Boondi ke Laddu

Boondi Laddu is one of those classic Indian sweets that everyone recognizes. It’s commonly made and easily found in almost every sweet shop—though no two are ever quite the same. Unlike Motichoor Laddu, which is made with finer, tiny boondi and a slightly different technique, Boondi ke Laddu have a distinct texture and charm of their own.

I’ve always had a special connection with them—one that I think every kid who grew up in India can relate to. Every Independence Day and Republic Day, schools across the country make it mandatory for students to attend the flag hoisting ceremony. Those mornings were filled with patriotic songs, speeches about freedom, and stories of how our freedom fighters united to gift us an independent nation. And at the end of it all, there was always that small token of joy—a Boondi Laddu handed out to every student.

Boondi ke Laddu was the staple sweet handed out to every child at the end of the Independence Day and Republic Day ceremonies. But it wasn’t just about school. Every Ramadan, during the 27th night of Shab-e-Qadar and around the time the Quran recitation concluded at our local mosque, my father would distribute Boondi ke Laddu there too.

Somehow, this sweet became a part of every celebration—religious or national. It was simple, joyful, and universally loved. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who could say no to a Boondi Laddu.

I don’t remember ever seeing anyone make Boondi ke Laddu at home back in India—they were always just there, ready to be bought from the sweet shop whenever you needed them. But now that we live in the USA, finding that exact taste isn’t so easy. The Indian sweet stores here don’t make them the same way, so I finally decided to roll up my sleeves and make them myself.

I looked through a few blogs and food websites, but most of them showed pictures and recipes for Motichoor Laddu instead. The thing is, sometimes you’re not looking for something fancy—you just want to recreate a piece of your childhood. You want that familiar taste that instantly takes you back home.

I tried making Boondi ke Laddu a long time ago, but my first attempt didn’t go too well—the boondis turned out long, and they just wouldn’t bind together. Then, during one of my visits to India, my Rakhi brother took me to a shop that sold special ladles made just for making boondi. I brought one back with me, determined to try again after returning to the USA.

Even so, I don’t think anything we make here can quite capture the same happiness as eating it in our motherland. No matter how perfect the recipe, you still miss the people you shared those moments with. But as they say, you can’t fight destiny—you can only make the most of what’s around you. So I continue cooking, creating, and cherishing these little pieces of home, one dish at a time.

These Laddus will definitely remind you of your childhood days. Though they require a little extra effort, and it gets a little messy too, but it’s all worth the effort.

Honey Lemon Chicken Wings

Chicken wings are an all-time favorite for almost everyone I know. Strangely enough, I had never tried them before moving to the USA. Back home in India, our cuisine doesn’t really include kebabs or appetizers made with chicken wings.

At first, chicken wings were something we only ate when dining out. It’s not that I never thought of making them myself—it’s just that Mr. Parveez and I liked them, but we weren’t exactly obsessed. There used to be a halal restaurant nearby that made the most delicious green masala chicken wings, and every once in a while, we’d stop by to enjoy them. Then, a few years later, the restaurant shut down—and with it went those amazing wings we’d come to love.

But honestly, that still didn’t inspire me to start making my own chicken wings. A few months later, we discovered another great halal gyro place that served hot, saucy chicken wings. They were fantastic for a while, but over time, something changed. The flavors started to fade, and the food just didn’t taste the same anymore. I’m guessing the management changed and brought in a new chef who couldn’t quite recreate the old magic.

That’s when it hit me—if I really wanted to enjoy good chicken wings again, I’d have to make them myself.

The first chicken wings I ever made were classic Buffalo wings. The kids loved them, and they quickly became a go-to appetizer for brunches and playdates. After making them for a few years—and watching my little fan club grow—I started experimenting with new flavors.

That’s how my Green Chicken Wings came about, followed by Haala’s Special Hot Saucy Wings, and finally, these. The main idea behind this recipe was to create something that balances sweet and spicy flavors—perfect for those who enjoy a little kick but can’t handle too much heat. It’s that ideal middle ground: flavorful, comforting, and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Why Wings?

Chicken wings are best cooked with the skin on. When pan-fried or deep-fried, the skin turns beautifully crisp, giving that perfect crunch. And honestly, any saucy flavor tastes even better when paired with that crispy texture—it’s what makes wings so irresistible.

Why use honey and not sugar?

Honey blends much better with spices than sugar. Sugar often tends to crystallize or make the sauce watery, while honey gives it body and balance. It adds just the right amount of sweetness without overpowering the flavors—making it the perfect choice for sauces and glazes.

These wings strike the perfect balance—lightly sweet, lightly spicy, and absolutely irresistible. The flavors play a little game of hide and seek on your taste buds, keeping every bite exciting. Sweet and spicy together are already a winning combo, but when paired with crispy chicken wings, the result goes beyond just delicious. If you love chicken wings, this is one recipe you’ll definitely want to try.

Laal Maas

Laal Maas is a traditional dish from my hometown, Jodhpur. It traces its roots back to the royal kitchens of the Rajput families, where it was considered a specialty. The dish was often prepared with the meat from animals hunted by the royals themselves—a bold, fiery curry that reflected both their adventurous spirit and love for rich flavors.

Laal Maas is still incredibly popular today. From the royal kitchens, it has made its way into restaurants across Jodhpur, where chefs continue to prepare it in their own styles—adding subtle twists while keeping the recipe close to its original roots.

This is my version, inspired by the many places where I’ve tasted Laal Maas and the flavors that stayed with me.

Many people from outside Rajasthan assume that Laal Maas is a common local dish, cooked regularly in every non-vegetarian household, especially among the Muslim community. But that’s not the case. In reality, Laal Maas belongs to the royal cuisine of Jodhpur, a legacy of the Rajput kitchens rather than a part of everyday home cooking.

I usually boil the mutton pieces before starting the curry. It not only cuts down the overall cooking time but also helps the meat absorb the spices better. The result is tender, juicy mutton that’s rich in flavor and perfectly spiced in every bite.

This curry is made with ghee—oodles of it! In Rajasthan, we take great pride in cooking our rich, traditional dishes with generous amounts of ghee. It adds a deep, distinct flavor that defines our cuisine.

That said, I like to mix a little oil with the ghee. These days, it’s not always easy to cook—or digest—food made entirely with pure ghee. But if you’re brave enough (and not counting calories), go ahead and cook it the authentic way, using only ghee. And if you’re more health-conscious, like Mr. Parveez, you can use just oil and add a teaspoon of ghee at the end for that signature aroma.

This recipe is relatively easy to make and can be prepared by beginners, with truly delicious flavors.

Chicken ke Sholay

With the wide variety of chicken kebabs we try—some made at home and others enjoyed at restaurants—this particular kebab stands out as something truly special. It’s from one of our favorite restaurants, which has several branches across New Jersey and a few neighboring states. This kebab quickly became a family favorite, a dish we found ourselves ordering almost every time we visited.

And then, for some reason, the restaurant closest to our house shut down. Now, anyone who lives in the United States knows that nothing here is ever truly “close.” But when we say five miles, we mean close enough! So, losing the nearest branch definitely made us sad.

Still, there’s always an upside—you can try to recreate what you love at home. I think moments like these are little tests of our own culinary instincts, a way to prove to ourselves what we’re capable of.

So, I decided to try making these irresistible bites of goodness myself. It took a few attempts to get them right, but when you truly love food and enjoy playing with spices, the process becomes part of the fun. The challenge lies in finding that perfect balance of flavors—the right amount of spice that makes a dish taste just like the one you remember.

The best part, though, is that these kitchen experiments often lead to new favorites at the dining table—dishes that are not only delicious but made with love, which always makes them taste even better.

Tava Tangdi Chicken Kebab

My experiments for Kebabs always have to be innovative, different and always have to be super delicious in taste. My boys love different styles of Kebabs and always look forward to trying different varieties and I believe that’s what pushes me to try different styles.

After making so many different styles of Chicken Kebabs, it does get hard for you to come up with something different with the same set of masalas. I mean its the same spices, yet playing around with them, adding them at different times at different cooking stages makes a huge difference in the flavor of a dish.

These kebabs barely need any marinating time which makes it better for people who are trying to serve something easy and fancy and decide at the last minute or for all those times when we have uninvited relatives/guests who come unannounced, but expect a wonderful menu. For all those times, these kebabs come in very handy.

These kebabs can be made without an oven and the ingredients are also not too fancy. Though I have used Chicken Legs and names them Tangdi Kebab, but you can always use other Chicken pieces or even boneless Chicken and follow the recipe. In case you use this recipe for boneless chicken, try using Boneless thigh/Leg meat and not the Breast. The Chicken Breast meat might be too thick and chewy for this recipe and since the Chicken isn’t marinated for too long and the choice of spices isn’t too fancy either, it might be hard for the juices to get inside the Chicken Breast meat.

This recipe is great for Beginners and Bachelors and pretty easy to impress a crowd by new chefs. Try it today and leave me a feedback as well. Enjoy!!!

Paav Bhaaji

I still remember when the trend of Paav Bhaaji came to my town. I was in Elementary school and I loved the flavors and so did everyone in the family. The funny thing was that all of a sudden Paav Bhaaji became a favorite dish for all. Now I have never been to the roadside stalls to eat Paav Bhaaji, though I somewhere always wanted to, but the small town I belonged wasn’t very apt with women standing on roadside eateries during those days. While writing this, I feel as if it was centuries ago, but honestly it was just a few decades ago and the amazing thing is that my small town has changed so much in the last few years that it’s exciting as well as scary. See, small cities have their own magic. People are friendlier, have more time in hand and almost everyone knows everyone. From that time where I would meet 50 people in a radius of one mile to now meeting almost the same number, but with the warmth missing.

Anyways, coming back to Paav Bhaaji. So, my father would always bring it home as a take away and we would all love it to the core. Slowly, my mom started getting Pav bhaaji masala and we would enjoy home made Paav bhaaji. So, my home made Paav bhaaji masala is my mother’s recipe.

I had tried my hands at Paav Bhaaji multiple times and always loved every bite of it. Though my mother used so many different veggies like cauliflower and carrots for her Paav Bhaaji, I only stick to Potato and Bell pepper, making it closer to the original flavors.

The Paav are also homemade. They are pretty easy as well. If you follow the recipe properly, you will be able to make these pillow soft amazing buns at home. You can serve the buns with anything, but as Paav with Bhaaji, they just seem to taste super amazing. To make them taste more delicious, split the buns, spread some butter and sprinkle some Paav Bhaaji masala on them and toast them on the Tava/ Pan.

Click and make your own Paav at home

Homemade Buns / Paav – Haala’s Dastarkhaan

Homemade Buns / Paav

I still remember when the trend of Paav Bhaaji came to my town. I was in Elementary school and I loved the flavors and so did everyone in the family. The funny thing was that all of a sudden Paav Bhaaji became a favorite dish for all. Now I have never been to the roadside stalls to eat Paav Bhaaji, though I somewhere always wanted to, but the small town I belonged wasn’t very apt with women standing on roadside eateries during those days. While writing this, I feel as if it was centuries ago, but honestly it was just a few decades ago and the amazing thing is that my small town has changed so much in the last few years that it’s exciting as well as scary. See, small cities have their own magic. People are friendlier, have more time in hand and almost everyone knows everyone. From that time where I would meet 50 people in a radius of one mile to now meeting almost the same number, but with the warmth missing.

Anyways, coming back to Paav Bhaaji. So, my father would always bring it home as a take away and we would all love it to the core. Slowly, my mom started getting Pav bhaaji masala and we would enjoy home made Paav bhaaji. So, my home made Paav bhaaji masala is my mother’s recipe.

I had tried my hands at Paav Bhaaji multiple times and always loved every bite of it. Though my mother used so many different veggies like cauliflower and carrots for her Paav Bhaaji, I only stick to Potato and Bell pepper, making it closer to the original flavors.

The Paav are also homemade. They are pretty easy as well. If you follow the recipe properly, you will be able to make these pillow soft amazing buns at home. You can serve the buns with anything, but as Paav with Bhaaji, they just seem to taste super amazing. To make them taste more delicious, split the buns, spread some butter and sprinkle some Paav Bhaaji masala on them and toast them on the Tava/ Pan.

Bangalore Muslim Kheema

Kheema curry can be made in so many different styles. Growing up in Rajasthan, I had either tried the Kheema made at home by my Mom, which was a must for picnics and Road trips. My mom would made Kheema with Aaloo and Kheema with matar. There were never Kheema made with multiple vegetables together. I heard my mother also mention that my grandmother enjoyed adding cauliflower to Kheema, which I don’t remember trying it and honestly could’t get myself to making it since Mr. Parveez isn’t a cauliflower fan.

And then came Kheema curry that we would eat in Puraani Dilli, Jama Masjid area for breakfast when we went to Delhi and one of my other favorite was Mumbai Kheema Paav. I will be posting that recipe soon along with the recipe of the Paav. Both of those were my absolute favorite and I would look forward to them. Hot Tandoori Roti in Delhi as an early morning breakfast with Kheema, Nahari or Paaye makes anyoone’s morning special. Mumbai Kheema Paav on the other hand has Tomato base and mostly made of Chicken.

But this recipe is completely different from all of them. This recipe comes from Mr. Parveez’s family and its a recipe that most Bangalore Muslims make for Kheema. The recipe comes from Mr. Parveez’s Mom to us and we proudly call it “Ammi wala Kheema”. So, basically its chopped onions cooked with some whole spices in oil/ghee, with Ginger garlic paste, Goat Kheema, spices and tomato. Along with all these, there are a ton of veggies that make their way to this Kheema, potatoes, Beans, Fenugreek leaves and Dill leaves. This Kheema recipe is great for Breakfast, but tastes great even for Lunch and Dinner.

Kolkata Chicken Roll

We love Chicken rolls. Those of you who read my blog and follow my recipes would know that I love different styles of Chicken wraps, be it a Chicken Roll or Burrito or Tacos. I think the love for Chicken rolls came from my Mom. During one of her trips to Mumbai, she had tried some Mutton Tikka boti rolls at a Parsi eatery and tried reinventing them at home which is actually loved by the whole family.

So, when I came across a wonderful pictures of Kolkata Chicken Roll, I had to give it a try. The flavor of Kolkata roll is not just different, it actually bombards your taste buds with a joy ride of different things. From what I have read, its pretty renowned and a popular street food in Kolkata. Though I have never been to Kolkata, there is something about the food and culture that connects me to it and I find it amazingly attractive. Recipes like this are so easy and fuss free that while it connects you to your roots, which is just so important for people like me who live so far off from their home country, but also makes it easy for your kids to eat. Its healthy, nutritious and perfect for on the go too.

I grew up eating and loving my mother Tikka Boti Roll, which she initially only made with meat but then also started making with Chicken and I loved both. I have always been a fan of being able to make something that was good for road trips. See, some trips allow you to stop by at hotels on the way, but not all and for those trips or those after game hunger pangs while you might be stuck in heavy traffic, these are the recipes that just don’t come handy but also are flavorfully satisfying.

I marinated the Boneless Chicken with Salt, Ginger garlic paste, Lemon Juice and Yogurt. Spices I used were Fenugreek leaves, Tandoori powder, Red chili powder, cumin powder and fennel powder. Chicken can be marinated and left in the refrigerator overnight but if you are short on time, it can also be marinated for 30-45 minutes.

This recipe might not be exactly same as what you might have experienced in Kolkata, if you have been lucky enough to try the street food there, but after the numerous trials and efforts made by me and going through uncountable recipes of different kinds, I managed to stick to this one for the Kolkata Chicken rolls. I am not too sure how the Chicken rolls are different from the Kolkata egg rolls, but my mom would always spread some egg was on the Roti and fry it for the Tikka Boti so I did the same thing for my recipe and I feel the taste is deliciously enhanced. This recipe is inspired by numerous flavors that I have tried all my life and I feel with the numerous trials that I have made, I am able to give this dish a flavor different from my regular Chicken rolls. Hope you try it, like it and enjoy it as much as my family and I do.  

Chicken Veggie Wrap

With all the different kinds of foods that we consume, at times you just feel that your tummy needs a break. You feel you need more veggies, less oil, fewer carbs, in all just a healthy meal. But, the problem that people like me face is that we also need something that tastes scrumptious and good along with all the health benefits.

Specially, if you have children as demanding as mine, you basically fight a battle. When the demand is to make veggies look more appealing and to make their protein go leaner without them noticing. That’s when dishes like this are invented.

Now this isn’t your regular Chicken veggie wrap. Its a little different. The wrap that I have used is not a Tortilla, though you can always use a home made/ store bought Tortilla. The Chicken I used is boneless thigh meat, but you can also use Chicken breast. I cooked it with little Olive oil, Garlic powder, Onion powder, Red chili flakes and white pepper powder with Vinegar. Once the Chicken was cooked, add Bell peppers and Onions. Further, just add hot sauce to add a little zing. Wrap everything in lettuce leaves with some onions and chilies/jalapenos and further in a roti or whole wheat tortilla with some garlic Mayo sauce and enjoy the scrumptious bites of goodness and health.