Cherry Polka Dot Cake

Life isn't all just one flavour. It would be terribly boring if it were. The people that make our lives what they are come in all shapes and sizes, not to mention flavours. Some people are themselves very sweet at times, a tad sharp at others and every meeting with them leaves you with a strong memory. This cake is very representative of someone just like that.

1/2 cup Flour

1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

1/2 cup Milk

1/4 cup Oil

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 Egg, beaten

1/2 cup Cherries, deseeded and halved

Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).

Prepare an 8 inch cake tin by greasing it and dusting it with flour.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.

In a mixing bowl, add the egg, milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla essence. Beat well together. Add the flour mixture to this and blend well. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Arrange the cherry halves on top of the batter. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife/skewer, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean.

Get ready to enjoy the sweet and tart flavours of this cake.

For all the sweet and sometimes tart times that we've shared in the years we've known each other, here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday, S.

Karatya Song

Bitter Gourd! Most people hate it. Some people love it. I am one of those very few people who are indifferent to it. I can't profess undying love for the vegetable. I can never bring myself to say I don't like it. I can't  even relate to either group of people.

I have never stopped looking for recipes that are simple and use bitter gourd. Simple only because S won't touch the vegetable. And I can't do an elaborate routine just for myself, right? (For those of you who're new to this blog, I am about the laziest person you will ever come across.)

After success with the Batata Song, I decided to try this. S has been a weekend spouse for most part this summer and I conned a wholesale vegetable vendor into selling me just 4 baby bitter gourds. The result of these two seemingly independent incidents is this dish.

4 Baby Bitter Gourds, sliced and steamed

4 Onions, sliced
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
2 tsp Red Chilli Paste
1 tsp Jaggery, grated
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste




Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the onions and fry for 5-10 minutes, until the onions are evenly browned. Add the tamarind and chilli pastes. After a couple of minutes, add the bitter gourd, jaggery and salt. Add a little water. Cover and cook for a few minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 2-3 minutes.


This is about the best way to eat bitter gourds. With some hot rotis and a bowl of cold curd, you're all set to have a lovely meal.

Rajma Lobia Matar Pulao

It was one of those days. I had the day off and S had to be at work (on a Saturday). Since it was a no-rush day for me, I offered to drop him at work and also told him that I’d make hot lunch and bring it to the office at lunch time. (That way, I didn’t have to rustle something up in a hurry before he left.) On the way back home, I had some bank errands to run and I used all that time to figure out what I could cook. I even decided to have lunch with a friend. But that friend had other plans. She wanted to visit the Book Fair. Now, I wanted to go too, but I’d promised S hot lunch. I had not only promised to take lunch for S, I’d also promised to take lunch for everyone in the office who was forced to work that day. I thought I had all morning to cook, but as it turned out, my friend was leaving for the book fair within the hour.

I rushed home and bought a tub of Jeera Raita from the store within our complex. I had no idea what I was going to do. When I entered the kitchen, I saw some black eyed peas on the counter that I’d soaked that morning. I decided to make a pulao with those and serve it along with a raita. I opened the fridge to bring out some tomatoes and I remembered the cooked kidney beans that I’d stashed away in the freezer. I also found a bag of green peas. So, I made a sort of “everything in it” pulao. Very impromptu, very tasty (hearsay – I didn’t get to taste even a little) and very simple, given the ingredients I had at hand. Here is the recipe if you’re making it for 2-3 people.

1 cup Basmati Rice, washed and drained

1 cup Red Kidney Beans (Rajma), soaked overnight and cooked

½ cup Black Eyed Peas, soaked for 2 hours

½ cup Green Peas

1 Onion, finely chopped

½ cup Tomato Puree

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1 2” stick Cinnamon

3 Cloves

2 tsp Ginger-Garlic-Chilli paste

½ tsp Turmeric

½ tsp Chilli Powder

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pressure pan and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the cinnamon and cloves. Add the onions and fry for a minute. Add the garlic-chilli-ginger paste and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the salt, turmeric and chilli powder and fry for another minute. Add the tomato puree and allow the entire mixture to boil.

Add the rice and allow the mixture to coat the grains. Add the kidney beans, black eyed peas and green peas. Add 2 cups of water and cover and cook for 2-3 whistles.

Open the cooker when the pressure is released and fluff gently with a fork. Serve with a raita.

While the pulao was cooking, I chopped a couple of tomatoes and a cucumber and mixed them along with the contents of the Raita tub. The pulao was transferred into one box and the raita into another. The boxes were delivered to S along with the car and the car keys. And I left with my friend for a fun filled day at the fair.

Cocktail Pizza (and more plagiarism)

Snacks and healthy. I wonder if the two words go together. Most snacks tend to be fried and I've tried baking instead of frying. It works often, not always.

I came across these eggplant pizzas somewhere on the web and thought that the idea was fantastic. I didn't bookmark it and recreated it at home from memory. Later, when I found the recipe again, it turned out I had followed it to a great extent.


Recipe (adapted from here)


1 large Brinjal, sliced into discs
3/4 cup Pasta Sauce
1/4 cup Cheese, grated
2 tbsp Olive Oil


Brush the brinjal slices with some olive oil and roast in a hot oven (400F) for 5 minutes on each side.


Spread a little pasta sauce on each slice and sprinkle with some grated cheese.


Return to the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly.


Serve as a snack with tea or as a starter with drinks. This dish will have everyone (all brinjal lovers) asking for more.


I just came to know that this blogger called Nisha Yadav, who blogs at http://esyrecipes.blogspot.com/, has copied some of my recipes word for word, along with the pictures. A friend pointed out that my recipe for Vegetable Dalia Upma (http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegetable-dalia-upma.html) was copied by her here (http://esyrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/01/vegetable-dalia-upma.html). When I browsed through her blog, I found another recipe of mine, Mixed Vegetable Poha (http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2008/01/mixed-vegetable-poha.html) copied on her blog (http://esyrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/01/mixed-vegetable-poha.html). I also found several posts picked straight off Anusha Raji's blog, Talimpu.


I think all her recipes are lifted from somewhere. I have left a comment on the blog posts and I hope she removes the content. Please do check her blog out and see if you find any more copied recipes.

Lemon Rice

While I have made Lemon Sevai reasonably often, I haven't made Lemon Rice as much. I tend to stick to making it only on Pongal or during the "Aadi Maasam" (if I remember). Now, I make it when we have people over for a meal. In these parts, a South Indian meal is not complete if there is no lemon rice. I have seen lots of people eat lemon rice with sambar. I don't think of it as a great combination. Sambar goes with Pongal or plain rice very well, not with Lemon Rice.




1 cup cooked Rice


Juice of 1 Lime
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
Salt to taste


For the tempering:


1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves
1/4 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp Chana Dal
1 Red Chilli
2 Green Chillies, slit
1 tbsp Cashews, roughly broken
2 tbsp Peanuts


Mix the lime juice with the salt and turmeric powder.


Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal begins to change colour, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, peanuts, cashews, green chillies and red chilli.Take it off the stove and allow to cool a bit. Add the lime-turmeric mixture to this.


Pour the lime juice -tempering mixture over the rice. Mix well and serve with some vadams.


The rice for this dish should not be soft. Sometimes, I cook the rice with a little turmeric and few drops of oil, and add less water than I would for a regular meal. So, a ratio of 1:2.25 for Sona Masoori rice would work very well. Spread the cooked rice on a plate and allow it to cool so that it doesn't get mushy. The dish tastes best when the grains of the rice are separate.

Mini Cauliflower and Cheese Fritattas

A year and a half ago, one of my namesakes posted this recipe on her blog. I wanted to try them instantly. Instant, in this case, turned out to be 18 months or so. Last Saturday, I had everything I needed. Well almost. So, I changed the recipe a bit and they turned out great. I know I will make these often and the next time around, I shall take pictures as they come out of the oven.


While these would taste great on their own, we had them with Zingo. (I received sauce samples from DelMonte long before Zingo and Twango were released into the market and they've both been great hits at home, with the two of us as well as every party we've had.)

For the fritattas:

4 Eggs
1/4 cup Cheese, grated
1 Onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup Cauliflower, grated or chopped finely
1 tsp Southwest Spice Blend (Tortilla Soup Seasoning)
1/8 cup Milk
1 tsp Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste


Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Grease the mufifn trays.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions until golden brown. Add the grated cauliflower and the spice blend. Fry for a minute and add the salt and pepper. Add about a teaspoon or two of water and cover and cook the mixture. After about 2-3 minutes, remove the lid and allow the water to evaporate.

Beat the eggs. Add the milk and beat again. Blend in the cheese and the cauliflower mixture.

Pour into the muffin trays and bake for 15 minutes.

I had some left over pasta which I also threw in along with the cauliflower. We loved every bite of these fritattas and I can't wait to make them again. Thanks Arundathi.

Batata Song (Saung)

This has to be one of the most popular konkani dishes to have been invented. Amma made it very often when we were growing up and on weekends, we would have a meal of rice, dali-saar and batata song. I can't say it is my favourite dish, but I do love it.

Amma makes a slightly different version which has coconut in it, but I tried this minus the coconut. Amma added coconut to reduce the spice quotient. I have to save my coconut reserves for dishes that absolutely need the sweet white meat. I tried the version with coconut many years ago and I made this verson recently. I always have tamarind paste at hand and I also have a bottle of red chilli paste. So, I didn't even have to grind my "massol". After having made the mushroom version of this dish, I am glad I made the original.

4 Potatoes, cooked, peeled and diced

4 Onions, sliced

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

2 tsp Red Chilli Paste

1 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the onions and fry for 5-10 minutes, until the onions are evenly browned. Add the tamarind and chilli pastes. After a couple of minutes, add the potatoes and salt. Add a little water. Cover and cook for a few minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Serve this with some rice and dali-saar. If you grew up with this, there can be no denying the "all is well with the world" feeling that will come over you with every mouthful.