Wanderberry Tales

It is simply amazing how simple ingredients come together to form a perfect cuisine. This Pola recipe combines egg with bread and plantain to form a delectable snack. It was only recently that I was introduced to Malabar cuisines and I am loving them. I definitely intend to try more of the Malabar flavors. Quite co-incidentally, during my recent visit to India, my aunt, in order to save overripe plantains from rotting away introduced me to this recipe. I liked the combination and ventured to add bread also into the recipe to make it a wholesome dish. Here is the recipe - a simple quick win snack. Ingredients Eggs - 5 no.s Plantain - 4 medium size Bread - 6 slices Sugar - 2 tbsp Milk - 1/4 cup Salt - 1 pinch Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp Ghee - 2 - 3 tbsp Cashewnuts - 2 tbsp chopped Raisins - 2 tbsp Method Cut the plantain into cubes and shallow fry them in ghee until the yellow color of the plantain begins to turn brown. Fry the cashew nuts and raisins in...

It is hard to find anyone who wouldn't love gorging a toast slathered with peanut butter - be it creamy or chunky! A cup of coffee and peanut butter toast forms my ideal breakfast on a weekday. I had my first taste of peanut butter during my hostel days when a friend's father got it from Dubai. Back then peanut butter had not gained the current popularity in India. Peanut butter slathered on Marie biscuit was a hot favorite snack in college. And on those nostalgic days we still do it.  For those of you who love peanut butter and never gave a thought of making it at home - here is how you make it. It doesn't take you more than 30 minutes and even lesser if you already have roasted peanuts handy. Give it a thought. It is any day better than the store bought peanut butter which we inadvertently put into our shopping cart at the supermarket. It can be easily stored for almost a month in an airtight container. For the ones who would love to lick on peanut but...

Theeyal is a Kerala cuisine and like most of the cuisines from this region has a good share of coconut in it. Coconut is dry roasted and ground to a fine paste along with other spices to give the finesse to this gravy. Addition of prawns to this curry enhances the flavor which otherwise is a generally known vegetarian dish. My aunt definitely makes this the best and she makes sure she cooks this for me whenever I am at her place. She usually makes this with shallots and prawns. I just replaced the shallots with drumstick. Here is the recipe for you -  Ingredients Prawns - 1/2 kg shelled and cleaned. Drumsticks - 3 cut into 2 inch pieces Onion - 1 medium sliced Green Chilly - 3-4 slit Tomato - 1 big/ Tamarind pulp - 1 lemon sized Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Oil - 2 tbsp Salt to taste For the paste -  Chilly powder - 2 and 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 2 tsp  Coconut - 1 cup grated Fenugreek powder - 2 pinches For Tempering Curry Leaves - 1 spri...

Come the Fridays (Oh yeah that's right, weekends are Fridays and Saturdays in UAE) and the desire to try out something new in the kitchen erupts. We desperately needed a snack to pump us out of our laziness into action! I had a chicken breast in my fridge and mozzarella cheese too. Well, Friday magazine also published a recipe of Beef and Mushroom rolls which came as my inspiration. So it was decided, I am gonna make a roll and I am gonna bake it as well. I made the Filo pastry for the rolls as well, I must say it came out pretty good - definitely worth a try. Ingredients For the Filo pastry All Purpose Flour - 2 cups Warm Water - 3/4 cup Salt - 1/2 tsp Olive oil - 3 tbsp Corn Flour - for dusting For the filling Chicken - 200 gms Onion - 1 big finely chopped Garlic - 1 tbsp finely chopped Parsley - a handful chopped Pepper powder - coarsely ground Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp Mozzarella cheese - 200 gms Salt to taste Oil - 2 tbsp Method To make the...

Fish Mappas or Meen Mappas is a traditional Kerala recipe flavored by the addition of coconut milk. This is served along with appam, idiyappam or bread roll.  My recipe is an adaptation of the one I had seen on cookery show - Shappile curry naville ruchiyum on television. I have tried this recipe a couple of times with different fishes like Karimeen and Vatta. It turned out the best with Neymeen/ King Fish which I made this time and we finally decided to put it up in the blog. Unlike fish molly, mappas is a little tangy due to the addition of kudampali/ pot tamarind and blends well along with the creaminess of coconut milk. This recipe is now a favorite with us. So, here you go -  Ingredients Fish slices - 9-10 pieces( I used King Fish - you may use karimeen or pomfret also) Onion - 2 medium sliced lengthwise Green Chilly - 4-5 slit Ginger - 2 tsps chopped Tomato -1 medium sliced lengthwise Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Tur...

And it is a year already! This blog was born with little or no idea how long it would sustain but here we are - Our first milestone! And we intend to attain many more. It has been a tremendous learning experience all along. We confess that we are not the experts, we experiment, trial and errors along the way and happy successes too. We have presented our successes to you and learnt from our failures to better the food we present to you in every way. My gratitude to all my family, friends and everyone of you for the encouragement through your constant likes and comments! Cheers to one year of happiness through food blogging! Lemon Cake with Honey Lemon Drizzle - that is our latest fad. Here is the recipe for you - Ingredients For the cake -  All Purpose Flour - 2 cups Sugar - 1 cup Vegetable Oil - 1 cup Egg - 3 no.s Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Baking powder - 1 tsp Lemon zest - 2 lemons Lemon juice - 2 lemons salt - 1/4 tsp For the drizzle -  Ho...

In the hustle bustle of modern life, people find it difficult to cook up elaborate recipes. We look out of quick wins that soothe our taste buds after a stressful day. A couple of my bachelor friends requested for recipes that are quick and easy to whip up. So both the needs combined together, we decided to come up with some easy beginners recipes - that are soul satisfying in both the ways. Here is a recipe with hard boiled egg that takes you a maximum of 5 minutes to make if you have boiled eggs with you. It is a spicy kick to the normal boiled eggs. Ingredients Egg - 2 no.s Oil - 1 tbsp Chilly powder - 2 tsp Salt to taste Method Take 2 eggs in a saucepan with water just enough to cover the eggs and bring it to a boil. Simmer on medium flame for ten minutes and switch off the flame. Transfer the eggs to a bowl of tap water and let it cool. Peel the egg under running tap water - makes it easier for the shells to come off. Using a knife create slits on the ...