Rava Idlis is one of my favorite breakfast. You’d be amazed to know but I had never tried Rava Idlis until I got married. And, once I did, Rava Idlis found themselves a new fan. Once married, after coming to USA, Rice Idlis were one of the first demonstration of cooking skills presented by Mr. Parveez and not just were the idlis soft and fluffy, the sambhar was finger licking delicious with the perfect peanut chutney.
For years, weekends used to start with a special breakfast cooked by Mr. Parveez, which reduced to few special occasions a year, thanks to children and busy lifestyle that comes along with the joy of parenthood. Now, I can make 4 different varieties of sambhar, but my first sambhar recipe was from Mr. Parveez.
So, getting back to the Rava idlis. For the first few years, I only enjoyed them in India during my visits, since idli making was my “man’s job” and my man didn’t make rava idlis. Finally, the craving was hard to wait for my trip to India and I managed my own recipe for Rava idlis. This recipe is another version of Rava Idlis where I added a little sambhar masala to enhance the taste. I believe this to be one of my best experiments. Please do try. This is a perfect dish if you are going low on carbs or calories, great for diet. Its clean and healthy as well.
My kids, like all other kids completely dislike spinach. Any form of spinach curry or spinach daal made with different recipes would not make them happy. I am sure a lot of people share this story. My kids liked chhole/ chickpeas and that’s when I tried to come up with a recipe that has spinach, and does not give you that strong spinach taste.
This recipe is healthy, super delicious and is a wholesome nutrition. Its even good if you are on a diet.
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.
The value of eating vegetables is something most of us realize after getting older, specially after having kids. This is the time you understand why your mom took all those strict routes of making you eat Bhindi, turai and patta gobhi. In my case, I always threw a fit when my mom made cabbage or patta gobhi but, since I wasn’t a big fan of Okra/ lady finger/Bhindi either, I had to pick my battle and would normally give in with cabbage.
It was my teen age when I actually started enjoying cabbage and I remember that my mom started adding grated carrot and peas to the cabbage which changed the taste from the tradtional cabbage curry and added a lot more flavor to the dish.
This cabbage curry is my mom’s recipe. There is no onion or garlic added to it. My boys love it and its one of the few ways to serve the greens in a delicious way.
Bisibelebath is a traditional south Indian breakfast. Growing up in Northern India, I realize that I never knew this dish existed. To me Masala Dosa, Rava Dosa, Idli and Sambhar were South Indian food and my knowledge never went beyond that. After I got married, I discovered the food heaven that South India offered. I was not just amazed but, also surprised that the food had the never ending variety.
Bisibelebath is one of Mr. Parveez’s favorite dishes. I would always see him order and relish the dish at our favorite restaurant in Bengaluru. Unfortunately, we do not find the dish as commonly in restaurants in United States, and some restaurants that do serve, do not make it correctly. Therefore, I started cooking my own. The best compliment is when I don’t see Mr. Parveez enjoying the restaurant cooked Bisibelebath as much as he enjoys mine…LOLzzz. As much as he hates it when I tell him that [you know wives have the “wife sense”..LOLzzz] .
Mr. Parveez believes that no matter what I make at home, when he eats the same dish outside, he expects me to completely ignore the fact that its something I can cook and stay away from asking any questions related to the dish. So, now all I do is take a bite and be thankful, that I can make better.
This dish is basically Rice and Toovar daal cooked together and then mixed with boiled veggies and the Bissibhelebhaath powder, along with a little jaggery and Tamarind. Fimally tempered with South Indian tempering of cumin seeds, Mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves and a few cashews. Serve hot/ warm with something crunchy.
As Indians, we love snacks and our snacking has no time. India has shops where you can find food, cooked fresh that comes under the category of snack, even though the one time calorie can exceed your breakfast, lunch and dinner combined, but, its still a snack.
Every tea time/ coffee time needs to have a snack at the side. Every time we have guests, making a fresh snack is considered honoring the guests. Though times have changed and most people serve store bought snacks, some people in India still prefer ordering fresh made snacks from the local stores when they expect guests, if they aren’t able to prepare them at home.
And, then still existing are people like me who prefer making their snacks at home, as much as possible and serving their guests and family with fresh made stuff. I am not bragging, honestly, I enjoy doing it and also have the time. There is nothing more amazing to flavors that are freshly cooked.
Our life these days, is so fast paced that its tough for us to take care of our health and we all know the culprit is lack of exercise and intake of processed food. In spite of all, we find it better to rely on medicines and cut down on all flavors of life, than changing our lifestyle. Its healthier if you find a little time in your busy schedule and follow the simple recipes I share.
The recipes are not just super delicious but also simple to follow and very clean to eat.
We love curries and specially curries that aren’t made commonly. One such curry is Beetroot. While growing up, Beetroot only made it to our salads, with time I found that people even make pickles out of Beetroot. And, then after I got married, I found that its a pretty popular curry in my new home.
Like all vegetable curries, Beetroot also has loads of unique ways of being cooked. My MIL makes her Beetroot by cooking it with spices and coconut puree, which is amazingly delicious as well. I still remember when Mr. Parveez told me one of his childhood stories about Beetroot. As a kid, he would sometimes take this curry to school and since Beetroot left a little red color on his tongue and he would run around telling his school mates that he had blood for lunch…LOLzzz. Childhood is the best life we live and the memories are so fond and extremely special. The most fascinating part is us remembering everything by looking at things around us….I always love sharing these little stories, after all, every food has a story.
This recipe is one of my experiments with both my favorite veggies, Beetroot and Bell pepper.
I am from North of India, Rajasthan, to be precise. There was just one kind Biryani that my mom made, similar masalas with either mutton or chicken and always served with Boondi Raita. Once I got married, everything changed. I got introduced to the real Biryani world. Getting married to a family who are vaguely connected to the Mughals [believe me] and a good food loving family.
I got introduced to not just varieties of Biryanis, that are almost close to the language dialects of our country with basic ingredients being the same, while spices, marination time and other requirements change and the result each time is fabulous biryani with different taste, leaving you craving for a new and different biryani every time.
So, coming back to Biryani accompaniments, I also discovered new side dished for Biryani, like Khatte Baingan, Cucumber Raita, Onion Tomato Raita, Dahi ki chutney, Mirch ka salan and Dalcha. Earlier, Mr. Parveez would always make Dalcha when I made Biryani. He took a lot of pride and would always be more than happy showing off his cooking skills, specially since its one of the few things that only he made. Until one day, my high tech husband had a last minute work call and he came out with the secret recipe and I made it…Its easy, thought you might find it difficult the first time but you get the hang of it and trust me, it makes you perfect Biryani outstanding.
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 is a recipe from Bangalore. All Bangalorean Muslims love to cook varieties of Non vegetarian food and one of the commonly made food includes, Surmai / King Fish Fry. As much as its a part of all da’awat or get together, it is made quiet often at homes, since it makes a perfect side dish with Dal Chawal.
I was introduced to this kind of fish after becoming an official member of The Parveezes. My father in law was a real foodie. May his soul rest in peace, he would travel an hour or two to get the best fish fry for the family. My husband, Mr. Parveez has loads of fond memories of various restaurants and places he went with his father as a kid and my boys are always happy listening to his childhood stories.
My Father in law was a friendly guy and he would make a little more effort with people who served good food, to get a hint of what all ingredients they use… its funny but I think that’s how all us foodies are. a close by market to that restaurant sold some masala in a packet that my Father in law started buying since it was recommended by the cook of the restaurant. Since then every time he went to buy the fish, he would get loads of packets of those masala so, we could mix up some lemon juice and ginger garlic paste with fish and fry them. The fish would be very similar in taste to that from the restaurant.
For the first few years after we got married, I would bring those masala packets from Bangalore and every now and then use them on special occasions only, since India trip was only once a year. Then one fine day, I thought of giving up using the masala packet and make my own, so we could enjoy the yummy fish more often. I wouldn’t say it was exactly same as to what we get from the restaurant, but very close and close enough for us to not crave the fish when we visited Bangalore.
Not just that, my late Father in law loved the fried fish I made with homemade masala and since then, there was no looking back. This masala makes your King fish taste even better. Its an easy marination and makes a quick fish side dish that goes great with Sambhar and boiled Rice.
