Posts

Lentil Avocado Pita Pockets with Yogurt Mint Sauce
Ever since I saw  this  Mark Bittman's sloppy joe pita recipe in Cooking Light I have been itching to try it out. Honestly, what's not there to love when you have warm toasted pitas stuffed with spicy lentil stuffing, some cool mint yogurt sauce and crunchy fresh cucumber! This is a perfect early spring meal. Seems very California too :) Have I told you that a well stocked pantry and fridge is the most well kept secret of eating more healthy meals at home? It really is. I always have a pack of Trader Joe's whole wheat pitas at hand and some dried or cooked lentils ready to go at a moment's notice. One of these weekends we came home late from morning chores. The weather is unseasonably warm and turning spring, so I was craving lighter meals like salads, soups and sandwiches. Quickly chopped some onions, tomatoes and garlic and put the lentils to cook (hardly 10min prep time). The lentil cooking time of around half an hour was largely unattend…

Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake
I wanted to bake something special to bring to a new year's party we were invited to. Baking for a large gathering is always fun, because you can confidently add the sugar and the butter without worrying about the horrific outcome of you finishing all of it alone! (been there, done that, repented by hours on trademill :) )  So I was looking for something more elaborate and this chocolate swiss roll cake recipe which appeared on PW blog recently seemed perfect. I skipped the chocolate ganache because I realized last minute I didn't have enough chocolate in the fridge but the cake was great even without it (though presentation would have been much better with ganache, going to try that next time!) There were two mistakes I made while making this and both ended up with the same root cause of not whipping the batter long enough. Egg and sugar batter had not come to the ribbon stage, though likely a few more minutes would have done it. And the cre…

Tilapia Fish Curry - Bengali Style (v2)
Some recipes never seem to grow old no matter how many times you make them. They only age better with time and their v2, v3 and v4s are born. This is one such recipe for me - I have tried endless tweaks on this fish curry and tried perfecting it a little more every single time. Original version called for various spices, this time I substituted all the spices with curry powder instead. Result was equally delicious! The trick is to find a good quality curry powder if you don't make one at home. I generally use Trader Joe's curry powder and I am quite satisfied with it; it's a very mild version heat-wise but packs a lot of punch. Home-made has it's benefits but using a good quality store bought one is a very useful time saving arsenal of a busy mom. Another good one I like is Maharaja curry powder from Penzy's spices. I own a small bottle of mustard oil and all my Bengali recipes now start with mustard oil instead which I feel is great way …