Fire Roasted Tomato Chokha

The Fire Roasted Tomato Chokha is a dish from the eastern state of Bihar (India) and is traditionally cooked on coals. There is something very comfortable and ancient about cooking on fire or the grill. The aromas wafting from the food touch evokes emotion and the flame kissed food tastes like something we have always known. While I love grilled lamb chops and tandoori chicken, I mostly gravitate towards cooking more vegetables on the grill. Fresh summer vegetables when grilled are really delicious in salads, salsas and chutneys. The Fire roasted tomato chokha or the ‘tamatar ka chokha’ as it …

Quinoa Black Bean Stuffed Acorn Squash

  A couple of weeks back, I bought small acorn squash to recreate a recipe from one of my favorite restaurants for stuffed squash.  I have eaten the dish so many times that I felt it was only proper to make a cheat recipe. Then, as luck would have it, the influenza struck and took me on a spin. The last year has been that kind of a year – where I have been more in the house than out because of health or injuries. At times it felt like I was not going to catch a break. EVER! But it …

Pressure Cooked French Lentil and Vegetable Soup

  “It can’t be fall yet,” my heart says. I want the summer to last a bit longer, just a bit longer. I do like fall or Harud as we called it back home in Kashmir. But it is just that the arrival of fall also means and end of summer and beginning of colder days and nights. But fall is approaching soon, the leaves are turning and there is a nip in the air. Just the sort that makes you bring out the oven mitts and start baking. It was that kind of a day today. So I stopped …

Gujarati Dal

A characteristic sweet, tart and spicy flavor is reflective of the traditional Gujarati cuisine. And the Gujarati dal is a representation of the food from Gujarat.

Easy Vegetable Biryani

  Believed to be of Persian origin and having travelled to India through travelers, merchants and Mughals, the Biryani is a much loved dish across India. Lizzie Collingham in her book , Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, says that the Persian dish pilau was transformed into biryani in India. There is no definite text to authenticate when Biryani came into existence, but it is largely attributed to the Mughal Empire. The present day Biryani essentially is rice and meat/vegetables/sea food/fish cooked in layers with aromatic spices using a process called Dum. The rice is partially cooked separately and the …