Maa laddoo can be made in a jiffy if you have roasted channa dal/fried grams aka pottukadalai at home. For a change i want to try them differently with a twist, hence i tried with one of the popular millet 'Barnyard millet', this barnyard millet aka kuthiravali works awesome in laddoos and i have already tried a simple laddoos with it. If you dont have enough time or dunno how to make the popular boondhi laddoos to share with your nears and dears for Diwali festival, this maa laddoo will definitely helps you a lot. Quick to make with easy ingredients, this nutritious maa laddoo will definitely satisfy everyone's sweet tooth and trust me none will notice the addition of this millets in this ultimate balls. An excellent way to sneak millets obviously during diwali as this festival of lights is well known for sharing sweets and savouries with family and friends.

Dry Jamun/Dry Jamoon

Diwali, the festival of lights without jamun is definitely uncomplete, though you can get many brands of gulab jamun readymade mix, nothing can beat the homemade jamun mix prepared simply with khoya.Since ever i tried gulab jamun with khoya, i do make my khoya at home. Making khoya at home is definitely a time consuming work, but its quite worth to try. The time you spend to make khoya will gives an immense pleasure when the sweets or dishes you dish out with this homemade khoya turns absolutely delicious and prefect in texture with a rich look. Obviously nowadays i dont bother to stand for a while to make my small batch of khoya at home. If you are living in India, you can easily get them from Dairy stores, both sweetened and unsweetened khoya do exists and they are seriously very handy. Living in abroad have many disadvantages, however we always find a solution to overcome this.

Eggless Bread Pudding In Mug

I have rarely seen people saying no to bread pudding, especially in my place, kids love bread pudding with or without eggs. Obviously if my bread basket have stale breads, i'll look for an opportunity to make bread pudding, this time i had some leftover baguette slices at home. Instead of baking bread pudding, i just tried out making an eggless bread pudding with an easy breezy preparation. Trust me this eggless bread pudding cooked in microwave oven makes a quick dessert to relish after a heavy meal. Just few bread chunks, a tablespoon of custard powder, milk and sugar, vanilla essence is quite enough to dish out this ultimate pudding with chocolate chips.

Masala Tomato Sevai

Making sevai at home is quite easy to do, though i love to get few readymade sevai packets from India. During my last trip to India, i got some fingermillet,pearlmillet, littlemillet and tomato sevai packets to make quick dishes out of it. They are really very handy and you can dish out quick, easy breezy dishes with this ready made sevai packets. Obviously when i feel really lazy to cook or tired to cook,i will definitely pick a packet of sevai from my pantry to dish out a simple sevai dish with it.My today's post is also a kind of quick dish which i usually do with less efforts depending upon the ingredients available in my fridge especially when its comes to vegetables. This masala tomato sevai goes for colourful veggies and simple masala powders.

Baked Cheesy Egg Toast

Am not a breakfast person, but now am trying to take atleast a bread slice with my cup of tea for my breakfast.I love brunches especially during sunday. Somehow i love to dish out bread toasts for our brunches as they are really very easy to make and you can serve easily everyone with different topping depends upon their tastebuds. Obviously bread toast makes an excellent Single serving dish as well. Coming to my today's post, its quite a eggy bread toast with cheese, if you love cheese and egg in your bread, then this bread toast will definitely satisfy your taste buds. An easy bread toast to make as you doesnt need to stand nearby to check the cooking time, yes this bread toast goes for baking.

Garlic Kodomillet Murukku/Poondu Varagu Murukku/Garlic Varagu Arisi Murukku

Varagu/Varagu Arisi/Arikelu/Kodura/Kodomillet is one among the popular of the healthy grains aka millets. This tiny grain is packed with vitamins and minerals and they are absolutely gluten free. Millet are used in many ways especially in Indian cuisine and also in African cuisine. Indians makes varieties of dishes out of this excellent grain. Millet is actually consider as seed and its often used for feeding birds, though they are important for making bird seed mixtures,you can dish out tremendous dishes out of this nutritional value rich millets. I have already heard that in my maternal grandma's village the rich people gives a huge bag of Kodomillet to the poor people instead of paying them for their work in rice fields as these millets are considered as staple food for many in villages.However now we are running behind these healthy grains as they have numerous health values, i love kodo millet very much as they helps a lot to control blood sugar and cholesterol. They are also very rich in fiber.