Rice

Zarda – Pakistani style Sweet Rice

March 4, 2023 By Asha Shivakumar

Zarda or Sweet Rice is a favorite dessert that’s simple to make and addictive. It is sweetened rice with sugar, toasted nuts. Colorful, flavorful with spices and perfect for parties or festivals.

I grew up with parents who had friends from different cultural backgrounds. It wasn’t intentional, it just happened. Having friends who are culturally different from you allows you to develop an insight into their lives. It shows you how their practices or beliefs are different from yours, and yet, how it leads to their growth. It teaches one to accept differences and to build an understanding that no religion or culture is better than the other but that each has its unique features. One has to learn from them and inculcate the good in them, if possible. Multiculturalism becomes an important concept to inculcate in today’s world of globalization where more than ever, the chances of people living and interacting with racially and culturally different people than their own are heightened. The main advantage of having friends from different ethnic backgrounds and cultures is that it promotes multiculturalism within individuals,andfood. …

Meatball Soup with Vodka Sauce

October 27, 2021 By Asha Shivakumar

This creamy meatball soup recipe with vodka sauce is a low carb, hearty, and a warming dish that comes together in 30 minutes and one pot. This blog post is sponsored by BERTOLI .

Soup season is here and I am loving it. Bringing you the simples pleasures of Tuscany to your table through this soup. I am all for a thick creamy soup and this one is a winner. A warm and flavorful bowl on a chilly night is so comforting and satisfying. This short cut creamy meatball soup is one of my favorites, it’s chunky and delicious. The love for meatball is real at home and this dill meatball works great in this soup.

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Pineapple Rasam

March 13, 2021 By Asha Shivakumar

Pineapple Rasam is very famous to Karnataka. This ultra satisfying, sweet and spicy is comforting and flavorful and so soothing. Pineapple Rasam has a touch of sweetness and tanginess, peppery and warm to all the senses.

My favorite (and I think the best) is a bowl of Spicy rasam with rice! Rasam’s simplicity is what is enticing. The soothing sweetness from the tomato, slight tingle from the pepper and that fresh curry leaves and asafoetida thaalipa is the crowning epilogue.

The history of rasam is as engrossing as the rasam itself. Rasam is also called chaaru, saaru and was originated in Madurai and it has probably hundreds of versions that satisfy South Indians and many around the world.

South Indians have an intimate relationship with rasam. The answer to all sickness is this slightly spiced, mixed with mushy overcooked rice. It’s given to kids, adults, when happy, sick or sad. It’s a pacifier in a bowl. Bolstered with an extra dash of ginger and pepper, it is an instant fix for an itchy throat….

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani – Best and Easiest Dum Biryani EVER

October 3, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

If you love biryani, this hyderabadi chicken biryani will WOW you. This layered biryani is so flavorful and will become your go to biryani recipes. You will love this easy and delicious recipe!

Can anything be more marvelous than a big pot of Biryani? Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani.

Woke up bright and early ready to embark on the art of making biryani.

We sit down to a mountainous task of peeling those tight headed mini garlic. Turmeric washed chicken gets a soak in a home made slightly sour but sweet yogurt, fresh ginger-garlic-green chili paste, red chili powder and the freshest garam masala. A squeeze of lemon splashes into an eye while I mix with my bare clean hand.

Precision cut onions get piled up on a steel plate just to be dumped in a kadai of hot oil, to get golden fried and caramalized( NO STORE BOUGHT fried onions). The marinated chicken gets cooked in an abundance of oil mixed with ghee, to a perfect 80% percent. On the side, the pleasant fragrance of basmati can be whiffed in the second floor as she starts dancing around in a large pot with spices. A steam rises to the face as I carefully drain the water separating the rice that look like glistening pearls not wanting to stick to each other. The rice is not fully cooked, because she needs to soak in the juices of the flavorful chicken when layered, later.

I line up everything like an organized morning assembly at school.

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One Pot Saffron Chicken Rice

September 22, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Saffron Chicken Rice is a one pot meal that is flavorful, comforting and weeknight recipe made easy! It’s robust, soulful and well balanced, the best recipe you’ll need. This post is sponsored by Spice Tribe.

Biryani, Pulao, Fried rice of any kind is our special meal and brings out the nostalgia in me. Our Sunday meals had biryani as the star, and mom made one of the best biryani ever.

Now, my boys are big fans of biryani or pulao of any kind, always with chicken. This recipe Saffron Chicken Rice is inspired by Turkish pulao, and it’s something I make few times a month, especially during a weeknight….

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….

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….

Sweet Pongal / Sakkarai Pongal / Ven Pongal

January 14, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Sakkarai Pongal or Sweet Pongal is a speciality of Southern part of India. Made during the festival of Sankranthi and Pongalm its also a very popular breakfast. It is made with rice, daal and jaggery. It’s topped with ghee and nuts. A sweet treat like none other.

Pongal / Sankranti to all who celebrate!! When they say India is a land of festivals, it is true. We probably have a festival every month of the year. The crazy part is that they are not small festivals; each one is big. Pongal is a harvest festival dedicated to Sun God. It’s a celebration of the first crop. It’s celebrated over four days, each day with its own significance. You can read more about the mythology and significance behind Pongal here.…

Broccoli Fried Rice topped with crispy garlic and onion

August 30, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

A quick and tasty side dish, or can be served as a meal. This Broccoli Fried Rice with crispy garlic and onion will blow you away. No one will never know it’s healthy. You can modify this recipe to include any veggies you choose.

I was one of those fussy kids growing up, mom snuck in veggies in everything, coconut peas rice, cauliflower tomato rice, tawa pulao with more vegetables than rice, and I had no clue of her hidden intentions. Now, it’s more a habit, more than me wanting to sneak in vegetables in my kids.

I love the idea of an all-broccoli version of this, but I know not to test my luck too far, so for us, an equal amount of chopped broccoli to brown or white rice is the perfect compromise for the whole family. Just like cauliflower rice, you place the broccoli florets in the food processor and pulse until they resemble a rice-like texture. Be sure to watch is carefully because, if you process too far, then you’re on your way to pesto, but if you process it too little, then those indistinguishable grains of broccoli become chunks of green in your rice….

Halal Guys Chicken Rice Bowl (Copycat Recipe)

August 13, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

A delicious copycat recipe of the famous NYC Food Cart. This Halal Guys chicken rice bowl is boldly spiced, served with flavorful turmeric rice and spiced yogurt sauce.

Halal Guys is super popular in New York City. As soon as you pass that corner, the aroma becomes so tempting even when you’ve had a big meal. You’ll be in that line, drooling over everyone’s order, and once you finally get your order, you can’t wait to take a bite. The juicy flavorful chicken with a tinge of sourness from the lemon, the perfectly cooked rice, that white sauce that you want to just drink up, and then comes the super spicy harissa kind of hot chili sauce.

The first time we had the chicken rice bowl from Halal Guys was three ago when I visited New York City with my teen. Our main motto for the trip was to eat through the city. We loved it so much that we walked for forty minutes to have it another day of our travel. We generally don’t eat from one place twice during a vacation….