Strawberry Mango Salad with Balsamic Dressing

For this month's International Food Challenge, we are going to explore the Bordeaux cuisine from France. Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble” of the 18th century. Bordeaux is also an upscale place- a city for luxury shopping, drinking, and eating. It sits in the center of the world famous wine region that bears its name and thus tourists come here come to eat, drink, experience wine, and be merry. 

Thai Vegetable Red Curry (Vegan Recipe)

Today's dish is a spicy, creamy & slightly sweet Thai red curry made with vegetables. I always have Thai curry pastes, both red and green, in the refrigerator to make quick curries, rice or even noodles. Make sure to check the ingredients on the store bought Thai curry pastes because some might have fish sauce or other seafood related ingredients in them. Even better, use the recipe for the curry paste at the end of the post for your very own homemade version.

This recipe is adapted from 'Buddha's Table: Thai feasting Vegetarian Style' cookbook. I used the veggies listed in the recipe, but any vegetable can be added to this curry. Potato, mushroom, zucchini, baby corn, carrots are all good in here. It is great when served with some steamed jasmine rice.

Afghani Carrot Halwa (Carrot and Ricotta Halva)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Afghani Carrot Halwa

I'm ending this month's marathon on a sweet note with this rich and decadent 'Carrot Halwa' that I bookmarked from 'The New Middle Eastern Vegetarian' cookbook by Sally Butcher. Halwa is very similar to our very own Carrot Halwa with a few additional ingredients like ricotta cheese and powdered milk.

This is one of the recipes that caught my attention as soon as I saw it in the cookbook. I was looking for an opportunity to make this dessert ever since. Carrot halwa is one of my husband's favorite and with him travelling, I didn't want to make this dish just for myself. So finally made it as soon as he got back.

Afghani Bolani (Potato Stuffed Afghani Flat bread)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Afghani Bolani

For day 2 of this week's marathon,  I made a stuffed flatbread from Afghanistan called Bolani. This recipe has been on my to-make list ever since I saw a bunch of my fellow bloggers make it for the A-Z International marathon.

Bolani also spelled as Bulani or Boulanee is filled bread in Persian. Afghani bolani is a stuffed flatbread that is either baked or fried. It has a thin crust and can be stuffed with any veggie like potato, pumpkin, spinach, lentils or chives. It is served with either plain yogurt or mint yogurt. Since my husband doens't eat yogurt, I made him a simple tomato chutney.

Black & Wild Rice Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Black & Wild Rice Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash

My theme for the final week of this month's marathon is 'Bookmarked Recipes'. Like all of you, I have a ton of bookmarked recipes and find every opportunity to try those out. So when we have it as a theme in Blogging marathon, I make sure I make the most out of it.

So for the first day, I have an interesting salad with black rice, wild rice and butternut squash. This is a colorful and healthy salad that is very filling and can be served as a light meal or as a side dish to a bigger meal.

Vegetarian Three Bean Stew with Roasted Potatoes

This winter doesn't seem to end any time soon. The temps have been hovering below freezing and it feels like a deep freezer when we step outside. I am sick of wearing all the layers and I feel bad for the kids who have to lug around their heavy book bag in addition to 3~4 layers of clothing. My son said he felt like a brick with all the layers. The weather man said it's going to be red hot over the weekend -- predicted temps are in lower 40's and he thinks that it is going to feel hot like summer.
Anyway our woes with winter will probably continue for a few more weeks. In the mean time, I made this hearty vegetarian 3 bean stew to warm me up. I tasted this dish at Medieval Times last year and it has stuck with me ever since.

Medieval Times is a place where you step back into Medieval times with epic battles, jousting tournaments along with a royal dinner. We have a location very close to our house and we had a chance to visit it last spring. My son had a great time there. I wasn't much into the battle but I enjoyed my vegetarian feast for sure.

Zucchini Paratha

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: One Vegetable - 3 Dishes

Dish: Bread - Zucchini Paratha

For the third day of this week's blogging marathon, I wanted to make a bread with Zucchini. I have tried quite a few bread recipes with zucchini, like this sweet carrot-zucchini bread, this everyday sourdough bread and this double chocolate bread. I wasn't in a mood to bake anything or make any sweet dish, so tried making parathas with zucchini.

I kept the paratha recipe simple with just grated zucchini and few spices because I was serving them with a spicy side dish. But you can add more spices and serve it with some yogurt and pickle.

Zucchini Masala Curry

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: One Vegetable - 3 Dishes

Dish: Gravy Curry -- Zucchini Masala Curry

After yesterday's dry curry with zucchini, today I have a gravy curry that goes really well with rotis and even rice. I remember the first time I tried making this gravy curry for rotis couple of years ago. I didn't have any other vegetable in the fridge except for some zucchini and I had to make something to serve along with rotis. So I made this curry with tomato puree and almond butter and it came out creamy and delicious. It has become one of my favorite go-to roti side dish or even rice and has been on the rotation ever since.

I have tried few different ways to thicken the curry and make it creamy: I either add almond butter (or soaked and ground almonds or cashews) or some thick coconut milk. Apart from these vegan options, I have also used heavy cream or some whole milk or yogurt. So the options are endless to make this dish.

Zucchini Dry Curry (Zucchini Pesarapappu Podi Kura)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: 1 Vegetable - 3 Dishes

Dish: Dry Curry -- Zucchini Pesarapappu Iguru

My theme for this week of blogging marathon is to 'Pick 1 veggie and make 3 dishes with it'. I had to think really hard on what vegetable to choose and after a lot of internal deliberations, I zeroed on Zucchini. Zucchini, courgette, green squash a staple along with potatoes and tomatoes in my kitchen and I thought this is a good opportunity to post some recipes that I frequently make at home.

Zucchini is available almost all year round and I make sure to buy them whenever I see some good looking ones. They are pretty bland by themselves and I almost always use them along with other veggies -- roasted or stewed with eggplant and peppers. It is very versatile vegetable and can be used to bake bread, cake and cupcakes too.

Strawberry Tartlets (Valentine's Day Recipe)

It is that time of the year, when love is in the air, strawberries and chocolates are highly sort after. I had plans on posting something totally different for the weeked, but then I remembered the big box of strawberries I picked up at Costco and that led me to think to look for a Valentine's day worthy recipe.

I got lucky in the second book I was browsing and found this really quick and easy to make Strawberry Tartlets. This recipe is from Costco Connection cookbook. Very few ingredients are needed for this recipe and luckily I had them all on hand. It took about 30 minutes to make the tartlets and they were all gone in less than 10 minutes.

Whole Tomato Rice with Indian flavors (made in Rice Cooker)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Cooking for 1

Dish: Whole Tomato Rice with Indian flavors

Today's recipe is not a recipe at all. This post will make the other two recipes that I posted this week seem to take forever. I saw this 'Whole Tomato rice in Rice cooker' recipe on many blogs. It is exactly what it sounds -- Rice is cooked along with whole tomato in the rice cooker to make this tomato rice. Apparently it is a recent food trend in Japan.

I recently started using my 3cup rice cooker that has been collecting dust for almost a year. For some reason, rice cookers never appealed to me and I resisted buying one for a very long time. This small one was actually supposed to be returned to the store, but we got lazy and it got too late to send it back. I started using it especially when I'm cooking just for the kids.

Spicy Vegetable Sandwich (Masala VeggieToast)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Cooking for 1

Dish: Masala Toast

Being a South Indian, eating bread for a meal used to be a blasphemy some decade years ago. But then things and my thoughts changed when I came to the States and it was then I realized anything that fills your stomach can be eaten at any time of the day.

During my graduate studies, I was in Tampa for 3 months for internship and I shared an apartment with 2 American interns. This was still within a year of my stay in US and I wasn't completely used to the American food. I used to slave away in the kitchen cooking my rice, dal and curry (I didn't have a pressure cooker, so cooking used to take for ever). My American roomies on the other hand kept the fridge stocked with their cold cuts, cheese etc. and they used to be in and out of the kitchen with their sandwiches in no time. That was my first step towards sandwiches.

Brazilian Kale & Lentil Soup for #Food of the World (Sopa de Lentlhas com Couve)

We are going to Brazil for this month's #Food of the World event. I had couple of Brazilian recipes bookmarked from our A-Z International series, but both of them happened to be desserts and I was in no mood to make anything sweet. So after looking around for vegetarian recipes, I found this hearty and comforting lentil and kale soup on Cynthia Presser's blog.

I had a bag of kale ready to be used and I also had some brown lentils (aka masoor dal) in the pantry. I think the original recipe had green lentils but the brown ones were just as good.

Arisi Upma

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Cooking for 1

Dish: Arisi Upma

I will be 'Cooking for 1' this week. Ever since I started cooking, just cooking for myself has rarely happened. Back in the grad school days, my roomies and I used to cook for the whole gang. After getting married, never got to cook for just 1. But with my husband traveling a lot lately and both the kids in the school, there are days when I have to cook for myself.

I try to keep the dishes I make for myself very simple with few ingredients (usually the odds and ends in the fridge) and few dishes to clean. So for the first day, I made this simple and comforting rice upma from Sandhya's blog. The good thing about this dish is it can easily be made for 1 or for 10. A quick and easy dish that takes about 30 minutes from start to finish and needs about 15 minutes of hands on time.

Stuffed Karela/ Bittergourd Curry with Garlic (Kakarakaya Vellullikaram)

I am always looking for new ways of cooking bitter gourd, so when I saw this recipe on a Telugu cooking show I promptly noted it down. Then my sister asked me a recipe for stuffed karela and I gave her this recipe and they totally loved it. After hearing the feedback I decided to make it myself and she was right, this is a delicious stuffed karela recipe.

One thing I learnt from this recipe is we don't need baby bitter gourd to make stuffed curry. Just use regular sized ones and cut them into chunks. Remove the seeds from the middle and hollow out the centers, then stuff them with spicy ground masala.

Migas with Black beans

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: Brunch Recipes

Dish: Migas with Black beans

Eggs form a very important part in breakfast and brunch menus, for egg eaters that is. So when I'm planning a brunch for my egg eating friends, I usually make a frittata (a big fat baked omelette with lots of veggies) or a quiche (egg based pie). One of my Turkish friend recently introduced me to Menemen (Turkish scrambled eggs with veggies) and that tasted awesome.

While looking for some egg based dishes for this week's Brunch theme, I found this Migas recipe on Pioneer Woman site. This Migas is different from the traditional Spanish & Portuguese migas. In this Tex-Mex version eggs are scrambled along with corn tortillas, veggies and cheese. It is typically served with refried beans and corn or flour tortillas are used to fold all the ingredients into tacos.

Pan Seared Oatmeal with Warm Fruit Compote

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Brunch Recipes

Dish: Pan Seared Oatmeal with Warm Fruit Compote 

Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfast foods and I can have it either sweet or savory in the morning. I soak them in milk and ground cinnamon the night before, if I remember, and they are ready for me in the morning. I eat them along with some seasonal fruit and nuts and I'm good to go till lunch.

Since this week is all about brunch recipes, I have a slightly elaborate dish with oats that is perfect for a leisurely brunch or even to serve for company. The good thing about this dish is both the components can be prepared ahead of time and it takes just a few minutes to pan sear the oatmeal triangles and warm the compote.

Gujarati Khichdi

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Weekend Brunch Recipes

Dish: Gujarati Khichdi

My theme for the first week of this month's marathon is 'Brunch Recipes'. Brunch should be hearty and filling, but not too filling that it is going to make you take an early afternoon nap. Also since we are skipping breakfast to eat brunch, it should be nutritious enough to keep you going and charged for at least 3~4 hours. 

With all those in mind, here's a one pot dish that is sure to keep you full and energized until the next meal. Being a south Indian, I grew up eating rice for just about all the meals. Breakfast could be anything like lemon rice, tamarind rice, curd rice or pongal and that used to keep us full till lunch. But nowadays eating rice for breakfast or even brunch has become quite a rarity in my household.

As I was thinking of Indian dishes to make for brunch, khichdi came to my mind right away. It has dal (lentils) for protein and rice for carbs, which in my mind is perfect dish for any time of day. I found this Gujarati Khichdi recipe in Sanjeev Kapoor's Vegetarian Rice, Biryani & pulao cookbook.