Showing posts with label Cashew Nuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cashew Nuts. Show all posts

06 December, 2018

Quick and Simple Palak Paneer Curry Recipe | Quick and Simple Paneer Recipes

Learn how to make quick and simple Palak Paneer Curry ~ Indian cottage cheese in mildly spiced rich and creamy spinach gravy

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. A pearl of wisdom by my grandmother who not only lived a simple life, but also beautifully incorporated the art of simplicity in her cooking as well. With so many produce; fresh, exotic and vibrant, available with a click of a button, we sometimes forget how a simple food can really be uplifting and soul satisfying. After all, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, isn’t it?

Ingredients for Palak Paneer Curry



As I am recovering from a nasty flu, hubby took over the kitchen and cooked simple meals for days which nourished my aching body and comforted my troubled spirit. His cooking is very much like the person he is; simple, straight forward and down to earth with a touch of humour and little madness to make it anything but boring. It is during this time I realised how my cooking has evolved over the time and how complicated it has become by adding one too many ingredients. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex but it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. Simple ingredients prepared in a simple way is the best way to take your everyday cooking to a higher level.

01 November, 2018

Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala Recipe | Simple Dahi Bhindi Recipe

Learn how to make Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala ~ Crispy okra cooked in creamy and spicy yogurt gravy

There are many advantages of cooking from food blogs than cook books. One you get introduced to new cuisines with simple as well exotic ingredients. Second you get to see how the actual dish looks with drool worthy photos posted along the recipes. For me the best part is you can easily reach out  the blogger and clear all your doubts/queries which otherwise is not possible with cookbook authors. And not to forget, you get all these services without costing you a penny. Yup, the buzz word is free. ;)

Ingredients for Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala


Since twelve years of blogging, I have tried many recipes following the recipes posted in blogs. Very few times the end result ended up in garbage but many a times it was licked clean from plates, spoons and even the serving bowl. When I think of those recipes which have become my family favourites, I realised I haven’t posted most of them. So with this new mission of mine, I will be posting all the recipes I had tried and tested from bloggers and most importantly, loved by my family will be posted under the tag called  Recipes from Your Kitchen to Mine.

09 December, 2016

Vegan Gobi Musallam Recipe | Whole Roasted Cauliflower in Makhani Gravy

Learn how to make Vegan Gobi Musallam ~ Whole roasted cauliflower cooked in mildly spiced creamy cashew and coconut gravy

When I think of lavish, one of a kind centre piece for lavish (vegetarian/vegan) dinner party, the first dish that comes to my mind is Gobi Musallam. Some dishes are not found in any restaurants and this Gobi Musallam is one such dish where whole roasted cauliflower in a creamy makhani gravy. This stunning Gobi Musallam is one dish which is truly inspiring and impressive where a humble cauliflower is elevated to gourmet standard. This is one dish that always grabs attention from my guests whenever I cooked for them and it is one dish that has never let me down when it comes to its flavour. It’s an impressive dish to look at and also in taste with delicately balanced combination of assorted whole spices which lends amazing flavour. I am mighty excited to share this recipe that is sure to win hearts of even pickiest eaters.



The recipe is inspired by the whole stuffed chicken roast called Murgh Musallam where a whole chicken is marinated, sometimes stuffed with boiled eggs and keema (minced lamb meat), and cooked in a rich makhani gravy flavoured with whole spices. Considered as a gourmet dish, Ibn Battuta describes Murg Musallam as one of the favoured sishes at the court of Sulan Muhammad Ibn Tughlaq (1345 AD), in the book ‘Tracing the boundaries between Hindi and Urdu’. In Ain-e-Akbari (or Constitution of Akbar, 16th century detailed document recording the administration of emperor Akbar’s empire), Murg Mussalm is referred as Mussammn. Abul Fazl, the author of Akbarnama (or Book of Akbar, is the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar) and Ain-e-Akbari, one of the nine gems (Navaratna) in Akbar’s court mentions Murgh Musallm as one of the thirty dishes served in royal court in emperor Akbar’s biography 'Akbarnama'.

16 September, 2016

Dhingri Matar Curry Recipe | Simple and Quick Vegan Mushroom and Peas Curry

Learn how to make Vegan Dhingri Matar Curry or Mushroom and Peas Curry ~ Mushrooms and green peas cooked in a creamy onion, coriander and cashew nut gravy with aromatic spices

Another week has swished through and I am left gasping for a breath as I run around home, school, and everything in between trying to get back to the normal school term routine. LD has started his second year in school and just a week later, it feels so much busier than the year before! I want to grab the time by its shoulder, shake it and tell sternly to slow down… What is the hurry? Why rush when one want to slow down and smell the roses?!



Gone are the days of snuggling for extra hours in the morning, pillow fighting until our tummies ached after laughing… Gone are the days of waking up to streaming sunlight through the little gap between the blackout curtains fluttering in the morning breeze, and not to have to wake up to the shrieking noise of alarm clock… Gone are the days of leisure breakfasts, stroll in the woods and gardens, doing everything and nothing, and simply enjoying each others' company… Gone are the days of late night dinners, treats, movies and never ending bedtime stories… The first few weeks of getting back to normal routine after the summer holidays are always tough, but this feeling too shall pass as we embrace the fun bits of school life. It’s just a matter of time… It’s always a matter of time before everything falls into place! Like preparing a weekly menu with simple but wholesome dishes which can be made under half an hour on a busy weekdays, like this creamy Dhingri Matar Curry or Vegan Mushroom and Peas Curry.

17 August, 2016

Vegan Zoodles Recipe | Zucchini/Courgette Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto Recipe with OXO Good Grip Spiralizer Product Review and A Giveaway

Learn how to make Vegan Zoodles or Zucchini Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto ~ Vegan and gluten free low carb zucchini or courgette pasta with blanched broad beans and almonds and flavoured with creamy almond, cashew nuts and coriander pesto

Gardening, especially growing fruits and vegetables has never been my ‘thing’! I am notorious among my family and friends as a person with black thumb who even managed to kill succulents! I am that bad! A complete contrast to my very keen and green gardener parents who have a lush and lovely garden back home growing flowers of every colour, fruits and veggies of every kind!



Then something happened and suddenly little seeds that we planted actually sprouted and then grew into large plants finally bearing fruits of our labour! How? I am still struggling to find an answer. It could be the quality of seeds or the compost or most likely to do with my little helper who might have inherited green fingers from both sets of his grandparents. They say that the genes skips generation and it might very well be true!

28 July, 2016

Shahi Paneer Recipe | Simple and Easy Restaurant Style Paneer Curry Recipes

Learn how to make Shahi Paneer ~ Indian cottage cheese in creamy tomato, almond and cashew nut gravy

India is the largest producer of milk and it is no surprise that we Indians love milk and milk produce. Starting our day with strong milky coffee or tea, we integrate milk and milk products in various recipes. It may even sound little strange when we say our meal is incomplete, especially for a South Indian, without a glass of yogurt or buttermilk, either mixed with rice and pickle at the end of a meal or spiced with few green chillies, cumin powder etc or sweetened with sugar. Milk, yogurt, buttermilk, ghee, butter and cream are part and parcel of Indian meals. And there is one more milk product which we all love and quite crazy about! It’s Paneer or Indian cottage cheese.



Paneer (pronounced pa-nir) is a fresh cheese used in Indian subcontinent for centuries. When I say cheese, it is acid-set, unsalted, non-melting firmer cheese. It is also a fresh cheese, meaning you can make it and eat it right away and it requires no aging or culturing. It required just 2 ingredients; milk (preferably full fat milk) and lemon juice or vinegar and is very easy to make at home by curdling heated milk with lemon juice or vinegar and the acidity in the lemon juice or vinegar causes the milk to separate into curds/milk solid and whey. The whey is separated with a help of a strainer lined with cheese cloth to collect the milk sold. This crumbly and moist form is called ‘Chhena’ and is used in making many sweets like rasgulla, ras malai, sandesh etc in Easten Indian and Bangladesh. When the chhena is pressed to remove excess water by pressing doen heavy object on top, we get the solid paneer block which is then cut into cubes and is ready for cooking straight away.

Paneer is a versatile and a very popular ingredient used mainly as a star ingredient for many North Indian curries. With its fairly mild, milky flavour and dense crumbly texture which doesn’t melt like other cheese, its best when paired with strong and spicy flavours like in classic Indian curries or dishes like Palak Paneer (spinach based curry), Achari Paneer (tomato base with Indian pickling spices), Matar Paneer (peas and tomato), Paneer Jalfrezi (tossed with bell pepper in lightly spiced tomato paste), Paneer Kurma (lightly spiced yogurt based dish), Kadai Paneer (whole spices and tomato paste), Paneer Kofta (deep fried paneer dumplings in creamy gravy), Paneer Tikka Masala (marinated paneer with vegetables) and many other Paneer curries. It also makes a wonderful filling for Samosa, Paratha and even can be mixed with dough to make extremely nutritious rotis.



My quest to learn more about the origin and history of Paneer left me wanting to know more about it. As per Wikipedia, the word “Paneer” is of Persian origin. The Turkish word peynir, the Persian, Armenian and the Azerbaijani word panir, all derived from ‘paneer’ referes to any type of cheese. However the origin of paneer is still debatable as Vedic Indian, Afghan-Iranian and Portuguese-Bengali origins have been proposed for paneer. The wiki further explains that the Vedic literature refers to a substance that is interpreted by some authors as a form of paneer. While according to Arthur Berriedale Keith, a Scottish constitutional lawyer, scholar of Sanskrit and Indologist, a kind of cheese is “perhaps referred to” in Rigveda, author Otto Schrader, a German philologist, believes that the Rigveda only mentions “a skin of sour milk, not cheese in the proper sense”. According to K.T. Acharya, an eminent food historian, the acidulation of milk was a taboo in the ancient Indo-Aryan culture, pointing to the legends about Lord Krishna make several references to milk, butter, ghee and yogurt, but do not mention sour milk cheese.

According to Wiki and Quora, based on the texts such as Charaka Samhita (Compendium of Caraka, an ancient Sanskrit text on Ayurveda), B. N Mathur wrote that the earliest evidence of a heat-acid coagulated milk product in India can be traced to 75-300 CE, in the Kushan-Satavahana era. Sunil Kumar etal. interpret this product as the present-day paneer. According to them, paneer is indigenous to north-western part of South Asia, and was introduced in India by Afghan and Iranian travellers in the 16th century and was made from goat or sheep rennet. These cheeses were the predecessors of modern paneer which requires no animal products, such as rennet, for coagulation making it one of the important sources of protein for lacto-vegetarians D.R. Ghodekar of India's National Dairy Research Institute also believed that paneer was introduced into India by Afghan and Iranian invaders. According to writers such as K.T. Achaya, Andrea S. Wiley and Pat Chapman, the Portuguese introduced the technique of "breaking" milk with acid to Bengal in the 17th century. Thus, Indian acid-set cheeses such as paneer and chhena were first prepared in Bengal, under Portuguese influence.



With such interesting history and packed with nutrition, Paneer is definitely one of the most popular ingredient in Indian cuisine, especially for lacto-vegetarians. Apart from many other curries mentioned above, there is one more dish that is quite popular in Indian restaurants often served with some type of Indian breads such as poori, naan, tandoori roti or rumali roti. The dish is called Shahi Paneer where the word ‘Shahi’ refers to royal in reference to the imperial court. The dish Shahi Paneer is made by cooking the fresh paneer in thick and creamy gravy of tomatoes, fresh cream, nuts and spices.

The first step in the preparation of Shahi Paneer is to make fresh paneer by adding an acidic liquid (I prefer lime juice to vinegar) to boiled hot milk. The chemical reaction causes the curds or the milk solid and whey to separate in a couple of minutes. This is then collected in sieve lined with cheese cloth to separate the whey from the curds and squeezed to remove as much moisture as possible before pressing it down under a weight for couple of hours to get a block of paneer which can be cut into cubes and used right away in curries. Don’t discard this whey as it contains very high nutrients and this liquid can be used to make dough or in soups or stews. If you are short of time and don’t have fresh homemade paneer, you can always use store brought one for convenience.



Once the paneer is ready, proceed to make the gravy base for the curry. Now there are two versions of this, one that uses tomatoes and the second without tomatoes. Personally I prefer tomatoes in gravy as they impart mellow sweet and sour when combined with other ingredients making the dish more flavoursome! To make the spice base, first the onions and tomatoes are lightly fried in little oil or ghee and then cooked with whole Kashmiri chillies and dry nuts in little water for couple of minutes. This is then ground to smooth paste to get the gravy base. Then we proceed to make the tadka of whole spices with ginger-garlic paste and tomato puree or paste before adding the ground nut paste. To this then we add fresh cream or if you want to reduce the calorie like me, add whisked full fat yogurt. This makes rich and velvety smooth base gravy truly fit for the royals. 

Finally the star ingredient of this dish paneer is added to the gravy and is simmered for couple of minutes so that the paneer absorbs the rich aroma and flavour of harmonious blend of spices. If using fresh paneer, just add the cubes directly to the gravy and if using store brought one, you can lightly pan fry the cubes with little oil or ghee until it turns golden brown on both sides. The whole cooking from start to end doesn’t take more than 40-45 minutes. Just make sure that your Indian pantry is nicely stocked with the spices and ingredients listed below in the recipe and you will end up cooking this Shahi Paneer again and again for your loved ones.




Shahi Paneer (Indian cottage cheese in creamy tomato, almond and cashew nut gravy)
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 30-35 mins
Spice Level: Low to Medium
Recipe Level: Easy/Beginner
Serves: 5-6 people
Shelf Life: Best served fresh but can be refrigerated for 2-3 days
Serving Suggestion: With any Indian flat breads (Whole Wheat Naan or Butter Naan or with any stuffed parathas) or plain/flavoured Basmati rice

Ingredients:
200-250 gms Paneer, cut into 1 inch squares of 1 cm thickness
2 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste
1 tbsp thick Tomato Paste or ¼ cup Tomato Puree
¾ cup thick Yogurt, whisked
Salt to taste
1 – 1½ tbsp. Oil or Ghee

For Almond-Cashew Nut Paste:
1 medium Onion, finely chopped
3 large or 4 medium Tomatoes, chopped
12 Almonds
12 Whole Cashew Nuts
3-4 Dry Kashmiri Chillies or Byadagi Chilli (Read notes)
½ tbsp. Oil or Ghee
2 tsp Sugar or Jaggery (I used jaggery which is unrefined cane sugar)

Spices Used:
1 inch Cinnamon or Cassia Stick
1 Bay Leaf
4 Cloves
4 Green Cardamoms
1 tbsp Kasuri Methi/Dry Fenugreek Leaves
½ tsp Garam Masala (Adjust as per taste)
½ tsp Kitchen King Masala (Optional, but recommended)

Method:
Preparation:
  1. Cut the paneer into cubes and keep them aside. If needed, you can pan fry the paneer pieces in little oil or ghee until it turns golden brown on both sides. Keep the fried paneer pieces in a bowl of hot water to keep them soft and crumbly.
  2. Chop the onion and tomatoes and make fresh ginger-garlic paste by crushing them with a help of a pestle and mortar.
Prepare the almond and cashew nuts paste:
  1. Heat ½ tbsp. of oil or ghee in a pan and add chopped onions, tomatoes and sugar or jaggery. Sauté them on medium flame for a minute. Mix in ¼ cup of water and bring the water to boil.
  2. To this add almonds, cashew nuts and Kashmiri chillies. Cover the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the flame and let the mixture cool down to room temperature before grinding it to smooth paste. Keep it aside until needed.
Proceed to cook:
  1. Heat 1-1½ tbsp. of oil or ghee in a pan and cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms and ay leaves. Stir fry for a minute before adding ginger-garlic paste and fry it until the raw smell disappears, about a minute or two.
  2. Mix in tomato puree or tomato pasted dissolved in 3 tbsp water and stir well. Cook for 2 minutes.
  3. Next add ground almond-cashew nut paste to the gravy and mix them well. Add half of kasuri methi crushed with fingers and salt to taste. Cook uncovered for 4-5 mins on medium flame.
  4. Remove the pan from heat and mix in whisked yogurt or fresh cream and stir well. Bring the pan back on heat and simmer the gravy for 4-5 minutes. Add about ½ cup or more of water if you find the gravy too thick to adjust the consistency. Add salt to taste and mix well.
  5. Next add the paneer, garam masala, kitchen king masala if using and remaining kasuri methi and let the gravy simmer for another 5-6 minutes. Turn off the flame and let it rest for 10 minutes to allow the flavours to develop.
  6. Serve this delicious, velvety smooth Shahi Paneer with any Indian flat breads or flavoured basmati rice and enjoy!



Sia’s Notes:
  • If using fresh paneer, just add the cubes directly to the gravy and if using store brought one, you can lightly pan fry the cubes with little oil or ghee until it turns golden brown on both sides.
  • This is a mild curry as we are using Kashmiri chillies. If you prefer spicy curry, use hot chillies instead of Kashmiri chillies.

15 July, 2016

Mosaranna or Curd Rice Recipe | South Indian Tempered Yogurt Rice Recipe

Learn how to make Mosaranna or Mosaru Anna or Curd Rice ~ Popular South Indian rice mixed with creamy sweet yogurt, finely chopped vegetables and fruits tempered with green chillies, ginger and indian spices

~Long rant alert~

Let me warn you in the beginning. This is going to be one long rant. If you are here for the recipe, just skip it and scroll down to the recipe part.

Food blogging is 24/7 job, and mostly it is unpaid/low paid job. We food bloggers put hours and sometimes, days of work into creating every single blog post; recipe idea, back ground food/recipe research, recipe creation, recipe testing, re-testing 4-5 times, taking accurate measurement of the ingredients, jotting down tips/little useful notes, food styling, food photographing, editing the photographs, writing the blog post, crediting/mentioning the original source, editing and finally posting/publishing it. The work doesn’t end there! We also read patiently and reply to every single queries. Apart from labelled as food bloggers, most of us are the sole photographers, content creators, editors, cooks, cleaners, food stylists and also the dishwashers!



And there are some people who ‘research’ on Google and get ‘inspired’ by others write ups and recipes and simply ‘ctrl C + ctrl P’ not just the recipes, but also the stories/prologue to the recipe posts. I will not call them lazy. I will not even call them naïve. They are simply the plagiarists who ride high by stealing others content and passing them as their own and go another step by ‘copyright’ing the stolen content! What for? Fame? Money? Popularity? I don’t know! When my 6 year old knows what's right from wrong, I find it rather saddening to see a well-educated people who pretend to be ignorant and plays victim card, It clearly shows that education and ethics and values are two different things!

09 June, 2016

Restaurant style Mughalai Methi Paneer Kurma Recipe | Simple and Easy Methi-Paneer Curry

Learn how to make Restaurant style Mughalai Methi Paneer Kurma ~ Fresh fenugreek leaves and Indian cottage cheese cooked in lightly spiced creamy onion, cashew and yogurt gravy

With the temperature shooting up to 20+ deg C, the British summer has finally arrived in my neck of woods. It means plenty of sunshine, ice creams, spending most of day time outdoors, gardening and of course, less time cooking in hot kitchen. This is the time of the year where my recipe developments and cooking experiments in the winter months come to my rescue as I churn dishes that take minimal effort and less cooking time. One such recipe is this creamy and dreamy Restaurant style Mughalai Methi Paneer Kurma cooked using home grown fresh tender methi or fenugreek leaves.



Few weeks back, during the months of spring when the temperature crossed single digit and crossed double digits, LD and I started our little garden project. Tickled by our success story of growing our own veggies last summer, this time we have decided to double our effort and grow more veggies, especially greens, to nourish our body and soul. This year our little potting shed is filled with trays and pots of greens growing in abundant, making a steady supply to kitchen in cooking the nutrition rich meals to grace our dinner tables.

10 March, 2016

Vegan Beetroot Kofta Curry Recipe | Mughali Style Vegan Beetroot Kofta Recipe

Learn how to make Vegan Beetroot Kofta Curry ~ Spicy beetroot and potato vegan meatballs served in Mughalai style creamy cashew and almond gravy flavoured with aromatic spices
One day a 5 year old asked his big sister, “What is love?”
She replied, “Love is when you steal my chocolate from my school bag every day… and I still keep it in the same place every day.”
~ Unknown


I was not even two years old when little sister entered my world shattering my monopoly in a large joint family! When I was born, my first cousin was in his mid-twenties while the youngest one was in his late teens. So it was not difficult for a chubby baby girl with jet black hair and cheeks that resembled a generous sized Idli to make every other person in our family to dance to her tunes just by shaking her little fingers. I was pampered and a spoilt brat who had many people falling on my chubby feet for the first 22 months of my life. And then my exclusive control on everyone’s attention and being centre of everyone’s universe came to sudden halt!

16 February, 2016

Mint and Coconut Rice Recipe | Simple and Quick Mint Rice Recipes

Learn how to make Mint and Coconut Rice ~ South Indian rice recipe of fresh coconut, mint and lime juice flavoured with generous tempering of crunchy cashew nuts, juicy raisins and aromatic spices

I am not the only one for whom many of life's most intimate details come flooding back at the sight, smell and taste of particular foods. It is not really a big surprise that, while I struggle to remember my mobile phone number or sometimes, rake my brain helplessly to recall my best friends' names, the merest sniff of certain food can bring back memories from the days of my early childhood with frightening clarity and make me walk down the memory lanes with rose-tinted nostalgia. One such dish that is stored safely in my food memory treasure chest is the simple and unassuming Mint and Coconut Rice from my school days drenched in monsoon rains and Amma’s love.



It was the first Monday of June, probably the most dreaded day for any kids in India. It was the day when schools would reopen after two months of fun filled adventurous summer holidays. Dressed in new uniform with shiny new black shoes and socks and cart load of new text books and notes on our bags, we kids would drag ourselves to school half-heartedly wishing it was just a bad dream and anytime the bubble would go pop as soon as we opened our eyes. Unfortunately, it was not the case! The thought of no more sleeping late at night and getting late in the morning, no more picnic lunches in the mango orchards and climbing the mango trees, no more sling shots and biting into raw or juicy stolen mangoes was enough to dampen our spirits. To top it all, on every first day to school it would rain like it never rained before, dampening our uniforms and spirits.

12 November, 2015

Besan Ke Laddu Recipe | How to Make Besan Ke Ladoo

Learn how to make Besan Ke Laddu ~ Sweet chickpea/gram flour balls flavoured with cardamom and ghee

The festival of lights is here… Diwali or Deepavali is the occasion which brings lot of joy and laughter to fill our days with cheer and hope for something best to come! We are having a quiet Diwali at home as the man of the house is away in Scotland attending a conference and will only be back on Friday night! Which means the young man of the house is seen following me everywhere chattering and asking me non-stop questions as why we have lit dozens of the candles and diyas, what am I cooking, why the house is decked as a bride, what is Diwali, why are we celebrating it, why are we Hindus, who made us Hindus, does it mean we can’t celebrate Christmas, will he still get Christmas presents from Santa and many more until I pretend to faint! I don’t miss the fire crackers back in India as my little fire cracker is here to bombard me with his never ending questions and chatter. :)



On the Diwali eve, our home came alive with flickering of diyas and candles lit in every nook and corner with the soulful evening raga playing in the background. The fragrant smoke of incense, camphor and dhoop waltzed with the fragrance of roses and jasmine. The clang of pots and pans, the heady aroma of saffron, rose water and cardamoms and the joyous laughter in the background was everything that any festivals are about. Unlike last year’s extravagant and loud Diwali which was the first for LD with his grandparents, this year’s celebration is quiet and mellow with just three of us. As it was the case with any festival, we were missing our loved ones on this joyous occasion. The beautiful memories of Diwali of my childhood are something I treasure the most. The light, laughter, joy, great food and a lovely company is something that makes this festival so special. So I feel the real need to create wonderful memories for my young man by carrying out century old traditions passed from one generation to the next. And what better way than the stories of the festival accompanied with a delicious food which is heart and soul of any Indian festivals?!

06 August, 2015

Dum Aloo Kashmiri Recipe | How to Make Kashmiri Dum Alu

Learn how to make Dum Aloo Kashmiri ~ A traditional Kashmiri dish of deep fried baby potatoes cooked in creamy almond and cashew gravy, no onion-garlic recipe

After a month of sultry hot summer days, the skies have opened their doors to cool showers. The welcoming sight of rain drenched plants and trees and the pearly rain drops on a window pane is what exactly we needed after a days of heat waves. As the temperature dropped couple of degrees, our cravings for some spicy delights just went up a notch! Another reason to love the pittar-patter rain!



Husband had come home with a bag of baby potatoes from market and dropping few hints about the Dum Aloo Kashmiri he had had couple of years ago! I pretended not to hear him as the last few attempts of making the famous Kashmiri Dum Aloo were far from being a success story! And the triple sin of not just cooking the potatoes, but also deep frying them before dunking in a rich cashew-almond gravy was something I wanted to avoid when I am on a path of eating healthy! Well, I don’t have to say who won in the end! Interestingly I am not even ashamed to have had committed this triple sin! Ha…