Ridge gourd or Beerakaya is one of my family’s favorite vegetables and is used to prepare a number of dishes like beerakaya pappu, beerakaya menthu kura, beerkaya pachadi, vepudu and ridge gourd is also cooked in combination with prawns and eggs . Today’s recipe is very simple, quick to make and tasty, where ridge gourd [...]

Over the past few months, I have increased the usage of soya based products in my cooking even though my family isn’t very fond of soya. Knowing the immense health benefits soya offers in terms of nutrients, dietary protein and fibre, especially for growing children, I always look for ways to incorporate it in my [...]

Pappu pulusu aka Pappu charu is a traditional Andhra favorite, nutritionally complete, delicious and easy to cook. A tamarind based lentil stew cooked with vegetables, Pappu pulusu is redolent with the delicate flavor of curry leaves and seasoned with Indian spices like cumin, mustard, fenugreek and garlic. There are certain foods which have comfort written [...]

A chutney I often prepare is tomato chutney, a South Indian style chutney, I learnt from a Tamilian friend’s mother, Revati Aunty who usually prepares it with idlis, dosas and ven pongal (South Indian style lentil-rice preparation). Its easy to prepare with very less cooking time. Today I prepared it as an accompaniment with dosas [...]

Over the weekend we visited our village, less than an hour’s drive from Vizag (45 kms). Here are a few pictures from our mango grove, fruits and vegetables grown in the backyard of our ancestral home, taken during this trip.

Indian Ivy Gourd is a widely consumed vegetable, available in India through out the year. Called Dondakaya (Telugu) or Tindora/Tondli (Hindi), these cute looking small, stubby, green colored vegetables which grow aggressively on vines are used to prepare delicious stuffed curries, stews, pickles, salads and stir fries. To many, dondakaya is an unusual vegetable, not [...]

This fast and flavorful dish is a simple recipe, quick and easy-to-make and so tasty! I got this capsicum rice recipe from one of our pot-luck party friends and I tweaked the recipe a bit to add more spice and crunch to it. Fresh crunchy capsicums, masala flavor and crunchy peanuts jazz up the taste [...]

Dosakaya or Nakka Dosakai (Yellow cucumber), a small, round-shaped light green to bright yellow colored vegetable, with a crisp crunchy skin and a mild sweet-tarty taste, is used to prepare traditional Andhra delicacies like dosakaya pappu , dosakaya pachadi and dosa avakai. Dosa Avakai is an old Andhra culinary tradition which is made on the [...]

Simple, comforting and flavorful – is how I would describe today’s vegetarian dish with overtones of North Indian style of cooking. I learnt this recipe during my college days from one of my numerous North Indian friends who would bring it in her tiffin dabba with rotis. I reminse the days when we would swap [...]

Andhras love their mirapakaayalu (green chillis)! Not only do we use them liberally to spice up our curries, pachi mirapakaayalu are used to prepare mirchi bajjis(stuffed green chillis), mirchi khatta masala curry,mirchi ka salan(hyderabadi chilli delicacy) and a hot favorite (among the South Indians) is majjiga mirapakaaylu (sun-dried chillis). Majjiga Mirapakayalu Majjiga (buttermilk) mirapakaaya, a [...]