It takes quite some will to supress one’s appetite to indulge in a rich Indian sweet, be it a melt-in-the-mouth gulab jamun or bread halwa. But who can resist them? Over the past week we have been indulging ourselves with a lot of desserts – badam kheer, biscuit cake and bread halwa to name a [...]

Though Andhra cuisine is reputed for its fiery hot chillis and spicy food, it also offers some popular traditional sweets, for the sweet-toothed, like borellu, arisellu, bobattu, sunni undalu, boondi laddo, jangiri etc. One such sweet is the Kajjikaya, a traditional sweet that is prepared by rolling out small balls of maida dough into thin [...]

Come summer and the markets are flooded with an abundance of the glorious fruit,mango. I have been looking for new recipes using mangoes,away from the monotony and I found one dessert recipe,Aam Ki Kheer,which is new to me that I had tasted at my friend’s place recently. In the South we call kheer as payasam [...]

An aromatic Indian culinary enticement that is an absolute delight to the sweet-toothed is Badam Kheer, a milk based dessert/drink where ground almonds are cooked in milk and sugar and flavored with saffron and cardamom. Its not-so-creamy texture, mild nutty flavor of almonds, aromatic rich flavor of saffron and cardamom make it a delicious sweet [...]

Well the count down to the most romantic day on earth – Valentine’s has begun and the theme for this week’sSugar High Friday #16 is “Recipe for Love”, tempting desserts that double as aphrodisiacs. What is an Aphrodisiac? “An aphrodisiac is an edible food or drink that imparts amorous qualities and eating or drinking these [...]

Sankranti/Pongal, is the second day of the festival day when Surya, the Sun God is worshipped and on this day the newly harvested rice is cooked in new earthen pots until the cooked rice overflows from the pot.The overflowing symbolizes fertility and prosperity.A special sweet rice dish is prepared with dal, sugar or jaggery and [...]

Annam Payasam or Paramannam (Food Of The Gods) is a sweet dish which is prepared as an offering to God in almost every home in Andhra on most special occasions and festivals. According to Hindu tradition & spiritual customs, by offering Naivedyam to God in the form of sweets like chakripongal, payasam, paramannam and fruits [...]

Sweet Pongal is a sweet, pudding-like dish that is traditionally prepared in South India for the harvest festival of Makar Sankranti festival celebrated on January 14th.

Minappa Sunnundalu (Urad Dal Laddo) is a traditional Andhra sweet dish that is simple to prepare. Can be stored in an air tight container for at least 2 weeks.

It is believed that what gold is to the minerals, Amla aka Indian Gooseberry is to the herbs. Called Amalaki, Dhatriphala and Vayastha in Sanskrit and Emblica officinalis scientifically, it is the most widely used herb in the Ayurvedic system of medicine and is considered to be the elixir of good health.