Anshu's Food Odyssey

Imli ki Chutney or the Sweet Tamarind Chutney is one of the most basic chutneys in Indian cuisine. This lipsmackingly delicious sauce or dip is made using tamarind pulp and jaggery, then spiced with aromatic spices like fennel, roasted cumin powder and dry ginger powder. Any Indian Chaat like Bhel Puri, Dahi Bhalla , Paapdi Chaat and Aloo Tikki are absolutely incomplete without this luscious sweet & sour chutney. If you are making khatta meetha pani for pani puri   or making some samosas, this chutney is definitely gonna come handy. You can prepare it in a big batch and freeze a part of it for later use anytime. And let me tell you, even if you are not freezing, imli ki chutney would easily last in the fridge for about 2 to 3 months; just store it in a clean sanitized glass bottle or jar. This blog post today, talks about how to prepare this beautiful Imli ki Chutney at home. Do try and I am sure, you are gonna love it. Imli ki Chutney | Sweet Tam...

Poha or Pohey is an easy and healthy recipe that comes together in no time. The dish makes for a  quintessential breakfast in Maharashtra and Gujarat ; and if you happen to visit these states, you would find them being served in every nook side eating joint and restaurant. Cooked with beaten rice that are tossed with peanuts, veggies/sometimes just onions and a subtle hint of spices, they absolutely make for a delicious meal. I first happened to savour pohey during my visit to Ahmedabad 5-6 years back. My husband was deployed on a project there and right across our house, was this busy breakfast corner that used to serve poha and fafda/jalebi during morning and evening hours. Packed with lovely flavors with a little hint of sweetness and tartness, topped with chopped onions, coriander, green chilies, pomegranate pearls, beetroot juliennes and a whole lot of nylon sev, oh! poha instantly became my favorite recipe to devour with a hot cup of ginger tea. Not to mention, it ...

Chholey Palak , Chane Palak , Saag Chholey or the Spinach and Chickpea Curry is a delectable North Indian Recipe that is seasoned with some freshly ground fragrant spices, making it oh so flavorful and yummilicious. This beautiful curry makes for a perfect treat to be served on special occasions and dinner parties along with aromatic zeera rice, garlic naan or lachcha parantha on the side. It pairs really well with some crisp pooris too. Not to mention, chholey palak is packed with whole lots of nutrition and goodness of spinach, making it an ideal meal to be served to kids as well. You may notice that this recipe is bit lengthy so, to ease my job, I often keep a batch of blanched and frozen spinach puree stored in my refrigerator. Trust me, the frozen puree provides me with all the convenience and flexibility of using it anytime in any recipe that I wish to, be it PALAK PANEER , ARBI PALAK MASALA or PALAK CHICKEN. You may also go ahead and store the puree frozen; and I...

Our summer vacations in childhood days ought to be spent at our Nana Ji's (maternal grandfather) place in Delhi. And often the vacations coincided with the arrival of monsoons, which necessarily meant a trip to the famous Roshan Di Hatti in Karol Bagh to relish the shop's crisp tikkis and gorge on their ever popular and melt-in-mouth kulfis. I still remember how we all cousins would barge into the shop and fill the place with our non-stop chit chats and endless fun & masti while hogging onto their chatpata stuff. Oh, what fun days were those!! ironically, things have changed these days with everyone getting so busy in their jobs and family lives; and those fun gatherings being taken over by just whatsapp group messages and forwards.  Coming back to the Aloo Tikki , well, you all must be thinking what made the ones served by Roshan Di Hatti so special? Number one: a super crisp crust with a subtle seasoning and number two: a super spicy and tongue tickling chana da...

Punjabi Mutton Curry is a delectable every day curry made with goat meat in most of the Punjabi households. Onion, tomato and a little amount of curd form the base of this beautiful curry, which is then seasoned with some fragrant powdered spices making it so very flavorsome and delicious. My husband is quite fond of non-vegetarian food, especially mutton. The punjabi home style mutton curry is something he immensely relishes with some garlic naan and rice on the side. On the contrary, I am not that fond of red meat, so, mutton is only occasionally cooked at our home as compared to chicken and sea food. And last week, just out of the blue, I had this thought of making this flavorful mutton curry all of a sudden. Instantly ordered about a kilo of goat meat from a famous butcher shop nearby and surprised my husband with his favorite curry on the dinner table after quite some time. Not to mention, the aromatic Zafrani Pulao served on the side was a game changer and made our...

Kathal , also known as Jackfruit is one of my favorite vegetables that can be found in Indian markets around July-August for a short period. The fibrous fruit with its shredded meaty texture makes for an apt substitute for non-vegetarians and you would be surprised to know kathal is often used for mock meat dishes in South East Asian countries. While this beautiful vegetable/fruit is quite delicious, there is only one negative factor to it; it's hard skin and an itchy sticky liquid that oozes out of it that makes cutting jackfruit a messy and difficult task. However, having said so, I'll share a foolproof trick to ease out the cutting process; just grease your hands and knife with generous quantity of mustard oil while skinning and cutting this fruit. Applying mustard oil will ensure you don't face any itchiness, thus, making the whole process a piece of cake. These days, already skinned and chopped jackfruit pieces are also available in the vegetable markets. ...