Halasinabele holige/ Halasinabele vade

Halasinabele Holige or Halasinabele Vade (ಹಲಸಿನಬೇಳೆ ಹೋಳಿಗೆ ಅಥವಾ ಹಲಸಿನಬೇಳೆ ವಡೆ) — one of those nostalgic delicacies that takes me straight back to the sweetest memories of childhood. ❤️

It has been more than 16 years since I last tasted this humble yet incredibly special dish. After all these years, it finally felt like the right time to bring it back into my kitchen, prepare it with love, and relish every bite.

A perfect monsoon delicacy, traditionally made together with family, where the preparation itself becomes a cherished memory — and the final dish, the sweetest fruit of our collective labour.

Some flavours are more than just food; they are little pieces of our childhood that we get to relive, one bite at a time. 🌧️❤️

Bajra neer dose/Pearl millet savoury crepes

Sajje neer dose/Bajra neer dose/Pearl millet savoury crepes

Quite natural is the thought of every Indian woman who worries as what to cook to feed her family. I am quite spontaneous in that aspect. I don't prefer planning much ahead of time or in advance as it just adds to my anxiety. It is like I get up in the morning, scan my kitchen cabinet and just like that idea drops in. People may not believe but it is so at my place. I do plan only when I need fermentation, soaking, resting time etc for some dishes, otherwise it is all instant yet healthy as far as possible. So here is my sajje neer dose that I did for breakfast today morning. Pearl millet or sajje or bajra is a very healthy grain which is energy-packed and can also be called a superfood. Loaded with insoluble fiber that helps you lose weight, lower cholesterol, and lower blood sugar levels. Let's see how I prepared this bajra neer dose. 

Moong dal payasam/Split green gram dessert

Quick yet delicious and easy South Indian dessert is this moongdal payasam or split green gram dessert. The richness of jaggery, coconut milk and the goodness of green gram flavored with cardamom powder loaded with ghee fried cashewnuts and raisins. Ain't that making you drool as you read? 

Kesar peda / Saffron milk fudge

Cooking sometimes takes me to a different world, there are days I hate to be in kitchen and there are few where I could perform elaborate cooking standing hours together performing minute fine tasks required. Yesterday was one such day where I achieved fineness and swiftness. As it was a working day, I wanted to quickly get something done which would please everyone's palette.

                                               

Halasinahannina Genasale and Halasinahannina Kottige

It was a satisfying meal for dinner on Saturday last weekend. Made authentic havyaka brahmin delicacy which involved halasinahannina genasale and halasinahannina kottige with a dollop of homemade ghee and red coconut onion chutney. This definitely satisfied our cravings and it was soulfilling.
Steam cooked, banana leaf wrapped, rice cake filled with ripe jackfruit, fresh coconut and jaggery mixture being called halasinahanninagenasale in kannada language by Kannadigas, chakkaeleada in malayalam by Keralites.

Raw jackfruit dosa/Halasinakayi dose/raw jackfruit crepes

Using almost all parts of jackfruit is a tradition in Dakshinakannada(southern most part of Karnataka, India) place I belong to. Especially our havyaka kannadiga community never ceases to amaze me with the varieties that are made out of  tender or fully grown raw jackfruit as well as ripe jackfruit. It is an emotion to the people born and brought up there. Kids enjoy this with honey or rave(cooked liquid form of jaggery)

Ragi chocolate cake

My daughter had been requesting since yesterday that today I am not supposed to do anything in the morning as she is supposed to do for a reason. I kept pestering her asking the reason even though I had an idea as what were her plans to amaze me for mother's day. She made an amazing breakfast in the morning and gave me a handmade card and a bouquet of flowers. It was great to eat a morning cheese toast made by her. Best part was she made her toast first, had that😉 and then with her toast energy she prepared for both of us. Small cute things bring loads of happiness. So I thought to amaze her with her favourite chocolate cake.

Rajma oats patties

Lockdown is the new normal. Everything works as before with certain restrictions in place. Never mind, we started living and loving the new way of living life. Earth looks much greener.  Animals and birds are enjoying their share of this Earth happily. Well for us, eating only at home turns out to be a challenge and I believe every person who cooks can relate to me. Every other day I think of something new to appease the tastebuds of my family. Well other day I was going on probing the kitchen cupboards searching all possible items available to sort them out.

Oats Banana Pancakes

Corona made our weekends longer. Remember the days when we used to wish how good it would be to have weekends longer, meaning instead of having 2 days off for the weekend, a day extra over the week would always make us happy, I guess similar prayers from people around the world had brought these days (on a lighter note 😉), now no one has a clue as whether it is a weekend or a weekday. All look similar at least in terms of seeing each other's faces 24/7.
The lock down since two weeks now didn't change much as we are used to buying groceries for the entire week. But yes, a sense of worry always exist when we go out to buy our groceries on weekends. Well, the fruits we bring either turn out to be less or more for the week. With bananas often I end up having extremely ripe ones by the end of the week and now had to use them in something that is healthy at the same time delicious. Thought to make some pancakes out of these ripe bananas. Neither do I use eggs nor all purpose flour which usually tends to make pancakes fluffy. So I tried out some formulas to make them fluffy even when using oats. Sounds interesting?

Neeru dose/Thellavu

Everyday brekkie in Dakshina Kannada(South Karnataka) families is this soft neeru dose/thellavu made out of ground raw rice, bit of grated coconut , just 2 main ingredients and soft delicious neeru dose is ready to be made.
This is a gluten free recipe and also no fermentation is required!

Rasmalai

Anything or everything out of Indian cottage cheese is my all time favorite. One of my favorites among Indian desserts is this soft and spongy melt in mouth delicacy called Rasmalai.

It wasn't an easy task as it was my first try for rasmalai. Rasgulla, sibling of rasmalai 😉 I had prepared earlier, that too I have had some flops in one or two tries. Anything that needs chena which is prepared by breaking the milk is considered to be luxurious as to prepare them in good number we must be spending few liters of milk. And to be very honest patience is something that we need to have as well. I would say we learn the art of patience in the process of rasmalai making. But it is worth the effort. Eventually it is a home made delicious dessert that is the end product you get.
I had tried it around 2 months back when we had guests over a weekend. That day it turned out so

Mango Ice Cream

Whatever the season is, love for ice cream is something which never dies. Spring has shown its colors in our city and the onset of spring means, here there would be days which are really warm like summer alternating between some moderate temperature days and some cold days. But 2-3 weeks back we had such an awesome temperature. After season of chilling cold winters, it was a pleasure to luxuriate in the warm Sun outside and bask in a cone of one's favorite flavored ice cream.

I was like they definitely have good amount of loaded sugars and artificial colors or flavors in them, why not try one of our favorite flavors at home and guess what, it is mango ice cream. Yes, you read it right, I added no sugar, no colors! Bingo yet it turned out yum.

Holige/ Havyaka style sakkare holige/Kadalebele holige

Any big function at native (ooru) is not without this holige complete. My kiddo calls it sweet chapathi, though now she knows the name 'holige'. It is famous throughout India. In different states it is made in their authentic way, named puranpoli in the north, obbattu or holige in Karnataka. I love this Dakshinakannada way of sakkarekadalebeleholige. I could just make 8. In native they get prepared in '3 digit number' say 200 or 300 for moderate functions. Today my husband ate them and told well from next time we can skip calling our adigebhatru(cook)😉 for functions, as this has turned out to be very close to what they prepare a day ahead of function at native. 

Palak Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese with Spinach

I still remember I have posted this recipe long back, back then also I used to like my palak paneer without tomatoes, even today it is the same, only thing that changed is the masalas/spices that I used then and now, and another thing is Paneer I used to fry, but now I like them without frying. Well I guess it is not only me, there are many who like their Palak Paneer green, I feel adding tomatoes change the color, also cooking the spinach leaves for long and covered cooking turn them to a different green color which I don't prefer. So here goes my new version now unlike the old way of palak paneer which is a family favorite since more than a year now😉

Methi matar malai

A bunch of methi (fresh fenugreek leaves) at Indian stores here, I was like I must try something special out of this. Many things started running in my mind but a curry using these leaves had an edge as I scanned through the list of items that had queued up. My kid loves chapathi/roti (Indian flat bread) and it is for sure not a daily preparation at our place as I tend to keep rice often for curries as it is kind of easy stuff to be prepared. Well, but in a week I manage once or twice to prepare rotis.

Chilli Paneer/Paneer Chilli

Long time it has been having entered my blog space. When one is conscious of the food intake, automatically one tends to get healthy, as all say it is 70% your diet that matters. Now I try at times things that include more of protein and fats. My craving this winter is for an Indochinese snack, well to be honest, it could even be my brunch or lunch (actually anytime I can snack on this). I tried out a version of paneer chilli which did not involve flour in any form following a recipe from internet. Isn't that interesting?

Banana Apple Whole Wheat Flour Cake with Coconut Sugar

Holiday is at times exhausting but well kids are kids, they tend to feel bored often unless they are engaged in some summer camp or so. I did want to spend some quality time with my kid this summer, so took a few days off just to be with her chattering around. But then I never knew that it turns out hard, as at times we run out of the different types games we could play together, I kept planning one after other and finally yesterday it was cake baking, our agenda for the day, and we baked a delicious moist bundt cake and that too egg less 😊!

Now when it comes to cooking or baking, off late I try out something that is healthy. The coconut sugar that I

Coriander Coconut Chutney

A chutney is a must when idlis or dosas are prepared at home. Every time it is a dilemma that I go through when I must make a choice. A simple and easy chutney is what I always prefer. Now for idli a simple chutney I could think of is Coriander Coconut Chutney. Just few simple ingredients that are common in our pantry, and tadaa.. chutney is ready.

Oats Vegetable Idlies/ Oats Vegetable Steamed Savory Cake

Idlis are common as a part of South Indian breakfast. Many variations are available. One must keep trying something or the other that brings out a new taste to please the family's taste buds. I tried at first similar to the way I used to prepare my rava idli mixture except that this included oats and vegetables too. Often soda or fruit salt is used to make it fluffy, I avoided using baking soda here.

Copper Bowl-Into the rich food culture of Dravidian Land

Copper Bowl in Esslingen in Baden Württemberg offers you a ride to the rich food culture of deep south India. Dravidians' staple being rice, most of the dishes prepared involve rice, followed by millet, wheat and barley. Being a Dravidian and a vegetarian, I have an affinity to vegetarian south Indian food. It was one of my friend who suggested me to drop in here once to relish the authentic south Indian pure vegetarian cuisine. I love to try and so did I find an opportunity to go. Best thing I found here is the juncture of the delicate south Indian flavors to tantalize the German palate. Another notion that touched me is