Creepy crawly crackers : Halloween party food

With the Indian festival of Diwali coming along with Halloween this year, my mood is pretty festive this week! We are Indians based in Dublin and every year, we terribly miss celebrating our major festivals, especially Diwali, with family and friends back in India. This is our first year living in the Irish countryside and naturally,…

Easy-peasy Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori chicken is a wildly popular Indian appetizer, believed to have originated from the northern state of Punjab. It basically consists of chicken pieces, marinated overnight with yogurt and spices, then roasted in a cylindrical clay oven called ‘tandoor’. Hence the name- Tandoori chicken! This snack is packed with flavor and is almost always served at the Indian weddings or other…

Hot, crispy deep-fried prawns

Have I mentioned before that I am not too keen on sea-food? Yeah, maybe a couple hundred times…he he! Well, I occasionally eat fish and that’s it but… if there’s one thing I am a total sucker for, it’s crispy fried prawns. They are so delicious that even I cannot resist them when they are…

Invigorating Bruschetta

Bruschetta is an Italian anti-pasti which consists of grilled bread, topped with variations of seasonal vegetable salads. The toppings usually have tomatoes as their core ingredient. The first time I had bruschetta at an Italian restaurant, I was blown away by the freshness and also, the sheer simplicity of the bread-salad combination. The ingredients were basic but…

Succulent Paneer tikka kebabs (cottage-cheese kebabs)

Paneer tikka kebabs are one of the most famed vegetarian starters in India, as well as in the Indian restaurants abroad. They are basically marinated cottage cheese cubes, arranged on skewers and grilled on a traditional tandoor (clay ovens). As we do not usually have tandoors in our homes, they can be easily prepared in regular ovens or grills. I…

Healthy Chicken Fried Rice

Fried rice is my no. 1 comfort food! It’s equal parts healthy, tasty and amazinggg! Whenever I am not in a mood to cook something too extensive, I just peek into my fridge for leftover veggies and do a quick stir-fry of them with rice and sauces. I also love the fact that one can make a mind-boggling variety…

Irresistible Zebra cake with Creme fraiche frosting

I was browsing through the internet one day to pass time, when I came across this random picture of a “Zebra Cake” It looked gorgeous! When I looked up the recipe, I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make. I promptly made it the very next day and it came out absolutely perfect. When I showed it to…

Stereotypical, spicy Indian Chicken Curry

I grew up in a vegetarian household. My mum belongs to a family that did not even use onions and garlic in the kitchen for cooking. So, growing up I never saw raw meat enter my house even once! My mum isn’t a rigid person though and allowed us to eat eggs and chicken dishes in…

Classic chocolate cake with strawberry syrup glaze

I enjoy baking cakes more than eating them. My hubby finds that hard to believe because I am a huge foodie and crazy for sweets but there is something about baking that definitely soothes me. It may be due to the fact that I whip my batter by hand instead of using the electric beater…

Delectable minced beef seekh kebabs

My first memory of these divine kebabs date back to a rickety biryani stall at the market near my house, while growing up. “Miyaan Pasha Kebab Center” it was called. For 20 Rs, you got a silver paper-plate full of steaming mutton biryani and three pieces of these seekh kebabs, which the guy removed from…

Superfun Veg Manchurian

Chinese food is my most favorite cuisine in the whooole world! If you ask me for my choice of a takeaway, 99% of the times, my reply will be, “Let’s get chinese”. When we moved abroad about three years ago, I found the food at the authentic chinese restaurants very different than what we get…

Leftover chicken curry biryani

This is actually a pretty funny story! My husband loves a good Mutton rogan josh. It consists of mutton chunks cooked with a gravy made of browned onions, yogurt, garlic, ginger and aromatic spices. Now, as we do not get goat’s meat here in Ireland, I decided to try my hand at making Chicken rogan josh. It was…