Mr. Parveez has always been a big fan of the south Indian Food varieties, mainly the vegetarian food. One of the rice dishes, were Vangibhaath. Its basically eggplant cooked with spices and a few other ingredients and mixed with rice and served with peanut chutney on the side.
He had been making this dish since he started cooking in USA and back home, this dish was one of the few dishes that his elder sister would make at home. Soon after we got married, on one of his “Special Breakfast weekend”, he made Vangibhaath. Now, I am not a huge fan of eggplant, but I decided not to tell that to Mr. Parveez since the dish was made with so much love. I tried and I was more than happy to not bring up my dislike for eggplants.
This dish is amazing. The eggplants are completely cooked and merge really well with the spices of the dish. The cashews and chana daal ad a lot of crunch to the dish and lastly the flavor of tamarind is so well blended with the dish that all you would ever taste is a delicious rice dish made with little effort and a lot of love.
The first time I tried Rasam was in Dallas, Texas. Funny, right??? We were newly married and after 2 weeks of coming to USA, Mr. Parveez was offered a 2 week project in Dallas and he took me along. There happened to be an Indian restaurant very close to the hotel where we stayed and we would visit that place for lunch almost every other day. The non vegetarian food in that restaurant was not halal, leaving us with the only option of consuming vegetarian food.
After a day or two of being there, I came down with bad cold. I was in a pretty bad state and all I needed was a some nice warm soup. We were back for lunch to the same restaurant and decided to order some Tomato soup and while going through different soup options, Mr. Parveez came acrossTomato Rasam on the menu and he ordered it for us. I still remember looking at the soup bowls that looked like they contained colored water with tadka. My expectations were really low and honestly, somewhere in my mind I wasn’t too happy with Mr. Parveez performing experiments with my taste buds while I suffered from bad cold.
Anyways, the first spoon of the Rasam in my mouth and I had a party of flavors in my mouth. The spice was so mild, yet so prominent to make its mark and leave that tingling sensation on your tongue. The taste was so delicious that while you have a spoonful in your mouth, your soul craves for another one. And, the best part was the reaction of my sinus. My nose block just opened up and I started feeling so much better since now, I could smell the lovely flavors as well. From that day, till the day we stayed in Dallas and were in that restaurant for lunch, we would order the Tomato Rasam everytime.
And, after I returned home, I started my research on Rasam and discovered that Rasam is made in different flavors, Tomato Rasam is just one among the many and from there started my journey on making different rasam at home. We enjoy it more during winter and fall. My kids love it with boiled rice and every sinus congestion, cold and flu season…Rasam is always a part of our meal.
South Indian food has so many varieties with their chutneys. Coconut chutney, Peanut chutney, Roasted chana chutney, not forgetting the common chutneys with North India like the coriander chutney, green chili chutney and Mint chutney.
Coconut Chutney tastes awesome with Rice idlis and Sambhar. The spice of the sambhar is mellowed down by the coconut chutney and brings out wonderful flavors.
Chutney made with peanuts.
Indians and their love for lentils and beans is known worldwide. Most homes in India cook some kind of lentil or beans everyday. The dishes in North India and South India, basically my in laws and my mom’s family cook are very similar, except for the modes of cooking.
Being from Rajasthan, we cook more of mung, chana, chanwle, chhole where as, my in laws cooked more of whole mung, toovar and horse gram. Now don’t get me wrong, its not that my mother in law never cooked yellow mung, but it wasn’t cooked like Toovar, which is cooked in 4 different varieties in the house. Where as, my mom only used Toovar daal for khichdi or for making sambhar. All great beans and lentils and so many varieties and I consider myself really fortunate that I have the honor to learn all these great dishes. Its not just a delight to cook them all and enjoy a huge variety, but its a great pleasure to be able to share them all with the world.
Getting back to Chanwle or Black eyed beans. This dish is my own creation and I have a beautiful story attached to it. Mr. Parveez had not tried Chanwle, except at restaurants. So, once we happened to be eating some north Indian thaali and chanwle made their way to one of the foods served. They were cooked lightly in mild spice and had an amazing taste. I, then mentioned to my better half that I have grown eating these beans and since he likes I would love to cook them at home. My next trip to the grocery store had chanwle in the list. I knew I had to soak and boil them, and I thought I would ask my mom for the recipe, not realizing that the time I started cooking dinner in USA, my mom was sleeping in India. The soaked and boiled chanwle looked at me with high hopes of being cooked for dinner and that’s when I made up my own recipe, which was loved by my husband and kids.
I will share my mom’s recipe too on this site. Meanwhile, this recipe is simple, amazing and super delicious and healthy.
We love Biryani. Till date, I have cooked over 45 varieties of Biryani, with different flavors and different styles of cooking. Its amazing how beautifully the flavors blend in together and give out fabulous taste.
Biryani was introduced by Mughals in India. But with time, the addition of spices, chilies, local produce were added to enhance and make numerous varieties of Biryanis. And, I believe that with time, the vegetarians in India adapted the dish and decided to make the vegetarian option. Nevertheless, meat/ chicken/ vegetables, Biryani is always delicious.
Usually, Biryanis always goes hand in hand with chicken/ meat and is a non vegetarians delight. But, little do we realize that vegetarian Biryani would be equally delicious. While making vegetable Biryani, its always advised to use a variety of vegetables, of your choice. The good thing is that veggies are incorporated so easily that even with people who dislike them, enjoy it in this form.
This dish is a gift of my husband, Mr. Parveez. On days when I am confused and find it hard to decide on what should be cooked, he would come up with his innovative ideas and suggest on something new he would like me to try, unless he makes his way to the kitchen and treat me something super fatabulous.
Anyways, one day I was all confused and he suggested making this chicken dish. The dish uses 4 kinds of chilies so spice factor is a little high and if you aren’t daring enough, I would ask you to cut down on the spice level. This dish makes a great side dish with dal chawal.
This recipe of chicken kebabs comes from the era of Mughals. I know, most all kebabs do. Kebabs are a gift to the food world by the Middle East. The variety, the flavors and the fact that they are grilled in different ways can leave your taste buds joyful and crave for more.
I believe for a fact that when the Mongolians and the Persians rulers came to India, it wasn’t an invasion. I know during that era it does look like an invasion because all the wars were for power and land and the greed to appear mightier and stronger than other rulers always seemed to drive warriors crazy where they seemed to be baffled by the prosperity of the neighboring kingdoms and invasion seemed to be the only way to satisfy your hunger for more. But, leaving all that aside, the Mughals brought in a lot of architectural science, spices and methods of cooking. They came to settle and make India more diverse and that’s what I fail to see in Indian news today.
I am proud to be an Indian, a country where friendship and mutual respect comes much before religion. Where Eid is celebrated with as much love as Diwali. Where Hindus are always at your house on Eid to taste awesome Biryani and your mom makes sure she cooks vegetarian food separately for your 2 vegetarian friends. Where stories of Jodha Akbar is less of Akbar, the Emperor who invaded India and more of the love between a Mughal Emperor and a Rajput Queen. India a country, that proves its a place accepting all religions and stands tall with its cultural heritage.
With all that, food plays a very important role. The spices like cinnamom, cloves, cardamom and saffron changed the complete look of flavors and when mixed with Indian chilies, the result was food from Paradise.
This recipe goes back to the era of Jahangir / Saleem and the story that I read said that he had a great knowledge of spices and had the chefs prepare dishes according to his taste. This recipe comes in as one of his favorites.
Now, with the history books I read, I do get an idea of the ingredients but they aren’t a 100% of what were used in the original recipe. Therefore, these recipes are mine but they should be close to what the original food must have tasted. Each recipe that I share can have common ingredients, but they are completely different for each other. The only way you can find out is by trying.
I love serving dry kebabs as side dishes with our dinner and its hard to not experiment and not come up with new recipes. After all, I am mother to boys who have energy that drives me crazy and the fact that they love looking forward to new dishes on the table and not forgetting, the born carnivores, and with genes of Mughals. All these traits makes it mandatory for a mom to come up with new recipes of non vegetarian food.
Spices mixed up differently with chicken/ meat gives out super fab and completely distinct flavor. This recipe is quick, flavorful and is sure to impress those with a great taste buds.
I lived in Jordan for 2 years. One of the dishes that I loved the most was Shwarema. Now, Shwarema is popular in the whole middle east or middle eastern restaurants but there is a huge difference between Shawaremas from different countries are very different from each other. Where Shwarema from Dubai or Saudi is filled in pita, Shwarema from Jordan is filled in a thin roti kind of bread.
The best part was that the Shwarema had some garlic sauce in between and was served with pickled olives and cucumbers. It would be soft, juicy, mildly spicy and flavorful….so tried making what I liked. It tastes very close to the original Jordanian Shwarema and if you are like me and want more flavor from the chicken then the bread, this dish is for you.
This is great for kids, the flavor isn’t too strong that they can’t handle. Makes a great wrap for school/office lunch, or a picnic roll. It tastes great even when it has cooled off so you don’t have to worry about it not tasting too good when eaten later.
