Wanderberry Tales

Roast chicken has always found its way into our Christmas eve dinner menu. What better an accompaniment than beautifully roasted potatoes. Some things are hard to do away with and I am sure this year's menu is no different. Rather, we would want it to remain the same - a reminder of our first Christmas together when we attempted baking a chicken that was marinated and frozen with potatoes layered and spent hours trying to get it to cook at varied temperatures messing up the oven and kitchen in the process. Finally we had our dinner at 12:30 am after giving up on our oven attempt and frying the chicken and potato on the stove top. If everything were to be be perfect then we would have hardly remembered our first Christmas together. The imperfections set our traditions! Here is a look into the roast potatoes recipe. I chose the Indian potatoes and it worked well for me. Ingredients  Potato - 500 gms Rosemary - 1 tbsp Garlic - 6 cloves Garlic Powder Olive

A new recipe on the blog to celebrate Diwali - Pineapple Kesari. May joy, love and prosperity illuminate your lives and homes. Wishing you all a Happy Diwali! Ingredients Pineapple - 1 cup roughly chopped Rava/Semolina - 1.5 cup Sugar - 3/4 cup Ghee - 1/2 cup  Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Saffron strands - 3 or 4 Water - 3 cups Raisins - 2 tbsp Cashew nuts - 2 tbsp Method Heat about 2 tbsp of ghee in a pan and fry the cashew nuts until color begins to change. Drain on kitchen towel In the same ghee fry the raisins until they puff up. Drain and set aside. Add another tablespoon of ghee and fry the pineapple. Keep it covered and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Remove the pineapples and add 2 more tables spoon of ghee and add the semolina. Cook the semolina until roasted and fragrant. Meanwhile heat water in a saucepan along with saffron strands. Add the semolina to the boiling water and keep mixing to avoid lump formation. Once it is mixed well, add

Festive season along with the breezy winter has made its presence felt. Although good food needs no season or reason, it is simply an excuse to make some deep fried sugary  tea time snacks. It's strange how memories that have long been pushed to some remote corner of the brain comes popping back on occasions with no particular trigger. That is how diamond cuts made its way into my list.A long time ago (as all stories begin) my mamma lovingly rolled out these dough and the sheer desire to use the spoon that had a wheel on its end to make the diamond shapes got me onto the kitchen slab beside her! I did enquire after the well being of the spoon last time I was home:) I have used wheat flour, you could easily replace it with Whole Purpose Flour and also use some powdered sugar in the dough itself. Off we go to the recipe. Ingredients For the dough- Wheat Flour - 2 cups Ghee - 5 tbsp + 1 tbsp Water - 1 cup warm Salt to taste For coating -  Sugar - 50 gms  C

Holla! Back after a break - not a deliberate one though! Life suddenly changed from being a housewife to a corporate housewife! After a hiatus, I am back at work that left me little or no time for anything else. It took a while to set things in order and get back into this world of blogging. So here I am with a new recipe - Stuffed egg paratha! Ingredients For paratha Wheat Flour - 2 cups + more for dusting Warm water - 1 and 1/4 cup Salt - 1/4 tsp Ghee For filling Boiled egg - 4 large Onions - 3 medium sized finely chopped Green Chilli -2 to 3 as per spice level finely chopped Coriander leaves - a handful finely chopped Turmeric powder - 1 to 2 pinch Coriander powder - 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Garam Masala - 1 tsp Salt to taste Method Making the paratha Take wheat flour in a bowl along with salt and mix well. Pour warm water in batches and using a fork mix it well.Let it remain for 5 minutes. Knead the dough using your h

Even the best of the hostel food seems bad when the monotony in their menu gets to you. That was the case with our hostel. We were blessed to have non vegetarian food for every dinner except on Fridays but yet after a point in time we began craving outside food.That is how food from Ande ka Funda, a small food joint near our hostel caught our attention. It was very affordable on our student days allowance and quite tasty too - Egg roll, bread omelette, aloo paratha, gobi paratha were their popular items. I took a liking for their egg rolls which came either as single egg roll or double egg roll. The double egg roll made a good meal! My paratha egg roll came into being trying to replicate theirs. Its a favorite due to the simplicity of the whole thing! You need not make paratha from scratch, you could always use the store brought ones when you are in a hurry! The same recipe goes well with chapati too! It is my go to recipe when we need a quick dinner! Ingredients Plain P

It is strange how certain food items which did not feature in your favorite list until a few years back, crawl in to the list to remain there. Aval is one such item that made it to the list. I keep wondering why I never attempted making aval vilayichathu earlier! As the name suggests, this dish has its origin in Kerala. It is simple to make, tastes good and above all can be stored for atleast two weeks. It is sweet, leaves behind a happy tummy and all you need is a banana or two to accompany it. Absolutely perfect for the tiffin boxes - kids and adults will enjoy alike. Ingredients Brown Aval/Poha/Rice flakes – 250 gms Jaggery – 250 gms Coconut – 2 cups grated Water – 1 cup Cardamom powder – ½ tsp Dry ginger powder – ¼ tsp Channa Dal – 4 tbsp Black sesame seeds – 2 tsp Cashewnuts – 2 to 3 tbsp Ghee – 2 tbsp Method Boil water along with jaggery cubes and let it dissolve completely. Strain to remove impurities. Heat ghee in a deep bottomed pan. Fry the cashe