Chayote & Carrot Poricha Kuzhambu

One of my mom's specialty dishes is this simple and tasty lentil based stew. Chayote is called chow-chow in Tamil. It is a pear shaped gourd (or maybe squash) that goes really well with the mild sweetness of carrots. The cooked vegetables are simmered in lentils and flavored with cumin, pepper, coconut, and curry leaves for a wonderful dish. This stew is healthy with a mix of mild spice (from black pepper) and sweetness (from the carrots). 

I can never make this poricha kuzhambu as well as she does. This is one of her signature dishes that I was looking forward to recording in this space.

Seven Cup Cake / Indian Fudge-Cake

To celebrate my husband's marathon run, my mom made this Indian sweet. It is a soft and crumbly sweet flavored with saffron, cardamom, coconut, milk, ghee, and chickpea flour. This is another recipe that comes from my mother's aunt. She sent a box of this sweet for us, and it was divine! Handmade sweets prepared by seasoned cooks are far superior than any fancy store bought sweets!

This is an extremely easy "cake" that derives its name because of the total number of cups of ingredients required (1 cup chickpea flour + 1 cup coconut + 1 cup milk + 3 cups sugar + 1 cup ghee = 7 cups). However, I convinced my mom to "reduce" the quantity of ghee and sugar by a small margin. Of course, the more ghee that is added, the more softer, fragrant and tastier the burfi would be!

Jaggery & Ginger Infused Sweet Potatoes

Just as how I am bad at coming up with names for dishes, my mom is just as bad. This is a dish that is commonly prepared by my mom's family during religious fasts, because just a small serving of this provides the necessary carbohydrates/sugar and energy for the body to sustain the fast. She prepared this dish on the days preceding my husband's marathon to ensure he was loaded with sugar and carbs!

Sweet potatoes in India are actually sweeter than those here. Even texturally, they are slightly different.  Also, the inside of the Indian sweet potatoes is ivory colored as opposed to the bright orange tint of the sweet potatoes here. So, the dish was visually confusing to my mom because of the different color and texture :). But taste wise, it was really good. Visually, it looks almost like sweet-potato halwa!

It might seem like sugar overload to add jaggery to an already sweet vegetable, but nothing is overdone in this dish. The molasses of the jaggery and the mild heat from the ginger complement each other very well. This is an easy and versatile dessert option that can be amplified with as many add-ons as one desires. 

Ribbon (Savory Indian Snack)

Ribbon is a savory, deep-fried Indian snack made from rice flour and other flours that come from different Indian pulses. A dough is made from all the flours, and as the name indicates, it is pressed into thin ribbons that are deep fried. 

My parents are visiting, so we are lavished with good food and attention! My mom made this as an afternoon snack last week, and I hovered around her, recording the recipe. This recipe comes from my mother's aunt - an excellent cook who lovingly sent us a package of this savory from India, and it disappeared in no time!

So, here's the recipe. The proportion of flours used are: 3 parts rice flour, 3/4 part besan (kadala maavu/ bengal gram flour), 1/2 part moong dal flour (payatham paruppu maavu / yellow moong flour), 1/4 part pottu kadalai maavu (roasted gram flour). 

The above results in a big batch of ribbons, so my mother made a smaller batch using the above proportion as a guide. So here are the quantities of ingredients based on the smaller batch.

Lemon & Mint Quinoa with Creamy Ricotta

I am quite bad at christening my dishes with crisp and innovative names! I don't know what to call this dish, but it is a simple dish with minimal and flavorful ingredients that boost the taste of cooked quinoa. The addition of ricotta makes the dish creamy and moist, and yummy!

This is really easy to put together and makes a hearty meal.  The picture doesn't do justice to the taste of the dish!

Paneer Korma / Paneer Kurma

There are a tonne of paneer recipes that involve simmering pan-fried paneer in a spicy Punjabi style gravy or a spinach-based gravy. Last month, when I was thinking of what to cook with paneer, the lack of South-Indian based paneer dishes suddenly struck me. South India has its own versions of spicy gravies and kurma that incorporate tamarind, fennel, and coconut milk, along with other common spices. So, I thought of making a tamarind based gravy with paneer and finishing it off with coconut milk. 

This is the recipe I put together. The gravy was mildly tart, fragrant and quite flavorful! It was also a welcome change from the usual paneer dishes.

Raw Mango and Black Bean Salad

This is a zesty and spicy salad that can be had as is or piled on a crispy taco shell lined with shredded lettuce, cheese and some sour cream. A good friend of mine suggested the addition of chaat masala instead of cumin powder and chilli powder. And this small addition made quite a difference to the overall flavor!