Quick and simple eggplant stir fry with few ingredients. The addition of ginger-green chilli paste and the presence of spices especially hing (asafoetida) work a subtle magic on the sauteed brinjals, deepening the flavor, making it taste divine.

Weekend Garden features ‘Star Fruit’ (Carambola). Our backyard starfruit tree is full of fruits and my 7 year old is on a fruit-plucking spree. Just plucking, mind you, since the fruits are within his reach. He won’t eat it.

High protein salad for the Gods! One of the dishes Amma prepared for Ganesh Chaturthi as part of the naivedyam was boiled black chickpeas (Kala chana) tempered with spices. Goes by the name ‘Guggulu’ in parts of Andhra. We at home call it ‘Talimpu Senagalu’.

Atukulu (Aval) Payasam is prepared with rice flakes aka poha that is roasted in ghee, slowly simmered in a poppy seeds-coconut milk-jaggery base, flavored with cardamom and garnished with toasted cashew nuts and raisins.

Isn’t it fun having close family and friends come together for a festive occasion? Women folk working in the kitchen preparing delicacies – mixing, stuffing, steaming, cooking and of course, gossiping. Hope you enjoyed the weekend celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi.

Wishing all my dear readers, visitors and friends a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi.

Fragrant one pot dish using broken rice aka rice rava. Punched up with a good dose of lemon, the crunch of the peanuts and dals are perfect against the soft rice rava! What I enjoy most about this recipe is the tempering with spices and curry leaves filling the home with a warming aroma. Comes together in a snap and flavor-wise is tremendously good!

Potato stir fry in all its variations never disappoints. I am especially enamored by this particular stir fry (I could eat it every day and still never get enough). A second helping is always a must with this stir fry. Any left overs (which is rare), goes as a filling in my sandwich.

Crispy Dondakaya I made this recipe on a whim. A popular dondakaya preparation usually served as part of the menu on special occasions like house warming ceremonies and weddings. Crisp, light and very subtly spiced, perfect for a gloomy waiting-for-the-rains day! My favorite, easy to make and stupendously good.   Dondakaya (Tendli, Tindora, Kovakkai, Ivy [...]

Mysore Rasam At least 4 days a week, our lunch is a typical South Indian meal. And an integral part of every such meal is ‘chaaru’, the Andhra version of Tamil Nadu’s ‘rasam’. The other day I made Mysore Rasam, a tamarind based Indian soup and served it along with bitter gourd stir fry and [...]