Bye to 2017 & Welcome to 2018

      Wishing you all a Happy and Colourful New Year 2018!!!

2017 was a fruitful year for me in both my personnal and professional life. You might have noticed that am very much slow in posting though i dont forget to blog atleast thrice a week. Healthwise, i undergone an operation for my sinus problem and now doing much better. However this year brought me few changes in myself. Yes i seriously took much attention towards my health and am taking regular medication for spring allergy for which i never took specific attention apart from taking usual anti allergic medicines.

Because of my super duper busy professional life, i couldnt participate in any food events or any other cookery contests.I have posted 166 posts during this year, i cant believe that i have published this much posts. Now my space have 3514 posts totally. Actually this blog was started initially to kill my leisure time, however professional life is keeping me super busy but still i dont forget to blog.

I would like to share few of my best recipes i have created in my kitchen during this whole year and here comes my best recipes out of the 166 posts have posted in my space. Been a part of blogging marathon family, we blog for whole months of April and September with interesting themes. Obviously we blogged about:

April : A-Z Baking Around the World with 26 days of different baked goodies from various cuisines of the World.

September - Protein Rich Dishes with 26 days of Protein rich dishes.

Let's take a glimpse of my top recipes with highest views during this whole year.

January - Quinoa Puliyogare/Quinoa Pulihora/Tamarind Quinoa

February - Caramel Sheet Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce

March - Easter Special Bunny Buns

April - Dobos Torte

May - Badam Puri

June - Patriotic Tri Colour Bundt Cake

July - Eggless Cheese Stuffed Tofu Bread

September - Moth Beans Mint Biriyani

October - Mewa Burfi

November - Vegan Dirty Rice

December - Nutella Filled Donuts

Hope you enjoyed this post and am very thankful to each and everyone for being part of my blogging world, nothing is possible without you all.

This year's cooking resolution is going to be Eat Healthy and Fit.

Sending this post to Srivalli's Best of Year 2017.

Bihari Sattu Ka Paratha/Sattu Rotti

Sattu ka Paratha or Sattu Paratha is one of the most popular Indian breads in Bihar region of India. This Sattu paratha is a staple food of Biharis. Sattu is Roasted channa dal flour, and its one the execellent protein source for vegetarians of Bihar. Obviously this sattu is used in many authentic Bihari recipes. The most known dish cooked with sattu is this stuffed paratha. Not to forget that this roasted channa dal flour is full of fibre with many nutritious values in it. Its a super healthy alternative for many in Bihar as its available very much cheap there. South Indians makes excellent chutneys with roasted grams but in Bihar, they makes healthy sattu paratha with the same roasted grams aka pottukadalai (in tamil). We (South Indians) are seriously unaware of this parathas until i get a chance to prepare this nutritious flatbreads at home.

Sfenj/Moroccan Donuts

Last week, i have posted three different Moroccan dishes as i picked 'Moroccan Food' as theme for blogging marathon. While i was searching for some different and interesting recipes from this cuisine, i got hooked to this Sfenj aka Crispy Moroccan donuts.Sfenj is also considered as Algerian Donuts, however you can start your day with this donuts and end with it. Sfenj is a popular street food of Morocco and Algeria, and they are eaten with a cup of tea or coffee as these donuts are not that much sweet. These donuts are crispy on outside with chewy inside.

Poffertjes/Dutch Pancakes

Poffertjes are festive holiday treat in Netherlands and they are quite popular at both summer festivals and Christmas markets. This Dutch pancakes are small,fluffy pancakes which are made with yeast and flour. Poffertjes ressembles as much as like our own South Indian paniyarams and Japanese Takoyaki though they differ in their ingredients. This classic Dutch treat calls for a special pan which have tiny indentations. Trust me these fluffy poffertjes are prefect choice for a sunday brunch. You can still serve them as a dessert topped with nutella or icecream eventhough the traditional way of serving this tiny pancakes is with melted butter and sieved powder sugar or else with strawberries and whipped cream.

Nutella Filled Donuts

My kids are crazy fan of both Nutella and Donuts, they just love the store bought nutella filled donuts. Obviously they wont forget to grab a big bag of donuts from stores whenever they see them in stores. My younger one was requesting me since a long to make those nutelle donuts at home, i kept it in my to do list and finally i prepared these donuts at home few days back. Kids went crazy when i served this ultimate donuts for their snacks. Donuts are also well known street foods in many countries, though their name and shape may varies.

Chocolate & Honey Muesli Balls

Muesli, this dish is prepared basically with rolled oats, but fresh or dried fruits, seeds and nuts are also to make this breakfast dish more healthy. A complete meal to kick start a day when mixed with fruits juice, yogurt or else with cow's milk or vegan milk products. My kids are not big fans of this muesli. Obviously i dont forget to get muesli whenever i go to stores just to feed them by masking the 'muesli' with their favourite ingredients in it. One of my recent trial is this dangerously addictive muesli balls. With honey and cocoa powder, trust me these healthy balls gets ready in less time than you can imagine.

Savoury Cheese & Vegetable Bread Pudding

Savoury bread pudding, a prefect meal to kick start a day with less efforts. Mostly bread pudding are prepared as sweet version for desserts, but still savory bread pudding do exists. Yes savoury bread puddings can be eaten very much from a breakfast, lunch to dinner. And its completely a comforting dish as this savory pudding is loaded with cheese and mixed vegetables. If you want to give a second life to your stale breads sitting in your bread loaf bag, then dont forget to check this ultimate savory pudding.

Mixed Vegetable Pongal - Version 2

Simple to make my today's post is inspired from Harini's post, though i have posted already vegetable pongal, this post is different from my version. As much as like usual venpongal, this mixed vegetable pongal takes very less time and quick to prepare. A complete, nutritious breakfast dish to enjoy with your favourite side dish or else with chutneys. Prepared quickly in pressure cooker, you can finish this fantastic dish easily with less efforts. Definitely a comforting meal, we just enjoyed this pongal with spicy coconut chutney.

Khobz Mzaweq/Vegan Moroccan Decorated Bread

Though i dont want to repeat often, i couldnt stop myself to say that i love baking breads at home, especially breads from different cuisine. Whenever i get a chance to cook from a different cuisine, i always look for a special breads from that particular cuisine. Am running this week's blogging marathon with 'Moroccan recipes' as theme, obviously i looked for a special bread from this cuisine. While googling, i crossed this Khobz Mzaweq, i immediately gathered all the ingredients and baked this incredible bread. Though the original recipe used an egg in dough and an egg yolk to bring the shiny look to the bread, i skipped it completely as eggless and definitely as a vegan bread.

Lemkhenfer/Moroccan Wheat Flour Pancakes

If you have tried already your hands with Baghrir aka Moroccan 1000holes pancakes, my today's recipe will definitely please you. Baghrir, these pancakes are prepared either with all purpose flour or fine semolina, however the authentic one always goes for the finest semolina. The speciality of this pancakes is they are cooked only on one side,this gives the light,soft,spongy,tender texture with a beautiful honeycomb like appearance to this delicious pancakes. But Lemkhenfer is as much as like younger sister to Baghrir. Baghrir are cooked on one side, while Lemkhenfer is cooked on both sides.These pancakes can be made in large quantity and can be conserved in fridge, but dont reheat it in microwave oven or a toaster, just heat them in a hot pan and enjoy.

Moroccan Meloui/Moroccan Round Pancakes/Melwi

Moroccan cuisine is typically a mix of Arabic, Andalusian, Berber and Mediterranean cuisines with a slight European and Subsaharan influence. And i love their cuisine very much, obviously if i get a chance to cook their dishes at home, i wont hesitate a second to prepare them at home. Am kick starting this week's blogging marathon with 'Moroccan Special' as theme. For the first day of this week's blogging marathon, i couldnt resist to prepare this super flaky round pancakes aka Meloui/Melwi.Moroccan Meloui is a flaky pancakes prepared prominently with fine semolina and all purpose flour with yeast. Once kneaded as dough and doubled in volume, this yeasted dough is flattened as much as thin. The meloui dough calls the rolling and layering as much as like South Indian parottas.

Whipped Cream Pound Cake

After an eggless Pistachio pound cake and a gorgeous Marble pound cake, i couldnt stop myself to prepare a super rich pound cake with whipped cream. And this cake is neither eggfree nor butter free, not to forget that this pound cake also goes for whipped cream. Obviously a rich pound cake to try and the texture of this cake will be super moist and dense And everyone at home enjoyed thoroughly this cake. Beating eggs with sugar for a long until they turns creamy makes the magic in this cake. Trust me, one cant stop just with a slice, yes this cake is dangerously addictive and believe me, a loaf of this pound cake gets vanished very much quickly than you can imagine.

Marble Swirl Pound Cake

Most of the time, pound cakes are baked as loaves though bundt cake pan works awesome to bake some ultimate pound cake. Pound cake is a super rich cake usually made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter,eggs and sugar. You can serve pound cake dusted with powdered sugar, lightly glazed or sometimes with a coat of icing. Wiki says that its believed that the pound cake have their origin from Northern Europe,which dates back to the early 1700's. But a recipe for pound cake is in the first American cookbook which was published in 1796. In France, we call Pound cake as Quatre quarts which means four quarters. Seriously just with 4 ingredients, pound cakes are just prefect to enjoy during anytime of the day.

Eggless Pistachio Cream Pound Cake

I accidentally crossed Pistachio cream when we went last year to Sicily for our summer vacation, obviously i couldnt resist to grab few bottles of this cream. Back home, after sharing with friends and relatives, two bottles of those pistachio cream were sitting in my pantry. Hubby finished a bottle as spread for his breakfast over some grilled bread slices while the another bottle tempted me to try an eggless pound cake with. Without any hesitation, i baked this absolutely flavourful eggless pound cake with those pistachio cream. Actually this Sicilian pistachio cream is used as filling for cannoli, once mixed with smooth ricotta cheese, this cream makes excellent filling to fill a cannoli. However weather is not helping us much hence i couldnt think more than baking a cake with this pistachio cream than whipping some icecream with it.