Wanderberry Tales

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 gm...

My sister was a picky eater. I have no choice but say 'was' because this time around when she came to Dubai I saw the 'pickiness' ( not too sure there is even a word as such) changing. It was not just her being picky but she hardly ate. Her favorite was chapati with chicken gravy ( she never touched the chicken in it though) So my Dad thought there is one easy girl to manage not much expenses on her food. This was until she grew up and then all she wanted to eat was non-veg food:) The hungriest time of the day was the gap between rushing from school at 4.30 pm ( read after throwing the shoes one under the cot and another under table, socks on the dining table and school bag on the sofa) and the play time which started at 5. We always rejected the option of left over morning puttu ( steamed rice cakes) for evening snack time. But our mother had her way. She would sprinkle a generous amount of sugar, mash in the bananas and feed us. That did taste out of the world - a d...

Wishing you all a very Blessed New Year! It is the 14th of the month and I hope you are still sticking to your resolutions that have a tendency to lose momentum as the month goes along! I have not made myself any strict resolutions but I hope to be better and do good more than I could in 2017. I have had a happy 2018 so far and I hope and pray that all of you did too:) Having said that, certain things do not seem to be changing in 2018! It took me 14 days to get a post out for new year and a long pending post which was shot last March along with the Crispy Sweet Corn  and was idling away in the drafts. It took a weekend get together were I made the ulli vada again that I got reminded of my pending post. So here we go with the post.  Its called Ulli Vada down south of India - it could be roughly translated as onion pakoda, onion fritter or onion bajji - depends on which part of the globe you are from! Some recipes call for the use of all purpose flour - I have used gr...

I always knew of Ramadan but it is only after moving to UAE, I realised how religiously it is observed and what iftar and suhoor mean! The world of blogging introduced me to a lot of Malabar snacks mostly fried but really mouth watering. I tend to stay away from deep fried stuff, primarily because I have pimples popping on my face as soon as I relish on anything fried. Since it is shorter office timings during Ramadan, my husband one day happened to come home with some snacks that he picked up from the local Kerala cafeteria for our evening tea together (that is a rarity too - happens only during Ramadan). It was all deep fried stuff and I could not resist it - pakoda, samosa, irachi petti, chatti pathiri, mulagu bajji, ulli vada. It was all there. I waited for two days after we had this - Yay! No pimples and that made my resolution to prepare a fried malabar snack stronger. That is how I ended up making irachi petti with the minced meat I had in the fridge. Irachi means meat and pe...

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...

I have been wanting to bake cookies for quite sometime. The last two attempts of mine was futile and I decided to give it a go once again. This time around I was lucky. I managed to get the heat and the texture somewhere close to what me and those who ate my cookie would call it RIGHT! Peanut Butter and banana are my favorite combination any day and any time. I had ripe bananas with me and I made my own peanut butter - so then that was decided. It is going to be a banana peanut butter cookie. Here is my recipe for those who would like to try out the same. Ingredients All Purpose Flour - 1 and half cup Banana - 4-5 small ones or one big Creamy Peanut butter - 1/4 cup Butter - 1/8 cup Sugar - 1/2 cup Baking soda - 1/4 tsp Egg - 1 Vanilla essence - 1 tsp salt - 1 pinch Method Preheat the oven for 15 minutes. In a bowl, mash the bananas. The riper the bananas, the easier it is to mash. Add in the peanut butter and butter along with the sugar. Stir it in well...

I was never a big fan of chikki until quite recently. The month of February changed it all. I ate nuts candy from St.Maarten, almond candy from China and sesame candy from Dubai. Not that I traveled to China and St Maarten, let's just say it is simply the benefit of staying in a country with so many nationalities. This was a trigger enough to try making this candy myself. The resolve was made stronger at Dubai Mall last week with the sample of peanut candy coated with sesame seeds that we got to sample at one of our office lunch outings. The candy looks complicated and anyone might think twice before even looking up this recipe.My assumption was the very same till I actually tried it out. Making a chikki ,as it is commonly called in India is just a 10 minute job if you have all your ingredients in place. Here is your ten minute recipe. Ingredients Roasted peanuts -1 cup Sugar/grated jaggery - 1 cup( I used sugar, you may substitute it with jaggery) Butter - 2 tbsp ...