Sambal Lampung/Indonesian Lampung Chilli Sauce

After a chinese sauce and a simple sour pickled cucumbers, am going to take you all to Indonesia. Actually to be honest, Indonesian cuisine is becaming one of my favourite cuisine recently. Their cooking skills are simply fabulous. With easily available ingredients and with less efforts you can dish out many interesting Indonesian dishes. Actually you wont miss Indian style of cooking while trying your hands with this particular cuisine. Needless to say since this cuisine is an Asian cuisine, you will definitely notice that this cuisine calls for chillies, ginger, garlic as much as Indian cuisine. Obviously if you want to try your hands with this cuisine, just start with simple dishes and am sure you will keep on exploring this incredible cuisine.

Pickled Cucumbers

You will definitely forget to shop pickled gherkins or pickled vegetables, if you make yourself at home. Pickling vegetables at home is definitely an easy way to conserve your favourite vegetables. Though am a great fan of Indian style pickles, i dont forget to make some simple pickled vegetables at home to bring the sourness to homemade burgers or to tickle our tastebuds while preparing a meaty sandwich. One of the easiest pickle is pickled cucumbers. Though pickling cucumbers may varies, my today's post is one of quickest method. With simple ingredients, you can simply get a bottle of pickled cucumbers with less efforts.

Chinese Sweet and Sour Sauce

Nothing can beat homemade spice powders, sauces or else dips. Since they are homemade no preservatives are added, hence they are harmless for the health of our family members. Though some sauces or spice powders are seriously hard to be prepared as homemade, we dont have any other choice than picking them stores. However if you have an option to prepare yourself the spice powders or sauces at home, dont hesitate a second as they may be sometime very easy to dish out. Coming to my today's post, I am an ardent fan of chinese dishes.Obviously i love to prepare their dishes often at home. Some of the chinese sauces are seriously hard to prepare eventhough few of their sauces can be prepared at home with less efforts. One among those sauces is my today's recipe aka Chinese Sweet and sour sauce.

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce with Teriyaki Cauliflower Bites

Teriyaki is a technique in Japanese cooking in which fish, chicken, or beef are first marinated in a soya sauce reduced with sugar or honey and then grilled over a open flame. However recent way of cooking with this technique involves lot of sauteeing, broiling in open flame or else as grilling. Coming to Teriyaki sauce, this sauce goes of sweetness and tanginess coz of the soya sauce, rice wine or else mirin a sweet rice wine and sweetner like sugar or honey. Usually store bought, this sauce can be prepared easily at home with simple ingredients. My today's version of teriyaki sauce calls just for simple ingredients, yes this easy breezy version of Teriyaki sauce goes for Soya sauce, honey,corn flour, finely chopped ginger and garlic.

Garlic Chutney Powder/Garlic Idli Podi/Poondu Podi

Spice powders have a long shelf life if they are stored properly in a dry and clean jar. Every month, i prepare couple of spice powders myself at home as i dont like to buy spice powders from stores. Idly podis,rasam podi,kootu podi and sambar podi have their important place in my cooking. Obviously every first sunday of the month, i dont forget to prepare small batch of all these spice powders. Nothing can beat this freshly grounded spice powders and homemade is always the best. I have already blog about many interesting Idly podis/chutney powders but still i have few more to post and one among those flavourful idly podis is this super aromatic Garlic loaded idly podi. This podi tastes absolutely fabulous when served along with hot steaming idlis or crispy dosas. Trust me, one can happily have two more idlies/dosas if you serve those South Indian breakfast dishes along with this idly podi.

Pulikachal/Tamarind Rice Paste/Puliyodharai Paste/Puliyogare Paste

Am not a big fan of store bought spice pastes or readymade rice mix, but i love to prepare myself those humble spice pastes at home whenever time permits. Pulikachal aka tamarind rice paste is a must if you are planning to make Puliyodharai at home. However making pulikachal at home is definitely easy and this spice paste is seriously very handy whenever you doesnt have enough time to dish some tamarind rice with less efforts. This paste calls for tamarind extract which is tempered later with usual tempering spices and cooked with a spice mix to make it more flavourful. This is one of most popular ready mix easily available everywhere (departemental stores, sweet stalls, grocery shops or else even in hotels) especially in South India. Not to forget that this rice paste mix is definitely an excellent travel friendly spice paste to carry with as they stay prefect for almost more than 3 days in room temperature if conserved properly.

Home Made Enchilada Sauce/Enchilada Sauce

We love Mexican foods and whenever time permits we dont hesitate a second to invite ourselves to our favourite Mexican restaurant. Obviously if i get a chance to try my hands with one of my favourite cuisine, how can i say 'no'. When i picked One sauce Two dishes as theme for this week's blogging marathon, i want to give a try to this famous Enchilada sauce. Though we get tortillas and few more Mexican ingredients easily in most of provisional stores, we dont get this enchilada sauce easily. When i googled for this sauce, i found that this sauce was very easy to make simply at home with easily available ingredients. Homemade Enchilada Sauce is amazing and very easy to prepare.

Mamidi Allam Niluva Pachadi/Mango Ginger Chutney - An Indian Condiment

Last but not least, my today's post goes to an Indian condiment, Indian cuisine is incomplete without condiments. Each region of India have their own condiments and many condiments have their important place in daily menu. I cant imagine having my South Indian breakfast with chutneys,thogayals or else simply with spice powders. As am running mega marathon for a month with different themes for each week, am posting today a fingerlicking chutney aka pachadi from Andhra cuisine. Mango ginger chutney/Mamidi Allam Niluva Pachadi is nothing but a spicy, easy and definitely a flavorful condiment prepared simply with mango ginger, tamarind, chilly powder and jaggery.

Actually during my trip in India, i couldnt resist myself to buy some fresh mango ginger to make this alluring chutney and made this lipsmacking pachadi for my lunch. I enjoyed thoroughly this chutney with curd rice, both makes a prefect pair and you wont stop yourself having this delicious pachadi. I grabbed this recipe from Prathibha's space and followed the recipe completely without making any changes seriously loved it to the core.

Sambal Kacang/Peanut Chilly Sauce - An Indonesian Condiment

As per wiki,Sambal kacang, peanut sauce or pecel is a sauce made from ground roasted or fried peanuts, widely used in the cuisines of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Africa. It is also used, to a lesser extent, in European (particularly Dutch) and Middle Eastern cuisine. It is also used in Filipino cuisine but very much rarely.

Peanut sauce goes well with chicken, meat and vegetables. It is often used to add flavour to grilled skewered meat such as satays,poured over vegetables as salad dressing such as in gado-gado,an Indonesian salad, or as dipping sauces for spring rolls.

Tartar Sauce/Tartare Sauce

Its really easy to whisk out homemade tartare sauce with easily available ingredients, actually making tartar sauce at home was in my list since a long. Finally i prepared some for this week's theme as am running this month's long marathon with different themes.This week's theme is Condiments from countries. After few delicious condiments, i couldnt resist to make this easy breezy tartar sauce with storebought mayonnaise along with gherkins (pickled cucumbers),white onions and parsley, though so many versions exists in this virtual world. Not only with seafoods, this tartare sauce goes awesome with meat or else simply with french fries. My kids just enjoyed thoroughly this mildly tangy and very dangerously addictive sauce with their grilled meat skewers and french fries. This homemade tartar sauce stays prefect for 3-4 days if conserved properly in fridge. The addition of pickled cucumbers aka gherkins gives the crunchiness and chopped onions,chopped parsley leaves gives an excellent flavour to this homemade tartar sauce.

Pico de Gallo / Salsa Fresca - A Mexican Condiment

You might have noticed that am posting condiments from various countries and few more to come as am running this month's Mega marathon. Every week have their own theme and the theme for this week is condiments from countries.After a flavourful green sauce from Argentina and an easy breezy Wafu dressing from Japan, my today's post is going to be a popular, classic and very easy salsa, yes the famous Pico de Gallo/Salsa Fresca or else Salsa Mexicana. This fresh salsa is quickly made with ripen tomatoes, this is the basic ingredient for making this salsa, and other ingredients like white onions, jalapeno peppers, coriander leaves and lime juice are added later. This tomato salsa is a prefect condiment to enjoy with a plate of tortilla chips, burritos, nachos and so on.

 This recipe is easily adjusted to anyone's personal taste. Fresno or Serrano chilis can be used if Jalapenos are unavailable. If you can't handle 'HOT' food simply decrease the amount of jalapenos or use an Anaheim or Poblano chili instead. If you love garlic as I am, use a few more cloves of garlic. So you can make this Pico de gallo with just few ingredients.Adding fresh garlic cloves and lime juice to this salsa definitely makes some difference from usual salsa.

Wafu Dressing - A Japanese Condiment

After an aromatic Chimichurri sauce from Argentina, am taking you all to Japan, yes my today's post is Wafu dressing. This wafu dressing going to be a part of this week's blogging marathon theme called Condiments from Countries for this month's megamarathon. Wafu Dressing is a salad dressing which is consists of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and vegetable oil.  In Japan,every house have their own wafu dressing but my today's recipe is quite a different one and this version goes for grated onion to make it extra flavorful. I picked this wafu dressing from here.The author of this site says that if you replace half of the vegetable oil with sesame oil, then the dressing is called as Chuka Dressing, which means Chinese-style dressing in the Japanese culinary world.

Chimichurri - An Argentinean Condiment

As per wiki, Chimichurri or chimmichurri is a green sauce used for grilled meat, originally from the Rio de la Plata, Argentina. It is made of finely-chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and white vinegar. In Uruguay, the dominant flavoring is parsley, garlic, red pepper flakes, and fresh oregano.Chimichurri is made from finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and white or red wine vinegar. Additional flavorings such as paprika, cumin, thyme, lemon, basil, coriander leaf and bay leaf may be included. In its red version, tomato and red bell pepper may also be added.

It can also be used as a marinade for grilled meat. Chimichurri is available bottled or dehydrated for preparation by mixing with oil and water. You may replace the parsley with other herbs as well. Not only to marinate the meats, you can eat this herb loaded sauce along with grilled meats, fish or else simply with pastas.

Broccoli in Spicy White Sauce

Pasta in white sauce, this dish is everyone's favourite at home. Obviously i dont forget to add loads of vegetables if am making white sauce at home. Broccoli is not my younger one's favourite since he loves white sauce, i thought its one of the best way to feed him easily broccoli by adding this antioxydant rich vegetable in his favourite white sauce. And this dish works absolutely incredible, we finished our lunch happily with penne and this broccoli loaded spicy white sauce. Am running my second week of blogging marathon with pasta in different sauce, am posting this delicious white sauce as it suits prefectly for this week's theme.

Vegan Parsley Almond Pesto

Pesto, who will say no to this beautiful Italian sauce. Pesto sauces are versatile, you can have it with pastas or simply as dip with bread or else to spice up any dish. Parsley pesto was in my to do list since a long as i usually get them from stores. Dunno y i couldnt make this parsley pesto earlier, but finally one fine day i couldnt resist myself to get some bunch of super fresh parsley leaves just to make this parsley pesto. I used almonds instead of usual pine nuts, pine nuts are bit expensive here when compared to almonds.

Vegan Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

I stopped buying pestos from stores since ever i started preparing pestos at home. Most of the storebought  pesto goes for Herbs, nuts and cheese. If you are making pestos at home, you can make them depending upon your tastebuds.If you would have noticed my recipes index, most of my pestos are vegan with loads of nuts. Making pesto at home is like a child play, apart from grinding you doesnt need anything to do with them. Pesto makes a fantabulous sauce to relish with breads, pastas,simply as a dip for savoury biscuits. Pesto belongs to Italy and traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil and pine nuts blended with olive oil and parmesan cheese or Fiore sardo (cheese made from sheep's milk).A different version of pesto sauce exists in Provence region of France and its called as Pistou. But Pistou is generally made with olive oil, basil and garlic.

Coriander Almond Pesto

I mostly prepare my pesto with basil leaves and i love the flavour of the basil leaves while having my pastas. When i went through Sharmi's space, i got hooked to this coriander almond pesto immediately i tried them today for our lunch as i planned to prepare pastas.Coriander leaves and almond works out wonder and we loved the flavour of this pesto.

I loved seriously the simplicity of this pesto and obviously its our recent favourite.I just increased the quantity of coriander leaves and grinded the pesto with flaxseed oil instead of water else i didnt changed anything and went as per the original recipe. If you love the flavour of coriander leaves, you guys should give a try to this super flavourful,super nutty and delicious pesto. I even enjoyed the leftover pesto as a spread over some toasted bread slices for my evening snacks.Sending to Tried & Tasted event guest hosted by me,event by Lakshmi.

2cups Cooked pasta

1cup Coriander leaves (washed)

20nos Almonds (deskinned)

6nos Garlic cloves (chopped)

2nos Green chillies (chopped)

1/2tsp Oil (for cooking)

Flaxseed oil (as per need)

Salt

Heat the oil in a pan,fry the garlic cloves and green chillies until a nice aroma comes out,put off the stove.

Grind the washed coriander seeds,almonds,fried garlic cloves,chillies,salt and flax seed oil, until the paste turns bit coarse.

Add enough pesto to the cooked past and serve immediately.

MW Thai Peanut Sauce/Dip~~Two In One

Most of the peanut sauce are made with peanut butter, this Thai peanut sauce is prepared with roasted peanuts, blended with soya sauce,tamarind paste, packed brown sugar,water,garlic cloves and sesame oil..This thai peanut sauce is quite easy to prepare and can be served very well as dip with veggies or as a sauce to meat dishes or can be used along with satay sauce,y not finally to make out nutty cold noodle salad, we enjoyed having this peanut sauce with spring rolls and also i prepared cold noodles salad with japanese udon noodles..A delicious and easy as well as quick peanut sauce with simple ingredients stay prefect upto 2weeks if conserved in refrigerator..

1cup Peanuts
2nos Garlic (minced)
1tsp Dark soya sauce
2tsp Sesame oil
1tbsp Brown sugar
1tbsp Light soya sauce
1/2tsp Tamarind paste
1tsp Thai chilli sauce
Water as per need
Few Sesame seeds for garnishing

Roast the peanuts (dont overcrowd) in microwave oven for 10minutes (stir in between twice) until they get well roasted...Grind all the ingredients with enough water as smooth sauce..transfer the smooth peanut sauce in microwave oven for 3minutes in high until the sauce turns foamy..

Serve warm with meats or at room temperature as a dip with fresh veggies, or any other finger foods...