Recipes From My Kitchen

Sometimes a detox diet is the way to go...after horrendously torturing the little tummy with loads of butter, cheese, fried food, and gallons of tea and coffee, the tummy needs a break :) I wanted to go on a detox diet for sometime, but couldn't really get to it. I still haven't :) but will get there soon... But atleast to start with, I've started supplementing my snacks with healthy salads. Rather than munching on digestive biscuits with tea in the evening, I thought of replacing it with a fresh salad which is easy to make and tastes good as well.   Ingredients: 1 cucumber , 1 carrot , 1 tomato , 1 onion (optional, I've not used), 1 tsp grated cottage cheese or regular cheese , 1/2 tsp sesame seeds , 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil , Salt and pepper to taste. Method: Wash and peel the vegetables and set aside. Make very thin slices of cucumber. Leave it in a plate, allowing the water to come off. With a peeler, make thin ribbons out of the carr...

As promised, here I come with this delicious recipe of Strawberry Compote. But before we head to the recipe, I would like to give you a little insight into what a compote is. A compote is any fruit which is cooked in syrup. Compote is a healthier version of jam because it has very less quantity of sugar and no preservatives. Here you use the natural flavoring and sweetness of the fruit.You can use any fruit to make a fruit compote. Its also a great way of using seasonal fruits. You can mix a few fruits together and make a compote. It can be used in many ways like top it on toasts, pancakes, make tarts or even use it as a cake topping. Some fruits that are suitable to make compote are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, mango, lithchi, rhubarb, apples, bananas, cherries, and the list is endless. You can have endless possibilities with a compote. Here I am sharing my Strawberry Compote recipe. The same can be used to for any other compote that you want t...

Pancakes are really one of the fastest ways to cook up something delicious instantly. I prefer to make it as an evening snack as its not too heavy and it fills the stomach just enough to have enough room for dinner. Everybody loves it, so its pretty much like one-snack-for-all types. I decided to make this pancake with banana and sesame this time. Banana has a rich source of anti-oxidants and has good amount of soluble dietary fiber. Sesame seeds are rich in omega-6 fatty acids and dietary fiber. Ingredients: 1 cup plain flour ( maida) 1/4th cup powdered sugar , 1 tsp baking powder , 1 tbsp white sesame seeds , 1 egg , (optional, I have not used it) 2 ripe  bananas, 2-3 cups of milk , (may require more), 1/2 tsp vanilla essence , 2-3 tbsp of butter , Method: Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and sesame seeds together and set aside. Next, mash the bananas and pour in about 1 cup of milk and mix well. If adding egg, beat the egg into the s...

As the post title suggests, Low Calorie No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake, you must be wondering, if there is chocolate and its a cheesecake, how could it be low calorie - well, its not really low calorie, but it would be definitely lower than an actual "cheesecake" :) This cheesecake is a fast track recipe which can be thrown in within a few minutes. I don't follow the classic baked cheesecake method. I've tried earlier and failed. But later I came across the no-bake cheesecake recipe and that became the base for all kinds of cheesecakes that I have prepared earlier. Coming to the ingredients, I don't use cream cheese which is the base for any cheesecake, because, firstly, its very high in calories and secondly its very not easily available here. So see we saved some calories there, with a little price paid on the taste. However, I can bet most people won't be able to make out the difference whether there is cream cheese or something else. I'm preparing...

Last weekend we had a fest in our apartment. They hold this every year and encourage residents to participate and display their creativity. It gives everybody an opportunity to showcase their talent and also make some quick bucks. My neighbour and me decided to put up a samosa-kachori stall along with tea and coffee. We just picked up the samosas and kachoris from a local vendor and prepared the tea and coffee at home. The idea of participating was just for sheer experience and fun. Lets not get into the success of the stall, the less we talk about it the better. We were left with a lot of kachoris is all I can say :) After distributing a lot of them to the security guards and maids, we were left with a handful of them. I decided to make some kachori chaat the next day for breakfast.     Ingredients: 2 hot kachoris , 1 cup fresh curd , beaten well, 1 tomato , finely chopped, 1 onion, finely chopped, 2 tsp coriander leaves , finely c...

On days when I'm really busy, I try to get past the cooking as fast as possible. I try not to make cooking an elaborate affair and keep it as simple as possible. The quickest thing to make on such days is a mixed vegetable rice or pulao. Its really something that you can fall back upon on days when you don't have too many vegetables or too much time! In Maharashtra, we make something called Masala Bhath , which is very similar to Khara Bhath in Karnataka. Offlate, eating out during my lunch time, I've taken a liking to the Khara Bhath served in Adigas. Diligently, I have tried to dissect the flavors so that whenever I get an opportunity I could make it taste like that. I made it last evening after a hectic day's work. Ingredients: 2 cups  rice , washed, drained, 1  carrot , chopped, 3-4 green   beans , chopped, 1/2 cup of cauliflower florets, 1  onion , chopped, 1  tomato , chopped, 1/4 cup  green   peas , pe...

I feel like a newbie all over again. I've not updated this blog for more than 2 years now. Its just that my schedule has become pretty hectic now. But I've made a promise to myself to update atleast 1 post per week. In this post, I'm sharing my Walnut Brownie recipe with you. Its the most amazing recipe I have and I have always received overwhelming response from all my customers for this one. Since its New Years, I decided to make Walnut Brownies instead of the regular cakes or cookies. Ingredients: 80 gms  cooking butter , 150 gms  dark cooking chocolate , broken into pieces, 3  eggs , 120 gms  castor sugar , 1 tsp  vanilla essence , 80 gms  flour , 20 gms  cocoa powder , 1/2 tsp  baking powder , 1/4 cup roasted walnuts , coarsely chopped, Method: 1.) Preheat the oven to 175 degrees, for 10 mins. 2.) Grease a baking tin ( 9 x 9 inch) with butter and line with butter paper. 3.) Stir the butter and choco...