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Couscous Mint Chutney Side
If you are in a hurry and want a healthy side or a big serving of a side-salad as your main course, this recipe is a great idea!  If you are not familiar with couscous, it's a Moroccan/Middle-Eastern grain made out of semolina which is cooked by streaming. Yeah, just steaming and that too cooks in minutes! Making it an ideal pantry staple for every busy cooks who wants to put something healthy and home-cooked on table or in lunchboxes in minutes!  If you are looking to be a bit carb conscious this year, then  Quinoa , another wonder grain packed with protein is also a great substitute for couscous. Or the good old rice of-course works great. This is also a great lunch box meal. Mint chutney is another staple at our home. I tend to buy 2-3 huge bunches of fresh mint whenever I see them in season. And then I make a big pot of this chutney, really "making" is an overkill, it's all about throwing things in blender :) Use half the chutney …

Black Eyed Peas Fritters (chavaliche bonde)
There is a really good reason behind why I never posted these fritters here even though I have made them countless times before. And that is because I never managed to get a photo. And there is a really good reason behind why I never managed to get a photo. And that is because everytime I make it, each and every one of them gets over in about 15mins after they are out of the fryer :) So, I am going to post them today anyway even though I still don't have a photo. You just have to take my word for it that these are amazing and a sure to be crowd pleasers. This is a fried snack which I make when we have guests over. If I am in the mood for fritters just for us at home, I make a baked version which is also noted below. Fried version of course gets a better crunch but other than that they both taste the same. Recipe: Serves 4 Ingredients: 1C dried black eyed peas 2 strands green onions handful of fresh cilantro 2 cloves of garlic 1/2tsp …

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup
Winter has finally made it's appearance loud and clear. Temperatures have been steadily dropping last few days, evenings are chilly, mornings are frosty and my hot cup of cocoa is just that much more warming to body and soul - and that means one thing in our household, lots and lots of soups! On many winter weekend our quick lunch is a pot of soup with some thick crusted sourdough bread brushed with olive oil and broiled at high temperature with just a rub of a fresh garlic clove. Throw in some salad (my favorites are  couscous with butternut squash and dried cranberries salad  or  quinoa salad  or a simple greens salad topped with some fruits and nuts dressed with an easy olive oil red wine vinegerate) and it's my perfect meal any time of day any season of the year.. This soup is my favorite and there are endless variations I keep trying on it. The recipe below is a slight adaptation of an old recipe I had posted earlier (but no new photos this ti…

Instant Shrikhand (Sweet Thick Yogurt with Saffron)
I am not a person with a sweet tooth but as it happens often my daughter is.! So after years of hiatus from sweet recipes I am starting to poke my hand back into the dessert section. Even though we love Indian main course and appetizers, almost always when I think of desserts I think Italian, American - Tiramisu, cakes, puddings and pies or the simple ice-cream! The two exceptions being Shrikhand (sweet thick yogurt with Saffron and nuts) and puran poli (sweet roti) both of which are Indian/Maharashtrian sweets our family loves. The characteristics of a shrikhand is a thick yogurt which is usually achieved by tightly wrapped regular yogurt in a cheesecloth and hanging it in fridge using a spatula and a pan for hours until most of the water in the yogurt drips out and you are left with a thick shrikhand class yogurt. However if you have access to greek yogurt, which now a days is available in pretty much all supermarkets, then the whole process of shr…

OT: Holiday Craft Project Update (Crocheted Very Hungry Caterpillar Hat & Quilled Children's Flower Card)
Holidays are a perfect time for small craft projects to get your creative juices flowing. And really, if you are caught at home with chilling cold and short daylight outside, these craft projects are a really good way to keep everyone occupied in a productive way without bringing the house down! This holiday we made two small projects. First, a crocheted very hungry caterpillar hat for my daughter. She loves the book and was super excited about this hat, so much so that she made two trips to Michael's with me and stood patiently while I selected the yarn and the needle and even made some useful color suggestions :) It has been years since I last crocheted. I enjoy knitting and crochet but my day job takes over most of the time I have (though no complaints there, it's a rarity to be able to earn your bread doing something you love and I don't take that for granted!). But after years of yarn hiatus I was starting to worry if I forgot the y…

The One Food Resolution Everyone Should Consider for The New Year....
Happy new year to everyone! As we say Good-bye to 2014 and welcome 2015 with open arms and with lots of hopes and expectations for a happy, prosperous and fun-filled new year, it's also the perfect time to make resolutions! Review what was good about the past year and identify where things could improve for the new year. If there is one food resolution which is most near and dear to my heart for many years now it is to eat home-cooked meals often and buy locally and seasonally grown food as much as possible. Before global transportation was as pervasive (think our grandparent's generation), eating local and seasonal is what everyone did. You ate apples in fall, squashes and tomatoes in summer and strawberries in spring - it was all part of enjoying the season. And you preserved or pickled seasonal vegetables to enjoy year-around.. Then happened global transportation boom and food industrialization - both resulted in foods being easily transpor…