Cooking Is Easy

I have been playing around with my dosa batter (like the egg dosa , the good old masala dosa ) and found many innovative ways to make it more healthy (ofcourse dosa is one of the healthiest and balanced food in the world), but sometimes my kids do not have much veggies in their diet. Since both of them love dosa, (I always have dosa batter stocked up in my refrigerator). This is another way of making them start a healthy day and away from the usual dosa and sambar for a change. My kids do not like chunks of veggies in their plate, so I just put vegetables in the food processor and mince them very finely and add them into the dosa batter. There is no actual amount of vegetables to be minced; just some carrots, onion, tomato, capsicum etc will be fine. And no, this does not take your valuable time in the morning, just chop the vegetables coarsely, and plop them in your food processor, and pulse that's all. An Update: If you are using a nonstick pan omit th

Gajar halwa or carrot halwa is a very popular Indian dessert, learn to make it with step by step pictures. Carrot halwa or gajar ka halwa is a simple carrot sweet dish. Carrots are simmered in milk and sugar till it is evaporated. My son loves this very much and yes I make this often for him. I usually grate it in my food processor and always use rich red color and juicy carrots which we get at this season. I always add 3 or 4 green cardamons crushed and roasted (in ghee) cashewnuts and raisins. The white spots you see on top is some silver balls I sprinkled before taking the picture :) One thing I have noticed is that when you make the halwa with whole milk (full fat) you do not need to add extra ghee, but if you are using skimmed milk like I did for this post, then you need to add a little bit of ghee. But if you compare skimmed milk halwa and whole milk halwa....I'd choose the whole milk because you can see tiny weeny bits of khoya in the halwa and ghee from

Egg or eggs on dosa is my favorite quick breakfast for my hubby, I mean when the lazy bug strikes me to the core or when I overslept :) Dosa is almost a staple food, Nidhi likes  crispy crunchy dosa , and doesn't mind my occasional experiments on her dosa, but Cheriyan likes just plain crispy crunchy dosa, its the most made breakfast dish in my kitchen. Masala dosa is my favorite always.... Coming to eggs on dosa, its actually a Kerala street food or thattukada special, you can use any eggs; if using quail eggs then 3 eggs per dosa is fine. Bachelors are you listening!! Check out my older post for how to make dosa the easy way Ingredients: Dosa batter: 1 1/2 ladleful, homemade dosa batter or store brought batter. Egg: 1. Pepper powder: 1 tsp. Refined oil: 1 tsp. Salt to taste Method: 1. Heat dosa tawa , and grease it, pour the dosa batter and spread it. Reduce flame to low. 2. Crack one egg and pour it on top of the dosa. 3. Spread evenly on the

The second most popular post in this space (by reader's choice) is the no bake/cook pineapple biscuit pudding . I had many queries regarding an eggless version for this. Today, I made this minus the butter and egg. I used Amul low fat cream (25% fat), I guess this gives an excuse to indulge in this creamy eggless pudding. Ingredients: Marie biscuit: 1 packet. Amul low fat cream: 1 packet Powdered sugar: 1 cup (i used 200 ml cup). Pineapple stewed : 1 cup.(you can add half cup more if you like pineapple). Vanilla essence: 1 tsp. Milk: 1/2 cup. Method: 1.Take 1 cup of stewed pineapple or more if you like and keep aside. 2. Whip the cream with half cup of powdered sugar and the other half of the sugar towards the end. I did not whip into stiff peaks, creamy fluffy stage is fine. Put the pineapple and the vanilla essence into it and mix well. 3. In a square pan, dip biscuits in skimmed milk and line the dish. 4. Spread half of the creamy pineapple mix on

Kerala lemon pickle ; summer is setting in slowly and its pickle time again. I love making pickles and lemon pickle tops the most made pickle in my kitchen......because Nidhi just loves them. Naranga achar  is easy and quick to make I do not make large quantities....I usually make with 8 to 10 medium sized lemons. If the lemons are really small I take about 12 to 15, this time the lemons were quite large so I used only 8 nos. I always wash the lemons and put them in the steamer for about 5-10 min in low flame because I do not want the lemons to crack and the juices to flow out. So once steam comes put in low flame and check often. Again this recipe is from amma, who is the best cook I have ever come across. How to make lemon pickle Kerala style with pictures. 1. Wash the lemons and put them into the appachembu or steamer. 2. Once steam comes simmer it for about 5 to 10 min. Do not let the lemon crack. 3. While the lemons are cooling......take the garlic and