Love and Calories!!

When I go for my weekly shopping at the Tescos or Waitrose, I spend atleast 4-5 minutes in the Cereal aisle. I love to see and read those different varieties and colourful packages of corn flakes, bran flakes, weetabix, cheerios, different flavoured oats, muesli etc. Out of these, Granola always stood out. This luxury cereal always grabbed my attention. By the look of those golden honey roasted oats, mixed with nuts and berries of different combination, my mind imagines a bowl, spoon and a dollop of greek yoghurt and me having Granola in some island in Greece. (the luxury advertisements influence my thoughts)!! :P So the love for granola made me look for a homemade version of it and 'BBC food' helped me come out with this one. The entire process of mixing the rolled oats in maple syrup and honey and later roasting it with the mixed nuts and berries was indeed therapeutic. I have made a tin full of granola and safely stored in an air-tight container. It should suffice for ...

The first time I came across this dish was on our honeymoon in Switzerland. The country was beautiful as expected, the cuisine too didn't disappoint us. Since  this picturesque country shares its border with Germany, Italy, Austria and France, its cuisine too has a large influence of these countries as you go towards the respective borders. We enjoyed the famous cheese fondue, Swiss Cheese and Chocolates, Swiss meringue with cream and last but not the least our favourite breakfast item....POTATO ROSTI!! During our week long stay, Rosti dominated our breakfast plates. It was way back in 2007 when I experienced the dangling sound of metal Cow Bells hanging around the necks of the cows, the beautiful alpine meadows, the charming old houses decorated with coloured flowers, the diplomatic capital of the World Geneva where we visited the United Nations office, Jungfraujoch - my first snowy experience at the top most point of Europe and more....everything still remains fresh...

Aah! Its so good to be back to my favourite place..My Blog!! Its my ultimate comfort place. I didn't realize it is more than three months now after my last blog post. I had been on a two month long, relaxing vacation with my family and friends in India and what a fine Holiday it was. The three Fs...Friends, Family and Food blended well each and every day of the ninety days I spent In India. I gorged on to some of the delectable delicacies of my native land made by my mom, my mom-in-law and my aunt. Also, I explored the new food joints which had come up in the last two years.  Coming back to the usual routine was a little tough as I still had my Holiday Hangover, but aye...I managed to cope with it and here I am with a brand new post and have started my 2013 with a Bang!!  I hope to post recipes frequently as i was doing it before.  I bought some lamb steak the other day from Tesco and tried my hands on making a quick dinner for two. ...

Saturday night 10.30 pm, the sun set was 15 minutes ago, it was pouring heavily outside the window (typical English weather) and suddenly it was all dark and silent at home. Arun said he was too tired for the day and snored away immediately. I was left alone in the living room, fully charged up only then. I wanted to engage myself immediately, do something, anything....so I thought why not I bake? Perfect time to be with yourself, and do what you love doing....COOK! I already had the plans of baking a cheesecake this weekend, so I had all the ingredients ready at home. So I baked away a nice "Brownie Crust Cheesecake" at Midnight...and What fun! :) There was a long time request by an ardent fan of my blog and a good friend Poornima, to share a good recipe of a Cheesecake. Since "Baking" is not my forte,  I delayed it too long, but after baking this one, I was feeling quite happy with myself. The Cheesecake not only tasted good, but it also looked perfect lik...

"In love with Spain" continues & I cooked up another popular dish from the sunshine country, Espana. The world famous "Paella" pronounced as Pa-e-ya is a popular Spanish Rice dish cooked with mainly seafood. It is cooked in a special pan known as La paella (from where the dish gets its name too), which is a wide mouthed thick shallow pan made of iron that helps in quick heat absorption and helps cooking the rice really fast. The authentic paella takes a decent amount of time to cook but nowadays who has time for those elaborate sessions in the kitchen so here is one quick paella recipe which you can make in a jiffy (well about a maximum of 20 minutes). :) The image below is that of an authentic paella pan & the paella rice. You can swap these two with any of the wide mouthed shallow pans already at home & long grain rice respectively. Vegetarians need not be disappointed as they too can substitute the chicken stalk with vegetable stalk & prawns with...

Whenever I thought of making a simple omelette for my breakfast, I always wanted to try out the Spanish version of it but never made for the simple reason that it is super rich & heavy. But last weekend, I just couldn't resist & committed this sin. But my tummy was at peace. Ah! Tortilla! Sabroso! "Spanish Tortilla" is one of the popular Tapas dish in a Spanish cuisine. You should not miss out on this one. This Potato & onion filled thick omelette wedges complete any tapas combination. "Tortilla" in Spanish means "Little Cakes" & this sure looks & tastes like one. You can make these delicious rich tortillas and pack them up in your kids lunch boxes or can even serve as an appetizer at any evening parties. Hot or Cold....Spanish Tortillas can be relished however you want. Yeah...but you need to put aside your guilt for the time being...Remember...I serve you food with love & calories...... ;) Ingredients: 5 large eggs 1 large pot...

The mood to cook something Caribbean came across after seeing the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" yesterday! The movie did not do justice to the title & also I was wondering, why should someone make a movie again and again with the same name, spoiling the original score! Anyway, coming back to food, I researched about the Caribbean cuisine & came to know that many of the basic ingredients are quiet common with the Indian cuisine. And luckily, I had everything with what I wanted to cook! The Caribbean cuisine is famous for its goat curry & the jerk chicken but I opted for a one pot shot. So this is an absolutely delicious one pot meal from the very own Caribbean, which can be made with your store cupboard ingredients. Just marinate your chicken the day before & cook it up on your busy weeknights! Tantalize your taste buds by bringing the Caribbean sunshine right to your Kitchen hob. With those Jamaican spicy touch, am sure you will quite like the unique fla...

Today I bring to your dining table, the taste of The United States of America. Its a common breakfast dish served in the States. Nope...its not pancakes. They do have some other amazing stuffs too other than pancakes and maple syrup. :) Its "Sweet Corn Fritters"!! This cooked breakfast is a taste of America - a delicious, different way to start the day. Just try it if you want a little change from your usual omelette. :) Ingredients: 4 eggs (beaten) 1/2 medium red onion (finely chopped) 1/2 tsp dijon mustard (optional) 200 gm sweetcorn (I use the tinned one) 2 tbsp chopped parsley (can use coriander leaves) 2 tomatoes (thick round slices) salt & pepper for seasoning cooking oil to drizzle Method: Heat your omelette pan & drizzle some oil into it. Let it become medium hot. Using a fork, combine all the ingredients mentioned above except tomato slices in a large mixing bowl. Season well with salt & pepper. Create a small or big fritter by putting 2 generous la...