Entree

Indian Thanksgiving

November 22, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

An Indian Thanksgiving or Indian inspire meals for Thanksgiving is how I do it. Thanksgiving is my favorite celebration among the many American traditions. I find the meaning behind it intriguing, and I enjoy the holiday.

It’s about family, and being grateful and thankful for everything. And this Thanksgiving, I am more than thankful to be among my favorite people, my FAMILY. Words can’t explain how grateful and thankful I am for everything that’s happened to me. Have a great Thanksgiving!

If you are looking for an Indian Thanksgiving menu, here it is for you.

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Dill Edamame Fried Rice

August 25, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

This South Indian style Dill Edamame fried rice recipe is the absolute BEST. It’s quick and easy to make, customizable with any of your favorite mix-ins, and so irresistibly delicious.

Me and rice go way back.

I’m digging back into my mom’s classic recipe today to share one of my all-time favorite recipes with you again. And I really do mean all-time.

Because fried rice and I go wayyyy back. 😍

Like specifically, back to my picky-eating days that lasted — oh — until college, when I was totally “that girl” who refused to even look at anything which was not a little fancy. Guys, I was crazy about the different kind of fried rice. Mom would make a variety of rice for lunch with some fryums and I would gobble it up without complaining. I mean, back then, I just assumed that all fried rice was perfectly stir-fried and full of big flavors and irresistibly delicious! Little did I know about the painfully bland, boring, and tasteless stuff that I would encounter at places, once I ventured out of the nest. This dill fried rice is bomb, go try it out….

Sheet pan Baked Salmon and Beans with peanut butter miso dressing

June 26, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

The convenience and simplicity of this sheet pan meal is extra awesome. Baked Salmon with Beans is a complete meal on one pan full of flavor. Sheet pan Salmon and Beans with Peanut butter and miso is perfect.The best part, easy clean up. Change up the veggies throughout the year.

Baked Salmon with Beans in Peanut Butter and Miso Dressing |foodfashionparty| #salmon

Sheet pan meals are one of the easiest and satisfies all. This dazzling Peanut Butter Miso Baked Salmon and Beans Dinner Recipe is so easy to make, it just might become one of your go-to meals this summer. It’s a great way to use up your fresh garden tomatoes too….

Carribean style Shakshuka with beans and sweet fried plantains

April 25, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Shakshuka is an easy and a healthy breakfast (or any time of day) recipe which comes from Israel and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa. This Caribbean style shakshuka has fried plantains and a popular spice known in that region. Shakshuka is a simple combination of tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices and gently poached eggs. It’s nourishing, filling and one recipe I guarantee you’ll make time and again.

I had shakshuka for the first time when we were travelling and it wasn’t where it originated from. Shakshuka is a North African dish that is now made throughout the Middle East and all around the world; it is especially popular in Israel, where it is often eaten for breakfast….

One pot Fruit and Nut Coconut Milk Rice with Golden Beets

April 15, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Coconut flavors are the prevalent ingredient in almost every South Asian entree. A South Indian meal always call for some coconut in some form. This coconut rice/coconut milk rice goes great with curries and a great side for any meal. Once you try easy coconut rice, you will see how quickly it will turn into the option of choice.

Coconut rice is one of those dishes that we eat a lot in a South Indian home.

Sunday lunches are very special. Growing up a Sunday lunch always consisted of biryani, some sort of chicken curry and pepper chicken. But, there were “fast” days when meat was not cooked and it was a vegetarian feast. Those days, it was Coconut milk rice, pakoda kurma, vada and some raita. I sure loved those days. I guess I was a vegetarian at heart growing up. But, I’ll never say no to biryani and any form of rice.

This is my favorite kind of rice….

bitter gourd curry/Paavakai Kozhumbu

March 9, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

This bitter gourd curry is everything: tangy, spicy, sweet and sour and umami of flavors. Bitter gourd is also known as karela, paavakai, kakarakaya and more, is quite infamous for it’s bitterness. A vegetable that is not liked by many has a ton of nutrients and healing properties. This is the only way I can eat the bittergourd curry and you will love it too.

I would sit for hours and not touch this paavakai kozhumbu. Dad would be right by my side, looking at me and coaxing me to at least try it. Mum has already cleared out the table. We both, dad and I were adamant. He wanted me to eat a little and I didn’t have it. Mum would tell daddy, “it’s okay if she doesn’t want to eat it”. He would respond, she needs to at least try it. An hour and few mins in, he gets tired and realizes his little girl is a little bit more adamant than he is. After all who’s daughter is she and “I told you to leave her” was the look dad got from a smug faced mom:)….

OPA SQUASH DUMPLINGS IN SPICY CURRY-Kofta Curry

February 6, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Vegetable Kofta Curry is a very popular dish in India. This is my easy take on a classic which comes together in one pot. This opa squash and chickpea dumplings is simmered in a smooth sauce to make a delicious and delectable curry. Weeknight meal made easier.

Weeknight meals can be interesting, but not the most appealing looking at times. But, it was real. More often than not, the meals we get to share with family and friends do not take on the convivial, alluring nature we see promoted across blogs and boutique media. It’s easy to set a beautifully-styled farm table and encourage meaningful, open-hearted dialogue and then CONVENIENTLY disregard that meaningful, open-hearted dialogue is, by nature of our human-ness, a mess most of the time. The mess doesn’t sell.

It happens in a rush. Everyone’s got lots to do and you feel the need for extra couple of hours in a day….then comes the spicy yummy meal craving. One pot meals at his time does come in handy.

Here’s one I absolutely love….

Kohlrabi/Noolkol Edamame Fry

January 26, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Don’t be intimidated by kohlrabi/noolkol! This root vegetable is easily adaptable to many flavors and keeps it’s crunch. Delicious and Nutritious. This Kohlrabi/Noolkol Edamame Fry is a vegetarian lovers meat dish.

I’m always curious about other people’s comfort food. The stuff you eat when you’re sick or sad. I feel like it tells you so much about that person, where they came from, what they turn to feel better.

And when I ask people so many secrets spill out, gooey mushy nostalgic childhood food, some’s grandmother’s mutton, someone else who goes to a tiny box-line restaurant in old Shivajinagar for the flavors of that chicken that’s unbeatable, some else, who makes an elaborate meal from scratch to lose themselves in the method and to forget….

Karahi Chicken- Kadai Chicken

January 23, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

This flavorful karahi chicken uses fresh spices, tomatoes and slow cooked. The chicken is coated with the spices and tomato and makes for a very flavorful unique curry. I am so happy to be sharing my recipe for the best karahi chicken.

Everyone loves a restaurant style curry, but homemade is something special, healthier and more flavorful. Karahi chicken is one of my go to dishes to order when I’m at an Indian restaurant. It’s even special if you raid that spice cabinet and make everything from scratch.

When you eat out at an Indian restaurant, chances are that they’ll have Kadai/Karahi Chicken on the menu. It’s a popular north Indian dish that’s made with a few freshly ground whole spices and is known for it’s incredible flavor. It’s a simple, spicy dish and is traditionally made in a cast iron wok, but you can use a dutch oven or large saute pan instead….

Patod Ki Sabzi – Crispy Chickpea Cakes in Yogurt Spinach Almond Gravy

January 8, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

A popular curry made in Rajasthan. Patod is a chickpea cake that’s dipped in a curry. Patod-Chickpea cake curry is perfect for entertaining and a vegetarian lovers delight. The curry is beautiful base with spinach, some yogurt and a lot of other good stuff.

Food is such an important, driving force in our lives. We share and create some of our most important stories surrounded by food. It comforts us, nourishes us, and heals us. So far, I haven’t met one who didn’t have a special dish or fond food memory to look back on.

Eons ago….

I’ve come to my friend’s place for a sleepover. There is a game of rummy going on upstairs. While I am expected to be with the teens…… …

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