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Creamy Polenta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Truffle Oil
This polenta dish is my new go-to weeknight favorite. It is an ultimate comfort meal but also looks and tastes quite sophisticated to deserve a place at a sit-down dinner!  Polenta serves as a departure from the usual noodles and pastas that attend the weeknight last minute meals. Sometimes varierty is all your need to keep weeknight dinner rotations interesting! The Creamy Polenta: I use Bob's Red Mill's polenta corn grits . The regular corn meal might work as well, but this one is specially made for polenta and it cooks up really quickly. I use the ratio 1:5 for a ceamy polenta - ie, add 1C corn grits to 5C of hot water gradually stirring constantly. Then drizzle in some olive oil, add salt to taste and let it cook away partially covered for about 20-25 minutes stirring every few mins.  I use a large pot to cook polenta because it sputters a lot and can sting your hands while stirring, so be careful! Mushroom and Tomato Sauce: Whil…

Happy Holidays - Holiday Baking!
It is that time of the year again - when homes everywhere are adorning beautiful Christmas trees dazzling with twinkling lights, cherishing family memories over the years as pretty ornaments. Love and laughter of friends and family is everywhere. And the tiny kitchens and ovens become stars of the homes churning out wonderful dishes and wafting beautiful baking aromas that are so reminiscent of the holidays! When my daughter turned two, we started an annual Christmas Eve cookie baking tradition - we don't have many traditions in our house, but we have that one and we have been on it year after year. As a toddler, all she could do was lick the dough and be the eager taster - but now, she helps select recipes, makes dough and takes charge of decorating half the batch.  Life gets soo busy and stressful year around that I have really come to cherish these small pleasures and tiny moments of baking together on Christmas Eve! We rarely bake cookies othe…

Everyday Granola
Do you make granola at home? If not, I'll highly recommend giving it a try. It's super simple - no recipe needed and highly customizable to your taste! Just mix the dry and wet ingredients together and bake at low temp while stirring every 10 minutes.  Organic pre-made granola can get pricey and besides you can make endless variations to suit your taste buds when you make it at home. As an added benefit, home is filled with cinnamon and nutmeg baking aromas for hours afterwards - just as I like it.  There is no recipe as such but these are some very general guidelines I follow: 3C rolled oats + 1C nuts & seeds to 3/4C wet (sweeteners + oil) to 1C dried fruits (raisins, cranberries, dried cherries, dried coconut flakes) and finally the flavorings - my favorite combo is cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg powder or just substitute pie spice if you have at hand. Granola bakes at a low temp - like 300F for a long time (40 minutes) - all you need to do is …

Black Bean and Sweet Corn Enchilada
We love Mexican food at our place. Enchilada in particular is a crowd favorite - served hot, bubbling with freshly baked melting cheese, it's quite a treat! And much less messier to eat for the little ones compared to tacos or burritos. The only hindrance to making Mexican feasts often is time, or the lack of it. It takes a while to put together Spanish rice, black beans, guacamole, salsas and for enchilada, the enchilada sauces and baking is additional time on top of it. It just doesn't fit my dinner time budget - which on most days is no more than 20-30 minutes.  But that's where this new line of Mexican sauces and condiments I found from chef Rick Bayless comes in so handy! We have tried their red chili enchilada sauce , green chili enchilada sauce and roasted tomatillo and poblano sauce - and all were great! None of that pre-cooked and packaged taste but instead brimming with fresh flavors and no-one could tell sauces were not home made. I…

Steamed Vegetarian Dumplings
For a long time I was not enthusiastic to eat at a dumpling place. I love dumplings but having strong vegetarian preferences, I rarely found entrees I could enjoy - vegetarian menu options always seemed like an after-thought at dumpling places I visited. But that changed the first time I ate at Din Tai Fung  - it's the best dumpling place I have come across and hands-down awesome for vegetarians dumpling fans! So it was only a natural next-step that I ventured on a quest to make the Din Tai Fung style vegetarian dumpling at home :) I don't think I have gotten 100% there yet, but close enough and it's a version we devour at home so that's good enough for me! These are steamed dumplings - not pan fried. I prefer the steamed version but you could pan fry and then steam by adding a cup of water to hot pan and put the lid on. (photo isn't great - we could hardly wait to dig in!) Making dumplings can bring the whole family together. Rol…

Cinnamon Star Bread
Recently New York Times ran an article about procrastibaking - have you heard the term? " Procrastibaking — the practice of baking something completely unnecessary, with the intention of avoiding “real” work — is a surprisingly common habit that has only recently acquired a name." says the Times article. Rings a bell, anyone? :) As the article goes on it explains that people procrastibake for many reasons, from avoiding the particular bit of work you are dreading, to using baking as a creative time to get your creative juices flowing for work that requires creativity. Whatever may be the reasons, procrastibaking sounds fun and something I could quickly get into - given the condition of working from home regularly. This cinnamon star bread is not a result of procrastibaking per say. I had long since bookmarked this recipe when I saw it run in King Arthur baking blog. I just got around to trying it out now. Your first instinct looking at it …

Sabudana Khichadi
In my mind there are two quint-essential Maharashtrian snacks - kande pohe and sabudana khichadi. Almost everyone I know who grew up in Maharashtra region of India grew up eating them - even those who were not locals (neighbors generally took it upon themselves to feed local delicacies to out of state neighbors - Marathi folks love to connect with each other over food and tea :) ) Unlike the more spicier, richer and well-known North Indian cuisine, Marathi food has a lot milder flavors and simple preparations with locally grown vegetables. The food is lightly influenced by neighboring Gujarat region taking it's cues to add a little sugar to flavor many savory preparations. Sabudana khichadi to this date reminds me of Tuesdays. Tuesday was the fasting day growing up at our house and Tuesday dinner was predictably the mighty sabudana khichadi - everyone's favorite fasting food. Fasting was religious and was supposed to teach us abstinence, control o…

Tea Time Baking - Making Scones, Rose Cookies and Lemon Curd Sponge Cake
This weekend, like countless others around the world, I swooned over the pictures of the royal wedding across the seas. A lovely ceremony, a smart and beautiful bride's journey from a commoner to royal and just the picture perfectness of this modern day fairy tale - what's not there to love and rejoice! I completely resonated with a Washington Post article this weekend saying did we ever realize how much we really needed this message of love and hope particularly at this time which has the power to bring everyone together - so true. Image Credit: Barnes & Noble In spirit of the royal wedding, our local Sur La Table had a special going on their British Baking class making the tea time baked favorites - rose cookies, lemon curd sponge cake and savory scones. I have always loved traditional English tea time foods and experiences and combined with my baking mania of now, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to spend an afternoon baking tea…

Steamed Kale with Garlic
This recipe is a homage to it's namesake dish we enjoy at a Taiwanese upscale dumpling place called Din Tai Fung (highly recommended, if you are in bay area or Seattle).  I must say, this kale preparation was a turn-over point for me in my kale experience - I went from got to eat it, it's good for you to oh wow, I love it, I can't wait to make it again! I feel like being forever indebted to Din Tai Fung for introducing me to this lovely side dish and giving me a delicious new perspective on this well known vegetable. For over a year now this is the only way I prepare kale at home and every single time the pot is wiped clean with not even a single sprig of kale remaining. The preparation is very simple - you take a bunch of curly kale. Tear up the leaves in smallish pieces discarding the tough stem. Wash the pieces well and then steam them until soft but still have a little bite to it. On my instant pot I use the steam setting and set it t…

Nankhatai (Indian Eggless Butter Cookies)
My daughter can not imagine how Mommy's home did not have an oven growing up! But it is true, a home oven was very rare in those days in small Indian towns where I grew up. Baking at home was a rarity and a very elaborate procedure using pressure cooker generally left to kids birthday cakes only.  Our main source of everyday baked goods was a single bakery in town which is where we would go to get freshly baked loaves, cupcakes, toasts and other yummy baked goodies. I still have vivid memories of that bakery, though I haven't visited it in decades! Going to baker's was a major treat for us as kids. I loved visiting the baker shop - taking in enticing wafting baking aromas along-with simply joys of tearing up the freshest loaf of bread straight from oven was such a treat to a young foodie self!  We liked almost everything in the bakery but our favorite treat was this Indian buttery flaky cookie/biscuit called nankhatai which is perfect for …

The Art of Sushi - Making Avocado Rolls
We love eating sushi. We have sampled sushi from about a dozen places in bay area and finally arrived at one place we really like.  It always amazes me to see so much subtle art is there in sushi making. Even though the ingredients are few and simple, the taste and texture of sushi can be so varied! It is almost like every chef makes the sushi his or her own in a unique way! Sushi is great but the only problem is eating out can get expensive rather quickly, not to mention the hour or more wait at really good places can be tiring with young kids. I wondered instead if we could attempt sushi at home. To begin with just simple avocado rolls. It seemed very simple at first but boy I was in for a surprise! It took us upwords of 10+ attempts to produce a recipe that comes even close to the one we really liked. After a couple of not-so-great attempts, I had a smart idea - to buy sushi rice from the restaurant and then make different sushi rice at home (var…

Fresh Spring Rolls w/ Peanut Dipping Sauce
Fresh rolls is a new beloved addition to our dinner repertoire.  I am not sure if fresh rolls originated as Vietnamese or Thai or both - but they do taste amazing and are very quick to put together if you have all the right ingredients at hand. They are a perfect accompaniment to a more richer spicier meal of Thai curry with rice or just enjoy on their own on hot summer days when turning on stove or oven just doesn't feel like it's in the cards. As a family we are trying to eat less processed and cooked foods at dinner time and instead swap them with lightly cooked or uncooked vegetables. It's hard because we are so used to relating dinner with comfort food and comfort food with cooked rich food - but I have learnt that it's not impossible but just a matter of retraining your taste buds and the delicious raw recipes like these are a great help! Assembling these fresh rolls is very simple but I have found out the hard way that the qu…

OT: Our Favorite Book Series for Kindergarteners
Both my daughter and I eagerly look forward to our reading time. It's a time we spend together cherishing the one thing we both dearly love: reading! I read to her in the morning and at bedtime and we set aside half an hour on weekend evenings as our family's quiet reading time when everyone reads - even the house-guests are invited and encouraged to read at the time! (a beautiful tradition she picked up from a Berenstein Bear book). I am finding that when it comes to reading, six year old is an interesting age - she is growing out of picture books and is about ready for more complex plots and longer books but her attention span is still limited. The picture books we used to read a year ago, she likes to read them on her own now so I am experimenting with more "big kid books" to read together with her to keep things interesting. Image Credit: goodreads.com These are some of the book series we really loved this year - in case they com…

Roasted Chicken Provencal
This recipe is inspired from  Sam Sifton's NYTimes recipe . Did I mention how much I love the cooking section of NYT? Both the recipes and the writing is just amazing!  I have a stack of about 50+ to try recipes saved in my NYT recipe box - and many others I have successfully added to our daily meals.  This is one such winner recipe for us. We have made it on countless occasions - from simple comfy family weekday dinners to serving guests at an elaborate sit-down dinners, and every single time this recipe has never failed to please! The pot is always wiped clean to the last bit and no left-overs what so ever :) Put simply this is roasted chicken pieces seasoned with liberal amounts of herbs de provence (spice blend from Provence region of France) and roasted with lemons, whole garlic cloves, shallots, olives and potatoes until the meat is tender and flavored with all the seasonings.  The dish is so simple and yet so flavorful! It's a perfect re…