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

Biscotti

Like our rusk, this Italian staple is fabulous with tea, coffee, and milk. I hear the traditional way is to dunk it in wine. Endless possibilities. Experiment with the timing, especially, the time it takes for the second bake.

Otherwise easy to follow recipes online.

With raisins

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Puff pastry heaven!

This holiday season it  has been a puff pastry invasion in my kitchen. I have made puff pastry from scratch a while ago, when I made chicken vol-au-vents and sausage rolls during my Betty Neals phase. but this time I used store-bought for the various sweet and savory snacks. And it made it all so convenient. Youtube has a few expert videos for easy recipes using puff pastry, so does the websites. And then there is puffpastry.com by Pepperidge farm, the maker of the commonly available pastry sheets and shells. This versatile pastry lends itself to making any number of  flavors and forms.

Kerala egg puffs

Kerala egg puffs

with beef and potato filling

Palmiers

raspberry-cream cheese- white chocolate filling

creamy mushroom filled shells, beef tomato and onion and gruyere tartlets

apricot pinwheels

strudel bites with strawberry -cream cheese- white chocolate filling

Christmas 2015

The year I went crazy on my love for the British and European culinary traditions .
For the first time, I made steamed pudding in the pudding basin. With the roast duck dinner, it was almost a Dickensian Christmas. Almost, because there was no goose, just a duck.

mince pies

steamed plum pudding

American cinnamon roll ready for the oven

Swedish julbullar

French kouign amann

Austrian Linzertorte

For Christmas eve, a roast duck dinner with red cabbage and pear-cranberry relish and sambar and rice pulao/pilaf for mom

On Christmas day, a typical Nazrani dinner -- with fish, in coconut milk sauce and fried, Kerala style,  roast chicken, braised and fried beef,  beef croquettes, lamb stew and paalappam

Welcome, New Year 2019!

Just finger foods, but really filling and delicious.

the savory snacks -- beef and potao hand pie and tartelette, crameized onion and gruyere tartelette, creamy mushroom vol-au-vent

the sweet snacks -- raspberry-cream cheese-white chocolate pocket, apricot cinnamon sugar pinwheel