Stuffed eggplant (भरली वांगी)

Nobody likes eggplant in my family, except me, neither do my parents...but this is my favorite recipe. My mom made it for me. There are many ingredients, and it is a time consuming recipe, but it is totally worth it. 

Mushroom and Coriander Soup

My younger son is very fussy about food, especially about eating vegetables. So now and then, I make soups for him. I usually boil a piece of carrot, tomato or any other vegetable and then puree it. Sometimes, flavor it with garlic, ginger ..or just salt and pepper. My kids like the creamy mushroom soup, but I like this version. Don't go by the pictures, it looks very brown and dull in photographs, but it is really flavorful.

Pithla (पिठल) -- a quick-fix maharashtrian side-dish

A simple recipe, with few ingredients and cooked in minutes -- Pithla is a side, you can make when you are out of vegetables (or anytime). Usually, it is served with "bhakris" -- which are flat-breads made of jowar(sorghum) or bajra(pearl millet) flours. You can make it liquidy like a soup or a dal, or slightly thickened !! Whatever way you make it, it tastes great.

Upside down orange cake

My husband's and my family is visiting from India. So there is a lot of simple and traditional Indian cooking happening in my home. However, my mother takes care of most of the day to day meals :) ...which gives me time to experiment and cook my favorite part of the cooking --- desserts...:) I  baked almost 3 cakes for them, in a week they were here. This cake, I made for my father's birthday last week. It is an unusual and refreshing one from the usual chocolate and vanilla flavors which my kids like. I adapted this recipe with the ingredients, I had with me.

Here is a slice......:)

Baked yeasted doughnuts

We knead to bake #6 June 2013. Half a year is already gone.....and this is the 6th bread, I learnt to bake with success. It was a fool proof and easy recipe. The doughnut glaze was a bit difficult for me, I need to try it again. I made it in a hurry, and dipped and clicked pictures, as I had to take my little one out for his summer holiday activity. The doughnuts were nice and soft. I left the "holes" un-glazed and just dabbed them with melted butter and they tasted lovely just like that. Another beautiful recipe, shared by our host +Aparna Balasubramanian. 

6 months back, I wouldn't have even dreamt about making a doughnut at home... :)  They were so soft and perfect....!!!

Bengali Sunday special chicken curry ( robibar murgir jhol )

I wanted to try a Bengali cuisine recipe for a long time. Regional cuisine of India is totally exotic and different, from what we get in an Indian restaurant in a foreign country. Though Singapore has authentic regional cuisine speciality restaurants which are as good as India. I browsed through google and came across this curry, which is cooked in many Bengali households as a Special Sunday Lunch. They love to eat fish/eggs/vegetables during the week and .....on weekends are special meat based meals. (I got to confirm this with my Bengali friend here...  :) ) ... all my info comes from google. Well, I tried this recipe yesterday and we liked it. I made one big pot of rice and this curry and it was an hearty meal for my family. My older son, who loves chicken preparations had 3 helpings of this curry and gave me a "delicious" stamp. I guess, I would be making this curry often from now on.... !

Samosa

Singapore has been covered with smoky haze due to forest fires in nearby Sumatra/Indonesia for past 6 days now, and I have been house bound with the kids for last 4 days. I haven't been to gym for over a week and have been making calorific goodies.....grrr.... :( My kids and their friends have been helping me polish those goodies, but today was the day nobody visited us, nor did we visit anybody.... so these deep-fried golden triangles were consumed, just by my family and we really enjoyed them.... :)  

Samosa was the first new thing, I tried after I got married....:) My hubby and our friends have been the tasters for all sorts of samosas that I used to make.... burnt, very spicy, not cooked well enough, soggy or greasy.... but I have been making them over 10 years now...and now can turn out good ones.... in a jiffy, if I have all the ingredients.