Less is More: The Round-up!

A couple of years ago, Coffee started the Monthly Blog Patrol as a way for food bloggers to cook and learn from each other's recipes. This month, 64 bloggers from all over the world took up a challenge: choose a recipe that has five ingredients or less and show us how less is more!Based on the entries that I have received, I have organized the round-up in a few different categories: you can grab

Potato Salad for Lunch, Honey!

Every month, Zlamushka, she of the spicy kitchen, selects one blog and opens it up for a widespread taste-test. Last month, my blog was lucky enough to be chosen and tried and tasted; a lot of pav bhaji got made, I can tell you that much! This month, it is the turn of Meeta's spectacular blog, What's For Lunch, Honey?Meeta's blog and mine could not be more different if we tried! In my home, the

Sweet. Sinful. Cold. Rich.

No, I'm not describing one of the Desperate Housewives; I'm talking about a wonderful dessert I made last weekend. Chunks of tangy-sweet oranges dunked in thick cardamom-scented milk. This beauty of a sweet treat is called Kamlalebur Kheer and is a recipe shared by our favorite Bong Mom, Sandeepa. I would describe it as a delicious variation of basundi, with the fresh tangy taste of oranges

Sun-dried Goodness

Today's recipe is another one that is low on the number of ingredients but very high on flavor: Thakkali Thokku , a sun-dried tomato spread at Delectable Victuals. Sheela's creative touch in the kitchen and her enthusiasm for trying all kinds of global cuisines never fails to amaze me. Sun-dried tomatoes + Dried chilli peppers + Fresh tomato = A finger-licking good Tomato spreadIt is fresh tomato

Caramelized Onion Bread

Today's few-ingredient recipe is a savory bread- Caramelized Onion Bread from Baking Bites. Bread certainly is a miraculous food- powdery flour and plain ol' water coming together in a fluffy loaf with the help of millions of little bugs called Baker's yeast. Or our Indian breads- where you don't even need yeast. Just experienced hands that know how to turn out perfect flatbreads. In this recipe,

Coriander Rosti...

...or how to kick up brunch a notch! Last weekend, an old college friend dropped in for brunch and I got a chance to try a bookmarked recipe from Sunita. Sunita's world is a place full of luscious food, images of nature and glimpses of her family life. A visit to her world never fails to cheer me up! Sunita's recipe for Coriander Rosti called for the simplest of ingredients and resulted in the

Khari biscuits

A few days ago, I was idly leafing through a food magazine while waiting somewhere and a boldly highlighted recipe caught my eye. It claimed to be 2-ingredient guacamole. Ever since I decided on this Less-is-More theme, I have been very interested in few-ingredient recipes, and I read the recipe eagerly. Only to find that the two ingredients were 1 tub of refrigerated guacamole and 1 tub of

Less is More: Vegetables

Getting your 5 (or more) a day is easy and delicious when you find the right recipes...that's what I have been learning from the bloggers. First up, a gorgeous and couldn't-be-simpler subzi from Arundathi. A mild hint of cumin and mustard allows the fresh colors and flavors of spinach and corn to shine through. Arundathi tells us that this is a recipe she carried with her as a student, and it is

Onion Chutney: Less is More

Onions + Red Chillies + Tamarind = Zesty Onion Chutney. TBC shared her mother's recipe for the simplest Onion Chutney. A few weeks ago, I made dosas and realized at the last possible minute that I had no coconut on hand for the accompanying chutney. That's when TBC's recipe came to the rescue! My only tweak to the recipe was to add a bit of tamarind juice for some tang. This is how I made the

A Quick Breakfast Fix

Raaga is hosting Weekend Breakfast Blogging this month with the theme Express Breakfasts. I wake up at all sorts of unearthly hours, and am usually famished by the time the normal breakfast hour rolls around. Usually, quick breakfasts in my home can mean oatmeal, eggs or buttered toast with a spicy chutney sprinkled on it. But in honor of Raaga's undying love for Upma, that's what I whipped up

Kohlrabi Sukke

Many thanks to all those who left me comments and e-mails asking if we are doing OK here in St. Louis. This region has been in the news lately because of the devastating flooding of the mighty Mississippi river and its tributaries. North of us, the swollen river breached levees/flood-banks and sent huge swatches of land under water. Many people watched helplessly as their homes were set adrift

Announcing the Monthly Blog Patrol for July 08: Less is More!

Many months ago, Coffee started a popular food blog event called the Monthly Blog Patrol (MBP). The event revolves around browsing through our favorite blogs and choosing recipes to cook in our own kitchens. I am thrilled to be taking over the baton from Sia (you still have a few days to get your Street Food entries to her) and guest hosting MBP for the month of July right here on One Hot Stove.

Kizartma and Couscous

So often, a restaurant dish is my primary inspiration to head into the kitchen and try something new. This is especially true of cuisines that are new to me, some from countries that I would have trouble locating on a map. These experiments often result in happy discoveries of "keeper" recipes and new additions to the pantry. Today's recipe was inspired by an appetizer that I enjoyed at a local

Cool Spinach Raita

Everywhere I go, the conversation seems to turn to food. It seems that Indian food is increasingly popular here in the US, and friends and acquaintances (and sometimes even perfect strangers in stores) will often ask me questions about Indian recipes and spices and restaurants. It is wonderful to see this interest in tasting the cuisine of my country, and many people now want to try Indian

Goan Egg Curry

Today's dish: a filling and comforting Goan-inspired Egg Curry. I am sending this picture to CLICK: Yellow for Bri. Goa: a sliver of a state on the West coast of India, consisting of beach after beach after beach, and some beautiful temples and churches and the winding Mandovi river as well. It is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world, with so many water bodies. Last time my parents

Testing, Tasting, Feasting

While things are sluggish here on the blog, my real life is a bit of a whirlwind (by my standards anyway) as I meet up with friends, attend social engagements, do some summer cleaning and try not to trip up on the miles of yarn I have managed to tangle myself into. Last night, I got to feast at a wonderful potluck in honor of a visiting food blogger. Alanna is hosting Pille of Nami-Nami, here all

CLICK for Bri: My Raffle Prize

This is an appeal on behalf of a group of food bloggers who are friends of Briana Brownlow @ Figs With Bri. Bri was diagnosed with breast cancer two and half years ago. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and two years of relatively good health later, the cancer is back. It has metastasized to other parts of her body. At the age of 15, Bri lost her 41-year old mother to the disease. Now, she’s waging her

A Tiny Giveaway

WINNER ANNOUNCED. Please scroll down to see who it is!I wanted to share a little bit of my latest obsession with you all. Today, it is a humble dishcloth. It is the very first pattern I tried (Thank you, Rhonda K. White, for sharing this free pattern). For a beginner who is trying out anything new, the success of a first tentative project spurs one on to further dive into that activity, and

Springing Back

Hello, everyone! I have been too busy knitting (see end of post) and being sick (nasty flu virus), so the blog was unceremoniously ignored for a couple of weeks. Seriously, this spring has gone down in my life as the season of respiratory woes. I'm still waiting for the day when I can breathe normally again :)Yesterday, we had what I always think of as "hill station weather". In the heat of the

A Taste of Rajasthan

Allergies still are shaping the daze of our lives here in St. Louis, but today I managed to pull my act together. I cooked up a flavorful and spicy meal for this rainy, stormy Saturday night that we are spending in the comfort of home. I've been missing out on so many food blog events recently, so I am delighted to be able to send this meal to Padmaja for RCI: Rajasthan. Rajasthan: a Northern

Blast from the Past

As far as I am concerned, April showers bring May allergies! I'm taking a break from my relentless high-decibel sneezing, eye-rubbing and nose-blowing (yeah, it's real attractive) to bring you a childhood favorite. There are times when I am simply a slave to the taste memories of my past and this is one of them- Maggi instant noodles (cousins of Ramen) stir fried with tons of vegetables. Nestle

Tucking into Taquitos

Myamii's Taste and Create event pairs up participating food bloggers randomly and they get to taste-test one recipe from each other's blog. This month, I was paired up with a blog that bears the intriguing name of Peanut Butter Etoufee. PBE is written by three gals who say that, "food is the axis on which our family turns"- now that is something I can certainly relate to. Every food blog has

Little Things, BIG Excitement

Every few months, Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness does exactly that; spreading happiness all around by hosting an event called Blogging By Mail. The premise is a simple one: bloggers are secretly assigned someone to send a box of treats to, and in turn get a box of treats from another blogger. This time around, BBM had the theme "Little Things". My "secret Santa" was Marye from Texas Kettle and

Dhokaar Daalnaa

Here is my second entry for Sandeepa's Regional Cuisines of India event; we are celebrating Bengali cuisine this month. This one comes from my beloved friend Sujayita, who indulged me with mega-doses of tea and sympathy for several years. We kept up an impromptu book club during that time, with shared tastes for many genres. But she stubbornly refuses to read cookbooks as if they were novels, and

What's Cooking?

What Bengali dish is being made (rather inexpertly) in the picture below? Care to guess??

Cozy Kichuri Comfort

Sandeepa is hosting the Regional Cuisines of India event this month, and what theme could a self-proclaimed Bong Mom choose other than Bengali cuisine?I have never visited Bengal, and know very little about Bengali cuisine, having lived all my life in the diametrically opposite corner of the subcontinent, but I do have two very dear friends who are Bengali. I turned to each of them and demanded

More Dosa Love

Srivalli's Dosa Mela ("dosa" is a family of Southern Indian crepes/pancakes and "mela" is a gathering or fair) has me all excited. I have two recipes to take along to the dosa mela today: my version of the classic Mysore Masala dosa and then, specially for certain people who can't get dosa batter to ferment, a simple goduma dosa, that needs no soaking, grinding, fermenting or any other form of

Sweet and Salubrious

Back to breakfast! All the new-and-improved breakfast treats I tried so far this month have been savory, in a frank display of my personal preferences. But every once in a while, I do crave a little sweet something to go along with my morning chai. Today's whole-grain tweak: Using whole-wheat pastry flour and almond meal for baked goodies. Whole-wheat pastry four is a low-gluten flour of finely

Keen-on-Keen-wah Soup

The busy times are rolling again, but I just could not resist writing this quick post. This has got be the easiest soup I have ever made in my whole life: place stuff in the pressure cooker, let it hiss and whistle, open the cooker and eat. The hearty taste of quinoa, corn, carrots and onions gets a flavorful kick with the addition of some chipotle chillies in adobo sauce. I bought a can of these

Brunching, Munching

The quest for whole-grain breakfasts continues as I travel around the blogs learning some new recipes, tips and tricks. First stop- Tasty Palettes: Quinoa Upma It took a long time for quinoa to become part of my pantry for the simple reason that it takes me some effort to make space for new foods! Going by the old saying, "When in doubt, make upma", I followed Suganya's recipe to the T. Again, I

Cara's Buttermilk Bread

Another edition of Myamii's Taste and Create is upon us. The premise of this event is that she randomly pairs up the participating bloggers, and they taste-test one recipe from each other's blog. It is so much fun to scroll through a blog and look for something delicious to recreate. This month, the luck of the draw paired me up with a blog that is new to me: Cara's Cravings. This cheerful blog

Pseudo Panha

Dear Winter, How can I miss you if you never go away? But I should not fret too much. This being St. Louis, the lingering chills of late winter will turn into the sweltering heat of summer soon enough. And this time, I shall be prepared with a tall jug of rejuvenating panha in the fridge. The traditional version of this drink calls for raw mangoes, but what I tried making today is a very clever

Idli Dosa Love

I am big on breakfasts, and strongly believe in equal opportunity for breakfast foods- so you will often catch me serving them for lunch, tea and dinner as well. This month (or what's left of it), I decided to give some thought to including more whole grains into breakfast. I do love my so-not-whole-grain poha, sabudana, rava dosa and baguettes, but let me add some whole grains to my repertoire

Hello

I know...I know, it has been nearly a month since my last post. It has been one of those crazy months when life just came at me at top speed and blogging was the first thing to be crossed off the list temporarily. Our Dale bhu-bhu began showing some strange symptoms a couple of weeks ago. Since he is 9 years old now (quite possibly even older), we are realistic enough to expect some age-related

"Royal" Burji...

...hits the spot in this lazy Sunday brunch. Burji is simply Indian-style scrambled eggs; "royal" because it contains a spice mix with a regal name. It started when Bhags posted this simple dal called Bachelor tadka. She braved a "queue of shoes", smelly socks and mountains of unwashed clothes to fearlessly obtain this recipe for us, so the least I could do was give it a try. The other intriguing

Sig's Butternut Squash Erissery

Anyone who reads this blog probably knows that I love "cooking from the blogs". I treat the food blog world as a virtual culinary school populated by the most talented teachers. It was quite natural for me to jump in and participate in an event called Taste and Create, hosted by Myamii at For the Love of Food. The premise is that she randomly pairs up bloggers, and they taste-test one recipe from

A Simple, Warming Soup

For all the time that I have been cooking on a regular basis, I have been a one-dish kind of gal. No matter how much I would love to spend hours cooking up a delicious spread, life usually hands me about 45-60 minutes to put dinner on the table. No wonder then, that the most beloved recipes in my repertoire are the ones that combine grains and vegetables and legumes or eggs all together in one

Huli Pudi

For a few months, the Arusuvai friendship chain has been active among food bloggers in India, pioneered by the Yum blog and Bhags and Bharathy, with the premise that food bloggers send little surprise ingredients to each other. After all, the pantry of each avid home cook is full of coveted treasures and to share these with people that you have come to know virtually is a lot of fun. I have been

The Arusuvai has landed!

The Arusuvai Friendship Chain has arrived at my door! Thank you, dear Latha. I tried my best to guess what it was, and could not :D Can you help me?! What do you think it is, and what would you cook with it? The person with the wildest guess will get a surprise ingredient from me (er...if you live in the US, that is) :) This little drawing is closed...but check back for two "winners" later.

Onion-Cheese Kulcha

On a snow day, an unexpected day off from work, a responsible person would:(a) start organizing her income tax return(b) work on her term paper(c) do some spring-cleaning(d) ignore (a) through (c) and bake some bread!No prizes for guessing, unfortunately! Here is the bread I made- a tandoori bread no less (or my version of it, anyway): Onion-Cheese Kulcha. It all started with this tempting

Shengdana Chutney

We have a snow day today! That can mean only one thing- I have time to log on and ramble on and write a post. This is an entry for My Legume Love Affair, an event hosted by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook. I have been indulging in a not-so-secret love affair with legumes for most of my life, and hardly could pass on an opportunity for this PDA :DOften disparagingly called the Poor Man's Meat, the

Roasted Squash-Onion Lasagna

No rambling today- just food, glorious food. This is all about a lasagna that is dreamy and cheesy. Lasagnas have many pros (crowd-pleasing, can be assembled ahead of time, one dish feeds a crowd, lend themselves to much creativity by way of vegetables, cheeses and sauces that can be used) and, in my mind, one glaring con (don't like boiling lasagna noodles). I got scalded some years ago while

Suralichi Wadi

While samosas and pakodas have become international sensations and are on everyone's lips (literally and figuratively), there are quite a few Indian snacks that would be unfamiliar to many people: this post is about one such snack. Let's see...how should I describe suralichi wadi to someone who may not have seen it before? Think of a Swiss roll; only the "cake" is a silky, thin sheet of cooked

Weekend Stuff

I was watching a documentary on TV where they were showing sled dogs racing along in Alaska. I pointed out to Dale that so many dogs have to work hard for a living, and maybe it is time for him to get off the couch and get a job and stop being such a freeloader. His response: *** *** ***Here's a little update of the recipes that I have been trying from fellow bloggers...1. Dahi Vada without the

Pillowy Goodness: Laadi Pav

A few weeks ago, as we were relaxing at home in the evening, the doorbell rang and I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was only some friends dropping in but the reason for my startled jumpy response was a simple one: no one *ever* comes to the door here. This is in stark contrast to homes in India, where my general experience is that there is not a moment's silence from dawn to dusk as a

Tea-Tinged Truffles

I'm still in the midst of "eating down the pantry", as Lydia put it, although I did go shopping for some perishables like eggs and milk last night. Meanwhile, let me tell you about these chocolate truffles that I made as a contribution to the New Years Eve feast that our neighbor had invited us to. Now that I have discovered how easy and fun it is to make confections at home, I can't seem to

Warming Garlic-Onion Soup

Blog-related cooking is a bit slow around here this week. This is because I am doing a little pantry clean-up cooking. Somehow, over the months, so much food has gathered in my refrigerator, freezer and pantry, and some more comes in every weekend as I go grocery shopping. For the last couple of weeks, I have been cooking entirely from the food I already have in the house. Just because dried

Melt-in-the-Mouth Morsels

*Thank you*, all you lovely people who humored my silliness and participated in the guessing game. I think people were expecting a vegetable hiding in there for sure, because so many of the guesses were sweet potato, potato, butternut squash, pumpkin, plantain, banana, eggplant, yam. Some of the more exotic guesses were tapioca, tofu, leek, peanut butter, tahini, coconut...and others thought it

Guess?

Care to guess what the main ingredient is?Jan 6th: The guessing game is over! See answer and recipe here. I'll leave you with some gratuitous pictures of Dale Doggy Dogg. Have a great weekend!

Recipe Writing: Part 2

This article was previously posted on the Dining Hall forum. Welcome to the second half of the Recipe-Writing column. In the first half of this article, we looked at (a) why recipe writing is worth thinking about in the first place, (b) crediting the source of the recipe, (c) the ingredient list, and (d) accessorizing a recipe. In this article, let's talk a little bit about (a) the method section

Recipe Writing: Part 1

This article was previously posted on the Dining Hall forum. Recipe writing is an important component of food blogging. We invest a great deal of time in typing out recipes and posting them, for ourselves and for others. For many of us, our food blog becomes our own easy-to-access recipe notebook. Noting down traditional family and regional recipes and seeing them in black-and-white print

A Leeky Pasta Bowl

The Allium Family- Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester and Lurch Onions, Garlic, Chives, Leeks, Shallots and Scallions. Each word evokes the promise of a savory and aromatic morsel. All this month, the alliums are going to be the "flavor of the month" on One Hot Stove. Three of the family members- onions, garlic and scallions- are near and dear to me; I have them stocked in my