Wanderberry Tales

The English version of our very own Indian Dosa is what I would want to call it -Crepes. A good way to begin your day, an easy brunch for those lazy days, an evening snack or even a relishing dinner - the way you like with the filling of your choice.  We chose to have it as our Saturday Brunch! The first time I heard of crepes..hmm..Of course from my husband!! Heard, may the wrong word. He 'made' it for me on our second Valentines day together!! What fascinates me about crepes is the choice of filling you possibly can have. While we chose Jam, you may opt for anything from Honey to Nutella if you want it sweet. As a savory dish, you can choose any fillings of veggies or meat and roll it up. Also, this could turn into a perfect snack for your kids tiffin box:) Get innovative with crepes - roll it up and slice it or stack it and serve with fresh fruits and glimmer of honey. I am sure kids and adults will enjoy every bite of it. So here we go -  I...

Beetroot Cutlet makes me quite nostalgic. My earliest memory of this dish is when I made it in Class 9 for a proficiency badge in Guides movement. For those of you who are not familiar with the Scouts and Guides association, it is a movement to develop the young boys and girls as responsible citizens which may not be achieved through civic education alone. You need to cross various stages and tests to be eligible for the Rashtrapati Award. Each of the stages consists of a set of badges that need to be achieved and one among that was a proficiency in cooking for which we were to take to school a dish prepared by us. It was my mother’s suggestion that I try this recipe which she had noted down in her diary sometime back. The examiner being a vegetarian and a foodie loved it and I landed the proficiency badge. The second story dates to my PG days in Bangalore. My room mates had gone home for the weekend and I was left alone in the PG with nothing better to do. I thou...

Egg curry ,egg roast and egg burji is a common dinner recipe for us. It was time to try something new. And that is how the idea of omelette curry struck! I remember my mom making this a long time ago and I think it is quite unique. Having a boiled egg in the curry is usual but having an omelette in there is fun:) Trust me when I say this! We were to have guests over for dinner on Friday night and when I suggested omelette curry, my husband was a little skeptical. He presumed that it would be like normal egg curry just that the boiled egg was replaced by omelette. What if it looked a little too common?  Despite this, he let me have my way. Lo and behold, I made my omelette curry! I have tried this one another time, but did not succeed in wrapping up the omelette in such a way that it held its shape together. And this time I got it right. So here goes the recipe relished by everyone who had it. The trick here is getting your omelette cooked and wrapped the ri...

Poha is a simple and quick breakfast dish which you can whip up in under 15 minutes. That is why it is one of the most favored breakfast recipe in my kitchen. I always considered Poha to be a South Indian dish since a room mate of mine from Shimoga, a place in Karnataka often made it for breakfast. This notion changed on a short trip to Indore for a recruitment event. We were served Poha in the hotel for breakfast, as a snack in the college between the interviews and we even saw people relishing Poha at Chappan - a popular food bazaar  during the evening.  The Poha, I tasted at Indore was sweeter than the version I had down south which is why I try to bring in a little sweetness to the version from my kitchen. It is a lesser known dish to the Keralites. My husband had never even heard of it, till I cooked it for him the first time. This dish is a miracle breakfast recipe as far as I am concerned and  a lot better than the normal bread - jam/peanut butter or...

Quite a few friends have requested for some vegetarian recipes to be posted in my blog else they say they would  " unlike" the page on facebook :) I have been trying to recollect the vegan recipe that I love the most and that is when Rava Uthappam clicked! A quick uthappam recipe that does not require the batter to stand over night. So here goes the history. This recipe dates to those days when I had just moved out of college into corporate life. A few of us classmates moved in together after college beginning to bask in the glory of the newly found financial independence. After a hectic day at work, we would gather in the kitchen to cook ourselves a decent dinner. All we had was three or four utensils, an over packed small refrigerator shared by nine maybe ten of us, a double burner stove(one burner which hardly worked) and our inadequate cooking skills. We were always on the lookout for simple and quick recipes. None of us had the time or the energy for elabo...

I had never heard of this dish until a year before, when I had it for the first time from a small Tibetan restaurant in Viveknagar, Bangalore and more recently heard of it on Roti, Rasta aur India's Ladakh leg of the show. My husband spoke highly of Thukpa. This is what he had to say - light yet a wholesome meal, wonderful for cold and fever.  I can't agree better.  It is definitely light but quite filling and what more -it is the best and delicious way to consume the healthy vegetables which you might normally loathe. For all the mothers, it may be a really good way to get your kids to eat some vegetables. My husband swears on the health benefits of the soup. Apparently, he used to have thukpa when he was down with cold and it gave him a lot of relief as the soup found its way down the throat through the food pipe clearing the throat. I have always brought packets of Knor or Maggie soup but never attempted to make one. That is when I thought about beginning my ...

It was during our honeymoon that we first tasted strawberry apple jam. A lovely breakfast on the houseboat in Dal lake, Srinagar with Tea, Poha, Bread toast and Strawberry Apple Jam.  The jam just tasted heavenly with small chunks of apple and strawberry in it. On inquiry, we were told that it was locally procured but we were not fortunate enough to get a bottle of the jam from any of the shops we went. Post that, I have tried making pineapple jam and mango jam but never strawberry apple jam. Recently, we celebrated one year of our trip to Kashmir reminiscing the trip and the enjoyable moments. That is when I recollected the refreshing jam we had in Srinagar giving a real feel of fresh strawberries and apples. Bread and jam with coffee has been an easy breakfast option for us ever since we were married. What can be more fresh than home made jam with chunks of fruits to go with bread! When you make at home, you can be sure of exactly what goes into the jam wi...