Old style Kerala sponge cake- I still haven’t achieved that old taste!

Growing up, we used to get these yellow flower shaped cakes back home. I loved the taste and the aroma of those. They still make something that looks like those cakes, but sadly, not at all the same taste or texture. I couldn't find a recipe online either! I tried to recreate that and came up with this. This is delicious, but not that old cake. Wonder what flavoring or essence they used back then. Same with the plum cake that we used to get back then. Today's plum cake is not at all like the old ones.

Yellow split pea soup - sample Kerala meal

My favorite combo. Forgot to add yogurt to the plate. Yellow lentil soup, spicy, fried fish, and a little lime pickle with rice.

Egg bread rolls

This is my tweaked version of eggbread. Soft, with just the right amount of sweetness, this is very easy to make too.

Jangiri

Another Indian sweetmeat. We Malayalis call this on jilebi too. Made of lentils and soaked in sugar syrup, this one is really jangiri, actually it is called by many names, while the real jalebi is made of all purpose flour and most of the time, fermented.

Boondi Laddu

Chocolate cupcake

Green lentils and chicken soup in aroma rice cooker

Braided egg rolls

Candied ginger

Valentine’s Day 2019

This Valentine's, I used my homemade ice creams to make a Baked Alaska. Always wanted to make one, but never did, till now.. At first, I thought of buying the chocolate cake, then decided to make my own. But since we only need a part of that cake for this, I did some chocolate-buttercream frosting on the rest of it, and got a nice, three-layer chocolate cake too.

Baked Alaska

Roti, layered chapathi, Indian bread

Basic and the best. 

zeppole

another Italian staple, these are made during feast days, I hear. Basic dough with yeast, deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. It has raisins too. What strikes me again and again -- the parallels between various cuisines. The same basic formula in different forms and versions. We have this same variations with our basic dough based on rice flour. Sometimes with yeast or toddy , with or without coconut, coconut milk in their various forms. Steamed, boiled, pan-seared, deep fried, sauteed, stuffed, filled, etc. etc.

Focaccia de reco

got this recipe from Chef John's foodwishes. didn't have the stracchino/ crescenza cheese. used mozzarella and gruyere. no yeast.  and like our stuffed rotis. try this, won't stop eating.

Rice cooker

Never thought a rice cooker will make my life easy! The Aroma rice cooker, available on amazon.com, with its saute and simmer function lets you do so much more. A delightful surprise. Soups, stews, stirfries, and of course, our parboiled rice. Which by the way is not pre-cooked rice.

a lentil-based beef stew with vegetables that I made in this cooker. A so-called curry from our parts.

French toast

Basic and the best! and with a little custard sauce! Decadent. And this custard sauce was an accident. Tried one ice cream recipe, one for the custard-style ice cream which used a lot of half and half and no milk. The ice cream was kind of dense and too overpowering to my taste, will add milk next time.

But I put it in the fridge and and it turned out to be this out of this world custard sauce.(obviously!)

Cooking in my new carbon steel wok

yes, it does taste better when cooked in this wok. Take the trouble to season the wok till it's blue, and you are all set for a wonderful delicious adventure. the Szechwan fried beef, I found so similar to the way my mom and grandmother made their special Nazrani fried beef. The zoodles and shrimp fried rice turned out so delicious in the wok. got the wok from amazon.com.

shrimp fried rice

Szechwan fried beef

zoodles and shrimp fried rice - ultimate comfort food

kerala beef fried rice

broccoli-beef

seasoned wok

Apple Fritters

Tasty! This is like our Pazham unda. And if we tweak this all purpose flour batter a little, like, say, add a little rava or rice flour or both, it gets even better. And the more the apple, it tastes even better. Of course you can mix in a banana too.😀great with tea or coffee 

Ice cream!

Ice cream in my wonderful new Cuisinart Ice cream maker. tastes so fresh and delicate! nothing can beat homemade ice cream! and this machine makes it all so easy!

Cuisinart ICE- 21 1.5 qt. ice cream maker