ME, the lazy foodie !!

Sorry haven't been blogging in a while now.... I have been pretttttty busy with my thesis and research and coding and what not.... Ah !!! The woes of graduate life. Thankfully my professor decided that I can graduate this semester. So I have been overly busy writing my thesis and completing the project, tweaking the performance.... etc., etc., Also the job search is not going that great. So, there it is. However, I haven't stopped cooking. So I have a bunch of photos to put up. Hopefully I should be back to frequent blogging soon. 'til then..... - So

On request from my close friend, here is the recipe for garlic bread pizza or simply bread pizza.... Ingredients Serves 2 ( 3 slices each) Preparation Time (5 -10 mins -- depends on your vegetable cutting speed :) )  Cooking Time - 20 mins  Bread / Garlic bread - 6 slices Onions - 1 small Tomatoes - 1 large Capsicum - 1 medium Red Pepper - 1 medium Coriander leaves - few twigs (optional) (finely chopped) Pepper powder - 1 tsp Salt - as per taste Chat Masala and / or Amchur powder - 1 tsp each (optional) Mozzarella Cheese (shredded) - as per taste (Remember that different kinds of cheese have different melting times - Mozzarella I think melts the fastest) Butter - to apply on the bread (not needed if using garlic bread) Aluminium Foil / Cookie Sheet (for arranging bread slices in the oven) Method Pre-heat the oven to 350 / 400 F. When the oven is getting heated, cut all vegetables into thin long slices.  Prepping for garlic bread pizza Arrange 6 buttered slices of bread on...

Prepping for garlic bread pizza Into the oven it goes !! Yumm !!! Baked bread pizza pieces.... Tostones !!! Mexican - Cuban dish.... Really yummy *slurp slurp* Egg Masala Curry.... prepared it, but never tasted it :( Aloo Wada !! Masala Dosa !!! *drool drool* Sambar !!! :P Dabeli...... Parathas..... !! Aloo Bhajiyas -- bhajiyas and chai on a windy rainy day :P Awesome combo :) Besan ke laddoo --- every grandmom's nightmare :P Gobi Masala !! Pan Polo / Neer dosa --- my ever favorite dish :D Peas Pulao and Masala boiled eggs SLURRRRRRRRRRRPY !!! Paneer Tikkas.... Can you ever refuse Gobi Manchurians !! ? Kachoris !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaah .... Walnut brownie --- just warm out of the oven :)

My all-time favorite in Laddoos is the Besan Laddoo. Had a great craving for it today. So decided to make it. Turned out awesome..... !!! My grandmom always had a tough time when she visited us. I always wanted her to make besan laddoos and my sister always asked for the Rava Laddoos. Both of us never even used to touch the other kind. So, just to please us, she had to make both kinds and ended up with more work than necessary. She has had a stroke recently, and can't speak too much, slurry speech. But we can never forget her beautiful voice. She always used to sing so beautifully whether it was loris / bhajans or just some songs. We can never forget the way she used to shower her love on all us grandchildren. She does her best even now, but when she is sick, none of us are near her to even show her some affection. I feel very bad about it..... Anyway, let's not dwell on the bad stuff. Here is a picture in memory of my (I wont say grandmother, because she is still alive), so ju...

Did you know that chickpeas are rich in iron content ? My doc recently advised me to start eating iron-rich foods. So I started researching a bit and found that chickpeas have more iron content than cooked spinach, contrary to popular belief. Also I found this article on the internet which said most of the iron in spinach is not bio-available. Not sure how much true the article is, but here it is for your reference. Also found this amazing article on chickpeas alone and loved it. Here it is for all of you to enjoy !!! I would surely love to know what the connection is between Lord Shiva and chickpeas too. Anyway, so I had these cans of chickpeas at home and I decided to make some Chana Usli. "Usli" in konkani is a simple dish prepared with / without onions and garnished with shredded coconut and coriander leaves before serving. It can be prepared with any kind of whole pulses, like kabuli chana (white chickpeas), moong (green gram), chana (bengal gram - black chickpeas) etc...

Carrots, the only vegetable that I hate probably, especially when it comes to eating it raw. Neither am I a fan of any carrot dishes, except maybe carrot halwa, which I like only because I am a die-hard fan of sweets. People munch on carrots all the time, but somehow, not my cup of tea, or rather not my bowl of carrots :) My mom always used to get us to eat carrots somehow, but I never fell in the trap. A few days back however, we went to this potluck dinner and me and my friends got together and made Carrot Halwa. There were a load of carrots remaining from that shopping round. So I decided to finish them before they went bad. Got me thinking though as to what dish I can make from carrots, which did not turn out to be sweet, because, carrots have an inherent sweet flavor. Then I suddenly remembered that my mom used to make this beans and potatoes combination, whenever she didn't cook onions in the house, due to some religious reasons, but it was nevertheless awesome. My sister...

This was my most favorite chutney (after coriander chutney that is) when I was a kid. My mom used to make it for us all the time. Peanuts and Garlic both tend to have overwhelming flavors, but when they come together in this awesome chutney, they tend to form a mouth-watering dish / dip. Here's the recipe. As per a request from my friend, here is the recipe for peanut, garlic chutney. I made it a few days back and since she had asked for instructions. I took some photos too. I regret to say that I don't use accurate measurements in my recipes, because for me its a matter of taste and preferences. So all the measurements are just approximate. Ingredients Serves 5 Preparation Time - 15 mins Peanuts - 2 cups Garlic - 1 whole garlic pod medium sized(8-10 cloves) Red Chillies - 10 (more if you want it spicy -- remember, spiciness varies with different kinds of chillies) Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsps Oil to roast ingredients Salt to taste Water to grind Method 1. Cut the garlic into sma...

So, I have been on this whole cooking spree the last few days, mainly because I did not have many vegetables at home (ironic huh !!) and I dint have the time to go grocery shopping.... So, I had to make do with other stuff, like daal, dosas and stuff which you buy at some point of life :) but have almost not used in a long long time (peanuts etc.,) So, I made the following dishes in the past week or 2 (recipes coming soon....... just click on the food titles for the recipe links). Panpolo, Peanut Garlic Chutney , Aloo Carrot Curry , Chickpeas Usal with Tomatoes , Benda Sagle, Kyala Koddel Panpolo -- This is a konkani delicacy, also called Neer Dosa in kannada, which literally means Water Dosa (mainly because its batter is of the consistency of water). Anyway, as I said earlier recipes will follow soon... Peanut Garlic Chutney -- The bestest (I know double superlative, but still) chutney after of-course coriander chutney. Benda Sagle , another konkani delicacy with coconut based grav...

.....my only passion after books and knitting and crochet and.... well, never mind, the list never ends. So today as I said earlier was my last day at work. So I came home quite depressed and for the heck of it felt like preparing Gobi Paranthas. I went over to my friend's house and offered to prepare. We called friends over too. It so happened that the guys in the group asked for Egg Sambar to go with it.... It was like North Indian and South Indian food coming together. I really dunno how they planned to eat it. Anyway, we (the girls -- all of us vegetarians) had settled on Gobi Paranthas and "sweetish" Tomato Chutney. So I made the paranthas and my friend made the awesomest tomato chutney. But, the guys would hear nothing of it. So I finally gave in and made the Egg Sambar too. Think it turned out good. Used this recipe to make the paranthas. Egg Sambar is pretty simple to make, will post the recipe someday when I feel like it. Will post pictures as soon as I get them...