Soulful Creations

idlis, a "Lunch Box" special. Idlis have a special place in our culture. Be it Ramisseri (yeah they have a special secret idli recipe!), Kanchipuram (the big flat ones) or my mom's mallipoo idlis- a family is never complete with idlis at least once a week. The name seems to have come from Tamil- ittu avi- literally pour and steam. Since it is a combination of rice and lentils,  there is a lot of ground to play in. Some interesting links here and here that describe the little history that we know of, for idlis. Ingredients 3 cups rice 1/2 cup whole urad dal 1/2 cup skinned whole urad dal 1/2 cup sprouts 2 tbsp ground flax seed 1 tbsp methi, soaked separately Method Soak the rice and the lentils separately (you do not have to soak the sprouts) for a few hours; 4 to 6 hrs is plenty of time. Grind them separately adding as little water as possible, add the sprouts and methi seeds to rest of the dal mixture and grind until they become a fine paste -the key to good ild...

it is time once again for a daring baker's post- and for me I think I have not participated in almost two months, well shame on me. The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home. For this challenge we had to make the swiss rolls with a filling of our choice, fudge sauce or a variation and two ice creams of our choice. Now that means, you know what, letting your creativity flow in full swing! Well after coming up with many variations, theoretically speaking of course, I stuck with chocolate-coffee-vanilla combination. I followed Sunita's recipe for the swiss rolls and the filling. Instead of the fudge sauce, I made a vegan mocha-espresso mousse. For the ice creams, I made a partly vegan vanilla ice cream with hazelnuts (well sorry not entirely...

for the itsy-bitsy, dainty golden beauties.     "I have no hostility to nature, but a child's love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons"- Emerson The corn season arrives and I let out a sigh of relief. I wait eagerly for these months when I can go out to the store, smell the wet earth on fresh corn and obsess over which one, among the hundreds laid out, I should pick. I love corn- and I love all kinds of it. I am happy with just plain corn (sweet or otherwise) roasted on a stove. I saw the recipe here - by the way Mark Bittman rocks! Ingredients 2 tablespoons canola oil 3 ears corn, stripped of their kernels 1 small red onion, chopped 1/2 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped 1 tsp chilli powder, like ancho Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 small can (15oz) black beans Juice of 2 limes 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves Method Put the oil in a pan and turn the heat to high. When the oil is very hot but not yet smok...

with juicy ripe mangoes, anyone? The ones in the picture are not juicy ripe mangoes- my dad thought the picture looked better with cut spicy mangoes. But the photo credit goes to him, as I amidst my mango devouring days in Chennai, I forgot all about the camera and this blog- now can ya blame me?   Of course, a quintessential Tam Bram (only when it comes to food though) that I am- I love my thayir sadam and; I love to have my thayir sadam with the golden beauties when they are in season. Something about sour yogurt and sweet mango combination- just feels right every time.   This time I had at least 4 different varieties- the ones in the picture are Haapoos or more lovingly known as alphonso, farm fresh and were being taken away for ripening. This was on our way back from Lavasa , Pune.  I had amrapali (mom bought them for me from Bhubaneswar), langda in Pune and one another varitey I do not remember the name- not that I care too much for names when I am eating them! ...

Yes, that is correct. The first time I saw this recipe here , I had mocked it and mocked it despite the fact that I love Sanjeev Kapoor's recipes. They are usually unbelievably simple and the outcome usually delicious. I should also confess that I did bookmark the page for one of those days that I would feel adventurous enough. So here is a very Indian-Thai tasting pasta recipe that was made by the wise guy- rest assured he/we did not follow the recipe to the T.   Ingredients 1 box dried rotini pasta  1 bag of frozen veggie mix that had broccoli, cauliflower and carrots 1 onion, sliced 2 tomatoes, chopped 1 tbsp garlic paste 1 tbsp ginger paste red chilli powder, to taste 2 green chilli, chopped 1 tbsp Garam masala (the wise guy used something called mutter paneer masala from parampara) 1 cup half and half salt, to taste 1 tbsp oil for frying Method Boil the pasta as per package instructions with salt and may be some olive oil. While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a pan. ...