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Food with twist

Paneer in Coconut Gravy

All my friends and relatives know that I am a paneer lover. A die hard fan. It is one thing that never fails me. But, strange enough that I haven’t posted any of paneer recipe’s on the blog. May be I take it for granted. Well, that is the first sign of how much I love it. The sign of it being an integral part of my life.

The trigger for this recipe, however, is the regular complaints from the love of my life. He has been complaining that the food at our home is getting boring day by day. Well, the real reason is that he has not been given the chance to be my guinea pig since a few weeks. So, it is obvious that things would look dull and boring, won’t they? 🙂

Dhokla goes to Europe

Mr. Dhokla goes to Europe!

He took a flight from India, picking up gram flour and semolina. Had a connecting flight from italy, so it decided to spend some time in the food market. Picked some rosemary and olive oil. Then took the flight to Stockholm and met Bhawna. She had some mustard, broccoli and tomatoes.

Now, because both of them met after a long time and were hungry, they wanted to make something that depicted how well they gel together, so did some brain scratching and made this Dhokha.

And, voila it was so much fun hanging out together.

Tomato Naan

Naan is one thing that goes well with every Indian curry or dry vegetable dish. From makhhni daal, to Jeera aloo, it works like it is made for the dish. I have had a variety of naans. I like them a lot, but avoid them in the restaurants/dhabas for they make it with all purpose flour, which is not that healthy.

So, whenever I make them at home I try to use whole wheat flour. But, on special days when I have guests, I do the mercy of adding some all-purpose flour. Just to give that restaurant touch! Ding!

It was one of these days when a friend couple was coming for dinner and I was planning the menu. I couldn’t decide upon what bread to serve with dum aloo and punjabi chhole. At first, I thought of making pooris, but the health conscious girl in me and also my guest friend won’t let me do that. So, I decided on naan. The next question in my head was – what? The usual naan! Usual is just so not me. I did some more thinking and came up with the idea of making tomato naan. It came out so well that everyone loved it.

I repeated the naans for another guest couple some days later and they ended up eating more naans they would normally have in a meal. I secretly danced when they asked for more 😉

Gobhi Kalia

Agar firdous baroye zameen ast, hami asto, hami asto hami ast – Amir-e-Khusru Dehluvi

(If there is paradise on earth, It is here, it is here, it is here)

Kashmir, not only it is a heaven on earth, but it has heavenly food as well. The special flavor that the cuisine has is unbeatable. You get that punch in every bite and each flavor unfolds it in layers.

I so wish to visit Kashmir once in my life and absorb the heavenly beauty inside me. It is one of my thousand desires. The snow, the peaks, the flowers, the dal lake, the shikara, the beautiful people, the folk songs, the traditional food, the people, the firan, the jewelry, I can go on and on. But, I will not go further writing the intro to this blog or I will start writing about Kashmir and its impeccable beauty instead of Gobhi Kalia. This dish is my ode to Kashmir and my desire to see the beauty hidden there. So, here I go with the recipe for Kashmiri Gobhi Kalia.

Beetroot Halwa

I and Abhishek love Gajar ka Halwa, we can literally have it any day. But, good carrots are not available all the year round. So what! Beetroots are 🙂 What started as a mere experiment, became our all time favorite. You won’t believe, my sweet jawed husband likes it even more than the gajar ka halwa now.

Baked Paprika Italiano

Sometimes you have limited ingredients and you crave for something delicious, something different. This is one side dish that I can serve n number of times to all my guests. And, I am sure it will be a super hit like it was when I served it at dinner hosted for some special friends. They were flattered with the twist in the taste.

Bread Halwa

Nand ke anand bhayo, jai kanhaiya laal ki… I wanted to make this dessert on 14th August, my naani’s b’day, as it is her recipe and i have grown up having this. Somehow, I couldn’t make it that day, but it’s never too late, naani ka budday na sahi, krishna ka budday sahi. 🙂 Here is my bread halwa, especially for naani and all my naanka pariwar. Happy Krishna Janamashtmi!