Love and Calories!!

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Naankhatai

Naankhatai is to India as S hortbread is to Scotland, Naankhatai is an Indian shortbread (originally brought by the Iranians to India) quite similar to a Scottish shortbread but only more soft, more crumbly and more delicious. I like to call them the "Indian white Bakery biscuits" because I have always seen them stored in those big cookie jars in front of the bakery till counters. For me, these white dome shaped cookies always stood out from the other cookies. This 3 ingredients cookie is super easy to bake plus there are no eggs involved so Hello Vegetarians!! One can always experiment with a combination of flours (gram flour, corn flour, semolina, etc) but being me I went for the most tastiest and a slightly unhealthy version of using only refined flour. Do try any version you like but do not forget to dunk these melt in the mouth cookies in your masala chai and go mmmmm....:) Happy Baking!! Ingredients: 1 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup butter (room tempe

Summer Couscous Salad

Sun is out, and the Summer is finally here to stay (I suppose). So I thought why not make a lovely healthy, fresh veggie and Couscous salad which can easily pass of as a main dish for vegetarians. And for us carnivores, this yummy Couscous salad is a great accompaniment with our Lamb Tagine or grilled fish. Ingredients: 1 cup couscous 1 onion 1 cucumber 1 bell pepper / capsicum 1 tbsp thick tomato puree 1 tsp smoked paprika 2 tsp cumin 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves 1/2 cup chopped mint leaves 2-3 green or red fresh chillies (finely chopped) 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 juice of lemon and its zest salt and pepper to season Method: 1) Toast the cumin in a small fry pan and grind to a nice powder (prefer to use a pestle and mortar instead of a grinder). 2) Place the couscous in a big bowl and mix the ground cumin powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper to it. Mix well. Then pour some hot water over the couscous until it is fully

Clementine Cake

I was never a fan of oranges until I recently visited Seville. One of the specialties in Seville are their Oranges. You love it or hate it, but you just can't ignore those orange trees in Seville. I was completely enthralled when I saw hundreds of oranges hanging from trees, many sploshed on roads and nobody even cared or dared to pluck / pick them. Later on, I came to know that the Seville oranges have a bitter taste to them and having very few seeds , these oranges make the perfect base for marmalade. Their aroma is similar to that of other oranges, but they have a more potent “orange” flavor. There are thousands of orange trees lined the streets of Seville and when these trees are flowering, the tree lets out a citrusy fresh aroma and the fragrance linger for a long time throughout the city. This orange-y punch made me drink freshly squeezed orange juice three times a day during my 2 weeks stay in Spain. :) My love for oranges still continues and I recently go

Asian style Salmon with Wasabi Mash

Sometimes you don't have to cook really fancy. You just have to meddle with few fresh ingredients and boom...you get a masterpiece. This is one such dish which I make for my mid week supper and it takes no more than 30 minutes to prepare. Salmon is something that I stock up in my fridge all the time and the fish being so versatile, I often try different marinade to get a different dish each time. Today I am sharing an Asian inspired dressing for your lovely pink salmon and to go as accompaniment, what better than mashed spuds. Wasabi lovers out there...add a teeny weeny amount to your mashed potatoes and see that instant kick that you will get. ;) Asian style Salmon Ingredients: 2 boneless salmon fillet 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp honey 1 tbsp sesame oil 1/2 inch ginger (grated) 2-3 cloves of garlic (grated) 1 tbsp sesame seeds pepper to season Method: Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius. For the marinade, Combine the soy sauce, honey, sesame oil,

Breaking the fast Muffins

Happy New year everyone!! Yes I am alive. Fat and fine as usual and am extremely ashamed of not posting a single recipe in 2014 and I blame it solely on me. Sloth is one deadly sin and I confess that I was fully drowned in one. However I have buried my lazy past in the past and here I am starting my 2015 with a bang. I have dusted the cobwebs from my blog and it’s now up and running. The love and calories is here with double the love and may be fewer calories. My first post of this year is “breaking the fast Muffins”. Since it’s got some dried fruits, seeds and carrots in it, you can very well call it a “Healthy” muffin. I had these lovelies last weekend for my breakfast accompanied by some freshly squeezed orange juice prepared by hubby dear. It was indeed a good start of the day. :P Ingredients: · 300g of plain flour · 50g of oats · 50g of caster sugar · 3 tsp of baking powder · Handful of sunflower and pumpkin seeds · Two handfuls of any chop

Homemade Granola

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