Celebrate!

We complete 15 years of married life today! Traditionally the anniversary gift for this year would be crystal. A "modern" gift would be a watch or glass. But you know what- the two most precious gifts that we have are our two not-so-little-anymore kids. We love them more than anything in this world. They make our lives important.

For the last 3 years, every December 19th, our kids cook something special for us (well, our daughter usually does all the cooking, and has her brother assist her). This morning they whipped up a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, and olive toast. Not just your ordinary scrambled eggs, but all jazzed up with pesto, ghost pepper salsa, and sharp cheddar cheese- yep, all the stuff that I love! Mm mmm!

Anniversary Special! 

Happy Anniversary, my love! Thanks, sweet children, for all your love. And the awesome breakfast this morning! Wonder what you're gonna make for dinner?! ;)

I'm still here!

Not been inspired lately........ this totally proves that cooking is in fact an art! You know how writers, and painters keep looking for inspiration; it is the same with us "chefs!" (Hey, I AM a chef, even if the rest of the world doesn't know me!)

Anyway, just thought I'd stop by and say hello. Yes, I'm still here!!

Ode to Pasta

My latest hobby is to go on the web and find out what day it is. By day, I don't mean what day of the week, but for instance, you know how we have Mother's Day in May, Father's Day in June, so on and so forth....... that kind of day. And I am surprised that there is in fact a day, for every day of the entire year! Well, at least they have come up with a day for every day of the year! Yes, that was a redundant statement...........

And so apparently, today, October 17th, is National Pasta Day! We had pasta just the other day. My daughter whipped up her special pesto pasta, using sea shell pasta. She incorporated peas, corn, carrots, red swiss chard, leeks and a ton of garlic. It was par excellent!

My daughter's delicious Pesto Sea Shell Pasta

Not sure I want to make pasta again tonight, but I thought it would be fun to put up some of my pasta pictures from the past........ sort of like an ode to pasta!

My "Devious" Penne Pasta

Chicken Soup with Farfalle

My One-Pot Pesto Pasta

My rather tasteless Shrimp Scampi made with angel hair pasta

My creamy delicious Orzitto

So there, that's my little ode to pasta. (Yes, I do notice that I tend to make more of pesto/green pasta that the red sauce based kind!) Pasta is versatile, and you can never have enough of it! If you haven't already had pasta this week, go ahead and make some awesome pasta tonight. It is afterall National Pasta Day! Oh, don't forget to wear some gaudy clothes while cooking, because, it also happens to be "Wear Something Gaudy Day!" Are you going, "Geez!" yet?! ;)

Hot Stuff!

I love hot and spicy food, and that is the ultimate truth. Of late, I have fallen in love with Naga Bhut Jolokia. Yep, the Ghost Pepper- the hottest pepper I have eaten. Well, it used to be the hottest pepper in the world, until the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion took over. I'm waiting to try that one soon.

Since I love hot and spicy food, I of course have a thing for sauces with a kick. Not your ordinary tomato ketchup kinda sauce, but the gourmet kind. And if the sauce has some ghost pepper action going on, I have to get it! I am proud of my little collection of hot sauces that I have going, and I thought I ought to share it with you.

My lovely collection- still counting.......

In the above picture, starting from the very left, we have Dave's Insanity Sauce, Dave's Ghost Pepper Sauce, Mrs. Renfro's Ghost Pepper Salsa, and finally, Melinda's Naga Jolokia Sauce.

In terms of the heat factor, Dave's Insanity Sauce holds true to its name- INSANELY HOT, followed by Dave's Ghost Pepper Sauce, which can literally rip your taste buds off of your tongue. The ghost pepper salsa is pleasantly tongue-burning hot, and the mildest of all is Melinda's Naga Jolokia Sauce.

Dave's Insanity and Ghost Pepper sauce bottles come with a warning, yes, an actual warning! It goes, "Use this product one drop at a time. Keep away from eyes, pets and children. Not for people with heart /respiratory problems. Shake well and refrigerate after opening." And boy, do they mean it! Heck, the ghost pepper sauce even claims, "It also is a great industrial cleaner and grease remover." And the insanity sauce claims something similar, "Strips waxed floors and removes driveway grease stains." Now you can either take that literally, or treat it like Applied Biology, your choice! ;)

I always have Mrs. Renfro's Ghost Pepper Salsa stocked up in my pantry. In fact, ever since my husband discovered this about a year ago, we don't care much for any other salsa available at the grocery store. It is a brilliant super-hot salsa, and for every bottle sold, a part of the proceeds goes to  The Chile Pepper Institute towards research and education. And I'm all for that! We do know that chile peppers actually have medical benefits, right? Ever heard of capsaicin? That's the stuff extracted from peppers that helps alleviate Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis pains, and even helps regulate blood sugar levels in diabetics. So yeah, it's all good stuff!

Melinda's Naga Jolokia is the mildest of this lot, because even though it has ghost peppers, there are other ingredients, such as carrots, papayas, and passion fruit that totally mask the heat that one would otherwise expect from a sauce that so proudly claims that this is their "hottest offering by far." But hey, no qualms about that. It is still quite tasty. Plus you don't have to worry about any waxed floors getting stripped off!

A year ago, my husband's colleague gave us some bhut jolokia achaar (ghost pepper pickle) that he got from New Delhi, India, and it was killer stuff! Here's a picture that I found on this website. Too bad they are out of it, else I'd have ordered it right now!

So there, that's my collection of ghost pepper sauces for now, and I hope to get a hold of that Trinidad Moruga Scorpion one of these days! 

Celebrating Grains

Woo-hoo! I got one more opportunity to guest blog for Full Circle. Thanks, FC!

Last week, I got an email from them asking me if I would like to write on the topic, 4 Other Grains to Eat besides Rice. OF COURSE I'd like to write on this topic, was my response (sans all the caps......)! I mean, what an exciting thing to write about! I could have written a mighty long article on this topic, however, there's this thing called word-limit, and so I had to chop it up. Well, the post turned out decent enough. The pictures turned out pretty good. Oh, and they were nice enough to put my picture up there, too. *GRIN*

Here's my post: 4 Other Grains to Eat Besides Rice.

Like I say in my post, September happens to be Whole Grains Month- so this was perfect timing!

Spicy Tomato Asparagus Noodles

Last evening, our neighbor brought us some tomatoes from her garden. They looked beautiful, and after thanking her like a dozen times, and shutting the door, my immediate thought was ooh, gotta make some spicy tomato noodles!

The tomatoes, freshly picked from my neighbor's very own vegetable garden, were nice, and red, and firm, and simply gorgeous. Oh, and a 100% organic of course!

Gorgeous organic tomatoes, fresh from my neighbor's garden!

Prepping:

1. I first chopped up the tomatoes. Also minced some garlic. You can make it as garlicky (if that's a word!) as you want. And I roughly chopped some beautiful tender asparagus.



Delicious Tomatoes

Psst: While chopping the tomatoes, I ate up one raw tomato- it was the best tasting tomato I've ever eaten! Sweet like heck, with just a mild hint of tang in the background. My son tried some, and he couldn't stop either! In fact, I felt bad to cook those gorgeous beauties. They definitely don't deserve to be cooked, I thought. And so, I decided that instead of really cooking them, I'll just throw them in at the end.

Tender Asparagus

2. I cooked some regular chowmein style noodes from a packet. I thought I ought to take a picture of the instructions on the packet. OK, not trying to be mean or anything--- but, it was quite funny. Very straightforward, but funny!

Very straightforward instructions (disregard the spellings.....!)

Cooking:

1. A wok would have been nice, but since my wok is not all that great (I got it for free from one of those online orders I made one time), I just used a big pan. Put some cooking oil, got the stove running, and then threw in the garlic. I didn't want to brown the garlic, just sort of get the oil infused with the flavor. I then added about 1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder for some kick.

Garlic and red chilli powder in oil

2. Then in went the asparagus, that was quickly stir-fried for about a minute or so, you know, to retain the beautiful green color as well as the crunch.

Asparagus

3. I added some salt to taste, and also some freshly ground black pepper. And then threw in the noodles that I had previously cooked. Normally I would have added the tomatoes along with the asparagus, but remember, I didn't want to kill those lovely tomatoes by cooking them. Therefore, I added the tomatoes right at the end. And gave it all one good stir, to get the flavors rolling.

Spicy Tomato Asparagus Noodles

My spicy tomato asparagus noodles turned out pretty darn good. Well, it wasn't all that spicy like I intended it to be. Guess I should have added a good couple teaspoons of red chilli powder. But then, I can go overboard with the spice, sometimes!

The best thing was that I finally, after all these years, successfully ate my noodles with chopsticks! Two thumbs up for that!



Mm mm!

A Day at the Spokane Farmer's Market

I am so excited- I guest blogged for Full circle! Thank you, Full Circle, for publishing my post, "Top 10 picks at the Spokane Farmer's Market." It sure was fun writing for you!

Here's the link to my article: http://www.fullcircle.com/goodfoodlife/2012/08/24/top-10-picks-at-the-spokane-farmers-market/

Some more pictures from my visit to the Spokane Farmer's Market last weekend:

Gourmet Cipollini

Jelly Bean Tomatoes!

Fresh Okra

Potatoes

Look at those Rattlesnake Beans on the right!

Beautiful carrots

Tabasco peppers!

Cheese Samples

Bright and gorgeous flowers

From Bees to Bubbles- Handcrafted soaps

If you haven't gone to your local farmer's market, you must do so. The produce there is simply fresh and beautiful. Strolling around the market is so relaxing and refreshing, and above all, you support your local farmers!! 

Love Rekindled

Just another couple weekends after this one, and kids will be back in school, and we'll have our routine back in place. Bet a lot of us are wondering: where on earth did summer go??? It has just zoomed by like crazy! And I have been slacking off on my blogging too! But hey, no complaints, because I have actually been enjoying summer this year, mainly because it involved some within-the-country travels, first to NJ, and the second to NC. And that really has been the highlight this summer.

NY City

My trip to NJ involved a bit of indulging in some par excellent Desi Khana, i.e. Indian food. I was stupefied, and I decided that the next time I get into the oh-I-miss-India-and-Seattle-is-so-blah mode, all I gotta do, is make a trip to NJ! It will be faster and cheaper than making a trip to India, for sure. I mean, the Indo-Chinese food there is exactly like the Indo-Chinese food we get in Bangalore! Gobi manchurian, chicken lollipop, schezwan noodles, chicken fried rice, you name it!

Gobi Manchurian

Chicken Lollipop: I have not found a single Indian restaurant here, in Seattle, that has this on their menu!! In fact, the Indian restaurants here are very very pathetic! There, I said it! I am sorry if you are somebody who owns an Indian restaurant in Seattle area, and are reading this post- but that is the ultimate truth! In fact, did you know that we have stopped going to Indian restaurants here?? Yep, that's right- we have stopped going to Indian restaurants because their buffets are plain simple BORING! As for Indo-Chinese--- we have one restaurant here, in Redmond, which, I guess, people go to, out of sheer desperation. I, very reluctantly, have to admit that a few weeks ago, I took my kids there, yes, out of sheer desperation!

Tokri Chaat: Who would have thought that this is available here in America?! I certainly didn't have the slightest idea! Well, my friends took me to this place called Dimple's Bombay Talk, and got me tokri chaat. "Tokri" means basket and chaat is of course, a lovely spicy, tangy, sweet, mixture of savory goodness. And you eat the basket along with the chaat. An edible basket, you wonder? Yes, the basket is made out of finely shredded potato and then fried- so yeah, you can go right ahead and eat it all! We have a few chaat places here- say, about 3 (wow!) and again, nothing impressive about them.

Tokri Chaat

OK, so you probably get the gist that Seattle's Indian food scene is not quite up to par. However, I have come to realize that this is in fact a good thing. Better for our health and better for my figure too. I mean, I have always been a chubby girl (hey, chubby sounds better than fat!), and eating chicken lollipop and gobi manchurian and gorging on deep fried tokri chaat will just make me go downhill at an amazing rate! So even though I am in awe of all that delicious Indian food in NJ, I think I am better off here, in Seattle.

In fact, when I came back, I realized that I actually missed Seattle. Nothing can beat our clean air, our evergreens, the Cascades, the hike and bike trails, the farmer's markets, the courteous drivers on our roads (mostly), and just the artsy charm, in general. Yeah, I prefer this to an overcrowded, noisy, polluted place filled with drivers in a mad rush, anytime. Agreed that the Desi Khana scene there is way better, but that certainly does not top my list of priorities!

In one way, I'm glad I made that trip, because it rekindled my love for Seattle.

Quinoa "Pie"- not just for the diabetic!

I mentioned in my last post that my parents are now into low Glycemic Index (GI) foods. That basically means that my mom's pantry is now devoid of any rice, or wheat, for that matter. Instead, her grocery list consists of foxtail millet (called "navane" in Kannada), wire-cut oats etc. These are the "ancient" grains with carbohydrates that take a longer time to break down, thereby releasing sugar into the blood at a slower rate as compared to "modern" grains such as rice, especially white rice, that spike up blood sugar levels at a rapid rate, and the latter is not a good thing, especially for diabetics. And that, my friends, is a pretty long sentence! So anyway, low GI foods are supposedly healthy foods. And with all this talk about healthy living and healthy eating, grains such as millet, oats, buckwheat and quinoa are being re-discovered by people. Well, if not people, definitely by my parents!

The other day I had made quinoa to go along with some baked salmon and grilled veggies, and some of the quinoa was leftover. The next day we had something else and the quinoa just stayed in the fridge. Finally, a couple days later, on a Saturday morning, I decided to use my mom's innovative recipe and converted the quinoa into a beautiful quinoa "pie." It turned out to be pretty darn delicious!

The Making, Ingredients and all:

1. Leftover cooked quinoa. Err, doesn't necessarily have to be leftover-- you could always make some fresh quinoa (cooks just like white rice)! I used roughly about 1.5 cups, maybe. (If you are aware, I follow the eye-ball technique when it comes to cooking......)

Cooked quinoa

2. I had some leftover grated carrot salad from the previous night. Decided to just throw that in as well. Hey, you can make it as healthy as you want! The salad already had salt and some coarse peanut powder.

Grated Carrot salad (with coarsely ground peanuts)

3. Chickpea flour (specifically black chickpea flour, called "kala chana besan" in hindi)- another diabetic friendly ingredient- about 3-4 tablespoons. This acts as the binding agent.

The binding agent- chickpea flour

4. I chopped up a small onion and a couple thai green chillies. And mixed up all of this. I added a few teaspoons of water, just to get a bit of a sticky consistency, to make it easier to spread it out in a baking pan.

Qunoa "pie" mixture

5. I then sprayed a baking pan with some Pam (regular oil will work too, and if you don't care, butter would be great!). I transferred the quinoa "pie" mixture into the pan and spread it out with my palm/fingers. You gotta be quick while doing so, else the mixture can start sticking to your palm and fingers and just get all messy.

Ready to bake!

6. Before sticking it into the oven, that I pre-heated at 400 deg F, I remembered that my mom, when she made the same thing with millet, added some pats of butter on the top and then let it all bake. Yep, butter makes everything, even low GI foods, better! So after placing a few pats of butter on top, I put it away in the oven and let it bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. At the end of it, the butter was all melted and the "pie" was all nice and browned up and best of all was the aroma! So inviting!

Quinoa "pie" all baked and ready!

Delightful Quinoa "pie"

7. I cut up the "pie" into slices, like pizza slices really, and served it with my sun dried tomato pachadi. Mm, mm, delicious! It tasted nutty and chewy and the ends were nice and crisp. In fact, like my daughter pointed out, it tasted like a veggie burger, one of those whole grain bocca patties-- simply outstanding, and super filling too!

Quinoa "pie" with sun dried tomato pachadi

Afterthought:

I realized that this awesome quinoa "pie" will make a great pizza base! I mean, if you are diabetic and you can't find diabetic-friendly pizza anywhere, or if you just want to do something super healthy for yourself, you just make this in the form of a pizza base (pat and spread it out nice and thin), bake it,  and then top it with veggies of your choice (or meat- but believe me, that will be extremely, as in EXTREMELY, heavy!!). And there, you'll have made yourself a real good, out-of-this-world-healthy, pizza!

Likewise, you can incorporate cooked millet or buckwheat or any grain, really, and create some unconventional deliciousness. Go ahead, try it today!

Tomato Pachadi

The parents came, stayed, and left. I was pretty much out of the kitchen, as the mother completely took over. The first couple days I was needed- you know, to show her around the kitchen, etc. But thereon, she completely took over. Oh wait, I said that already.

The highlight of this time's visit was my introduction to various ancient grains, that my parents have incorporated into their diet, thanks to diabetes. Rice and wheat are now banned, because of their high GI values, and it is all about millets, oats, the proper kind, not the ooey-gooey instant kind, buckwheat, quinoa, etc. They got introduced to quinoa here, and they simply loved it. In their shopping this time, guess what they took back? I learned some pretty neat recipes from my mom, that I shall be trying out in the following weeks. We all had a wonderful time, and as with all holidays, this one came to an end exactly a week ago- last Sunday, to be precise. After a bit of moping, now it is back to square one!

Sun Dried Tomato Pachadi:

"Pachadi" is a very telugu preparation, that can be made with pretty much any vegetable, all spiced up and pounded up. OK, as much as I tell myself not to do it, I did in fact end up looking for "pachadi" on Wiki. So, dear ardent reader(s), if you don't already know what pachadi is, please don't hesitate to look it up on good old Wikipedia.

Now, speaking of tomato pachadi- traditionally the preparation of tomato pachadi is quite tedious and time consuming. I mean, first you gotta buy a good amount of tomatoes, wash them, dry them, salt them, spice them, and dry them again, this time in the sun. And then you pound the sun-dried tomatoes into pulp. Then you heat up sesame oil, as in smoke it, literally. Then you cool this oil overnight. And finally you pour this smoked and cooled sesame oil into the pounded sun-dried tomatoes, mix it all up, keep it away for a few days. Finally when it is time to eat it, you probably would have forgotten all about it!

Now, I have the time (yes!), but hey, I lack the patience needed for such time-consuming food preparation. And besides, I barely get any sunshine in this wonderful place (please note the sarcasm), so the whole dry-the-tomatoes-in-the-sun thing ain't gonna work for me!

Therefore, one fine afternoon, my mom suggested why not try making this awesome pachadi with sun dried tomatoes? Good idea! So off we went to the store, bought a couple small packets of sun dried tomatoes and tried it out. The result was quite a success, except that the final texture was a bit on the dry side. No problem! The next time, that was just a couple days ago, I bought sun dried tomatoes soaked in extra virgin olive oil. The result: Perfect Tomato Pachadi, that I shall be making regularly henceforth.

Ingredients: 

1.  A jar of sun-dried tomatoes soaked in EVOO

The main ingredient (don't worry about the herbs- they are quite undetectable in the end product)

2. 1-1.5 teaspoons of Fenugreek Seeds, roasted

Fenugreek Seeds (aka Methi seeds)

3. 1-2 teaspoons of mustard seeds

Mustard Seeds

4. Salt to taste

5. Red Chilli powder (per tolerance)

Red Chilli Powder (this one's extra hot!)

6. 2-3 tablespoons of tamarind pulp (if it is tamarind concentrate, I would use just about a teaspoonful)

Tamarind Pulp (if concentrate, the color will be darker)

7. Sesame oil- you can get this at any Indian or Asian store.

Method: 

1. I take my nifty little spice-grinder (originally coffee-grinder) and grind up fenugreek and mustard seeds into a lovely powder, leaving it just a tad bit coarse. If you prefer, you could grind it into a fine powder.

Fenugreek+Mustard Seeds Powder

2. I then transfer the sun-dried tomatoes (in EVOO) into my food processor, add salt to taste, red chilli powder to taste as well as the tamarind pulp. I also add the freshly ground fenugreek and mustard seeds powder.

3. And finally a few pulses in the food processor, and the tomato pachadi is almost ready!

4. I smoke some sesame oil in  my sweet little "kadhai" (I have mentioned it in one of my previous posts: http://yetanotherfoodie.blogspot.com/2010/05/grab-some-mint.html) and also splutter some mustard seeds and set it aside to cool off. The cooling happens quite quickly, in less than 30 minutes, if you keep it on the counter or near an open window.

P.S.: Do make sure that your smoke alarm is disabled, just to avoid all the noise and confusion it may cause in the household! My mom set off the smoke alarm while cooking one day, and got all freaked out. Yes, we ultimately had to disable it, since she was in-charge of the kitchen!

5. Finally, I pour this cooled sesame oil with mustard seeds into the pachadi (step 3) and mix it all up. I give it a quick taste (very important for a chef to taste his/her creation, before serving it to others, you see!) and add any additional salt/chilli powder/tamarind if required. That's it! Sun Dried Tomato Pachadi is ready!

Sun Dried Tomato Pachadi

I store this very beautiful pachadi in a bottle/jar (hey, could most certainly re-use the jar that the sun-dried tomatoes came in!) in a cool, dark place (one of my kitchen cabinets). The spicy-tangy sun dried tomato pachadi is quite versatile. Spread some on a slice of bread (enriched bleached white bread would be really good!), or eat with rotis/chapatis, dosas, or best is the good old way of mixing it up with some steaming hot white rice, with a little bit of ghee (clarified butter) and just eat away, enjoying every bit of it......... mm mm!

Now let me see what the time is- aah, 6:40 am in Bangalore. Time to sign off- gotta call up my folks!  

Hello again!

You know how you lose touch with a friend, for no particular reason, in that "just-happened" sort of way? And then when you finally do meet up, you are a bit quiet in the beginning, because you don't know what to say? (And somehow that inner poet in you also awakens!) That is exactly how I feel right now. It has been some time since I posted anything here. Life suddenly got a bit tumultuous. A lot of change, a lot happening......... and, so, amidst all that, I just did not have that urge to write anything. Oh, did I just hit that little curiosity button in you?!

Well, it is time to get back to doing things that make me happy, and so, hello again! 

About a month ago, we visited my brother and sister-in-law, and as ever, had a wonderful time. All we did was eat, laugh, eat (that's right, my next book, and movie!). A made some excellent Salmon Chettinad and Y made this wonderfully delicious veggie biryani. I watched them cook, and I must say that I was quite impressed with their team-work, and of course, by their culinary skills.

Salmon Chettinad:

My brother had marinated some beautiful salmon filets in olive oil and some "secret" spices the previous night.

Salmon filets, marinating in olive oil & "secret" spices

He prepared the masala/curry base by using a gazillion different spices, roasted them and then ground them up in the blender, along with some grated coconut. The end result was this delightfully spicy and fragrant chutney. Now I did watch while he cooked, but unfortunately, I do not recollect the exact list of spices he used. So, brother, if you happen to comment, I sure would appreciate it if you jot down those spices for me. Thank you very much!

He then pan-fried the fish filets, just enough to brown them up on both sides.

Pan-fried salmon filets

And then, he took a pan, poured in some cooking oil, threw in some chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste and chopped tomatoes. He sauteed it all, until the onions were translucent. And then into this, he poured in that spicy, fragrant chettinad curry/sauce and brought it to a boil. At this point, he had his sous-chef (my SIL!) pour in some tamarind juice into the curry. And finally he folded in the pan-fried salmon filets into the chettinad curry and let it all simmer for a few minutes. Mm, mm!

Chettinad curry/sauce into the onions+tomatoes+ginger-garlic

Sous-chef adding tamarind juice

Folding in the salmon filet(s)

Salmon chettinad, simmering away....... mm, mm!

Meanwhile, the sous-chef, my sister-in-law, was busy working on her veggie biryani. She first got all her vegetables ready. Look at the picture, and you will get the idea:

Veggies for the biryani

She also had some basmati rice going on the stove. The rice was to be just partly cooked. Once partly cooked, she drained away all the water.

She also chopped up a bunch of mint.

Mint leaves

And she soaked a few strands of saffron in some water.

Saffron

She took a nice huge pot, and poured in some oil and got the heat going. Then she added a few whole spices, such as bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom, etc. The delightful aroma was already in the air.

Whole spices

She then added the veggies one by one into this pot, fried them, added salt and a special spice mix, and also added a cup of yogurt.

Veggies+spice mix+yogurt

And then she began the layering. She first added a layer of the cooked veggies, followed by a layer of the partly cooked rice, and then a thin layer of the mint leaves. She did this, very patiently, I must add, until all the rice and the veggies and the mint was used up; and err, the pot was quite full! She finished off by drizzling that saffron water.

Layer of veggies over rice

Layer of veggies spread out over the rice

One more layer of rice

Final layer of rice spread out evenly

Finishing touch- saffron

After all the layering was complete, she closed off the pot with the lid and allowed this to simmer away on the stove for a good 15-30 minutes. The yogurt in the mixture allowed the partly cooked rice to get completely cooked. In the end, when she opened that lid, that aroma and the look was insanely appealing and I just couldn't wait to eat dinner!!

Vegetable biryani waiting to be eaten!

Perfect Layers

The flavorful veggie biryani and the hot and spicy, as well as tangy Salmon Chettinad were just fabulously delicious.

Salmon Chettinad over a bed of Vegetable Biryani

Thanks, A and Y, for that amazing dinner. It truly was superb. The lovely little song we came up with, was/is also truly genius. "Tinta irbeku, tinta irbeku, tinalla andre nammage ishta illa!"

Cheers to that, and can't wait for our next eat, laugh, eat rendezvous!