7 Quick Fix Meals for Hot Summer Afternoons

Summers are here. When I was a child, I really liked summers. They meant ripe mangoes, vacations, free time, playing all day, visits to my cousins and relatives and so much more. That perspective has cooking meals in a hot kitchen added to it now, and well things have changed.

Cooking  in Trichy, or even Thane (now that I am back home for the summers) in the afternoons is a real task! Hot weathers and then you spend hours cooking  in front of the gas with no fan. Nope, can't do it everyday. So I went back to my old recipes and tried to find a solution to this.

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Guess what? There are recipes I can use to make nutritious and wholesome meals for the family and me without literally sweating it out in the kitchen! Our mothers, grandmothers and even their mothers have been cooking in this summer heat for ages, and as always they've found solutions. I have taken them in, and added some modern twists to it.

1. Mixed Vegetable Thalipeeth

You can find the recipe here.

Mixed Vegetable Thalipeeth Recipe

 If there are only one or two people for a meal at home, then this is a great recipe to make. It takes literally 5-7 mins to grate the veggies and prepare the dough. And then about 3-5 minutes to make each thalipeeth. Loaded with veggies, these thalipeeths make for a complete meal. Serve with some yoghurt, and green chutney (recipe here), or til chutney (recipe here) or even this garlicky coconut chutney (recipe here).

2. Gujarati Osaman and Chhuti Dal


You can find the recipe here.

Osaman-Chhutti Dal- Bhaath Recipe

A one-bowl complete meal with rice. 15 minutes for the pressure cooker to cook the rice and dal and 10 minutes to flavour the osaman. Chop up some vegetables for a salad when the osaman is cooking and you have a complete meal that is flavourful, light and filling.

3. Fettucine in Pesto Sauce

You can find the recipe here.

Fettucine in Pesto Sauce Recipe

Italian is always a great option for summer. Light meals that cook quickly and are so flavourful without much ado. This recipe takes about 30 minutes end to end. Add in this light tomato and mozzarrella salad (recipe here) and you have a quick and complete meal.

4. Chicken Burger

You can find the recipe here.

Chicken Burger Recipe

A soft bun slathered with a mustard-mayo spread with a juicy chicken patty and crunchy lettuce. This amazingly quick-cooing burger is a delight for both children and adults.This burger only takes 10-15 minutes on the gas and the rest of the time, you can have the fan on as you assemble it! Add some more nutrients with this spiced lettuce, cherry tomato and olive salad (recipe here).


5.  Prawns in Thai Red Curry

You can find the recipe here.

Prawns in Thai Red Curry Recipe

Quick-cooking and tasty, prawns are another one of my summer favourite. This elegant and delicate curry of prawns is deceptive because it is absolutely simple and quick to cook. Grind the curry paste in 5 minutes and cook the prawns in another 10. Pair it with steamed rice and you have a winner. Try it and you'll love it!

6. Falafel Rolls

You can find the recipe here.

Falafel Rolls Recipe

Rolls are a great summer cooking option because once you cook the main filling, you can always assemble them out of the hot kitchen. Make them with rotis, add some vegetables for the crunch and some healthy sauces and you have one whole meal wrapped up!

7. Spicy Thai Rice Noodle Salad Recipe

You can find the recipe here.

Spicy Thai Rice Noodle Salad Recipe

If you like light meals like I do for summers, then this is a perfect dish for you. A delicious balance of spicy, salty, sweet, pungent and sour, this salad makes for a complete meal. I like pairing it with some soothing jasmine green tea. You can pair it with some lemon iced tea too (recipe here).

French Toast with Gula Melaka Syrup Recipe

In my last post, I showed you the simplest recipe ever of making gula melaka syrup.  You can find the recipe here. Now is the time to make use of it. With a bottle of gula melaka syrup and a thinking hat on, here is what I came up with! Presenting...French toast with Gula Melaka Syrup!

French Toast with Gula Melaka Syrup Recipe

French toast is an all-time breakfast favourite. You can make it sweet or savoury - either ways bread dipped in a fluffy egg batter and fried in butter is going to taste amazing! Many people have their favourite recipes of French toast and many like to try new recipes for it. I came up with this as a take on the classic French toast.

French Toast with Gula Melaka Syrup Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 2 minutes for each French Toast

Makes: a stack of 8 French toasts

Ingredients:

8 bread slices (brown or white)

6 eggs

2 tsps milk

2 tbsps butter

Gula melaka syrup for serving

Method:

Heat a flat griddle. 

In a bowl, mix the eggs and the milk. Beat briskly for two minutes till it is aerated.

Brush the griddle with some butter.

Dip a slice of bread in the egg batter and put on the griddle. Pour some batter over the toast as it cooks if needed. 

Cook to golden brown on both sides.

Serve with a little bit of gula melaka syrup on top.

Relish!

10 Quick Weekend Brunch Recipes

It's Friday! The day of the week everyone looks forward to. It's the last working day of the week which means weekend's going to be here soon!

10 Quick Weekend Brunch Recipes

Weekends mean waking up late, cooking easy and delicious meals and eating it with family and friends. Weekends mean brunches where kids look forward to treats, and older kids like us look forward to more treats!  

Here are ten delicious weekend brunch recipes that are quick to make and very yummy!

1. Veg Coleslaw Sandwich

The recipe can be found here.

Veg Coleslaw Sandwich

This is the most popular recipe on my blog. I've made a vegetarian version of the sandwich. It has a lightly flavoured garlicky yoghurt spread, with lots of crunchy veggies. Make it 15 minutes in advance, chill the spread a bit and serve fresh!

2. Masala Upma

The recipe can be found here.

Masala Upma

Masala upma is my take on the breakfast classic. I've used congruent tastes of rasam powder to spice up the traditional upma. Serve hot with a squeeze of lime and see it dissapear!

3. Waldorf Salad

The recipe can be found here.

Waldorf Salad

Waldorf salad is an American classic. Fresh sweet red apples are mixed with hints of sharp celery, crunchy walnuts and served in a creamy mayo dressing. The best way to have this is chilled and served on lettuce.

4. Fettucine in Pesto Sauce

The recipe can be found here.

Fettucine in Pesto Sauce

This one is for the kids! Which kid doesn't love pasta? Make the pesto sauce in advance. Cook this noodle pasta in 10 minutes, toss it with sauce and top it with parmesan, or your kid's favourite cheese. Serve with lots of love.

5. Homemade Apple Cinnamon Jam

The recipe can be found here.

Homemade Apple Cinnanmon Jam

Brunch can never be complete without some hot buttered toast slathered with a thick layer of jam. Make some homemade apple cinnamon jam for your next brunch. It takes about half an hour to make and is not rocket science! Feel free to gather all the praises!

6. Pan Seared Aubergines with a Yoghurt Dip

The recipe can be found here.

Pan Seared Aubergines with a Yoghurt Dip

Having friends over for brunch? Cook something 'fancy' in 15 minutes for them. This recipe preserved the flavour of aubergines and mixes it up with a light, refreshing yoghurt dip. Worried that your friends (of you for that matter) don't like aubergines? Trust me, people who hate aubergines have loved this dish and eaten loads of it!

7. Homemade Pizza Sauce for Pizzas

The recipe can be found here. 

Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce

Satisfy your weekend pizza cravings (I know you have them!) with pizzas made from a homemade sauce. It takes 10 minutes to make this sauce. You'll have something fresh and preservative free (which just tastes so much better!) on your pizzas. Trust me, your phone-dialling for pizzas is about to go down quite a bit!

8. Veg Hakka Noodles

The recipe can be found here.

Veg Hakka Noodles

This is another very popular recipe on my blog. A dish that is the favourite of adults and kids alike. It's very easy to make and the recipe demands for quick cooking as the technique to get the flavours right. So there you have it... a perfect recipe for a weekend brunch! 

9. Mooli Ke Paranthe

The recipe can be found here.

Mooli ke Paranthe

Do you crave carbs when you wake up on weekend mornings (or afternoons?) How do hot parathas sound? Make these mooli ke paranthe in 15 minutes. They are bursting with taste and love. Sounds like you need just a dollop of butter and a plate now.

10. Kulhad Masala Chai

The recipe can be found here. 

Kulhad Masala Chai

Is your first thought of the day "chai!" like me? Then brew yourself this spicy, sweet decoction and you won't be disappointed. You'll simply be hooked!

10 Inspirations to Innovate in the Kitchen

What inspires people to do some thing? What is it that strikes a chord with them to create some thing or pursue the object of their inspiration? Inspiration can come from many sources, and each of them is precious as it pushes us to think beyond the box and do something interesting.

So the other day I was thinking about what is it that inspires us to cook and innovate. And I realised that inspiration can come from many sources, and many needs too. Here are some that I thought of!

1. The 'Hungry-Stomach' Inspiration

This is the top most reason to cook! When you are hungry and you like to cook, you will enter that kitchen and whip something up.

So how does being hungry help us to innovate? Many times being hungry comes with particular cravings that you have to satisfy and when you cook for these cravings, you innovate too. Some of my favourite dishes that I make when I have cravings are aloo parathas (spiced potato stuffed flatbreads) and sheera (sweet semolina pudding).

Aloo Parathas

Aloo Parathas With Aamras for those "I-am-Hungry" Cravings!

And when you are very hungry you will reach out to make those dishes that you can make really fast and eat fast!

2. The 'I-am-too-bored-to-cook' Syndrome

Think of all those times when you have been the only one at home for a meal and have been too lazy to cook. Or when you have had too much work and the thought of entering the kitchen just doesn't sit right.
At these times I like to make some quick soups and salads that are filling and don't take too much time, thought or effort to cook.

Asian Style Salad

Asian Style Salad for the 'I-am-too -bored-to-cook' syndrome

Thukpa

Thukpa Soup for when you are too bored to cook something elaborate

3. The 'I-have-these-ingredients' Excitement

Every time I go to Crawford Market, it gives me this reason to cook. For at least a week after my shopping sprees, I will be cooking new and exotic dishes in my kitchen, because I will have found the right ingredients.

Here are some dishes that result from my latest shopping spree at Crawford market:

Fettucine in Pesto Sauce

Fettucine in Pesto Sauce

Pumpkin Soup with a Mirepoix Base

Thai Green Curry

Thai Green Curry from Scratch: because I had all the ingredients!

4. The 'Some-Ingredients-Missing' Desperation

Oh, this one! The one that befalls all of us at some point in time. It makes such innovative cooks out of us! Especially when we are craving one particular dish, and we are missing one or two ingredients out of all those needed. Like once when I was craving upma (savoury semoilina pudding) and I did not have any rawa (semolina) at home... here's what I did!

Oats Upma

Oats Upma made when I had Rawa missing from my pantry!

5. The 'Empty-Storage' Conundrum

This is such a cliche when it comes to bachelor pads or singles places. You can still crave home cooked food when you are too lazy to shop. What do I do in such cases? I make tadkewaale dahi chawal (tempered yoghurt rice)! A quick no-fuss fix!

Tadke Waale Dahi Chaawal

And those days when I do not have any vegetables at home, I make this interesting sabzi-

Papad Ki  Dahiwaali Sabzi

6. The 'Special-Occasions' Creativity

Special occassions call for special dishes. And if you  love cooking, they also call for you to try and create new recipes to mark the occassion. I have some great memories of some really special dishes I have created for such special occassions

Hummus (chickpea dip) Platter for my brother's birthday with regular hummus, basil hummus and masala hummus (Indian style!)

Hummus Platter 

Cheesy Sweet Corn Canapes that I made to celebrate my 100th blog post

Cheesy Sweet Corn Canapes

7. The 'I-don't-want-to-eat-the-same-old-stuff' Alternative Search

Variety, as they rightly say, is the spice of life. And you indeed cannot eat the same dishes again and again. Everyone needs a change from their traditional food, once in a while. And these are dishes I cook to liven things up in the kitchen every once in a while!

Pan Seared Aubergines with a Yogurt Dip

Restaurant Ready Pan Seared Aubergines with a Yogurt Dip

Spaghetti in Red Sauce

Spaghetti in Red Sauce with Olives

8. The 'Kid-Might-Eat' Hypothesis

Every mother will agree that your concept of cooking changes completely when you have a kid! The dishes and food you have cooked over the years get questioned. And food and cooking becomes an exploration from scratch based on one hypothesis, "My kid might eat this". Here are some dishes that kids might eat-

Hakka Noodles

Hakka Noodles for the Kids

Healthy Vegetable Cutlets that hide all the veggies in it!

Healthy Vegetable Cutlets

9. The Recipe Re-creation Mode

Recipes, to me, are signposts or guidelines to be followed while making variations in them as per my taste preferences or those of my family. Some recipes that I have gotten innovative with are-

Dhaniya Kadhi (fresh corriander based yogurt sauce) that I saw on a food-travel show on T.V.

Dhaniya Kadhi

Pink Guava Curry that I found in the Good Food India magazine

An adapted version of pink guava curry

10. The 'Weather Calls for It' Cooking

Seasons change. Seasonal vegetables change. And the weather also calls for certain dishes. Need I really say more?

Cold and refreshing Waldorf Salad served chilled for summers

Waldorf Salad

Pakoras (fritters) with a twist for the rains

Onion Spinach Fritters with 

Hearty roasted red pepper and tomato soup for winters

Roasted red pepper and tomato soup