Cooking Is Easy

Homemade mayonnaise with hand blender in just 1 minute, hard to believe right? but yes, this is one of the easiest and fail proof way to make mayonnaise, so easy and in just under 1 minute - homemade mayonnaise is ready, so need more reason to ditch the store-bought mayo? Making mayo in a blender can sometimes be tricky; if you are not experienced as it might curdle and then you just have to throw the whole thing away. So, when I bought my new Panasonic immersion blender, I got this wild idea to try making mayo and it came out perfect and creamy and thick. So, when I went to see Nidhi at NIT; I made a dozen of tandoori chicken hamburgers (will share sometime the recipe) I used this mayo to make the coleslaw (again, will share that recipe too) and kids just loved the burgers and a dozen tandoori chicken burgers just vanished in minutes....that made Nidhi's friends and me happy! So, coming back to this recipe; I used lemon instead of vinegar and I would advise you to do the s

Lemon mint juice with pineapple is an easy and quick summer cooler. Summer, I love thee! because of all the milkshakes and coolers I can make.  February is not over yet; but the sun is at its mightiest, and cool cool drinks are in. I like to freeze fruits in ziplock bags whenever fruits are available, so I have a large bag of pineapple chunks and they turn out to be life savers during summers. Lemon mint juice video recipe: Ingredients: Lemon: 1, cut into 8 Mint leaves: 1/4 cup Sugar: 1/4 cup Frozen pineapple chunks: 1/4 cup Water: 2 cups Ice cubes: As needed A spring of mint leaves: To garnish Method: Into a blender add in lemon, mint, sugar, pineapple, and water. Blend for 1 min. Strain the juice. Pour into a glass and top with ice cubes and a sprig of mint leaves. Enjoy summer!

Pizza paratha recipe - f latbread pizza is a healthy and wholesome pizza with whole wheat flatbread or roti and without yeast; made entirely on stovetop. Yes, this stovetop pizza is made without an oven and super easy too. My kids named it roti pizza and believe me this was a life saver for me when my kids were growing up; especially with fuzzy and picky Nidhi! It has all the goodness of whole wheat roti/flatbread and topping with homemade pizza sauce - oh! yes, you can throw in mushrooms, boiled corns, I had once added a cup of minced veggies to the simmering sauce and it was a huge hit! with the kids....so, be innovative with the toppings. You can make it all veggie or throw in some chicken like I did today...and it will turn out to be a winner always! If you don't have the patience to make roti from scratch; then go ahead and use premade roti . Do you have some leftover chicken curry gravy ? maybe some leftover paneer butter masala gravy in the fridge? or butter chicke

Masala egg fry or egg masala fry, is a quick and easy starter or appetiser from Malabar . Usually, whole boiled eggs are roasted in coconut oil and masalas and most "chayakada" (tea shop) or "thattukada" (street food stall) does proudly display masala egg fry. I have asked around my neighbours and friends for the authentic recipe of Malabar mutta masala fry and like all other food each family has a different style. Some like to use only red chilli powder and some use a little bit of coriander and garam masala powders. But towards the North side people use sauf and red chilli powder as the main ingredient and if you add too much coriander powder it will over power the other spices....atleast that was the advice I got. I have been making this for some time and came up to a recipe which has more of red chilly powder and a fat pinch of the other spices but I must admit the saunf and the coconut oil is the main flavour maker. I also like to slice the eggs into h

Pineapple smoothie recipe - Pineapple smoothie with fresh mint leaves is an easy and quick summer cooler.  Its always a good idea to freeze fruits when they are available and my freezer does boasts of some and during summers they rule. Fresh mint leaves are a bliss especially during summers as mint leaves has a cooling effect; so pop a leaf or two in lime juice or shakes or smoothies. Kids are going to enjoy this summer cooler. Ingredients: Frozen Pineapple Cubes: 1 cup Mint leaves: 5 Sugar: 1/4 cup Water: 1 cup Method Blend everything at high speed for 2 minutes and serve with a sprig of mint leaves. Enjoy summer with this homemade cooler. Pls check my video for more tips.

Chocolate ganache recipe, learn to make dark chocolate ganache with just 2 ingredients. Chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache is the perfect double chocolate indulgence and always a winner. If you are a beginner baker; then chocolate ganache will make you popular as it did to me many many moons ago. Ganache is a French word (do check out wikipedia on this) and is made with cream and chocolate, nothing can go wrong with chocolate and cream and that makes it a popular and quick frosting. You can pour it over cakes, cupcakes, pastries or dip biscuits .... I mean do I have to tell you how to finish off a bowl of chocolate heaven :) The trick is to heat cream over medium heat until it starts to boil or rather bubbles starts to appear and then switch off the flame. You can either pour it over chocolate chips or chopped chocolate or add chocolate into the same bowl with the cream (less bowl to wash). Now leave it for 2 mins and then whisk, whisk, whisk.....and luscious chocol

Aval Milk or Milk Avil or Milkaval or Avil Milk or Aval Milkshake also popularly known as malappuram muttayi is a popular malabar milkshake made with aval or avil (beaten rice flakes), pazham (plantains), and roasted peanuts. The bliss of living in Kozhikode is being able to indulge in milkshakes; every street or bakery has a popular milkshake parlour to boast about. It will be injustice to name a few here; almost all the cool bars serve this milkshake. But, if you travel to the interiors of the district; aval milk is made slightly different, they simply put one pazham into a glass with some sugar and with a wooden blunt spoon it is mashed and then roasted aval and peanuts are added and then topped with cold milk. Somehow, I do not like that version and I prefer this version which many cool bars in the city makes and having noticed this method in popular cool bars near medical college and Manachira, I tried at home for my kids and they simply loved it. So, sharing this easy and h

Beef curry recipe , Kerala style beef curry is a simple every day curry made with freshly ground spices. It can be served with almost anything; like bread , appam , puttu , rice, roti etc. The freshly ground spices makes this curry very flavourful and also gives a thattukada style beef curry touch. Talking about thattukada (roadside stalls); I have posted a Malabar style thattukada beef curry earlier, which is also one our family favourite and is an absolute yummer with kannu vecha pathiri  Beef curry recipe video: Ingredients: Beef: 750 gms Onion: 2, sliced Green chilies: 2 Curry leaves: 2-3 sprigs Ginger: 1 1/2 inch ginger Garlic: 16 cloves (small ones) Tomatoes: 2, chopped Kashmiri chilli powder: 1 1/2 tbsp Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp Coconut oil: 2 tbsp Water: 2-3 tbsp or as needed Vinegar: 1 tsp Salt to taste Whole spices to be ground: Coriander seeds: 3 tbsp Saunf/perumjeerakam: 1 1/2 tbsp Cinnamon: 1 stick Star anise: 1 A small strand of mace Clov

Gobi 65 recipe - Restaurant style cauliflower 65 is a very popular appetiser across India; and most restaurants serve this Indo-Chinese dish.  I replicate restaurant foods at home so that my kids and hubby get a chance to have healthy homemade food with a restaurant touch minus the MSG, food colours, and a lot of other factors. While travelling to Goa last month, we ate food from road side shops some where very good; but almost all of them lavished on MSG....something which I totally avoid at home.  So, here is a quick and easy gobi 65 with a restaurant touch minus the MSG. Have you noticed that fried restaurant food are very crispy, its because they double fry it, that is they deep fry it twice. So if they have gobi 65 on their menu what they do is they, make a  batch of the gobi 65 and fry it and keep it aside, and when an order comes in they again they deep fry it and toss it with the rest of the ingredients and that double frying makes it more crispy. Gobi 65 Video Recipe