HEALTHY COOKING

EASY Spicy Fish Fry

February 28, 2021 By Asha Shivakumar

This Spicy Fish Fry is flaky and great with paruppu/daal and rice. This effortless South Indian style Fish Fry has few ingredients, marinated and pan fried. Perfect as an appetizer too.

Amma(my paternal grandmother) had the midas touch when it came to seafood: spicy fish fry, fish kozhumbu, shrimp and meat dishes.

It’s mid morning, the chaos of our home has settled down leaving my amma and me taking in the sun rays coming through the balcony. His screams reach us from a kilometer, the fish monger pushing his wooden cart with a huge cane basket filled with ice, to keep the fish fresh comes our way. His visit was a little later than normal. I see the eager look in Amma’s face. He waves at us, shouting in tamil that he has Amma’s favorite fish, Vanjaram(king mackerel). Holding her pallu (corner of her saree/dress), I tag along with her. And her bargaining starts, in the end, both coming halfway and happy. She gets her Vanjaram for fish fry and another for curry….

Hotel Style Vegetable Kurma

February 11, 2021 By Asha Shivakumar

This Hotel Style Vegetable Kurma is tasty, authentic and perfect with idli, dosa or appam. It’s made with plenty of veggies, including potatoes and cauliflower that have simmered in a spice-paste.

Some recipes are born out of necessity and this is definitely one of them.

I have a hankering for authentic meals quite often. At times being in US, with below average restaurant food makes me miss the traditional curries that we get in India even more. This mixed vegetable curry comes with dosa or idli in many restaurants and it’s so special, simple and so comforting.

My Vegetable Curry recipe has been in the works for a few months now and while you’ll need bit of fresh produce, the bulk of this recipe relies on pantry staples — spices. Then, with the fresh produce required, most of it is shelf stable for quite a long time — the onions, ginger, garlic, and potatoes….

Marinated Greek style Gigantes

January 12, 2021 By Asha Shivakumar

Greek style Gigantes has few ingredients with bold flavors. This easy Greek style Marinated Gigantes is so moreish and makes for a perfect appetizer or a light lunch.

“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going.

No feeling is final.”

~Rainer Maria ~

I think of happiness as being something that we’re always chasing — the right person, the right job — external things. To me, joy is quieter, more internal, and we often find it in simple moments along the way. Like i read somewhere: the author writes about her mother, who experienced so much disappointment and loneliness in her life, yet finds solace in the little things….

Fatteh – Pita topped with chickepeas,eggplant,potatoes in yogurt sauce

December 16, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

This Fatteh is a delicious combo of flavors made with tahini yogurt sauce, spiced chickpeas, smashed peppery potatoes, paprika eggplant, poms and crispy pita bread!

It’s only normal for me to love this Lebanese Vegetarian Fatteh that feels like Indian chaat, but so different too.

I’ve learnt a few dishes from my neighbor: shish barak and this Lebanese fatteh, my top favorites. A generous lady with five kids, always made it a point to share special dishes, and this was one that I gobbled up. The holidays makes me miss her more, it was lively with kids playing in the yard, the screams, lights and action. After they moved, I kept in touch with them for few years, then life happened. Her food and warm personality will always be close to my heart….

Banana Blossom Poriyal – Vazhaipoo Poriyal

October 22, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Vazhaipoo Poriyal/Banana Blossom Sabzi or Banana Flower Stir fry is a very tasty side that goes perfect with a simple dal rice or perfect with chapathis. Made with potatoes and coconut, this is a vegetable which is very special and extremely healthy.

Vaazhai poo or Banana blossom/flower is widely used in Asian cooking. Known for it’s health benefits, this is also extremely tasty and rarely found in the markets.

Cleaning the banana blossom is quite a tedious task. It involves removing the outer purplish layer(bracts or petals), peeling the florets and meticulously removing the stigma and the plastic cover(perianth). It is so worth it!!

I learnt how to clean and cook this Vazhaipoo or Banana flower from my mom in law and her sister. They make it often and they have patience to clean a bunch of them. Late afternoons, they sit on the large dining table, oiling their hands and ready to take on the task of cleaning four to five banana flowers. They make amazing Vazhaipoo Vada, a fritter made out of the banana flower, which is so tasty. But, I love this poriyal that they make….

Masala Egg Bhurji- Most delicious Indian style scrambled eggs

September 30, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Masala Egg Bhurji/ Spiced Eggs is a perfect celebration dish for the non-meat eaters. Works for a special-occasion breakfast loaded with sweet peppers, goes great with rotis or on toast. YUM!

Anda Bhurji or Scrambled Eggs is probably one of the most made food in every household. This Anda Bhurji is nothing short of amazing, it’s a special dish that can be served on occasions or for your Sunday brunch.

This recipe sprung to life one fine, August afternoon as I was strolling around the kitchen getting ready for lunch. Got the chicken out and exactly knew what I was making for my little boy. But, lunch for my pescatarian hubby had me scratching my head. I’ll come to that later, I thought. First let me marinate the chicken. While mixing the yogurt, like a circuit breaker blew up, I had an idea….boom!!…

Pumpkin Dal with Beet Greens

September 27, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Cozy and comforting Pumpkin Dal or Poosanikai Kootu is perfect for autumn and cooler months. It’s easy to make and with the addition of beet greens adds so much more flavor.

Happy Autumn!!

It’s that time of the year when pumpkin and butternut squash is in abundance, and I’m all about pumpkin recipes, be it sweet or savory. I’ve been eating this pumpkin kootu or pumpkin dal from when I was a baby. I’ve always liked the slight sweetness in my curries and this one with chapathi or just plain rice is phenomenal.

Authentic South Indian everyday food/recipes uses very less spices, simple local ingredients and never over the top hot. It’s always fresh and few ingredients. This recipe uses channa daal for it’s bite and texture, creamy which also holds it’s shape. This pumpkin dal works best with channa dal/split yellow chickpeas or even split yellow moong daal.

Flavorful Indian food is so much faster and you can get the most authentic taste with just a few ingredients.Thanks to my mom for yet another healthy and delicious recipe that is a staple at home….

Adigas Sambhar/Karnataka Style Hotel Sambhar

September 20, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Idli-sambhar is an emotion. This Adigas or Karnataka style hotel sambhar is spicy and slightly sweetish just like how the people of Karnataka love. Simple spices, daal, are all boiled together, to form the perfect fiery red, hot watery sambhar, which is perfect for fluffy idlis and vada. It sure will make your day a great one.

From joyful mornings, to painful waking moments to successful takeaway lessons / happy endings. To propitious experiences, and to new norms.

I land at 1.30 am, the security line is longer than I expected. I look around and see excited faces, emotions that are swelling to see their loved ones. Nervous and jittery hand movements and the phone rings. “Are you here, Ash?”, to which I excitedly scream “YESS”. I know two people are very eagerly waiting to see me, it’s almost been two years. In the blink of an eye — or it felt like that — I was done with security and at the carousel for the luggage. “URGHHH, why are my bags this delayed?” I ask myself, but I find myself surprisingly calm too. And there comes this brown baggage with a yellow tie that dad strung the last time I was in India, and oh, how I teased him when he tied that ugly looking thread. To that, he said: “At least it will stand out” ;). His face flashes in front of me. All the four bags come looking as eager for their owner as the owner itself….

Spicy Crispy Corn Chaat/Salad

September 7, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Corn Salad is one of our favorite summer light lunch! This easy Crispy Corn Chaat Salad features sweet fresh corn off the cob, crisp cucumbers, shaved sweet carrots, onions, crunchy peanuts with a delicious cucumber cilantro chutney that acts as a dressing.

Spicy Crispy Corn Chaat Salad is such a delicious summer salad staple; it’s easy to make and tastes incredibly good without many ingredients or fuss of deep frying the corn to get it crispy( thanks to the air fryer)!

Summer is the best time of year to serve up fresh salads and vegetables from the garden or local CSA. While I don’t have much of a green thumb, I have friends who do, and I get the corn, cucumbers and even carrots from their garden. Or your csa will be an amazing place to get the freshet of vegetables….

Chayote Spinach Kootu with Kootu Podi

August 5, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Chayote kootu with spinach, made with a special kootu podi is simple, yet overflows with flavors and leaves you questioning what spice is added in it. It embodies the way I like to cook — that is to say, in a way that lets each ingredient shine.

A soothing bowl was needed because everything is getting overwhelming.

Don’t you prefer every day very much like another? I know, who likes it… Especially since we are going through that. With everything that’s going on, housework has doubled (don’t know why, or maybe I do), office work seems slow, I’ve been in my PJs a bit more than I’d want to, haven’t seen any of my friends in a while, and, to top all that, stress takes over with more reasons than one. You call a friend and everyone talks about the same situation, the same work, the same chores… I don’t blame them. It’s hard on everyone….