Ina's Bread Rolls : and memories of my first days of cooking...

I started cooking when i was 19 yrs of age. It was not by will but the circumstances, whenever i think of my first days of cooking all i can remember is how i was clueless about how to cook rice, and how a kid 7 yrs younger to me (our maids daughter) used to fail teaching me how to make phulkas, it was so easy for her, it came naturally, the roti would dance and float over the chakla on her command and i would stand awestruck.. and curse myself that i never learnt these things from my mommy and the chance is gone. The only treasured learning i had from her, was how to make parathas.. and how to make the perfect sambhar. I had them written in a diary, with the minutest instructions possible.

Lychee Love : Lychee Panna Cotta with Pomegranate Jelly.

Summers are the time to go crazy over seasonal fruits. Mango Mania it was for sometime on Chatkhor, in between the lovely Lychees were not ignored. I was lucky to get huge batches of Lychee by a dear fren from the heart and soul of lychee lands , yes the muzaffarpur wale lychee.. how could i pass it, they are the best possible lychees. We had so many of them that i had go looking for other options, what i can make out of it, other than just peeling and eating them.

Mango Mania : Mango Coconut Cupcakes : My mango addiction and my other addictions...

By now one and all know my addiction to mangoes always and especially this season. Yeah its because of the ratnagiri mangoes overdose we have had 2 weeks back, iam sad that my stock is coming to an end. But i have made almost everything i wanted to so am not all that sad. Well even otherwise i am always this addicted to mangoes every season, i remember when we used to stay in bannerghatta road, yeah the same house where we used to share a wall with the national park ;) ... then we used to travel all the way to jp nagar everyday to get the best mangoes in the vicinity, best byganpallis you will ever get are there.

Spicy Mango Salsa with Homemade Flax seed Crackers

I skipped yesterdays prompt, i had an idea in mind, for anybody disasters in not anything uncommon, to top it somebody like us who keeps experimenting in the kitchen kitchen disasters is a regular affair, it was no big deal, but i got caught up for the full day with a fren visiting. A very dear from Delhi was visiting her mom for the kids summer vacation, and planned a day out at my place. With her was her 3.5 yrs old son Saksham, what a riot that boy is... we had a long day together and iam still talknig about him. His chitter chatter kept me mesmerized and i dont want to come out of it as yet .

Lets Beat the Heat with 10 Thirst Quenchers this summer !

People who know me well know that i am the odd combination of 'peene ke naam pe kalank' and loves mixing drinks. My love for mixology dates back to 2008 when i was home alone and fell in love with the program In High spirits airing in NDTV Good times and especially with Shatbhi Basu! i wish i had an appetite like her for cocktails, then i would have picked bar tending as my alter career. But no i dont have that liking for alcohol but my love for mixing always keeps growing.. So when i saw the day 2 prompt to b Thirst i was more than happy to try my hand on another drink.

Mango Cheesecake : How i love that color!

Most of you must be aware of my mango love and how badly i was waiting for the mangoes arriving from Ratnagiri, where the guys went to meet our sahaab's girls parents. Oh one of the attraction for me was mangoes, ratnagiri alphonsos i had always heard of, the naturals ice cream guy here serves the best mango sundae , and claims he sources his mangoes from ratnagiri. So i had long list of things to try, long list of suggestions from members of CaL. Topping the list was a mango cheesecake, as cliche as it may sound, but i had never made a cheesecake and i love love love cheesecakes.. so i had to master the art of cheesecake making. :D well disclaimer, this was my first but i would love to stick to this recipe coz i simply loved it. I am a big Spoonful of Sugar cheesecake fan, and that has developed my cheesecake palette to a really high standard, and well this guy did pass it.

Spicy Dates and Walnut cake and the cleaning up of the pantry

I hate my habits of getting overexcited while grocery shopping, buying exactly the things that have been lying hiding in the back lanes of my cupboards, panting towards the expiry date almost always.. and then cursing myself when i spring clean or whatever and then go crazy thinking what can i make out of them to spare myself of the guilt of wasting yet another thingy. Well this time it was Dates for me. Don't remember when was the last time i have used dates in mainstream cooking, oh wait, i used to to quench my diet time cravings , the diets i get into like once in 6 months, well precisely when the birthday is approaching or the anniversary :D . So its been a while i have been in one such sprint and that sorry looking date packet is crying out for help and i rescue it right in time. 3 more weeks and it would meet its end, but no i have always eyed many many recipes or date cakes and likes and well i am not sure, when i got this pack, how did i justify the buy, sweet craving quencher or a date cake! 

Watermelon and Feta Salad : Our Summer favorite

Both me and Garg are big time melon fans, bring it on and we can live on them for days, watermelon being the top on the list. In recent times the whole blogosphere is a buzzing with the watermelon feta salad, whosoever discovered this wonderful combination, kudos. The saltiness of the cheese is a perfect compliment to the sweetness of the watermelon. To top it the lime juice which enhances the juices in the watermelon, this is a killer salad and a keep in our kitchen forever. And the beauty is how beautifully we can play with some variations and every time its a new blast of flavours and always appealing. And it does magic to the not so red and sweet watermelons.

Bloggers Table and Mediterranean sojourn at Taj Vivanta, Yeshwantpur

2 weeks back a group of us bloggers were invited for a Bloggers table by the Taj Vivanta property in Yeshwantpur, for some drinks at their bar Shimmer and a Mediterranean sojourn at their well talked about restaurant Azure. I was excited because it was med food, i love love love med food, and was totally looking forward to it, and it was one reason why going as far as Yeshwantpur was not a glitch. Had also read another foodie saying that azure med food was very good. 2 other foodie frens had also mentioned that their previous experiences were amazing in Azure. Well for me it was somewhat of a letdown, given it was my first there, i will take it as what i got it and proceed. This was not the kind of food you expect when you go to a 5 star, especially when recently you have has an amazing experience at they sister concern, the Taj West End. It was disappointing to say the least, except for a tomato confit for which i can probably recommend somebody to try ten times over.

Homemade Pizza : Pizza Casareccia with a Kickass pizza Sauce and dough : Nigella Lawson way

I had completely freaked out yesterday, the day had come when i finally decided to do the stuff i was running away from forever now. Given i have tried many breads now, i have no clue what was stopping me from trying pizza at home, maybe coz we both agree that pizza is one of those unhealthy things one must try to stay away from. Well that doesn't stop us from ordering once in a while. I am particularly not a big pizza fan, primarily because i had suffered from acute dehydration and remained hospitalised for a good 4 days after a pizza night and since then for almost 6-7 years i had said complete no to Pizza. Things have changed now. I have started having fresh pizza once in a while, not a big fan still, but what the heck, i bake, and i have never tried pizza! Not acceptable.