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Recipes/ Rice, Grains, Noodles & Pasta/ Seafood

Fish Pulao

Fish Pulao / www.quichentell.com

An everyday fish pulao is a wonderful dish to have in one’s repertoire. It makes a nice change from fried and curried fish. Like many if not most Indian home cooks, I cook from instinct, adding flavours and seasoning without always adhering to recipes and measurements. Cooking over time, one develops a sense of which ingredients complement each other and how much needs to be added to achieve a certain…

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Desserts & Sweets/ Recipes

Jowar Lemon Cookies

Jowar Cookies / www.quichentell.com

I made jowar cookies because I wanted to try whole grain cookies using some kind of millet flour. These sweet little discs could also go by lemon cookies. Now, traditional baked goods with lemon are always made using butter and all-purpose flour because together they create tender (cakes), crisp (cookies) and light, buttery textures. By making lemon-flavored jowar (sorghum) cookies using oil, my aim was to cut a few calories…

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Dips, Jams, Chutneys, Relishes and Preserves/ Recipes

Guava Pickle

Guava Pickle / www.quichentell.com

Guava pickle. Yes you read that right. All the regional cuisines of India have such an ancient tradition of pickling and preserving all kinds of vegetables (including vegetable peels), fruits, meats and seafood but rarely do you hear of a hot guava pickle. I knew of green guava chutneys, a sweet North Indian guava pickle (flavoured with fennel, fenugreek and mustard seeds like mango chchunda) and even a Rajasthani amrud…

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Desserts & Sweets/ Recipes

Apple Crumble Cake

Apple Crumble Cake / www.quichentell.com

I’m currently obsessed with apples. And so, a buttery apple crumble cake follows the post on apple pie. The weather is pleasantly nippy and sweet, crisp apples tumble into my basket (well, almost) every time I’m out grocery shopping. Obviously,I can’t wait to cook with them and fill my home with warm, cinnamon-tinged scents of apples. The apple crumble cake is a rich, butter cake filled with squishy chunks of…

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Desserts & Sweets/ Recipes

Coconut Almond Laddu

Coconut Laddu / www.quichentell.com

I’m always looking for easy homemade sweets for festivals like Diwali. This coconut laddu fits the bill perfectly. Diwali cleaning, shopping and other prep leaves me little time to make complicated sweets, so this recipe works beautifully for me. Also, people are up to their throats in sweets and rich snacks; and so I believe in keeping what I serve, light both in terms of sugar and fat (ghee in…

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Poultry & Meat/ Recipes

Murgh Rezala

Murgh Rezala / www.quichentell.com

The murgh rezala is a celebration.Of the happy blend of Bengali and Muslim cooking, of the sophistication of the subcontinent’s food, and of India’s composite culture. A rezala refers essentially to the sauce in which the murgh or chicken is cooked. Food historians estimate that this dish evolved when the descendents of Tipu Sultan were forced to leave their royal abode in Srirangapatna, Karnataka and exiled to Kolkata, Bengal, by…

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Dips, Jams, Chutneys, Relishes and Preserves/ Recipes

Radish Pachadi

Radish Pachadi / www.quichentell.com

It’s both delightful and amazing how a humble dish such as this radish pachadi or radish chutney can so dramatically elevate a simple home-style meal of rice and dal. Telugu cuisine, both from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is famed for its pachadis – the word is used for both chutneys (which are generally ground or pulped) and pickles (which usually have chunks of the fruit/vegetable). In this case, the radish…

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Dips, Jams, Chutneys, Relishes and Preserves/ Recipes

Prawn Pickle

Prawn Pickle / www.quichentell.com

Prawn pickle, whether it’s eaten with dal and rice, spread on hot toast, or enjoyed with crispy dosas and fluffy uttapams – everyone has their favourite way of relishing this tangy seafood treat. I’ve always had store-bought prawn pickle, but this time the abundance of prawns sold by my fish lady inspired me to make my own. Eating homemade pickle is like eating vegetables from one’s kitchen garden, it’s a…

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