Wanderberry Tales

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, ...

This blog was born out of sheer boredom of relocating to a new country combined with an interest to cook.  We have come a long way since then and we just turned 3 this week! This time, we have a simple no bake chocolate tart recipe for you. Desserts are a rarity in my house but this one has made its way into our menu various times because its not complicated, uses easily available ingredients and takes very little time to make. Here you go to the recipe - Ingredients  For the tart base Marie biscuits - 40 no.s Butter - 150 gms For the chocolate filling  Semi sweet chocolate chips - 300 gms Whipping cream - 250 ml Corn starch - 1 tsp For Raspberry topping Raspberry- 1 pack  Mint Leaf - a few Method Grease a tart pan and keep aside. Powder the marie biscuits coarsely in a food processor Add butter and let it combine such that the butter soaks the biscuit crumbs and holds it together lightly. Tip this into the ...

I am a proud Indian. I do not live in India now but that does not make me any lesser an Indian. It hurts me to see Indians fighting in the name of religion, state, caste and anything you can possibly think of. How better a country we would be once we start appreciating the uniqueness of the country. Where else can you find a country so diverse - just imagine the number of dance forms even within a state! The state of Kerala for example boasts of Mohiniyattam, Kathakalli, Ottam thullal, oppana, Thiruvathira, Marghamkali and many more to go. If this is the story of one state in India, summing up that of all states together will have dance forms that is beyond math I can do now! The festivals , the religions, languages, food, culture also follow the same swing. India is a country that defines the spirit of UNITY IN DIVERSITY! Let that not go waste due to the selfish intents of a handful who stand to gain. I am proud I belong to a country like this and our heritage is something that need...

I have always had a hateful relationship with the summers. I wished for summer vacation to fall during winters! As a kid I was prone to heat boils in summer that would irritate me day and night until my aunt found a solution through it through MEDIMIX soap - now, all Indians especially a malayalee will would relate to this brand of soap:) Moving to Bangalore, made summers a tad bit bearable. When my groom hunt was on, one thing I was very particular of was - No wedding in April and May. Weddings are supposed to be happy moments not disgusting and sweat drenched. This is my third summer in Dubai and you can imagine the plight of a summer hating creature like me surviving in this part of the world. Coupled with humidity, the weather makes it impossible to step out even for a few fleeting moments. Even if you do all you can think of is getting back under the shower which is not much of a solace because you have hot water running in the taps. I look forward to the summers bidding ...

I have already written two parts of our Italy travel ( if you have missed it, you can always find it here ). After every travel, as a tradition we publish a recipe from that region. So before moving onto the third segment of our travelogue, we have for you a dish that we learnt as a part of cooking class in Tuscany. Cantucci is a type of biscuit that is double baked to get the crunchy exterior. However you could also choose to have the softer version by avoiding the second bake and that is totally up to you. It is commonly a dinner dessert in Italy paired with wine. For us, it simply formed our tea time snacks. The recipe isn't all that time consuming and can be whipped up in under an hour or may be even lesser. I have to admit the end product was simply hard to take hands off from - you just end up going back for more. Here is the recipe for you. Recipe courtesy - Elizabetta, La Guida Farm House, Sinalunga, Italy Ingredients All purpose flour - 500 gm Sugar - 200...

There are days when my mind wanders to my home country and my desire to go back there gets stronger. I am sure these thoughts resonate with atleast a few of the expats. Sometimes I busy myself with some work to shut away these thoughts and other days I whine and whine. After some whining, I turn to my laptop to cheer me up. The one show that makes all the worry lines cease to exist is FRIENDS. I just can't have enough of it. I have watched season by season and now go on to youtube to catch some scenes from it. All the characters have become so etched in me that I feel they live around me. Like any other Friends fan, I would love to see that Reunion happening till then I can continue to watch it in a loop.  Cooking does cheer me up but imagine cooking and watching Friends at the same time :P I do it often these days.( I hate it when I have to turn on the blender, the noise is such a distraction:P) From Monica's jam to Ross' Fajita , Rachel's English Truffle to Joey...

The long weekend has heralded a hopefully long winter in Dubai. The winds are chilly and my hands are invariably reaching out to the woolens. The sky is clear and occasional clouds pass by as I look up and pray that at least one would sprinkle showers as they go by. I have not been that lucky yet! It is that time of the year when we reach out to those soothing hot drinks and soups. Yet the crazy part in each of us would want to grab hold of an ice cream or something chilled. ( although the angel in your head would speak of possibilities of falling sick - the devil in you doesn't care) The call for making a cheesecake has been there since the last mango season. The season passed by and no cheesecake was made. While discussing the menu for Christmas, Shibin was quick to suggest a cheesecake and since mango is not in season now, I was left pondering on the flavor. I was quickly taken back to one of the episodes of Dhe Chef - a Malayalam channel cooking reality show where one of ...

It has been long since I played the game of Secret Santa - I am sure most of you are familiar with this game. It is not the gifts you wrap or unwrap that gives the happiness. It is more about the suspense, the secret letters and the guessing games as to who could be your Santa. I was introduced to this game when I was in hostel where every year we religiously play  - we did have our semester exam during this time of the year but that never dampened our spirits. Nothing could possibly be a hindrance to this game when you have a whole hostel - 100 odd girls playing this game. We had a letter box where we could drop in letters addressed to our secret friend. The thrill of finding a letter addressed to you or small gifts that would mysteriously appear on your bed or a messenger getting it for you. Aah!  Shopping for the gifts weren't easy either. It was always last minute purchases and all the 100 girls end up at the same store every time. We had to dodge our secret frie...

It is winter, it is Christmas and baking just happens this season! Listening to the carols, there I went baking again.   My mind began wandering to 'Long time ago in Bethlehem', In the 'Silent Night' I envisioned 'Hark the herald, angels sing'. The bright stars guiding ' We three Kings of Orient are' Led them to the place where ' Mary's boy child Jesus Christ ' lay.   ' O Come All Ye Faithful' and spread the word. 'Go tell it on the mountain' and spread 'Joy to the world' . It is a 'Merry Merry Merry Christmas' And 'Santa Claus is coming to town ' 'Dashing through the snow' here he is With 'Rudolf the red nose reindeer' by his side and 'Frosty the snowman' to welcome him I 'Decked my halls with boughs of Holly' , and keep dreaming about a 'White Christmas'. Looks like an overdose of carols!! Oh Never mind, like Shibin sa...

Cooking is delightful when you have people around who love your food and even more so when you have people you love cooking with you. How much more exciting can this new series on cooking with family and friends (that was on my mind for long) kick off when it is your mother you are cooking with:) On my parents first visit to Dubai last week- my Dad happened to make a comment - 'where did you learn to cook from? I do not remember you cooking much at home.' So very true! I never cooked much at home but I did spend considerable amount of time in the kitchen chit chatting with mom when she cooked, probably that rubbed on me somehow. My mom started cooking for her family during her high school days itself as grandmother being a teacher would be transferred around schools in Kerala and wasn't home often. She loved trying out recipes from magazines and newspapers ( google wasn't an option back then!! Life gets easier as time passes by) and the recipes of Mrs. K M Mathew ...

Days are passing by too fast!  Well, that is an understatement YEARS are passing by - I remember last Diwali was just a few months ago and one fine day I wake up to realise that the next one is here already! I refrain generally from commenting on religious sentiments however today I recounted an instance couple of years ago which made me think. It was the last day of work before the Diwali holidays and in one of the calls to a non - Hindu colleague I wished him Happy Diwali. (In India, you wish everyone greetings of every festival. We are country of many religions, cultures and traditions yet there is a unity in the way of our festivities.) His next comment took me aback - do you celebrate Diwali - are you not a Christian?  I only expected a Happy Diwali in return and now I am supposed to respond to his question! I kept it simple - I told him I am an Indian. It did not stop there - he went on to explain why as a Christian I should not celebrate Diwali! I could take n...

Time is flying by quite fast. Feels like it was yesterday that we celebrated the last Onam. Onam brings with it a lot of cheer and freshness. The pookalam and the traditional attire is a delight to the eye  and the soul satisfying sadya for your palettes. Both of us are bought up outside Kerala and are not used to varied flavors of payasam or pradhaman. The safe bet has always been the semiya payasam, ari payasam, paripu payasam and palada pradhaman. And this year, it was time to try out something we hadn't tried earlier. While sticking onto the traditional recipe, we have incorporated ari/rice as well ghee fried nenthra pazham chunks as well into the nenthra pazham ari pradhaman that we tried out. Wishing you all a blessed Onam season. Meanwhile here is our recipe. Ingredients (Serves - 6) Nenthra Pazham/Kerala banana - 3 medium Jaggery - 100gm Coconut Milk - thick extract - 1 cup Coconut Milk - medium extract - 2 cups Water - 1 cup Cardamom powder - 1...

I am not much of a sweet tooth, neither is Soumya, my sister. Despite this, one sweet dish that both of us would love to snack on is Boli or Holige as it is called in Karnataka. Boli and a splash of warm milk is just beyond yum.  My sister often comments on my good memory, be it with the dates or my ability to connect different incidents and the day it happened. My memory with food is not bad either. That gives me the right to comment on my Boli memories as well. Boli is a snack that my father often buys from local bakery and I loved taking it to Bangalore during my college days. More recently on our visit to India, my sister introduced this to Shibin as well. He loved it too which inspired me to try out this snack.   Boli is made of All Purpose Flour/Maida. To make it more healthier, I tried out the with wheat flour. Not much of a difference in recipe, just replace maida with wheat flour. There it is the recipe - Ingredients Wheat Flour/ All purpose Flou...

That was a pretty huge break from blogging. After a wonderful trip to Cyprus - (details on a travellogue soon) and also a bout of sickness, I am back in the kitchen. Now that Diwali is right around the corner, why not a sweet dish? Diwali is probably a festival that brings together the entire country. From lighting the lamps to bursting the crackers, everyone irrespective of age and religion join in. The energy can be felt in every lane in India and the hustle bustle in every household. The earliest memories of Diwali for me is the kids in our colony gathering for Diwali celebration at a neighbors house. We joyously lined the walls with candles and lit them, took part in the pooja, burst crackers and finally gobbled down really sumptuous food. This was a day, we the kids of Vidyanagar colony looked forward to. Crackers were not my favorite but I loved lighting the lamps and loved going on a drive to see the beautifully lit houses. This is my first Diwali away from India and discus...

When it is Payasam, it is kadala parippu payasam that I enjoy the most. Not just me, my sister as well. When everyone devours it hot, we love freezing it and having spoonfuls directly from the fridge:) Our dear akka, back home never misses an opportunity to make her special payasam. She ensures that she makes a huge quantity of it when my sister and I are back home. Only once do we eat it hot and the rest is frozen payasam. If it is payasam at home, our mom is sure to find a lot of used tablespoons lying around in her kitchen from our occasional sneaks into the kitchen for the payasam. Uhh!! Getting a little too nostalgic, am I! So here is your recipe - Ingredients Kadala parippu/ Bengal gram dal - 50 gm Raw Rice - 50 gm soaked in water Jaggery - 250 gm Sago seeds/chowwary/ Sabudana - 50 gm Coconut - 2 cups (take the milk) + 2 tbsp Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Ghee Soak the rice in water for half an hour and wet grind it along with 2 tbsp of coconut. Fry the s...