Love and Calories!!

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 butt...

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 an...

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, hone...

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...

As soon as I got up from my bed after that extra hour of sleep (thanks to the end of the day light saving), I wanted to have a nice cup of hot English tea with some cookies. My biscuit tin was as usual empty so I quickly browsed through my baking bible and found this quick and instant recipe. As my hubby waited for his breakfast, I gave priority to my biscuits first...  :P Scottish Shortbread...mmmm...those buttery goodness that is baked to perfection and when put in mouth melts instantly. And it is so so easy to bake. You just need those three basic baking ingredients to get going...Flour, Butter and sugar. I just added some orange juice for that slight variation!! Ingredients: 175 g plain flour 100 g butter 50 g caster sugar zest and juice of 1 orange Method:   Heat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment. I normally use a non stick baking tray so I avoid the sheets. Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the bu...

Chocolate! Chocolate!! Chocolate!!! I can never get over it...This C word is, was and always will be my weakness and the reason for my weight gain (oops..I shouldn't have told you that). You can ask me to diet if only the menu included a generous piece of Dairy Milk or a Chocolate Mud Cake....oooh! A big thank you to whoever thought of converting those lovely cocoa beans to soft, chewy, rich, smooth and delicious chocolate. So coming to my double chocolate brownies, I baked them two weeks back on a Friday night after coming from work. I was tired, exhausted and wanted to just crash on my couch and watch something nice on TV and welcome weekend. One of the channels were showing Johnny Depp and Juliett Binoche starrer 'CHOCOLAT" ...Oh my God I thought...I loved this movie and immediately went up to check my pantry to see whether I got all the ingredients to bake some brownies. For the chocolate lover that I am, I had everything ready to be baked up. I quickly baked...

It was a chilly yet Sunny Sunday morning in the countryside called Newtown in Wales where I had gone to spend a weekend at my Best friend Meghana's place. Though she never gives a damn  about this place, I get a sense of serenity, tranquility and at peace whenever I come here. (May be because, I live in a city and I don't get to see those meadows, sheep and mountains anymore).  Sunday was well spent as we made some hot masala chai, poured it in a flask, took some crisps and drove to a tourist spot in Mid Wales called Llanidloes (Please don't take an effort to pronounce it, it's Welsh...and the spellings have no connection with the pronunciation..:P). We stopped at a beautiful man made reservoir called the Llani Lake and what a sight it was. The river Severn was locked inside the dam and tinge of snow covered hills surrounded it. I could only imagine, how beautiful it would be in peak summer. The picture below will give you an idea of how postcardish view it was....

"Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns,      One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns,          Give them to your daughters, Give them to your sons                   One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns,                          Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns!!" Remember this nursery rhyme? Oh sure you do!! And how I wished in my school days, that a real Hot Cross Bun vendor should come knocking on my door and I run with a penny or two in hand to buy those delicious looking Hot soft buns...mmmm!! Then the realization strikes, that these rhymes cannot apply in India, girl! You can only run with a 50 paisa to get a delicious Vada pav or a samosa, not Hot Cross Buns!! And how I used to envy the children living in the British land. But only after coming here I knew that these were just a thing in the past. There are no Hot Cross Bun Ve...

Cupcakes - those little sweet treats are everybody's favourite and have usually seen them so beautifully displayed for almost all occasions. Every one's reaction when they hear or see Cupcake is... "Yummmm"! But is not the case with me. I have never fancied cupcakes in my life. You must be thinking, "C'mon now...Don't like cupcakes?? you must be kidding!!  but the truth is, I never was a fan of these little cute things. But I just love the look of it. Those different creative frostings  on top makes it so special and good looking. And the effort made by the bakers are seen just by looking at the creative topping. For the love of baking alone, I tried to bake some easy cupcakes to start off.  This recipe will be very useful for those who have never tried to bake cupcakes before (just like me) and are now interested to try their luck in baking some. I prefer chocolate to sugary icing and that is the reason why I baked some Devil's food Cupcakes....