One Day At A Time

I am amazed at the variety of Indian breads one can make... Naan, Mooli Paratha, Roomali Roti, Lachha Paratha, Bhakri, Ragi Rotti, Tandoori Roti. For most weekday lunches, I generally make Phulka. I know, it becomes monotonous sometimes.  Today's special is North Indian whole wheat Lacha Paratha . These take a couple more minutes than regular roti, but can be made on a busy day. You don't need any fancy ingredients, just atta and ghee.  The same layered flat-bread when made with all purpose flour (maida) is known as Kerala Paratha .

For movie nights, we like a variety of snacks - popcorn, pita chips and hummus, raw celery sticks with cream cheese, potato chips and so on. Well, some are healthy and some not so much. This weekend, tortilla chips and salsa was our pick. So, leftover celery became a part of our weekday meal. Crunchy celery feta salad is a good change from the regular lettuce salad.

Hey foodies! I know, I have been gone for a long time. Cooking and food photography was happening, but I wasn't able to blog. Now, I am back with everyone's favorite Paneer recipe - Paneer Makhani also known as Paneer Butter Masala . My version is more like Badami Paneer . Hope you guys like it.

Some weekdays are so busy, I hardly find time to cook. Preparing pasta is the easiest thing to do. I know its high in carbohydrates, but I think its fine once a week. To complete our menu, I cook some veggies like zucchini, brussel sprouts, broccoli in the oven. Today's Italian delight is a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce to go with vegetables enriched rotini pasta.

In Indian cuisine, Khoya and Paneer are the most commonly used cheeses. Khoya, also called as Mawa is used for making Mithai (desserts). Frankly, I haven't cooked with khoya yet. But, Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) is something I am quite familiar with. Like any other cheese, Paneer is made by curdling milk. It is used for both sweet and savory dishes. Well, I make Paneer at home. But, on busy days, I prefer store bought Italian Ricotta Cheese as an alternative for Indian Mithai. Trust me, Ricotta cheese works perfectly fine for sweets. Here are all the Indian recipes with Ricotta Cheese as the star ingredient. I loved making Ricotta Cheese Koftas too. Ricotta Cheese Gulab Jamun Ricotta Cheese Pedha Ricotta Cheese Rasmalai (Baked) Microwave Mango Kalakand Microwave Ricotta Cheese Kalakand Oven Baked Ricotta Kalakand Microwave Badam (Almond) Burfi Microwave Ricotta Cheese Sandesh/Sondesh Ricotta Cheese Malai Kofta Curry

Happy Krishna Jayanti to all! Hope you all are celebrating with your loved ones. For this year, I made a 5 minutes Condensed Milk Coconut Ladoo . Yes, cooking time for this dessert is just 5 minutes in a microwave. Ingredients: Sweetened Condensed Milk - 14 oz (396 gm) Desiccated (Dry) Coconut - 1 1/2 cups + 1/4 cup Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 4 pods Ghee/Clarified Butter - 2 tsp Roasted Cashews - about 12 How to cook Condensed Milk Coconut Ladoo in a microwave: Crush the cardamom seeds in a mortar pestle to a fine powder. Wipe a microwave safe bowl dry. Grease the bowl with 1 tsp ghee. Add condensed milk and 1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut. Mix well. Microwave this milk and coconut mix for 3 minutes. Stop the microwave after every minute and stir. This will avoid burning. Next, add cardamom powder to the bowl and mix again. Microwave for 1 more minute.  Take a small portion of the cooked ladoo mixture and check if you can make a small round ball of it. If so, your ladoo mix...

I am a person who likes to wander in a supermarket. That gives me a chance to try out new ingredients. This week, I picked buttermilk in the dairy isle for making Rava Dhokla . Up until now, I used to make Dhokla with yogurt. But, dhokla with buttermilk turned out even better. Buttermilk is comparatively sour than yogurt, which makes instant dhokla soft and fluffy. The best part is the health benefit, buttermilk has far less fat content than yogurt.